by: Sharon Housley
Copyright 2004 Sharon Housley

Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show or some
new drinking game, but it's the latest craze to hit the Internet.
Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons, but as the blog
movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways to
monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off.

Whether a blogger's focus is to communicate with customers or just
to have fun, they have begun looking at ways to earn revenue from
their blogs. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added
cash for their pet projects are:

1. ) Google Adsense in Blogs
Google AdSense allows webmasters to dynamically serve
content-relevant advertisements in blogs. If the visitor clicks one
of the AdSense ads served to the blog, the website owner is credited
for the referral. Webmasters need only to insert a Google-generated
java script into the blog or blog template. Google's spider parses
the AdServing blog and serves ads that relate to the blog's content.
Google uses a combination of keyword matching and context analysis
to determine what ads should be served.

2. ) Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements)
Affiliate Programs work when an affiliate web site receives income
for generating sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant website.
Generally, bloggers will mention or endorse specific products and if
site visitors purchase the product, bloggers will receive a portion
of the sale.

3. ) Product Promotion
Businesses use blogs to detail how specific features or product
add-ons can increase functionality and save time. Content-rich
product promotion will help with search engine placement.

4.) Banner Ads
While less popular than in the past, websites with high traffic
levels can still earn decent revenue by selling banner space.

As the Internet evolves bloggers will continue to seek out ways to
monetize their opinions and thoughts. Daily journals and online
blogs have become more than just a communication means to many.


About the author:
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for the NotePage
http://www.notepage.netand FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.comproduct lines. Other sites by Sharon can be
found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and
http://www.small-business-software.net