Can Blogging REALLY Pay?

By Mike Klingler

There is no question that Blogging can really pay...

The question is are you willing to pay in time (and maybe a little money here and there) to follow-through on it long enough to succeed?

Let's start with the upside:

• Blogging allows you to own something of your own creation. 
• You get to decide what it is. 
• It allows you to explore and write about things you are already interested in! 
• You get to change it when you choose.  You work on it as much or as little as you want. 
• It's an easy way to learn the Internet and to develop your skills as you go along. 
• It's inexpensive and you can even get started for free! 
• There are many resources established to make money such as Google Adwords and Amazon's affiliate program. 
• And it's just started to become a profit center so there are a lot of opportunities available to anyone who gets involved now and grows with the industry of cash blogging.

Many people who make money blogging focus on the 'money making' theme and it makes sense why.  There is a expanding audience interested in this topic and they are spending a lot of time on the Internet themselves reading, learning and buying. 

The 'making money' topic is one to consider and is obviously one of the focuses of The Leader Blog as well. 

But there are many topics you can focus on. Search practically on any subject and just include the word 'blog' behind it and you'll find that there are numerous subjects discussed in blogs. There are even sites dedicated to teaching you how to blog with your passions.  You should always be incorporating your 'interests or passions' into your blog... or it can be the main theme (like sewing, fishing, etc).  Just look at what Martha Stewart accomplished with her magazine and television program!  The same can be accomplished blogging.

The idea is to provide valuable service and / or content to attract an audience and then leverage the traffic with Google Adwords or affiliate opportunities.  You can also use it as a means to build an audience to sell your own products or services to.  In addition, many people in the network marketing industry use blogs to build an audience from which they are able to prospect the 'best' qualify people from and eventually build a large residual income with a primary company.

The bottom line is this: 

Building an audience in any way (radio, TV, magazines, websites) is not a new idea.  Blogging is just another innovative way to do it!  And because it allows people to participate who may not know how to program or even how to use HTML, it's an wide open opportunity for almost anyone who can write at all.

You don't have to be a great writer but you do have to enjoy writing about a certain subject, or at least, you have to enjoy the process of creating an audience and that's gotta' get you excited... if it doesn't or you hate writing, blogging is probably not your best bet.

To get started blogging, start by choosing a good company that offers simple templates to get you started.  You don't have to mess around with hiring a designer or programmer to get started.  Just search for 'free blog tools' online and check

around. 

Choose at least 3 sources of information about how to construct a blog.  Again, the search engines lead you to hundreds of choices.  This discovery process is part of the work.

Choose a topic or topics you are either:

• excited about
• know about
• what to know about

This will ensure you enjoy what you are doing to some extent. That part of the equation is essential to your long term success!

Begin developing content.  Just start.  And don't ever finish!  That's how blogging works.  It is an endless process of developing and creating.

Start researching common ways (and uncommon) to develop income at your site once you have an audience.

Once you have some content, start promoting your site.  This is an area all to itself.  And it's one you can easily learn how to do.  Learn how to submit your site/blog on search engines.  Learn what they require to get great placement.  Again, just type in 'site submission' at yahoo or Google and you're started with the process of learning all you need to know to begin.

All of this takes time.  It also take drive, willingness, interest and this all leads to follow-through.  If you apply all that, you will have a profitable blog and you should be enjoying it along the way if you make sure it's a topic you are interested in!

Have fun!

I'll keep developing this section to assist everyone along the way.  I am fairly new to this area myself, so I believe my blog may offer some simply progressive insights that will help those who are just beginning.

Partners in success!

Mike Klingler