How can I make money with a blog?
Here is a question I received.
Just how it works and can I make money at it.
This is probably the single most asked questions although not always worded this way.
First a blog is not a big red button that you put it up and voila you get cash. Sorry 
It can be an excellent way to generate traffic. Find good keywords, create some quality content, set up your plugins properly, add a good ping list and take the time to do some one time work (I know a bad word again) and you can get good targeted traffic.
That in a nutshell is what a blog is good for. Now the money making depends on what YOU do with that traffic. How do you convert it to something that gets you paid?
Here are a few things you can do but it will depend on your offer as to how well it works.
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Use contextual advertising (ie Adsense, Konterra, etc.)
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Add paid banners or links
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Collect email addresses
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Create authority for you (become the expert or expert gate keeper)
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Presell affiliate products
Lets look at a couple of these. The easiest is Adsense because if you have picked good high paying keywords, done the proper research you don’t have to worry about the offer just the click.
Now you do need to understand the rules, set up the proper ad blocks and test different ones but once you get the click you get paid. This does take good traffic volume so that is the hardest part but a properly set up blog will make it easier than a normal website.
Paid banners or links will take the effort to get your blog a high PR. Most of the banner services and paid linking services want a PR4 or higher. Building good back links will be the key here. Once it is there this may be the easiest of all to maintain.
Collecting email addresses or using CPA (cost per action) offers can be another effective way. The profitability will depend on how well your back end (the email series) converts or how well the CPA offer converts. Unlike contextual ads you only get paid when people complete an action.
Creating authority works very well with a blog but has no value if you don’t have offers for the back end. (Example – I write and build credibility about WordPress but I have a variety of products about that topic to monetize the authority built indirectly.)
Preslling affiliate products can be the most profitable way to use a blog but..
Again it depends on how well you write the presell and how well the actual sales letter converts. When done right though it works well.
In conclusion a blog can get you lots of TARGETED traffic but you do need to know what to do with it to turn that traffic into money. The better you are at that the more profitable your blog will be. All the traffic in the world is worthless if you don’t have a solid way to monetize it.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
