Blogging for a Living - 3 Strategies to Consider

Thousands of Americans publish blogs these days, and they run the gamut from family to business blogs. Even retirees are getting involved. So blogging, by itself, is certainly nothing knew. But a rising trend is the idea of blogging for a living from home. And in this post, that's exactly what I'm going to talk to you about.

Specifically, I'll explain three different strategies you might use to start a work-from-home blogging business of your own. Then I'll offer what I feel is the absolute best approach.

3 Ways to Blog for a Living

These are by no means the only way to go about it. These are just a few of the ways I've used blogging within my own home-based business. See if any of these ideas tickle your fancy.

1. Becoming a Freelance Blog Writer

Many companies publish blogs these days, but some of them don't have the in-house writing talent needed for consistent blogging. So you with a little bit of hard work, and a healthy dose of self-promotion, you could position yourself as a freelance blog writer for such companies.

I've done this in the past, and I can tell for a fact there are plenty of potential customers for this type of business model. Over time, you could find yourself blogging for a living this way -- and making a good living to boot!

2. Earning Ad Revenue

If you have one or more blogs with a good amount of traffic, you could earn a decent living from advertising revenue. There are two main strategies to choose from -- you can sell your ads on an individual basis, or you can use a contextual advertising program such as Google AdSense.

If you don't have a ton of blog traffic, I recommend the contextual ad programs. When your traffic increases to more significant levels, you may be able to sell ad space to individual advertiser as well. I personally know a handful of people who are blogging for a living with Google AdSense alone, so it can certainly be done.

3. Using Commission Programs

Similar to the advertising programs mentioned above, you can generate revenue from a wide variety of commission programs. The difference here is that you are making money by generating a specific action. The two most common actions are sales and leads. For example, if you send a visitor to a software site and they purchase a product, you could earn a commission based on that sale. Likewise, if you send a visitor to a mortgage website and they fill out a form requesting information, you could earn a commission from that lead.

Is this a viable strategy for blogging for a living? Absolutely. If you choose the right commission programs and do a good job placing the creative components (banners and links), you could make a good living from this blog strategy. Best of all, you are actually helping your website visitors find the kind of products and services they're after. And if you choose commission programs for products you believe in -- which you should -- you'll feel good about the whole thing!

The Best Approach

If you are serious about blogging from home for a living, I recommend using a combined strategy. You could offer freelance services for blog setup, training or content development. You could publish a network of your own blogs, with a combination of advertising and commission-based revenue. And you can do it all at the same time.

In my experience, it's extremely important to diversify your blogging business by incorporating several different strategies. This will offer a lot more financial security than using one strategy alone.

Here's a real-life example of what I mean. When the economic recession hit full force around October of 2008, the client side of my business dried up to nothing. Nobody could afford to pay for freelance services anymore. If I had been relying entirely on the blog writing services, I would have been in bad shape -- and probably would've been forced to get a "day job" again. Yikes! But we managed to get by because I had other aspects of my Internet business that were generating revenue. I learned a lot about the need for diversification at that time, and I've been diversifying even further since then.

Blogging for a living is not a fantasy, but it does require a lot of hard work and a solid plan. If you love to blog, and you feel you're up for the challenge, you could some day have a home-based blog business that pays the bills. Good luck!