Can You Really Make Money from Blogging?

I’ve been blogging since January 2009. Blogging is my creative outlet to take my personal journals online to share with family and friends especially my thoughts as a new mom. My son, Hyzyd, was just 2 months at that time. I love to journal his every week milestones. Then I came to know lots of mommy bloggers online who shared that not only their blogs became outlets of information but they also use it for money-making opportunities!

I started small. After 6 months of blogging, I registered my blog to several paid blogging that accept blogs and then pay me for the blog posts I put up. I started with $1.50 for 150-200 words post. Nowadays, I started receiving $40 from generous advertisers for 200-words article! Others just ask me to place a link in any post of my choice and most of them pay regularly. To date (after two years of blogging) I was able to put up 7 blogs that make money (not that much compared to other bloggers but it's enough to support my hobby and other stuff) and I have 3 others which are still on infancy stage.

Blogs are excellent tools to earn some extra money without having to invest start-up cash. They’re loved by the search engines because blogs are usually updated frequently, unlike websites that are updated less often.

Millions of people visit blogs every day for information or entertainment purposes. A lot of the blog visitors are ones that come back to check in on the latest entries into a blogger’s world.

Another way I make money from my blogs is by using advertisement space. Advertisers offered me $120/year to place one of their text links or banner on my popular blogs- those with high page ranks. There are advertisers that are willing to pay you based on the traffic numbers you generate and the prime space available within your blog.

There are many ways you can monetize ad space. You might charge a flat fee, take a commission based on the number of click-through, or make a deal where you get a percentage of the sale of a product, much like an affiliate marketer does.

If your blog is extremely popular, then there’s more of a chance that advertiser’s will compete to have their banners placed in your space. Blogs are a good way to earn some money by sharing your thoughts, feeling and even your daily tasks.

Can you really make money blogging? Yes, you can. I sure did! As a proof here’s my latest buy out from my blogging money: 

Choose a topic that has a high number of searches, launch a free blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com, and strategically implement your ads and offers to start seeing a steady income build over time.

How to Start a Blog

There's always a first time in everything. Like in blogging, I don't have a single idea how to start a blog not unless a friend of mine shown me her blog. It enthralled me to find her blog loaded with posts and photos of how her weeks gone by. Her blog's template fascinates me. I was mesmerized on how she's able to have photos, texts and links in her blog's sidebar. I later knew that those photos, texts and links were called "widgets" or blog's "gadgets". I don't need to be a computer expert to learn how to add these gadgets in my blog because they're already available and all I need to do is just click "add gadget". 

Everyone can start a blog as long as you have passion in writing (plus you have your own computer and internet connection). When you have passion in something, you have such enthusiasm to know more about that thing. You persevere and endure difficulties just to be acquainted to your object of desire. Same goes in blogging. You have to find time to at least write and update your blog once a week. Visit other bloggers' journal , you'll pick inspirations in there. Make friends in the blogosphere. It's more inspiring to blog when you'll know you got readers.

 When my friends asked me how to start a blog, here's what I told them:

1. Create a blog in blogger.com or wordpress.com. They're both free. Fill out the one-step form and you’ll be blogging seconds later! These blogging networks have several templates you can choose from and you are guided through the set up process from picking your blog's name to how you want your blog to look like. Both have easy interface that is perfect for those who are new to research.

2. What to blog? Start blogging blog about your life in general- your job, hobby, food, about your kids and what it’s like to be a parent ! Whatever you choose to blog about it needs to be something you are passionate about. Don’t forget, you are going to be writing about this topic several times a week, and if you don’t have the enthusiasm for it, that will show in your posts – and no one else will have the enthusiasm to read them.

Do you know that you can earn from your blog? YES! There are several paid blogging networks that accept blogs and then pay you for the blog posts you put up. Some give you what to write about, others just ask for you to place a link in any post of your choice and most of them pay regularly.But before this will happen, let's move to the next step.

2. Buy a Domain name. Domain name? What is this? Domain name is a unique address for your blog. Similar to a physical address, a domain name tells people exactly where to find you on the internet. See my blog's name above? It's www.genejostory.com not www.genejostory.blogspot.com or www.genejostory.wordpress.com.

