By Holly Reisem Hanna

A blog is an online journal/diary where a person can write about any topic/topics they desire. Some people post blog entries for fun or personal use, some people use their blog as a marketing tool to promote their business or product, and others use it as a way to create online income while working from home.

Starting a blog is easy; the first step to starting your blog is to pick a niche or topic that excites you! When picking a topic you want to make sure that you have enough experience, knowledge, news and the like to write about on a regular basis. Mommy blogs are very popular right now, mainly because mommy bloggers can write about a wealth of topics, and there is a huge audience of moms out there, who can relate to the daily issues and concerns that the mommy blogger blogs about.

The next step to creating your blog is to pick a domain name and web hosting company. It is best if you can choose a domain that relates to your topic and that is easy to remember, so that your readers can easily remember it and visit frequently. When choosing a web hosting company you want to choose a company that offers guaranteed uptime and reliable customer support.

Now that you have your domain name and web hosting company, you’re ready to set up your blog platform. There are a few different platforms to choose from and many of them are free. Once you’ve registered with a platform you’ll be ready to upload your blog; which ever platform system you decide to use they should provide you with detailed instruction on how to upload your blog.

Now for the fun part, making your blog attractive! If you’re on a tight budget you can easily download a free template that will enhance your blog; the only problem with this is that there can be numerous blogs with the same template/look, so your blog won’t be distinguishable from the crowd. Another option would be to purchase a premium template or have a graphic designer create a custom design for you, this can be expensive, but you get a one of a kind custom tailored design that no one else will have. Look around, I have seen some graphic designers that will create a custom design for around $150.00.

So now it’s time to start writing. Remember to use good grammar and spelling, interesting subject titles, relevant content and correct formatting. You will also want to make sure that you write regular posts to keep readers coming back.

Ready to start blogging? Check out Blogging Success: Tips for Creating Content, Getting Traffic and Monetizing Your Blog.

Let’s start making some money from home. There are many different ways that you can make money from your blog, let’s start with the obvious…

Paid Advertising – Charge companies for placing banner ads on your blog. If you have a newsletter, you can also charge businesses for ad placement in your newsletter.

Affiliate Marketing – Post banner ads, newsletter ads, and/or blog posts for products and services that contain your affiliate link. You will then earn a percentage of all sales made through your affiliate link. If you are approached by a company that wants you to participate in their affiliate program, ask them for a free copy so that you can determine if you want to recommend this product to your readers.

Product Reviews – Charge companies to review their products/services. You will then write a product review and post it on your blog. (Another perk of product reviews, is you get free products and/or services).

Google AdSense – Google places small ads on your blog that match your content and audience. You then can earn money from clicks or impressions.

Blogging Resources

Autopinger is a free service that lets you ping/submit your blog entry to numerous search engines automatically.

Bloggers is a social network for bloggers to exchange ideas and promote their blogs.

Blogging Basics 101 is a blog where you can get answers to your blogging questions.

BlogHelp is a blog that offers tips on how to get traffic, make money, and write good content for your blog. Sign up for their free newsletter.

Daily Blog Tips offers tips, resources and articles for professional bloggers.

Google’s Blog offers insight into their products, technology and Google culture. Get information for bloggers and website owners.

Moms Cash Blog is a blog that offers a free blog tutorial that is great for beginners. This blog offers great tips and resources on how to profit from your blog.

Performancing – (Helping Bloggers to Succeed) is a blog that helps people become professional bloggers and shows them how to make money from their blog.

Ping My Blog is a free service that tells search engines that you have new content on your blog. Also contains blog tutorials, news, stats, awards, design and hosts.

Ping-o-Matic! Is a free service that lets search engines know that you’ve updated your blog.

ProBlogger is a blog that offers tips to help you make money from your blog.

Pro Mom Blogger the blog that teaches moms how to make money from blogging.

Technorati is a platform to help bloggers to collect, highlight, and distribute content.

The Blog Herald is a blog that offers great tips and news on blogs and the blogging industry.

Blog Publishing Systems

Blogger a subsidiary of Google, is one of the largest publishing systems for bloggers, and it’s free to use.

SquareSpace is a publishing system for websites and blogs. They offer a free 14 day trial, plans range from $8.00 a month to $50.00 a month.

TypePad is an online publishing system for blogs. Offer a free 14 day trial, basic service starts at $4.95 a month and goes up from there.

WordPress is a publishing system for blogs, free for basic use, upgrades are an additional fee.

Ready to take your blog to the next level? Get Blogging Success: Tips for Creating Content, Getting Traffic and Monetizing Your Blog.