Once the thrill of creating your first blog has started to fade, one question that probably comes into your mind is how to make money with a blog.
After all, journalists get paid for their thoughts.
Your blog is a journal, so why shouldn't you get paid? The good news is that, so long as your blog is actually getting some traffic, it's easy to get paid.
The way that most people start to monetize their blog is with Google Adsense.
This is where you display sponsored links and Google does all the hard work of deciding which adverts to show and getting money from the advertisers.
Although Google AdSense is simple to implement, it's not necessarily the best way to monetize your blog.
For instance, if your friends think they're helping you by clicking on the adverts just to earn you a few cents, Google will likely cancel your account.
Which makes sense - Google want to please their advertisers and irrelevant clicks don't make the advertiser money, which means ultimately Google don't make money either.
There are services like Voxant who will allow you to put news stories on your blog and pay you whenever these are viewed.
If these stories are relevant to your blog's subject matter, they can be a good way to earn cash from your blog.
Amazon offer an affiliate program that you could use to recommend books, DVDs and other relevant products.
You'd be surprised what Amazon sell - I've even seen snow ploughs for sale on it! The percentage paid by Amazon isn't huge but the products are well known and safe to recommend.
You can get paid cash or in Amazon vouchers.
Far and away the highest revenue is by recommending products.
If your subject matter fits, these could be digital products from places like Clickbank.
These pay out at typically 50% or more of the purchase price.
Make sure that you only recommend products you are happy with.
It's your blog and your reputation that are at stake when you recommend products.
There are plenty of ways to make money with a blog.
Research and test which is the best one for your blog.
After all, journalists get paid for their thoughts.
Your blog is a journal, so why shouldn't you get paid? The good news is that, so long as your blog is actually getting some traffic, it's easy to get paid.
The way that most people start to monetize their blog is with Google Adsense.
This is where you display sponsored links and Google does all the hard work of deciding which adverts to show and getting money from the advertisers.
Although Google AdSense is simple to implement, it's not necessarily the best way to monetize your blog.
For instance, if your friends think they're helping you by clicking on the adverts just to earn you a few cents, Google will likely cancel your account.
Which makes sense - Google want to please their advertisers and irrelevant clicks don't make the advertiser money, which means ultimately Google don't make money either.
There are services like Voxant who will allow you to put news stories on your blog and pay you whenever these are viewed.
If these stories are relevant to your blog's subject matter, they can be a good way to earn cash from your blog.
Amazon offer an affiliate program that you could use to recommend books, DVDs and other relevant products.
You'd be surprised what Amazon sell - I've even seen snow ploughs for sale on it! The percentage paid by Amazon isn't huge but the products are well known and safe to recommend.
You can get paid cash or in Amazon vouchers.
Far and away the highest revenue is by recommending products.
If your subject matter fits, these could be digital products from places like Clickbank.
These pay out at typically 50% or more of the purchase price.
Make sure that you only recommend products you are happy with.
It's your blog and your reputation that are at stake when you recommend products.
There are plenty of ways to make money with a blog.
Research and test which is the best one for your blog.