Not Just Your Virtual Diary Anymore, Blogging Is Big Business

Published 09 January 08 11:23 PM | Student Loan Girl

A decade ago, blogging was a way for anyone with a computer to get a high from posting their personal ramblings to the Web and sharing their now-published thoughts with the online world.

Narcissistic? Maybe. Therapeutic? Definitely. Profitable? Questionable.

But not anymore.

Thanks to our obsession with the Internet and our undying need for ever-more information at our fingertips, blogging has evolved into a powerful and profitable business venture that almost anyone can do.

Big-Buck Bloggers

Take Zach Brooks, for example. This Manhattanite has turned his love affair with greasy food into Midtownlunch.com, a blog devoted to spotlighting cheap eateries in New York for nearly 2,000 daily readers.

The website, which focuses on restaurants where you can get lunch for under $10, can sometimes net Brooks $1,000 a month, writes Associated Press reporter Candace Choi (“Casual Blogging Not Just Lunch Money Now,” Dec. 26, 2007).

Then there’s Samuel Chi, who started BCSGuru.com “as a way to demystify the convoluted universe of college football rankings for fellow fans,” Choi writes. This season, Chi, a former sports journalist with a background in statistics, earned about $8,000 from his blog.

With the help of PayPerPost, BlogAds, Google’s AdSense, and similar programs that help advertisers place ads on large and small sites, bloggers, who write on everything from the latest tech gadgets to politics to the celebrity train wreck of the day, can earn money based on their site’s popularity — the more people who click on the ads on their site, the more money they make.

Turn Your Blog into a Cash Cow

Write about your obsessions, make the most of your advertisers, and you may never again have to hawk your clothes or sell your plasma to get that extra cash.

Last year, total online ad revenue was nearly $20 billion, so there’s plenty of money to go around.

The Washington Post suggests a few different ways to get your share as a blogger:

Let online ad programs work for you. Sell ad space on your blog, and you can get paid each time someone clicks on your ads.

Take control of your ad sales. Not a fan of pay-per-click ads? Use BlogAds. Join its database of advertisers — free of charge — and set your own ad prices. Companies then find you and purchase ad space for a set period of time. You keep 70 percent of your add fees and turn over 30 percent to BlogAds.

Be the middleman. Join a company’s affiliate program: Post an ad on your blog that links to their site, and every time one of your readers clicks on the ad, goes to the company’s site, and the visit results in a purchase, you’ll receive a small commission. You can earn as much as 10 percent per referral sale from businesses like Amazon, eBay, and Match.com. Use affiliate marketing networks like LinkShare or Commission Junction to browse hundreds of companies with affiliate programs.

Get your fans involved. Give your loyal and dedicated readers an opportunity to show their support. Post a donation button from online payment services like PayPal or the Amazon Honor System, and set yourself up to receive monetary donations.

Sell blog-branded gear. If asking for a handout isn’t your thing, slap your company logo on T-shirts, coffee mugs or caps and create your own online store. CafePress offers you more than 50 products to choose from.

What Are You Waiting For? Express Yourself.

Know the best places to find a bargain? The best sports bars to watch a game? How to make the most out of your college loans?

Launch a blog. It’s so easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before.

Just go to any popular blog platform site, like WordPress, Blogger, MySpace or Weebly, and create your blog for free. And let your love of all things you make the extra cash for you.