Okay for the longest time now (since early 2008 really, because that is when I converted my static website to a blog) I have been singing the praises of blogs as the platform of choice with which to make money online but since then a river of water has passed under that bridge. In other words what I am saying here is that the world of blogging has radically changed! The plain and simple fact of the matter is that it is no longer easy to make money blogging!

A Low Entry Barrier Encourages Rapid Growth And Quick Saturation

Blogs are so popular because they are so simple and easy to use and maintain, and therein lies their weakness as a marketing or business vehicle.  Because of the fact that just about anyone can manage a blog, within a very short period of time the numbers of blogs across the web exponentially exploded. The extremely low entry barrier of the blog means that today almost 1,000,000 blogs are created every 24 hours. And if you so happen to be engaged in internet marketing or are thinking of doing so then the scary truth is that no matter the niche you decide to settle upon you are going to encounter hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of competitors already entrenched!

Do Blogs Still Retain Any Advantage As A Platform With Which To Make Money Online?

When all is said and done blogs still have some major advantages and attractions over traditional websites. The one that most readily springs to mind is that fast pace with which they accelerate up the search engines most in part because of the speed with which blog posts are indexed. And blogs most definitely outshine their traditional counterpart, the static website, in that they are even better today for two way communication between your prospective customer and yourself.

But blogs also have an undeniable weakness. A blog characteristically displays multiple elements on its theme, and the thing about those elements is that they pose a very real distraction for the potential prospect you wish to reel in. In this respect blogs are outgunned by squeeze pages or what is otherwise known as  sales copy pages. But there’s actually a way round this dilemma because it is possible to have the homepage of your blog displayed as a static page. Having the homepage of your blog displayed as a static page might defeat the whole point of encouraging return visits on the basis of fresh material but then again it does depend on what style of blogging you intend to embrace.

The Two Totally Different Approaches Of Blogging To Make Money Online

In my (ahem…splutter…splutter…cough…cough!) humble opinion there are two ways in which you can make money blogging.

Method One To Make Money Blogging: The Tightly Focused Niche Marketing Blog

This is the more widely embraced method used to make money blogging and generally follows along the tried and proven marketing guide lines of identifying a niche market that has competition enough to make it profitable but not so much competition that it will take you years to start reaping the benefits. If you wish to succeed using this blogging system you must ensure you remain tightly focused on your subject matter whenever you post to your blog. Consistent and quality posting that actually solves your customers’ problems will inevitably increase the number of people actively following your blog to the point whereby you can start a paid membership!

When all is said and done the focused niche marketing blog approach is probably the best method for you to employ if you wish to make money blogging. The only apparent downside is that you need a lot perseverance and the understanding that you are going to be joined to the hip with your blog and its readers unless you don’t mind all your hard work being for nothing! Oh and one other very important aspect about this method of blogging to make money is that you unless you are an exceptional marketer you best choose a topic that you can keep writing about for at least 2 years! You will probably start seeing dividends anywhere from six months after you start your blog (depending on the niche you chose) b ut the real money won’t start really rolling in until after that…hence the two-year time line.

And from experience I have found that blogging on one topic can get pretty tedious after a while. I mean how many different ways can you blab abouty how to make money online? The good news is that there is no end to new methods and techniques to make money online!