This is the first rule especially if you want to take paid blog posts. Domain names are quite affordable. If you are looking for a .com, you can get that for less than $12. Godaddy.com is a favorite for a lot of folks. You can also try Name.com.

3. Get Hosting. This blog, Her and History, is my first blog. After six months of blogging and being encouraged by my friends to start monetizing my blog, I set my blog's setting in advance. I bought a domain name in blogger (click Settings~Publishing~Need a domain? Buy one now!) and my blog is hosted for FREE. The only problem with that is that with blogger, sometimes there might be a glitch or something and then you lose all your hard work. You really can’t complain, after all you are being hosted for free.

So, with the advice of my blogging-expert friends, I make use of self-hosted WordPress. This means that I buy a domain name and buy hosting. Then I get a WordPress blog installed and I'm ready to blog.

If you need hosting and other blog services feel free to ask other bloggers (you can ask me) or read reviews.

If you are ready to begin blogging, it really does not take much. Examine your options and happy blogging!

How to get paid for blogging?

What makes you blog in the first place? For me, I started a month after I gave birth. I wanted to document my son’s milestones so that my parents in Philippines could see how their grandson grows. I’m also inspired to give blogging a shot because I got friends who started earning with their blogs. It’s like killing two birds in one stone. I’m able to enjoy writing while making money from my blog. I’m learning while earning, right? To date (after two years of blogging) I was able to put up 7 blogs that are earning dollars (not that much but it helps support my hobby and other stuff) and I have 3 others which are still on infancy stage.  

There are several paid blogging networks that accept blogs and then pay you for the blog posts you put up. Some give you what to write about, others just ask for you to place a link in any post of your choice and most of them pay regularly. Here are some of the top blogging networks I’ve been involved to:

PayU2Blog.com

This is a service that provides you with a link and anchor word to put in a blog post. You are allowed to post about whatever you like, just put the link and anchor word in that post. They are different from other services in that you do not get to pick and choose what you want; you are assigned work and you cannot reject it. Work is given out regularly (every week) but not always and the pay is $5 for each blog post. Occasionally, some offers $7, other times $8.

Since May 2, 2010 until today, August 19, 2011, I received 445 assignments from them. Multiply it by 5 (average rate is $5 per post, remember?). Do the math. I didn’t expect that I reached that certain amount. If I haven’t withdrawn the money from my PayPal account every month, I could have bought Nikon D5100 or spent a day or two in Singapore’s Universal Studio with that amount! I hope next time. 

Sponsoredreviews.com

By adding your blog to this network, advertisers can find you and purchase reviews directly. You set your own price and have the ability to reject or accept any offer. Once accepted you must write the review within 7 days. While waiting for advertisers to buy reviews, you can bid on opportunities. If advertisers approve your bid, you can start writing using the keywords and anchor links provided. Required words are from 200-400 and prices range from $5-$40. Other bloggers were lucky enough to win a bid of $1000! But you will only be paid 50%. The other half belongs to the network. Thus, bloggers are advised to make any required adjustments to blog prices and new bids in order to compensate for the increased transaction fees.

Since December 2009, I only earned $190.25 because I rarely bid resulting to few bids being won. Another reason is that my blogs have low PR’s . 

Bucks2blog.com

Once accepted at Bucks2blog, they will send you email about new campaigns. Read through them and select any that appeal to you or your readers. When you see a topic you’re interested in, simply reply with a short summary of what you would write about on your blog. They select the bloggers who best fit the campaign. If selected they send you the guidelines and how much the job pays. They usually send 1 email a week. Pay is usually $20 per post and they socially bookmark your post to help drive traffic to your blog.  You get paid within 15 days. So far, I’m with this system for only two months and I’m having great time. I’ve been selected three times and been paid.

Blogvertise.com

The pay per assignment can range from $2 to $20. You are given an assignment to blog about but have the choice of accepting or rejecting. Work is not always regular but they have ‘grab bags’ where you might find extra work. I’m frustrated in this network because since 2009 I’ve seen those “grab bags” only twice. I received assignments for only twice, too! But other bloggers are lucky with this system-they have regular assignments and they’re being paid higher than with Payu2blog.

Blogitive.com

These are also very good and work is a bit regular. The only thing is that they only accept blogs that are PR1 and above.

