Learn How to Blog Profitably -part 1

So you want to start blogging eh!

What is a Blog anyway! What type of blogging software should you use? What should you write about?

These are some of the big questions that determine what makes a successful (from a profitability stand point) blog or mini site. There are several important area's that your blog needs to incorporate in order to drive traffic to your site!

The first key to generating traffic to your blog and start to earn revenue is it has to target a group of people (a niche) who are looking for information on specific topic of interest. This is also know as target marketing.

This target market of people have problems or issues in which they are looking for a solution for, or that they are seeking to improve something, this is where you come in. Your blog or mini site needs to be tailored so that you are offering the solution.

A great target market selection of niche identification usually surrounds something that causes pain or a need to know (I.E. health issues, losing weight, training a dog etc). Mostly all people are looking to relieve some kind of emotional or physical pain and or are wanting to learn "How To" to something. By identifying and properly targeting these groups of people you are ensuring that not only are you providing a solution to their need but you are also ensuring traffic to your blog and setting yourself up to be in a position to blog for money.

If that sounds out of line, trying to help and assist people who are looking for solutions to meet their needs, it's not. It's called marketing. Marketers have been doing this for your whole life and you probably never realized it, If you want to be successful at blogging this is how to market effectively?

Furthermore, you're going to provide these people with a real solution, they will be thankful and happy to bookmark your site and keep coming back...as long as you provide useful and resourceful information.

So you're seeking a group of people who have a specific problem or need, but it does not stop there.

Now you will need to determine how many people there are looking for answers to this particular problem or need. How many people is enough you ask?

That's a great question. With some sites, you only need 20-50 visitors per day to generate a nice profit monthly. On the other hand you may need to generate thousands per day with other niches, services or products that you promote. The amount of revenue you generate depends on what you sell, to whom you sell it, as well as how much commission you earn when you sell to them.

A lot of individuals think you should focus on a target market or niche market that has no competition, a niche without competition isn't necessarily a good thing. Zero competition often means that the niche is not profitable. It is actually better to be in a niche with some competition. You want to take a look at their site and then be sure to craft your site so that it offers better content and information so that you blow away the competition.

You should focus on monthly visitor or traffic for your niche that you have selected. Tools such as Word tracker can help you identify this. You need to identify how many searches per day a particular key phrase produces in these search engines. After you do that, you now want to look at what other sites or blogs are competing in the same niche.

The final thing you will need to accomplish when searching for a good niche, is whether or not the niche offers a quality product or products for you to promote. You need something to sell to these people, that is superior quality, has phenomenal marketing material (sales letter etc, so it will convert your traffic well) and pays a decent commission.

Of course this is assuming that you are evaluating the affiliate marketing model of making money with your blog - if you're looking to retire from your job and earn a full time passive income, and you should be, then I recommend this model. There are many other ways to make money in which you may want to take in consideration various options when evaluating your niche selection.

If you can incorporate all of the above factors when selecting your niche, you will be giving your new blog and yourself some of the best possible chances of great success. It is my hope that you have found this information valuable and resourceful.

For more information and access to great blogging software tools check out

The IM Reporter-Blogging Software