Can I Make a Living As a Blogger?
With all the options for blogs these days, bloggers might start to wonder if blogging is something they can do as a career. There are many opportunities for bloggers who wish to make a profit from their work, and some of them are discussed below.
Monetize Your Blog
If you already have a blog, it is easy to turn it into a source of income. Most blogs have advertising programs you can add to your existing blog that provide a variety of advertising options for bloggers who wish to monetize their blogs. Google AdSense, a contextual ad program, is one of the most common advertising add-ons.
RSS advertising is another way to monetize your blog. Though it will not yet provide as much income as other current advertising methods, it is still in the early stages of its development and could potentially result in higher income.
Sponsorship is another way you can earn money from your blog. Businesses are discovering the value of blogs, and if you have a blog with a decent following, it is often simple to approach or be approached by companies that may want you to blog a review of their product or service.
More information about monetization can be found here, at Blogger's help page.
Merchandising
Selling blog-related merchandise is another way to make money from your blog. If your blog is popular, fans may want to show their affiliation with your blog and its content by wearing Tshirts or sweatshirts with your blog’s logo or characters from your blog on it. Setting up a store on sites like cafe press is easy and can provide a nice source of income for bloggers.
Get Donations
It is easy to add a tip jar or donation buttons to your blog which allow readers to provide payment for the enjoyment they get from reading your blog. Donations may be made by readers who wish to see more blog content and hope that by providing tips or donations the blog author will be able to devote more time to writing. Payments from tips or donations can often be collected via PayPal or some other web-based payment method.
Maintaining Corporate Blogs
Many businesses are starting blogs. Blogs are great online marketing tools, and while many of these companies have internal staff to maintain their company blog, many of them are starting to hire blogging consultants or vendors to keep up their blogs.
Freelance Writing
Many bloggers have taken their blogs and turned them into ebooks, or developed educational courses and even webinars about their area of expertise that people can sign up for online. This type of activity is likely to increase in the future and may lead to an increase in online business in general.
Branching Out Into Offline Writing
Some bloggers may attempt to write in non-blogging (or even offline) mediums. Bloggers might contribute to printed newspapers or magazines. If you gain popularity blogging, this transition from online to offline writing may not be difficult. Some bloggers like Winona Dimeo-Ediger of Daddy Likey, even become published book authors.