I’m disappointed with this network because I’ve been accepted and written about 3 posts worth $5 each posts. But before I’ll be paid there’s a glitch in their network and when I tried to sign-in, I couldn’t because I’m not approved yet! I already contacted Blogitive.com but they haven’t taken necessary action yet. Here’s the proof that I’ve been accepted to this network:

Dear Genebei Saratorio,

Congratulations, you have been approved for the Blogitive.com Beta program. Below is your login information.

Login URL : http://www.blogitive.com">http://www.blogitive.com
Email : myemailadress@yahoo.com
Password : mypasswordthatwontbeshowntoyou

Sincerely,
Blogitive Customer Service
customerservice@blogitive.com

Dear Genebei Faith Saratorio,

We have received your recent inquiry. A Blogitive representative will reply within 2 business days.

Sincerely,
Blogitive Customer Service
customerservice@blogitive.com

I’ve written them thrice but no Blogitive representative replies. Where’s that “A Blogitive representative will reply within 2 business days” thing?

The following are good blogging sites that works well for others but for some factors (like Page Ranks, Alexa Ranking , traffic issues) they’re not working well to me now. I rarely get jobs from them. Try them, they might work for you. 

 

Social Sparks

This is the first site I’ve joined. Work is fairly constant and you could earn as much as $15 per blog post. They practice remote blogging that is, you put the text into their system and they post directly to your blog. The problem is that once you start publishing posts for social sparks, some other paid blogging networks will not accept you. Thus, I gave this up in favor to other blogging network. Besides,  I don’t have regular job in here. Offers are mostly available to those bloggers in USA. 

PayPerPost

They pay you to write posts about various services and sites, with a minimum word limit and specific links you have to place in that post.

You pick what you want to post about, depending on what is available to you.

For me, I have earned a fair bit of pocket money ($146.60). I gave this up since I got accepted at Payu2blog. I got lazy writing 200-400 words for only $1-$2 whereas in Payu2blog I’m only required to write a minimum of 60 words and they’ll pay me for $5. 

Inpostlinks

Though I’ve been paid $230.15 , I gave this up because I can’t sit in front of the computer all day watching for opportunities to be available to me. Page Ranks matter most in this system. The higher your blog’s page rank, the more opportunities be made available to you. And if opportunities be made available to me, they only offer $.50-$2 for 200 words. 

You see, paid blogging has become quite popular among many work-at-home mums, stay-at-home moms and even working moms like me, with some owning several blogs submitted across several networks. While some networks will not accept your blog unless it has a Google page rank of 1 and above, others will accept it once you have been blogging for at least three months.

To get the most out of these networks however, you would need to purchase your own domain name and probably get your own hosting. If you are using blogger, you can use their hosting but not if you are on a WordPress.com blog. You would need to get your blog transferred to a self hosted wordpress blog.

If you do not have a blog yet but need extra income, now is the time to try your hands at blogging.

Read the following posts to help you get started:
1. How to Set-Up a Blog?
2. How to Pick a Blog Niche?
3. Top Blog Niches for Moms

How to Pick a Blog Niche

When I started blogging way back 2009, I don't have any idea about the importance of picking a blog niche. The term "niche" basically means focusing your blog on a specific target market or group. I just blog all the things that fancies me. All the stuff under the sun. Later on after months of blogging and bloghopping, I realized how important it is to pick a blog niche if you have a service or product for sale. 

When you decide to focus on the whole world, you might not get anyone at all. This is because the ‘whole world’ has a thousand and one other blogs they are already reading, why should they decide to read yours?

The answer to this problem is to pick a specific target group and focus on them so that you provide unique solutions to their problems and they can find a place where others like them hang out. This is what is referred to as finding a niche.

To find a niche, several factors need to be considered. The first and most important is that it has to be something you are really passionate about. How are you going to be blogging about the same stuff every day for years unless you are passionate about it? Thus, after this blog which house my everything under the sun, I pick a kid and family blog- Adventures with Hyzyd and Beyond. I wouldn't run out of topics in this niche because my son is continuously growing and it's a joy to journal his milestones and our thoughts as parents.

