Making Money from Blogs

Many people think of bloggers as either selfless crusaders fighting for social causes or political justice, or as narcissistic social networkers who love nothing more than calling attention to themselves,
but either way, we tend to think of them as unpaid and non-profiting. Actually, many blogs do make money, and many bloggers are blogging for that simple reason - to get paid for it.

Blogging is not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme; in fact, it can be extremely difficult to “monetize” a blog, but there are many that do turn a tidy profit. Blogging has changed a lot over the past few years and much of the blogging occurring now is of a commercial nature. As one blogger and online journalist sees it, there are two main ways to make money off blogs: Cash Flow Blogging and Capital Gains Blogging.

Cash Flow Blogging is based on owning and maintaining a blog that brings in a monthly income - from advertising, paid reviews or affiliate sales. A blog of this type can produce a modest income or even a substantial one if the blog is popular enough and well-designed and operated. A successful blog can bring in several hundred dollars a month or more if it is relevant and receives a lot of traffic.

Capital Gains Blogging is based on buying or developing a blog for sale at a later date. To the capital gains blogger, a blog is seen as an investment. Monthly income is not the concern as much as the eventual selling price.

Many professional bloggers use a combination of both approaches and some invest in numerous blogs, maintaining networks of up to several hundred blogs. At this level, there is serious money to be made, but a lot of work and experience is required to make it profitable.

With web hosting packages that offer multiple domain hosting, unlimited disk space and bandwidth along with professional blogger applications for low monthly fees, blogging can be cheap and easily manageable. Many of the packages available offer free hosting of multiple domains, making blogging networks inexpensive and potentially profitable. The age of commercial blogging has definitely arrived.