Blogging is a great way to make money working from your home, even if you’re an old hippy like me. All you need to get started is a desire to make money, a willingness to work for your money and access to the Internet.

Of course Internet access will only get you online, you are still going to have to do some learning before the money starts rolling in or before you start writing anything.

So it’s important I point out the fact that blogging for profit does take work but also that it is so worth investing the time it takes to learn. how to start a work from home blog that’s profitable.

Step One – Learn How To First

My biggest blunder when it comes to my online business was taking so long to decide to learn how to make money online. Don’t try to wing it hoping it will work for you as it will most likely just frustrate you. So the biggest mistake in marketing is NOT LEARNING FIRST.

Learning how to start your work from home blog for profit has to start with more than just a desire to make money. It will take some niche research so you can be sure you’re going to be blogging for profit in a niche you can rank for without working for years to do it.

Know right up front that the vast majority of those who try to make a profitable blog never actually make any money. This in my mind makes it vital that you learn how to succeed with a blog before ever writing a word.

First steps first …

How To Find A ‘Profitable’ Niche

Finding a profitable niche is important if your goal is to make money blogging but no this that most niches are profitable. The trick is to find a niche you can profit in which means a niche you can stick with long enough to make money.

It’s really not the niche that’s not making money, it’s the blogger who isn’t making the money, yet so many other are able to make money in that niche. Why is that?

Your Niche Has To Keep YOU Interested…

… long enough to get traffic that you can keep interested long enough for you to profit. Get that right and you may just have a winner.

Take the time to match a niche with your interests and you can go far. On the other hand pick a niche you think the money but don’t have a strong interest or experience in and you could be spinning your wheels for a really long time and never make any head way or income.

Where To Look For Profitable Niches

One of my favourite places to look for niches I can profit with is to head over to Amazon.com where I can find best sellers in every category. I just start going through the categories that I have hobbies and interests in.

Amazon makes it so easy to find products in niches I like and from there it’s all about finding the keywords and phrases that I can create a profitable blog with.

Enter A Niche You’re Knowledgeable About

I suggest one niche per blog so you can stay focused on one topic to help you gain ranking for your pages easier. Get too many topics in one blog and it’s hard for the search engines to narrow down what your site is about.

There is a number of methods used today to get content on ones blog but if you have a niche you have know-how in you will find creating your own content the best way to go at the start.

As I started to gain momentum and ranking with my blogs I began receiving request by guest bloggers. They wanted to write content for me, at no charge, how cool is that. Today I have blogs I seldom need to create content for as guest bloggers are giving me all the content I need to gain in the rankings and make money with my blogs.

Although I have some how to make money working from home blogs most of my blogs are hobby related like my fishing, gardening, acoustic guitar, and puppy potty training blogs.

Researching Your Niche Choices

Okay, you’ve found a few niches you’re interested so now it’s time to learn more about the competition in these niches. You don’t want to go for a niche that’s going to take way too long to rank for. However that doesn’t mean you want to avoid that niche.

Every niche I work through my blogs was hard to rank for when I wanted the top keywords but I didn’t go with the top keywords as my main focus. That would be blog suicide really as the competition for the niches I have are strong.

Instead I use tools to help me find the best keyword for me to use NOW, TODAY.

I started by using Google’s Free Keyword Tool, easily found with a quick Google search but once I had the money to invest I purchased two keyword tools that make my research a breeze. The two keyword research tools I purchased are Keyword Elite and Micro Niche Finder, you can check them out for more info.

Next Step Is A Keyworded Domain Name

Now if you are here and haven’t purchased a domain yet I’m proud of you as your domain name is an important step in having an optimized niche website. Example: which domain name do you thing I would get better ranking for as a home gardening blog, www.hbb2obm.com or www.backyardgardeningtips.com.

Well both those are my blogs and both are about gardening but the keyworded domain, which was started a year after the non keyworded domain is getting more than a thousand unique visitors per day over the non keyworded domain and is making considerably more income for me.

I use GoDaddy.com for all my domain purchases and highly recommend them. Learn how to purchase a domain on GoDaddy.com here.

Related articles

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I have been working my work from home online business since April 2001 and have seen so many start an online business only to give up and quit shortly after.

Once blogging became available I thought I would give it a try but wasn’t sure about it so I went with free hosting and blog services. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out like I had hoped and I almost just gave up on free blogging.

Before I just dropped blogging all together I was talking with a friend who said I should try hosting my own blog and that started something wonderful.

Hosting My Own Blogs Today

Now I am not saying to spend a bunch of money and by your own servers. I am talking about buying your domains like I get from GoDaddy.com and then getting it hosted on a services like HostGator.com. Both are affordable and have top notch service 24/7/365.

True Blogging Success Takes Targeted Traffic

Learn quickly that without traffic to your blog it’s going to be a little tough to earn a living. This should tell you just how important, better yet, vital, to your blogging success. Learn early how to get web traffic that’s targeted to your niche.

There was a movie that came out years ago called ‘Field of Dreams’ and as I understand is where the phrase ‘If you build it they will come’ came from. This doesn’t really work in the blogging world so don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need to do any more than build your blog site.

I learned this lesson with my first gardening related blog. After a year it was still only earning pennies a day. This was about the time I started learning how to work a blog and how to get traffic that converts to income. So I decided to try and fix my initial gardening related blog and also starting a new garden blog to see what would happen.

