Writing Blogs for Cash
The idea of writing blogs for cash is one that appeals to many freelancers. After all, you can be location independent, write about topics you enjoy and understand and potentially earn a full-time income. However, because it's so easy to start a blog, your competition is immediately fierce. Earning a lot of cash by writing blogs is typically a slow process that pays little to no money in the beginning and requires knowledge about online writing techniques.
Other People Are Reading
-
Content
-
For a blog to bring in cash flow, it must provide content that appeals to and draws in an audience. Your blog should focus on a specific topic -- preferably one you have expertise in -- that will compel readers to come to your blog repeatedly. The more specific your focus, the better. For example, a general food blog might attract some readers, but a blog on cooking Indian cuisine will find a more distinct audience.
Search Engine Optimization
-
Writing a blog to earn money from traffic requires an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the concept of creating content that search engines will feature prominently when a potential reader searches for a topic similar to what your blog covers. Keywords, or specific phrases found in the text of your blog, play a large role in this process. For example, if your blog aims to help single mothers get started working from home, when someone searches for "jobs at home for moms" in a search engine, your goal is for your blog to be on the first page of links.
-
Advertising
-
Placing advertisements on your blog is one of the first steps toward earning an income. Google's Adsense, WidgetBucks and Text Link Ads are just a few of the most common companies that provide ads and share a percentage of the revenue generated from readers clicking on those ads. While this can be lucrative if the ads are directly related to the type of content on your blog, placing too many puts you in danger of alienating some readers who might find ads intrusive and annoying.
Sponsors
-
Finding an established company to sponsor your blog can mean a huge boost in income. The process works just like the traditional advertising process, but rather than relying on a service like Adsense to place relevant ads on your blog, you enter into an agreement with the company to share the revenue generated by their advertisements when readers click on them. Typically, your blog will need to be established and have a significant audience before companies will be willing to sponsor your blog.
Affiliates
-
An affiliate program can be highly useful for generating cash, and can be easier to accomplish than a sponsorship. Amazon, Linkshare and Clickbank all offer affiliate programs in which you are given a percentage of the money they earn when a product is purchased by a customer who followed a link through your blog to their website.
-
