Blogging, Blogging everywhere, not a penny in my account. Some people are able to earn a handsome amount of money from blogging, but for some people, earning from blogging is a far-fetched dream. If you are among the few who are yet to know what blogging means or if you do not know how to earn from your blog, here is an attempt to present a road map to start earning from your blog.

Blogging is defined as A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. Simply speaking blogging means writing and publishing your thoughts and views. Blogs attract lot of traffic as they have a casual approach of presentation of views and they provide an excellent platform for discussion.

Blogging usually begins with selecting a topic for your blog. Though you can create a blog for your random thoughts, it will not earn you money. You will find lot of articles on how to choose a profitable niche for your blog. You might even be tempted to look for ways of finding the most profitable keywords that will help fill your bank accounts. The most important aspect to look for when selecting a topic for your blog is whether you really know anything about the selected topic. After all you are the one who would be writing on the blog. Certain keywords like Mesothelioma are supposedly good paying keywords on Google Adsense, but would you be able to write on this topic on an on going basis? If the topic is on something that interests you, you will find yourself writing new articles and eventually providing a lot of interesting content for your readers.

You should always remember that just because you like to gossip about your neighbor and you can write about it, does not mean you will have a lot of readers visiting your blog. You need to be imaginative and creative when selecting a topic for your blog.
Lots of search engines and keyword research sites provide ways to see recent searches done by their users along with the search frequency. If you find any such search terms interesting and relating to your favorite hobby, you can be assured of having good traffic to your blog.

You can set up your blog on one of the free blog sites like WordPress, Blogger, and Typepad etc. For those who are pretty new to blogging, the blog sites provide simple and easy to understand setup instructions. When setting up your blogs you need to select a relevant name and URL for the blog. Having a relevant URL is considered as one of the factors in search engine optimization and will ensure your pages rank well in search engines, for searches related to your blog topic. If you already own a domain name and hosting space, you can setup your blog on your own server. Setting up the blog on your own space provides you lot of flexibility in terms of the design, control and plug-in setup.

Once you have set up your blog, you need to ensure you get regular traffic to your blog. You will never earn from your blog if it has no traffic. You need to plan well on getting regular traffic. You should begin by submitting your blog to various blog directories. Some directories will ask for a reciprocal link while some will be paid. If you can afford it, you can opt for the paid directories. You should submit your blog to at least one directory per day. You should also take care to submit your blog to the most relevant category. Blogs submitted to irrelevant directories are considered spam and will not be accepted. Usually directories take 2-3 months to approve submitted blogs.

Any Blog software you use will provide RSS feed. You should submit your blogs RSS feed links to various RSS directories. Such directories are a good source of return traffic. Some sites also provide ways to earn money from your feeds by putting in advertisements. Sites like FeedBurner will help you earn money once you have certain number of readers subscribed to your feed. You should also consider bookmarking your blog on sites like Digg, Technorati, Yahoo, Google, MSN. Bookmarking of your blog on the various bookmarking sites will get your blog indexed quickly by the search engines and will help you get organic traffic. You should also add your blog link in your profile on various social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook. One of the quickest ways to get traffic is to create and submit a video to sites like YouTube. This will get you a good source of traffic. You need to ensure that the video is related to the blog topic.

The quickest way to earn money from your blogs would be from placing content relevant ads in your blogs. Google Adsense, Yahoo, and Auction ads are some sites which allow bloggers to publish content relevant advertisements on their blogs and earn money when someone clicks on these ads. You can also look at affiliate marketing on your blogs. You can review and provide your feedback on the products sold through affiliate networks like Commission Junction, Revenue Gateway. Such affiliate network sites allow you to select the product you want to endorse on your blog. You earn money when someone clicks on the product link on your blog and buys the product. These commissions usually are in certain percentage of the product price. If you have a niche blog and are able to provide the user all information on the topic, you would be seen as an expert on that topic and any visitor would buy products recommended by an expert.

If you are not technology savvy and hate to maintain blogs, you can always register yourself with sites like PayPerPost or iBibo, where you are paid per blog post that you write.

Todays Internet provides lot of opportunities to earn some extra money. Its up to you how you use the opportunity.