Blogs aren’t just mainstream any more; they’re ubiquitous.
In Why Should My Business Have a Blog? I talk about how a blog can be a valuable adjunct to your existing business. But what about the flipside? What if you have a blog and want to turn it into a business, using your blog to make a profit?

Making money from a blog is possible and isn’t even particularly difficult any more. You don’t have to be famous or even have huge traffic (although how much money you make from your blog will depend on both of these factors to some extent). The seven ideas below will get you started. To make money from your blog you can:

1. Use advertising programs.

These are more advertising program options for bloggers than ever before.

Here are just five of the ever-expanding possibilities for making money from your blog by putting ads on your pages:

• Google’s Adsense
• BlogAds
• Chitika eMiniMalls
• Text Link Ads
• AdGenta

Besides placing ads on your blog pages themselves, there are also programs for RSS advertising such as Pheedo.

You might also try something such as Jim Kukral’s BlogKits BlogMatch Network, a network designed to match bloggers with advertising opportunities.

2. Use affiliate programs.

With affiliate marketing, a company agrees to pay you a commission for helping to sell their products. Visitors see the company’s ad on your Web pages and, if they click through to the company’s Web site and do a particular thing, you’ll get paid. The particular thing the visitor has to do varies; some affiliate programs pay per click while others pay per lead or even per sale.
These are four of the biggest (and most established) affiliate programs on the ‘Net:

• Amazon
• Linkshare
• ClickBank
• Commisison Junction

3. Get sponsored by a company.

Blog sponsorship is a growing trend as more businesses realize the popularity of blogging and the potential marketing reach of bloggers. Company sponsorship deals appear to range from obvious “advertising” blogs that are squarely focused on a company’s product(s) through adding a company’s name, logo and brand to an existing blog (“sponsored by….”).

The main problem with this way of making money from your blog is that you have to be known already (and have enough traffic) to attract sponsorship.

4. Get hired by a company.

Many businesses would love to have blogs, but just don’t have anyone currently on staff who has the time and the talent to put a blog together and keep it going. You could be the answer and make money from a blog in the process. The trick to landing such a gig is finding the businesses that want/need the services and persuading them that you’re the blogger they need; diligent research and some cold calling will probably be needed unless you already have a high profile and a track record that will bring the businesses calling.

5. Sign on to be a blogger.

Hubs or networks of blogs appear to be springing up all over the ‘Net, some of which are looking for people to write blogs and are willing to pay for it. Payment models vary. At Creative Weblogging, for instance, bloggers have the option of choosing either a fixed monthly payment in exchange for 10 posts a week, or a percentage share of the ad revenues. Two more examples of blog networks looking for bloggers at the time of writing are:

• Weblogs.Inc.
• AllBusiness.com’s Business Blogs

6. Create a blog to advertise a specific product/service.

Blogs are fast becoming the trendy alternative to the classic salesletter site. In this case, the format is the only real change; the message is the same. Typically, the pitch is woven into as many blog entries as possible – or even used a tagline to every blog entry.

Jim Kukral’s 99 Ways to Blog for Business blog is a good example of a blog designed to move a product (in this case, his strategy guide for creating blogs for businesses).

7. Sell other intellectual property, such as ebooks, telecourses or consulting services, through your blog.

This idea is closely related to the previous way to make money through your blog. The difference is that in this case the intellectual property you’re selling is just part of or incidental to the blog you’re writing; it’s not the raison d’etre for the blog. For instance, you might have a blog about beekeeping and be selling an ebook about how to build a mason bee house on your pages.

So the answer is, yes, you can make money from your blog. And with blogging becoming increasingly popular, there will be even more opportunities for making money from your blog coming – ideas that haven’t even been thought of yet. For the moment, for maximum income, you will need to focus on multiple income streams and perhaps even multiple blogs.