The second factor is to make sure that your target is not too general. For instance if you are blogging about moms, you might decide to focus on moms of autistic kids especially if you already have one. You know where they are at and understand what they are going through. For me, I focus on how a working mom cope with juggling career , motherhood and as a wife.

Thirdly, you need to be sure that the topic you are focusing on is one that people are interested in. This can be discovered by checking Google Keywords tool. Just put in the keyword and find out how many people are searching for that keyword. That should give you some idea about whether your blog would be relevant to more than a handful of readers.

A practical example of this is if you have decided to run a Family blog. Family is a niche by itself. But it is too broad a niche. Just use the Google Keyword tool and find out how many ways family is being searched for. Pick a specific sub-niche and focus your energies on that niche. That way, you get visitors who are specifically searching for what you have to offer( let's say tips on surviving parenting with the house intact , some sanity and a sense of humor!) and if you have a service or product, guess who your customers will be?

It is important to pick a niche for your blog even before you begin blogging...that's what I learned after over 2 years of blogging.  But if you have already started your blog, do not despair. You probably have a niche, or several niches and just need to narrow down the subject of your blog. Like me, after years of blogging, I discover that I have 7 more blogs living right inside me (aside from this mixed bag blog) - Family, Fashion, Travel, Food, Education, Home and Health & Fitness!

Finding your way in the blogosphere as a niche blog takes some patience and some good old-fashioned detective work to find your spot within it.

As a final note, I’d like to point out that my hubby is unbelievably patient and tolerant of my dedication to my blogs. He realizes that I really love doing it, and allow me to stay up half the night, or sit infront the computer for hours on end especially when I have lots of online tasks while he babysits our baby. So, if you’re like me I hope you remember to let your loved ones know how much you appreciate their tolerance and support on your blogging career. 

Next post will be about How to get Paid for Blogging . I especially made it for my friends who just started blogging in order to encourage them that they could EARN while LEARNING the way of BLOGGING!

How to Set up a Blog

There are many things you can do with a blog. If you are a stay-at-home mom and are searching for an extra income, your blog is the first place to start. If you are already a work-at-home mom with your own little (or not so little) online then you need a blog as a marketing tool and also to give your clients a little peek behind your business.

Setting up a blog has never been easier. There are several free hosts that would willingly set up your blog for you. However, if you are planning to submit your blog to a paid blogging network, you would need to buy your own domain name and set it up on a paid hosting site. Most of those paid blogging networks do not like free-hosted blogs and some of the free hosts don’t like the paid blogging networks too.

If you are just searching for way to market your business and get the word out there, here are some options you could consider:

Blogger

This is the blog service run by Google. It is fast and efficient and incredibly easy to set up. You just go to blogspot.com and sign up for your account. If you already have a google account, that makes it much easier.

They have several templates you can choose from and you are guided through the set up process from picking your blogname to how you want your blog to look like. It has an easy interface that is perfect for those who are new to research.

Wordpress

This service is run by Automattic. It is a sophisticated blog interface and provides great search engine optimization. What this means is that when a keyword that your blog falls under is typed into a Google search, your blog shows up among the results.

It is used by people who understand blogging a little bit because it could be a bit complicated for a novice. However, there are several stunning templates you can use and if you are willing to put in the extra time to figure things out, just go to www.wordpress.com.

There are other free blogging networks, but these two are the top services.

If you want to set up your own blog, you have a few options that won’t break your bank account.

Buy a Domain Name

This is the first rule especially if you want to take paid blog posts. Domain names are quite affordable. If you are looking for a .com, you can get that for less than $12. Godaddy.com is a favorite for a lot of folks. You can also try Name.com.

Get Hosting

If you are using blogger, you can easily buy a domain name for $10 and it would be hosted for you free. This is an option a lot of people use. The only problem with that is that with blogger, sometimes there might be a glitch or something and then you lose all your hard work. You really can’t complain, after all you are being hosted for free.

The other option is to make use of self-hosted WordPress. This means that you buy a domain name and buy hosting. Then you get a WordPress blog installed and you are ready to blog.

If you need hosting and other blog services I could recommend PM Blog Network. This is where I have all my 8 blogs hosted and so far I'm one happy and satisfied customer for over a year already!

If you are ready to begin blogging, it really does not take much. Examine your options and happy blogging!