3 IMORTANT KEYS NEEDED TO MAKE MONEY FROM BLOGGING(1}

If you are reading this article on Online Money Making then I am saying a very big welcome to you. That doesn’t mean that if perhaps you stumbled on this article somewhere else you should be clicking away in the next minute, you are also welcome.
Before we say anything on how to make money from blogs, it is my opinion that any time spent in actually knowing what blogs are isn’t a waste
A blog is a mini website where people could post articles, audio, video etc. Some people say its like an online diary where people could express themselves. There are are a lot of websites like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com that offer individuals the opportunity of hosting their blogs at no cost. So individuals could easily share an old student-reunion community online, create and avenue to express their ideas etc.
Having said that, its important to note that you could decide to monetize your blog or not. Once you answer that question, I believe you are starting out on a good note.
After you've made the decision to commercialize your blog, an important step is to get familiar with some terms that relate to commercial blogging, bearing in mind a picture (at least an analogy) of what you are about doing. Imagine you placing business cards and stickers in your diary and collecting some revenue for any of these cards that attracts the reader's attention. This is a sketchy analogy of what you are doing by monetizing your blog. Some of the terms you need to get aquainted with are Search Engines, Page ranks, Search Engine Optimization, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds, Affiliate Marketing Programmes (e.g. Google Adsene). We will get to know others as we continue.
One thing you have to know while commencing Commercial Blogging is the need to reach a balance between providing information for the readers of your blog, Placing enough adverts which can earn you enough revenue and trying not to scare away your readers. With these in mind you'll be able to commence monetized blogging on a good note. As usual there is a key issue or issues which you normally address on your blog; people normally advise that this topic-note be reflected in the title of your blog articles and even in the address of your blog. Why? This is just a way of putting you on track for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). That way, when Search engines (e.g Google) go over your pages they will easily index you on the top lists and give you a better probability of a larger audience. Of course, that translates into more money at the end of the day.
Another important thing to do is to learn about all the possible ways of commercializing your blog. Here, you could go on the net using Google or Wikipedia to search out different affiliate programmes, ad-programmes that you could use to monetize your Blog. After you search out the ones which suit you most, go ahead to define your master plan on how you will make money from your website. Here, I must say that you should never restrict the creativity of your imagination even as you work within your confines (ie your Blog field of discussion) while monetizing your blog.
Permit me to itemize the steps that I know would prove vital to you if you are monetizing your blog:

1. The first thing you must do is to build content for your blog. I can hear you ask, HOW? Good news! There are a lot websites out there that offer thousands of articles at absolutely no cost (e.g. Amazines). These articles fall into different categories as far as information is concerned. There are also sites where you could get to hire people to rewrite or write articles for you at very low prices. Just like I said earlier, always put your creativity to work. you could go on Google or Wikipedia and search for "free articles" or "rewritten articles" etc. Building up content for your blog could be very daunting, try not to get discouraged. Mind you, I assume you already know how to post articles on your blog and do quick editting of articles you pick up from place to place. There should'nt be a limit to the articles you post on your blog. Try to get every information you think will be relevant to your audience and bring people back to find information on your site or better still draft out your own sizzling ideas and thoughts. If you can post about 50 articles of minimum 500 words each, I think that's a good point to start calculating figures (you know what I mean!).
While posting your articles, always put your keywords into very deep use. Your keywords are like the backbone of your blog, they radiate in your articles, blog title, and form the basis for relationship with other blog owners. They would eventually determine the type of adverts that would be seen when your blog is visited.

2. After you've enriched your blog with contents, try to work on exposing your website better. How do you do this? I'll suggest you divide this into 4 categories;
- Search Engine publicity
- RSS publicity
- Blogging Community
- Creating links to your blog

First is to make your presence known to major web search engines such as Yahoo
, MSN, Live search, My Space, Google etc. So you could just go and search out "how and where to submit your blog". You shall definitely see a lot of websites requesting for the address (URL) of your page so that your blog can be indexed. Reason be, when someone is looking for information which is somehow linked to the keywords of your blog, your page will be suggested by these search engines. It may take some days for some of these search sites to add you to their list, but never worry; you are on the right track. When you search, you'll also see many other search sites where you can submit the address of your blog. Please do your best to submit to as many as possible.
Next is to publicise your blog using one of the latest technologies called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Here you are going to be a little bit technical. RSS feeds can be described as news bits from what's happening on a blog or site being reported on another site or blog. That's why when you visit some blogs, they give you the opportunity of subscribing to their RSS feeds. This way, there would be a link on your blog to their blogs and whats being said there. The aim is to bring to pass, what every blogger needs to succeed - TRAFFIC! So, more and more people get to vist their blogs. You would need to also go on searching looking for sites where you can submit the URL of your RSS feeds. The URL of your feeds is just a little bit different from your blog URL. If you dont know it, try using the RSS feature of the editing section of your blogging enviroment, you'll get to know it. There are also sites where you can produce your RSS feeds from pages. An example is BuildRSScontent.com. Once you get to know the addy of your RSS feeds submit it to as many sites as possible. Use a search engine to find out where you can submit your blog RSS feeds URL. A lot of of them are free. You would also need to feed the RSS from blogs that command your respect or those that you think their content would complement your blog into yours. I would advise you to look for top blogs in your field of discussion when doing this. Moreover, no one is an island.
Publicizing your blog among the blogging community should have been your priority as suggested by many, but I just want your task to come from heck to easy to easiest. Here, you have to also find out as many as possible. I tell you there are hundreds of blogging communities made up of writers in almost any category. You will have to also submit your blog accordingly. This way, your blog will be publicised among writers in your field. Example; Weblogs. There are other kinds of site known as social gathering sites e.g Delicious, Digg where you are also given the oportunity of connectingf with other people. Blog Carnivals should also be on your search list while looking for a place to feature your blog.
The last thing to do as regards exposure is to create links to your blog pages on as many sites as possilble. This links can be put along with your comments that you leave on other people's blogs etc. This will help increase your age rank on search engines. The reccomendation you get from search engines is largely dependent on the number of sites that point to your site. So as usual, there must be no limitations. GOOD NEWS! There are automated ways of placing links on other sites (thousands of them), try to find out. Some of the people who render this service may charge you or you may decide to purchase the software for doing this, just to save you the time.
Steps 1 & 2 may take you months to achieve, I must confess. Never let this discourage you as the bulk of the work is usually done when setting up monetized blogs. It is easier to maintain the traffic and income when it starts coming in than to start getting it. In the second part of this article, I would discuss the 3rd key invloved in monetizing your blog which would entail the different means you can use to monetize your blog.

The Author is an online enterpreneur who shares ideas, opportunities and info with people who want to generate income online at Making Money Online.