Making money with blogs is not difficult but at the same time, it is very difficult. What does that mean you ask? Simply put, there are two different methodologies that you can follow if you are going to launch a website or blog and use it as a source of income. One of these methods is quick and can earn you a small amount of supplemental income and the other one is very slow and has the potential to turn into an online business.

The first method, the simple one, entails signing up at at one of the following outfits or something similar:

1) https://www.blogger.com/start 2) http://www.weebly.com/ 3) http://www.sosblog.com/ 4) http://www.thoughts.com/ 5) http://wordpress.com/ 6) http://weblog.com/ 7) http://wordpress.org/

Please note that number seven does not include hosting. You will need to acquire free hosting if you are going to use the WordPress.org PHP blogging script. Additionally, your host will have to allow PHP and FTP. There are some free hosts that do allow these. Some will install it for free in the CPanel.

After you have registered for an account, select a blog name. This is a very important step because your blog name should contain keywords related to your subject of interest. It is important to note that you should write about a subject that you are passionate about because blogging is a long term commitment and your well of words can easily run dry if you are not truly interested in what you are writing about. Many people blog about subjects they think can make them money only to fizzle out after a few months.

However, once you have decided upon a niche, you can then begin adding you content. Content is THE MOST IMPORTANT item in this entire process! If your content is ORIGINAL and UNIQUE, you will be putting yourself in a position to succeed. If your content is something like a PLR article that you purchased or copied, you are wasting your time! Search engines do not penalize duplicate content, but at the same time, they do not list it for others to see. If you use free content such as RSS feeds, articles from article directories or something similar, nobody will ever see it unless you drive traffic to it which takes an enormous amount of effort. Additionally, this type of traffic doesn’t monetize easily because most of it comes from web 2.0. More on that later. Back to the subject. Some people believe that they are not good writers. You must eliminate that type of thinking from your little blogging head. Everyone has a voice and there exists an audience for everyone’s voice regardless of the level or expertise a particular person has on any given subject. Above, I said that your content has to be UNIQUE. It must also be reasonably informative. You do not have to be a guru in that field, you just have to be able to be a funnel for information, even if it is information that you have read and researched and then put into your own words.

After several months of writing articles, your articles should begin moving up the ranks in the search engines provided it is unique and recent and you should start seeing some traffic from search engines. Then you can monetize your blog with Adsense, Commission Junction, Clickbank or whatever method you choose to use. Whatever you do, just keep blogging and, in time, you should earn a small amount of supplemental income. Remember, the people who read your blog are smart people and they are not easily fooled, so do not try to trick them into buying things. Be honest. Provide value for free…initially.

The next method is more long term but follows similar steps and has much more potential. The steps are similar but you will be setting up a business instead of just a blog. This method will require some investment on the front end of about roughly $25-$30 per month depending on what options you choose.

To begin, you must first determine what you are passionate about. Only you know that. Once you have decided upon a subject that you be able to consistently write UNIQUE and ORIGINAL content about for the long term, head on over to GoDaddy (or you registrar of choice) and purchase a domain name. If you can get a domain name with your keywords, then that is great. If it is not available or if a suitable replacement is not available, then choose a name that you can turn into a brand. Brand names, in my opinion, actually have more potential in the long run and allow you to diversify in the future should you choose to do so. For, example, this blog is a blog about search engine optimization and search engine marketing. All similar domain names were taken so I chose a name that I could brand, namely, TheBitBot.com. With respect to the actual domain you choose to purchase, the consensus is that dot com’s are generally more trusted. That being said, the domain you choose has nothing to do with how well you will rank. That will be a function of your content, links and other SEO techniques. I have personally had dot info domains rank above fortune 500 company dot com domains in the past.

Once you have chosen a domain name using a registrar get yourself some reliable hosting. I personally recommend HostGator. You can get excellent hosting for about $5-$7 per month depending on what plan you choose. If you go cheap and use free hosting, you will potentially have serious downtime issues regardless of what their advertising says. Free hosting services are not know for being honest with respect to the performance of their free accounts. I have personally found that it makes a HUGE difference.

After you have secured your domain name and hosting, grab a copy of WordPress and upload it to your server using Filezilla or your FTP manager of choice. Install your script and get to work. WRITE. WRITE. WRITE. Add unique and original content to your blog weekly. Research. Expand your knowledge. Give your best information. Build your traffic. Write more. Now, the next step is VERY important. This may take some time. Slowly develop a “special report” related to your niche that divulges some specialized information. Only you can decide what that is in your field. Write it up in MSWord or OpenOffice Writer. Give it a colorful cover page and title. Add pictures, Spruce it up. Add links to your site and or products throughout the report. Keep in mind, you are not going to sell this, you are going to give it away for free but only if people subscribe to your blog. Now, save it as an unmodifiable PDF file. This is what is going to help yo to begin building your LIST of email subscribers.

Next, go to AWEBER and sign up for an auto-responder account. Check their website for current account pricing. You can also use MAILCHIMP. They allow your first 500 subscribers for free. If you are proficient in working with PHP scripts and your hosting service allows you to use an auto-responder, then you can use PHPLIST. Which ever option you choose, make sure you follow CAN-SPAM laws. This is very important! Just read the rules and follow them. You have no reason not to.

Once you have an auto-responder account, add the auto-responder code to your site which offers your “special report” for free if the reader enters their email address and then confirms their address by clicking on the link your auto-responder sends them. Once they click on the link, a second email is sent by the auto-responder with a download link to the report that they were promised. Congratulations! Provided they do not immediately unsubscribe, you have just gained REPEAT TRAFFIC from one person. Rinse and repeat this method from now on. It is a permanent part of your game. This is referred to as building a double opt-in list. Double opt-in means that they confirm their email address and acknowledge allowing you to send them emails in the future such as “New Post”. Many hosting services require double opt-in. Additionally, it is a protection for you as the sender.

Next, give your list time to grow. There are a variety of techniques that can help you to speed up the growth of your list and “free” items are at the core of all of these techniques. More on that later. Once your blog has gained followers and your list has grown, you can monetize it using the same methods described in the former method.

This post is about the basics of blogging and monetizing your blog. If you take anything away from this post remember this. UNIQUE and ORIGINAL content is an absolute must. Without it, you will NOT succeed. Unique and original content can only come from one person, YOU! People will read what you write. You have to realize that your voice has value whether you believe it or not. Also take away the fact that if you are going to build a business, you have to build a list. Nobody can survive on search engine traffic alone. There is just too much competition. Search engine traffic, however, is necessary because it is THE MOST TARGETED traffic you will receive and these are the individuals you want subscribing to your list. Web 2.0 traffic is great, but getting it to convert is MUCH more difficult. More on that later too. Well, that’s all for now. My fingers are starting to hurt.

As always, I am interested in your comments. Also, if you have any technical questions, lust leave them in a comment and I promise that I will answer them…if I can…:)