Can you make money from your blog? Here's how you can predict your income chances.

Can you make money from your blog? Here's how you can predict your income chances.

We've all heard about the many entrepreneurs who made it big thanks to a popular blog; either they used their blog as an extension of an existing business, or they started blogging as a side project that ended up earning substantial revenue. Related: How to Start a Blog and Make Money Online Knowing about the free website-building tools out there and the (perceived) ease with which to start a blog, you have probably given some thought to this strategy. However, would a blog really help you make money? Ultimately, there are three factors in the answer:

1. Monetization.

What's your plan to make the blog money? Depending on your audience, intention and other ventures, you have many options.

2. Traffic.

No matter what angle of monetization you choose, to support it, you will need ample traffic. The ability of your blog to generate traffic is an important indicator.

3. Upkeep and longevity.

Although in most cases your blog will be free to create, keeping your blog running will cost you time (and sometimes money). Depending on what you invest in maintenance and improvement, your profitability will depend.

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Monetization

Let's start with the various ways your site can be monetized:

Lead generation: If you already have a consulting or B2B business, you will need closed sales leads. A blog with enough calls for action should direct your readership to your contact page and earn you more appointments that you might be able to close as sales. With lead generation, your blog will serve as an expansion of your business instead of an independent opportunity to generate revenue.

Direct Sales: A blog can support those sales if you have something to sell. You could open a store for selling apparel, crafts or even an ebook, for example. Then you could use your blog to give your potential customers value and eventually forward them to product pages to consider making a purchase.

Advertising: If you have enough traffic, you won't have to sell anything to your readers to make money; instead, you can generate revenue by attracting advertisers who will pay you based on the traffic volume you receive or (more likely) based on the number of people who click on the ads you place. In some cases, advertisements may annoy readers, so be careful when placing these early ones; and maintain a fair balance of ad content versus free, valuable content.

Affiliate linking: You can also make money through affiliate links, which means links to the products and services of other people that you include in the content of your blog. You will receive a percentage of any sales generated by your links, and again with enough traffic, which could represent a substantial revenue stream.

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Traffic

Whatever approach you choose, you will need sufficient traffic to gain sufficient value from it:

Targeting: The right target audience will need to start. Ideally, you are going to choose a specific target niche that is wide enough to have a large readership but narrow enough to avoid major competition. Thus, while dealing with the least amount of competition, you can earn the most relevant followers. Before proceeding, make sure you investigate your target audience and existing competition; try to find something unique that people really need.

Value: Then you need to find a way to give value to those users. This usually means providing them with the best content you can produce, which is timely, unique, helpful, thoroughly researched and well written. The more value you offer your readers, the more naturally they will attract you, the more they will spread the word of your existence

Promotion and support: Even if you have a strong base of content and a hypothetically valuable niche, unless you spend time promoting and syndicating your material, you won't get far. You need to build an initial audience base and encourage them to spread the word about you while simultaneously building your brand reputation and influence circle. There are many ways to do this, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and paid advertising, but you will need to use at least one of these strategies to begin building momentum for your audience.

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Upkeep and longevity

If you want your revenue stream to last, you're going to have to make investments to keep your blog running and relevant for the foreseeable future (and make sure your profitability doesn't eat those costs)

Relevance longevity: You will need to keep your design and content up-to-date to appeal to your target audience, whose interests may change — especially if you have substantial competitors in your area. You need to be ready to tweak almost constantly.

Ongoing costs: You're probably going to have to pay for things like hosting, marketing and advertising, so make sure you build those costs into your long-term profitability plan.

Ongoing time investment: It will take several hours of work each week to create new content, engage with your followers and build your reputation. Your blog will be unable to sustain itself without that investment.

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So, can you make money from your blog? If you're confident in addressing all of the above points and walking away feeling you've conquered all three profitability areas, there's nothing to stop your blog from being profitable. It is still a long-term strategy, and one that may not pay off immediately, but with a strong foundation, you are going to be ahead of the vast majority of new online entrepreneurs.