At first, I thought blogging was an easy way to earn cash. Create your blog, put some content and display your Adsense and you’re on your way to making millions. You can’t blame me to believe that way considering the countless BS I’ve read about making money online. Before you fall victim to these exaggerations, take some time to read this post and do yourself a favor.
I’m on my 8th month of blogging and so far, I have earned a little over $2,500. That’s not bad for a blog less than 8 months old. But did you know that there are Blogs older than Blogging Mix that did not make anything? Yes, there are blogs that are 2 years old and still haven’t received their first check from Adsense. I also know of a lot of blogs that are 3 months old but have earned $10,000 or more. That’s how complicated making money online is.
Can you really make money blogging? Definitely YES! But I believe the better question to ask is, “What Makes a Blog Make Money?”. Here are the factors that make a blog profitable.
The Traffic
Traffic is the most important factor that helps a blog make money. Traffic is simply the number of visitors your blog gets on a given time, usually accounted on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The higher your blog traffic, the higher your chances of making money.
The Ranks
Google Page Rank, Alexa Traffic Rank and Technorati Blog Rank are some of the blog ranking systems that help a blog make money online. Google ranks blogs and websites from a scale of 0-10. The higher your Google Page Rank, the better. Alexa Traffic Rank is another ranking system that virtually ranks all websites. The lower your Alexa Ranking, the better. Technorati Blog Rank on the other hand ranks a blog by the number of links pointing to it. Technorati calls it, blog reaction. The more blog reactions your blog has, the better your Technorati Rank. Like Alexa, the lower your Technorati Rank, the better.
The Subscribers
With the popularization of feed, comes the opportunity to make money. Almost all blogs have their own feeds. Feeds enable anyone to subscribe to a blog via email or through a feed reader. This means people who subscribed to your blog, don’t need to visit your blog to read your latest post. They can access it through their feed reader or will be delivered directly to their emails depending on their subscription. Like traffic, the higher the number of your feed subscribers, the better your chances of making money with your blog.
The Strategy
Making money online needs some strategy. With the huge number of opportunities available to bloggers, the ability to identify which opportunity is most suitable to your blog can significantly improve your blog’s earning potential. Not all blogs can earn from Pay Per Click advertisements, in the same manner that not all blogs can earn from blog reviews. This uncertainty calls for a strategic approach to identifying the most suitable “make money scheme” that will maximize your blog’s income.
The Blogger
Whether a blog makes money or not ultimately depends on the blogger. If a blogger lacks the time and resources to grow a blog, any attempt to monetize it is futile. Blogging requires commitment and persistence. Failure is customary and giving up distinguishes a successful blogger from a losser.
For your blog to make money, you should have these 5 elements. Improving your blog’s performance on these five factors is another topic, which will be covered in the succedding posts.
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The increasing participation of bloggers to different “make money online schemes”, resulted to the growth of online businesses promoting affiliate programs. A lot of bloggers have become successful from these affiliate programs unfortunately, not all bloggers managed to be successful. To succeed in affiliate programs, a blogger should have clear objectives, strategies and should join suitable affiliate programs.
NO! 
