There are several ways to make money by blogging online. Well-written blog posts with the right keywords can draw a lot of traffic if the website they are posted on has a high ranking with the search engines. Successful blogs are often monetized, usually with pay-per-click advertisements. Each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement, the owner of the website earns money.
Start a blog
The most common way to make money blogging is by posting interesting content on one's own monetized blog. A good writer can make a decent income if enough people are able to find and read that author's posts. Not all blogs show up high on the page in an internet search, so many well-written blog posts will go unnoticed by their target audience. When a website appears in the first few results of a search, it gets infinitely more visitors than a site that shows up on the second or third page.
Search engine optimization
It can take time to get enough traffic to one's own blog to make it profitable, so a knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) and proper keyword usage is vital to a blog's success. Even with this knowledge, it can be hard to get a new blog off the ground. There is often too much competition in a particular niche, and websites that have been around for a while usually rank higher with the search engines.
Backlinks
When it comes to search engine ranking, it's not just content and age that are important. Backlinks to relevant sites that have good rankings themselves can quickly increase a new blog's relevance. The best way to explain this is simply that it matters who a blogger's friends are. If more than one successful site is linking to a blog, its chances of showing up high on the page in a search are greatly increased. This is especially true if the sites linking to it are in a similar genre. Having relevant backlinks is often the fastest way to gain credibility with the search engines.
Ghost Writing
A blogger can also make money by ghost blogging, which is where the blogger writes a post and sells it to another blogger who is already getting traffic. The ghost writer lets that other person take credit for the post. Sometimes a website owner has mastered the art of search engine optimization but lacks the time or ability to write good content. There are several websites that enable authors to sell content. A blogger need not have his or her own blog to make money as long as there is someone willing to pay for the blog posts he or she writes.
Being a successful blogger takes more than just a knowledge of grammar and punctuation rules. A well-written piece will have a certain rhythm and flow when read aloud. Once a talented writer finds a way to reach a large number of readers, hard work and a little inspiration is all that is needed to earn a living by blogging.