Do you have a product or service that you would like to promote? Or would be just like to earn a little extra money in your spare time? It's relatively easy to get started with blog marketing and it can be done with little or no expense. Many blogging platforms are free such as Blogger.com. You can even host a blog yourself inexpensively. Wordpress is a popular option for those who have their own web hosting.
A good way to get started is to just set up a free test blog at Blogger.com. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. At this point you just want to get a feel for blogging and find out what the possibilities are. You can write about anything you want. You can share stories, personal thoughts, jokes or whatever is on your mind. You can even save time by embedding videos, slideshows, pictures, documents, etc. You can experiment with different layout settings and embed various widgets in the sidebar. It might be best to not get too attached to this blog. You can even abandon it, if you wish, when you're done and ready to set up a blog for more serious marketing purposes. However, even if you stop updating it, it might still get some traffic and could even send your new blog some traffic if you have linked to it. This can also make it easier for you to get indexed by the search engines.
When you're ready to get serious, you should carefully consider what kind of topic you want and blog about. If you already have a product or service, then that can make a good niche for your blog. However, it's not necessary to sell your own items, you can also use your blog to promote products that you don't even own. You can make money through advertising or by promoting affiliate products. In any case, you'll want to choose a niche that doesn't have too much competition, but that has a sufficiently high demand.
The next step is to begin blogging about the topic you selected. Try to find a blogging schedule that works well for you. This could be one or more times a day or just once or twice a month. Consistency and quality is probably more important than quantity.
Monetizing your blog is another important consideration. It's relatively easy to setup Adsense ads on your blog. This is a great resource, but your Adsense income can be pretty disappointing, especially at first. It just takes a little time to build up enough traffic. You may also want to sign up for some affiliate programs that are relevant to your niche and display the ads or links on your site.
If you want to make a more serious income, you'll probably want to include email marketing along with your blogging efforts. One of the best uses for a blog is to help you build an email list of people who value your expertise and will possibly buy from you multiple times in the future. The income from this list can far exceed the little bit of money you receive from advertising on your blog.
Of course, this all takes time, but there's no reason why you can't start off small and build your skills over time. It's often better to start off simply and attack your goals one at a time, rather than putting off the whole project until you have time to really concentrate on it. Knowing human nature, this perfect time may never come. Even if it does, it can still mean you will be far behind where you would have been if you just started doing a little at a time.
For more information, see this collection of articles about blogging.
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