3. Blogging

The one thing about blogging that you need to know is that you can monetize it in several different ways. There isn’t just one way in which you can make money out of a blog; there are several. Once you have a blog of your own, it is a learning experience in itself. But, at the same time, the money begins flowing in almost immediately, which motivates you into milking your blog further.

A very good platform to build your blog would be Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.com/) or Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/). These are blog platforms, i.e. you can create your blog using the software they provide. In addition, you will also need some hosting space and domain name to set your blog running.

The one difference between Wordpress and Blogger is that Blogger is a free tool. That means, you will have to contend with advertisements from other people on your blog. Wordpress is considered to be more focused and speaks better of the commercial blogger’s intentions.

Another blogging service that you might like is Typepad (http://www.typepad.com/). Typepad is an uploading and hosting service. You just pay them, build your blog through Wordpress, and Typepad will take care of the uploading and hosting. One perk is that Typepad does a lot of search engine optimization for you, so you can be sure that your blog will begin ranking high right from the start.

If you get good content on your blog (including keyword optimized text, videos and photos), you can be sure that it will get populated soon. The search engines love blogs because they get a constant update of content and because so many people keep visiting them. In today’s scenario, blogs are more effective in websites.

The following are some ways in which you can monetize your blog:

• You could use PPC advertising on your blog.

• You could directly sell or advertise products.

• You could give away an eBook or a newsletter subscription and get leads.

• You could build a blog, populate it and then sell the whole thing for a tidy profit.

Image source: http://office.microsoft.com

Content from SWA e-book "Home Business Models - Exposed"

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