Today we are switching back over to some talk about the business end of the blog.
Why would someone want to start a blog as a business? There is no product to sell, no location, and not even a customer base. Why would you want that kind of business?
That is exactly why I want this kind of business. No products means no inventory, no shipping, and no returns. No brick and mortar location means I can blog from anywhere. (Currently I am working my full time job) And no real customer base means that I am not relying on customers to pay my bills.
Then how do you make money with a blog? Short answer is you don’t. The long answer is you make some, not much. I won’t be quitting my day job anytime soon. But anyways blogs can make money a several ways, advertising, pay per click ads, donations, and affiliate advertising are the main ways.
I know a full time blogger that makes his money from a few advertisers, and selling memberships to his blog. His blog is free or you can pay a small fee and become a member with a few perks.
Pay per click advertising are those Google adsense things that almost every site out there has. You make on average .01-.10 cents per click. Yes it takes a bunch of those clicks to make any money. And if you have too many clicks Google flags you and drops your site.
Donations are where you just ask the blogs readers to send you a few dollars after reading your site. A lot of up coming sites do this to get started.
Affiliate advertising is another of the popular ways of earning money with a blog. This is the method I use. There are many companies you can advertise for, I chose Amazon.com. and Host Gator web hosting. It’s simple I get a fixed percentage of each sale made from my link. And the more I sell the higher my percentage goes up. And like everything else the catch is its based on monthly sales so, if you have a bad month your percentage goes down.
Then if I’m not going to make any money why would I want a blog?
Why not? is my answer. A blog can be fun if your not trying to make some money. If your trying to make money it can be stressful attempting to write daily. I also like the fact that I can help educate others in an age that anyone can have a blog. There are some pretty bad blogs out there, teaching pretty bad things, bad information, or just dangerous things. I can hope that my blog will give them good information and maybe help them.
Okay okay you have changed my mind, how do I start my own blog?
It’s simple and affordable. First you need to find a domain name. Just go to godaddy or another site and find an domain that you like, and best describes what your blog will be about. Then go to Host Gator by clicking the banner ad at the bottom of this page, register your domain and pick a hosting package. They start at $3.96 a month. From your hosting account you will be able to install WordPress onto your site. All in all I can set up a new blog in less than an hour and spend around $100. That will get me by for a year.
If you consistly blog, one post a day. I have heard that you should start making money in the first six months and have a steady income, which may not be much but, something each month, in about a year.
When I started my blog I looked at just about every business idea online. Everything from drop ship sites, to club memberships, to a group of sites with advertising on them. And all in all I found that a blog seamed to be the safest, and have the best potential for earning an income over time.
For a special 25% off of a Host Gator purchase use the coupon code ‘gunpreparedness’
This post can be found in its original format here http://gunpreparedness.com/2012/02/blogging-as-a-business/
