Several years ago I set out on a mission to figure out how to make money online. So many people had done it in the past, why couldn't I? After graduating from Arizona State University this summer, I've found myself in control of several online blog websites that generate steady income every month. While blogging is not my full-time occupation, I've been able to use it to fund my own college education. I'd like to share how you too can make money while writing about your interests.
The most important thing to do is create a platform. Since the beginning my blogs have been powered by WordPress, a popular free publishing platform. I learned how to configure WordPress through the vast amount of information available on the web. WordPress is easy to use and is connected to thousands of plug-ins that harness popular web technologies needed to gain exposure. Because of this, my websites gain over 85% of traffic from search engines, and the rest from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. After creating a few blogs, I began to see creating WordPress as a structured process. Creating a new blog isn't a technical job anymore, it's all about developing content. To the average user, creating a platform may be the hardest obstacle. Once you overcome this, all you have to do is post content - frequently!
Once you have a platform established the focus is now on the content of the blog. For me, I first decided to create a multi-topic lifestyle website called RT-Now (www.RT-Now.com) that focuses on popular stories in entertainment, music, sports, technology, and more. By choosing topics that I'm passionate about, I found it extremely easy to find content to post on the website. I don't consider myself an excellent writer, but through consistently posting content I've improved which is one of the great benefits of blogging.
The first question that I'm always asked is: "How do you make money?" The process of creating and monetizing a website or blog is often a mystery to the average technology user. To your surprise, it can be much easier than you think. Once your platform is established, you can sign up for advertising networks. I've used Google AdSense, a pay-per-click Ad network, which pays you for each time someone clicks a banner advertisement. About 5% of traffic ends up clicking an Ad, so as your visitors grow - revenue grows. I also am a member of Google Affiliate Network, which allows you to promote individual products from various companies in order to earn a percentage commission of sales. The most successful affiliate product I've promoted is Netflix, by posting several articles about it. Each time someone signs up through my website, I get a commission. I've found it quite easy to find products to promote that fit perfectly into the theme of my blog.
To exponentially grow your income, I like to compare a blog to a plot of land. The more content you post, the more internet real-estate you own. New blogs that only have a few articles are a small part of internet real estate. However, once you write hundreds or thousands of articles, your internet real estate grows. There more you produce, the more content there is to be discovered and shared. Over the last three years I've blogged consistently on RT-Now, which now contains over 1,200 articles. Since I've expanded my internet real estate, theres more chances my site comes up in search engine results, and is shared with other internet users.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post and look forward to writing more about how to create income from home. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section.
Included are photos of how social media and advertisements are placed on my blog as well as a pie graph which shows hows visitors reach the blog.