Long story short, even though I used the same but rewritten content for both sites that first site has never recovered or even come close to matching the more than one thousand unique visits my new garden blog gets.

I started the first garden blog in 2006 and the second garden blog in 2007, exactly a year apart.

Even though the first site has never caught up with the second site I am making good money with both now because I took the time to learn what I wasn’t doing right.

Go After Relevant Backlinks

Everything I do for my business is thought out in advance today. It makes that much of a difference.

When I plan an article or blog post I already have plans to write more than one article on that topic using relevant keywords in each article. I do use The Best Spinner to help me rewrite unique and readable content.

I write an article for my blog, publish it and then start an campaign to gain relevant backlinks to that page.  I don’t stop with just one article though because I need lots of links to keep a head of others trying to pass me in the search results.

What I Do To Get My Backlinks

1. It has to start with writing quality content for my blog. My content has to keep my readers reading, right.
2. I research keywords so I can have a strong keyword focus.
3. I write more relevant articles using specific keywords that I publish to top article directories.
4. Every article I publish is unique, vitally important today.
5. My keyword match the article I link to for relevance to the search engines.
6. Each link in my article is keyworded with related phrases that match the page I link to.
7. I like to be a guest blogger in a relevant niche.
8. I also do a lot of value added blog commenting and linking.

Having a strong backlinking campaign on the go for each of your blog posts is going to give you the edge you need to pass all the slackers and those NOT in the know.

Link Deep Into Internal Blog Pages

Don’t just link to your main page, like I did for so long. You need to link to your internal pages so they get some ranking going. That’s going to help your entire site.

What I do when writing an article to publish that will point to my blog is to make sure I point to a relevant page and not just to the domain or main page. This creates deep linking.

If I have just one link for an article, depending on where I publish it, I will point to an internal page. However if I am allowed more than one I will also point a link to my main page.

The key to making this work most effectively is to take care with your keywords so that they point to relevant pages, not just any pages. It makes the difference between seeing money in your Paypal account and wishing you did.

Forums Are Great For Getting Traffic, However

I have wasted a lot of time on forums but I am not saying forums are a waste of time, not at all. Forums are a powerful way to get traffic but also to establish relationships in your niche.

There is a problem with forums and it’s due to liking them too much and sticking around long after you’ve already created a link back to your pages. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up too much with forums as it can drain away the time you have to make your business more productive. It has to be a balance.

I will visit forums during my work day, but this is work time so I work while I am there. I respond to posts, write a few of my own and then get out of there. However at the end of my work day I can do what I want, so often I return to my favourite forums and hang around to chat a bit. It still has benefits for backlinking of course.

I saved this one for last because it can make such a difference to your business.

Do Invest Time And Money In Your Business

By investing time I mean you will dedicate a specific amount of time each week to the success of your blog. That can take some money to get things going but is well worth the investment.

I talked about purchasing your own domain like I do at GoDaddy.com and hosting your own blog at a good but affordable place like HostGator.com.

Also investing your time writing unique quality articles that will help you gain that traffic and ranking you need to succeed.

I will write a single article, that I wish to point back to another unique blog post on my site. I also make sure it’s keyworded like the article I wish to link to. Then I publish it, once only.

Next I rewrite the article completely so that it’s once again unique. I have a CopyScape account I use to check uniqueness so that I am not publishing any duplicate content.

Then I make sure the link text is varied a bit to cover a variety of relevant keyword phrase for that niche. Then I publish it to another site and it’s unique and relevant, plus I like to make the helpful of course.

In conclusion. Everything I do for my business is focused on specific keywords for my niche which I find using two paid tools. 1. Keyword Elite and 2. Micro Niche Finder.

Blogging can be really powerful when done properly and is so worth learning to do right.

I’m sure you know that when it comes to making money from blogging you’ll find a number of methods that will get you there, yet we still find so many bloggers having a hard time with making money consistently.

The amount of income one can make blogging really depends on how you monetize your blog. This is a crucial step and is where most miss the mark.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of my favourite ways to make money from my blogs. When I have products or services that match my niche and topic it’s just a matter of sharing an affiliate product or service as part of your blog posts.

One thing I don’t do is share a bunch of affiliate programs while blogging. Instead I find one or two programs that fit my blog post and gentle share about how the fit the specific topic at hand.

Sponsored Ads And Posts

After 10 years of online marketing and blogging it’s common to get emails asking if I accept paid or sponsored ads or links. What I earn will of course depend on the niche and the authority my sites have in their niche.

Today I make some pretty good income with sponsored ads and links. The only thing I insist on are links and content that is relevant to my niche. So not just anyone will get a link, paid or otherwise.

Create A Niche Focused Ebook

When you have niche related knowledge crammed into your brain it’s a good thing to share that know-how with other interested people. But, don’t just add the info to your blog. Instead turn that knowledge into an ebook you can sell or use to build an email list.

With an ebook you give away you can include links to your money pages. Giving it away can go viral with friends giving it away to other friends or to other marketers and can send you a ridiculous amount of target traffic.

Build An Email List

I’m sure you’ve already heard the money is in the list. Well it’s true as long as you don’t spam your list with too many emails or worse non relevant emails.

I learn a lot by being on email list but I also get on a lot of lists that are a waste of my time. I quickly unsubscribe from the later. I only join lists that use autoresponder services that are trusted like Aweber and GetResponse.

The reason I will only accept trusted services like the two I’ve mentions is that I know I can get off the list in an instant if they don’t meet my expectations.

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