BlogWealth

© David Reber's Hammer Photography

To live off blog income you must market your blog to get more readers. This means you must get it out there so that others who are interested can find it an dread it. This is also a great way to sell things by using affiliate lings and programs.

Blog marketing can be a great home business, but in ordered for it to work you would definitely need to have more than one blog. You should start by making a list of markets that your blogs can cover. You will find that your blogs do best when they are focused on only one market per blog. So if you have a blog about cats, for instance, you will not want to include anything on there about appliances (unless they relate to cats). This is because your readers are looking to learn more about cats and what you have to say about then, and they won't be interested in learning anything about random appliances.

© david_shankbone

Making money online is very possible. In fact, if you check out the Rich List 2011, you'll notice that there are actually a few millionaires who made their wealth via the internet. This is encouraging news for internet entrepreneurs because it demonstrates that their ventures could truly be lucrative. Some examples of internet millionaires on the UK Rich List include Richard Branson, Anurag Dikshit, Russell De Leon and Ruth Parasol. Branson does own businesses that use the internet space to make money, among many other kinds of businesses. The other richest persons made their money online via internet gambling content and services.

What about blogging?

While there weren't any persons on the rich list who were solely bloggers, and earned all their wealth and income from blogging, it's interesting to note that a number of these billionaires and millionaires actually have blogs themselves. For instance, Richard Branson has his own blog in which he shares his thoughts, insights and experiences.

© Red Mum

There is a clear distinction between those who blog as a hobby and those who blog for money. So what does it take to make blog money? A good case study is Boing Boing, founded in 1999 by five friends who all shared a passion for eccentric information. There was no editorial agenda or posting schedule, they simply posted what they found interesting and invited readers to join in by submitting things they found on the web.

By 2004, Boing Boing was a real success, but that brought with it hosting costs that were steadily rising. So the team brought in an expert who was developing a business plan to monetise blogs with paid advertisements. The end result was called Happy Mutants, a joint venture that quickly recruited Google, O'Reilly Media and Wired as their first advertisers, and before they knew it their hobby had become a money making business.