For writers, blogging is a niche market. What makes it interesting is that it is a niche market made up of uncounted niches. Blogging in itself is a specialized branch for writers. You are allowed more freedom there than in any other form of writing. What you want to write about is also left up to you. That is where you can find your niche within that niche market. Your options are limitless.
As a writer, you might be looking for additional ways of earning money, or of having fun, or of letting off steam. All three wishes are granted when you start to blog. You can start your own blog. You can start your blog for free on a public domain like this one and still earn some money. Or you can blog for others. There is a market for that out there, and it is paid work. If you run your own blog, you can really do what you want; if you write for others, you'll have to play by their rules.
A blog post most commonly is between 250 and 350 words long. Over 500 words, and it is called an article. If that is the style you want to do, then that is your decision. If you do less than 250 words in a post then is more suitable to Facebook; find the energy to fill it out to full blog post length. If you get stuck at 140 words, stick to Twitter.
Blogs are so interesting because they contain an incredible spectrum of topics and each one of them covers a niche market in their own right. Blogs that have been around for some time and have been looked after can contain an encyclopedia of information on a particular subject. A well maintained blog often contains information not found on Wikipedia (or the correct information as opposed to Wikipedia which is partially wrong in about 90 percent of entries).
Blogs are a popular way for hobbyists as well as businesses to get information out. They are a great way to get involved with an interested audience, keep readers updated or get them interested, and expand the web presence of a company or your own writer brand. There is a catch, and you probably extracted that from what I wrote earlier. Blogs require a constant input of new content. Without regular updates, a blog will become stale.
If you want to do it for pure fun, your own blog is the way to go. It is a popular option for writers and many writers had a blog at some point in their career. Most of them failed to maintain it (or them) when things got stressed or life intervened. But starting and properly maintaining your own blog can lead to lucrative ways to make money. It means on the other hand that it is work even though you are having fun. Treat it accordingly.
The most work of all is to maintain the blog to keep its content updated. That can even be a full time job depending on how you run the blog. In general, posting on five days a week every day is what you should envisage. That can be a lot of work. But this is the way to keep the traffic coming to your site. If you do it well, you can make money there.
If you have visited blogs, you might have noticed ads on the pages. The majority of the time, these ads are run through the Google Adsense advertising program. For bloggers, it's free to sign up to. You get paid when visitors click on one of the ads or according to page views where advertisers pay per show. If your blog attracts a high volume of traffic, there is some money to be made this way.
Once you have your blog, you can select their placement on the page, the size, and even the type of ads that are displayed. Google Adsense is more than just an ad dump using your page. Your dashboard with them will also tell you what ad size is ideal and if there are issues with your page. Google Adsense offers its customers (that's the advertisers) to place their ads where they get noticed. The result is called targeted ads. These ads show people various products and sites related to, but not in competition, with your own site or relating to their specified Google preferences (garnered through their use of Google Search).
There is also the possibility to insert ads of your choice by means of an affiliate network. After signing up with the network of your choice, you post links on your page to various sites. You get a commission based on those who click on the ads or those who purchase listed products. The structure differs from company to company and it's clearly labeled on the affiliate sites. Another method of affiliate marketing involves signing up with individual companies and then posting their link on your site. The first variant means work, the second a lot of work. The individual affiliate contracts are commonly used for blogs that contravene Google's 'no sex' pretense.
If running your own blog seems like too much trouble while trying to fit it in with your life, then guest blogging can be an interesting alternative. It can be just that and even fun under the right circumstances. When you write guest blogs, you will get a byline as well as a link to your own website. If you write for a high traffic site, it's a way to build an audience, make some money and gain experience into the bargain. If you are asked to do it for low traffic sites, they better pay you well to do it in the first place. But it is entirely up to you.
You can promote yourself for guest blogging. Find an interesting and high volume blog, pitch a post idea to the owner and then write the post if they want it. Maintaining a large blog is a lot of work; most owners are happy to hire help. Even blogs that are large enough to have a staff of writers are looking at a fresh voice and will at least consider it.
A special from of guest blogging is called ghost blogging. The owner buys your post from you and publishes it as his own. Obviously there is no byline and no link to be gained in this business. Ghost blogging can make money but it does nothing to promote your writing career. On your webpage, you may state that you are a ghost blogger and the topics you write in, but it's very bad form to mention any clients by name without their permission. If it pays well and it leaves you time to devote to other projects, then it is worth consideration.
Once you keep your eyes open while surfing the internet, you will notice many abandoned blogs. Abandoned blogs have been started at one point but updates stopped after a time. Its a vice businesses and companies excel in. When you find such company or business blogs, write to the owners. In more cases than not, you will run in open doors with a proposal to get it going again. The abandonment usually was a case of time issues, not a matter of money or disinterest.
While such an abandoned blog is someone else's and they will have to pay you to run it for them, it usually leaves you with a lot of liberties as to style, content, inserting bylines, and even links to your website. It can be all yours for the price of asking the right questions. To make your way in this niche, concentrate on businesses where you have prior knowledge to save time on research when writing for them.
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