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Many people are wondering if they can make any money with a blog online.  Brandon Cornett says you can — and that you can make a living at it.  I think he’s right, but you have to think like a publisher, become a pro at SEO, and be disciplined.  Here, Mr. Cornett presents an excellent list of what you must do to succeed. — Editor

By Brandon Cornett

Is it possible to turn your hobby website into a livelihood? Can you actually earn a living from something that interests you? Sure you can, and I’ll show you how in this article.

For the last few years, I have made a comfortable living through a network of hobby-related websites that are mostly educational in scope. When combined, the revenue produced by these sites covers most of my expenses, such as mortgage, car payment, groceries, vacations, etc.

Repurpose your content. Create an alternate version of each article you write and publish it online through article distribution sites.

Now I don’t say all this to boast, but only to get your attention. If you are taking the time to read this article, then you and I have something in common. We both have an interest in publishing websites around topics that interest us — and we both have the desire to earn a living while doing so!

How to Make Money From Your Site

So without further ado, here is everything I wish I knew five years ago, when I began building hobby websites for fun and profit. Here is your list of timesaving and profit-boosting tips and techniques.

• Choose topics that interest you. You’ll need passion to grow your websites over time, but you won’t get passion from a topic that bores you.
• Before writing articles and web pages, do a thorough round of keyword / key phrase research. Build your content around phrases and topics that people are actually searching. WordTracker has a free version of their tool you can use to get started.
• At first, you will probably write most of the content yourself. But as your website begins to make money you can outsource some of the writing through freelance services such as Elance.
• Map out the structure / organization of your websites before building them. Plan for expansion and flexibility down the road. It will prevent future headaches and redesigns.
• Resource pages (such as glossaries, tutorials, and subject guides) typically attract a lot of citations and links from other webmasters, and therefore have traffic-building potential. They take time to create, but they are worth the effort.
• Be extremely thorough and “encyclopedic” with your content. The more in-depth and useful your website is, the more people will visit it (and revisit, and recommend it to others, and link to it, etc.).
• Begin a link-building program to steadily increase the number of websites that link to yours, which will in turn increase your search engine ranking. Start by submitting your site to appropriate web directories.
• Repurpose your content. Create an alternate version of each article you write and publish it online through article distribution sites. Each article you distribute should have a link back to your own site for traffic-building purposes.
• Find online publications (blogs and websites) related to your hobby topic and submit articles to those as well, in exchange for a link to your site.
• Focus on building a great web resource before trying to make money from it. Revenue comes with traffic, and the best way to grow your traffic levels it to have a great site to begin with.
• When you are ready, implement different monetization techniques in order to make money from the website. These techniques include (but are certainly not limited to) Google’s AdSense program for publishers, affiliate programs such as Commission Junction, selling e-books online, etc. Try new things on a regular basis.
• Combine multiple revenue streams. Experiment with the ones listed above (and others) to find out what works best for your audience. Then seek to add extra revenue sources. It’s a concept of layers.
• Be flexible. Focus your energy on those efforts that produce the best results. Some techniques will be profitable, and others will not. The important thing is to learn something from everything you do.
• When your website is built (phase one, at least), send a press release out through the online PR sites. Write the release to your intended reader / audience, and explain the usefulness and uniqueness of your hobby site.
• After sending your press release, you should also tap into blog networks to promote your site. Make a list of popular blogs within your subject / niche area, and contact the authors to share the new (and extremely useful) online resource you’ve created.
• When your first site is up and running (and making money consistently), start the next one. It’s rare to make a living from just one hobby / information website. I personally publish a dozen. One of them is getting close to being a livelihood by itself, but it’s nice to have the others for extra “cushion.”
• Set clear goals for your website. Examples: I want to have X number of articles by month #2. I want to have 200 visitors per day by month #3. And so on. Sometimes you’ll hit your goals, sometimes you’ll exceed them, and other times you’ll fall short. But you need something to aim for.
• Create a schedule of tasks to help you reach those goals we talked about above. Examples: One hour of content creation each day. Thirty minutes of SEO work each day. One press release distributed each month. And so on. Your goals will dictate your schedule.

Conclusion and Summary

I’m sure you already have the desire to earn a living with hobby websites. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article. So let me close simply by offering you a little motivation.

Focus on building a great web resource before trying to make money from it.

Whenever I meet new people, we usually go through the “what do you do for a living” routine at some point. Who doesn’t, right? A lot of the time, people talk about their own jobs with a hint of disgust, as if going to work each day is torture.

When I am asked what I do for a living, I honestly state that I publish a few hobby websites. As you might imagine, this leads to some raised eyebrows and a long line of questioning. Why are people so intrigued with this concept? Because it’s a great way to make a living! So what are you waiting for?

About the Author: Brandon Cornett is the author of an Internet marketing book that you can download for free or read online. Learn more about money making websites by visiting OnlineEqualizer.com. Article Source: EzineArticles.com