It’s been more than 10 years since pioneering websites like Blogger and Live Journal started the blogging revolution by convincing people to transfer their thoughts from private journals and diaries to the Internet for the whole world to see.

By Yagi Olaguera

Since then, blogging has evolved into one of the most powerful forms of communication on the Internet. For some people, blogging has even replaced some of the more traditional forms of media as a source of information. Many companies have learned to exploit this by creating more informal blog sections in their web sites. It has come to the point that some people can even make money from their blogs.

Chances are, you might have a blog yourself and you may have thought of making some money out of it. Though few bloggers in the country make a living through blogging alone, it’s possible for you to make a little bit of money on the side just by talking about the things that you love.

Google Adsense
The most popular and readily available way of making money through blogs (or any site for that matter) is Google Adsense.

Google has a large network of advertisers and by signing up and embedding the code on your site, Google can use your site as a space for these advertisements.

Google pays you based on the number of clicks you get on the ads and the number of people who view the ads.

To create an account, go to www.google.com/adsense. You’ll need a bank account to receive money from your Adsense account.

Google tries to relate its ads to the content of your webpage, so it helps to repeat the more important keywords in your blog to help facilitate this.

Also make sure that you place the ads where they can be seen by your readers so that they can be clicked readily. You will only receive money after you make a certain amount, so be patient about your first payment.

Reviews
Another way of making money from your blog is by taking advantage of websites that pay you for posts that you make about certain products. There are quite a number of sites that do this.

Examples are www.payperpost.com and www.reviewme.com.

Most of these sites require your blog to have been active from anywhere between 30 to 90 days before they even consider you. They also require that you give them the keywords that describe your site and a short description of your blog. Once you’re approved by these sites, you will be then given a list of things that you can blog about that are relevant to your keywords. The mode and the amount of payment depend on the site that you signed up for.

Sponsorships
As your blog continues to grow, you could also possibly get sponsorship opportunities. Some bloggers have even become celebrities in their own right and are paid to blog. Whether you get there or not, remember to have fun with it. That’s why you’re blogging in the first place!

Sidebar: Text by Monina Eugenio, Design by FMT