Blogging has become a very popular way of generating a steady and recurring monthly income. This evolution has also resulted in a countless number of spin-off methods of new money making ideas which complement and help blogs make more money in innovative ways.

Do you have your own blog? Are you still trying to make money with it and need some tips? Well, let me show you some of the methods I use to generate money through blogging. It is not always as complicated as you may think.

In order to make money from your blog you need to do the following things;

• Create valuable and quality content.
• Make your blog content SEO friendly.
• Continuously update your blog with fresh content until Google recognizes your blog and starts to rank you for your keywords.
• Once traffic comes, place product placements and affiliate links within your content.
• Rinse and repeat.

This is be basic version of what it takes to turn a profit from your blog. There are many more advanced methods such at paid advertsiing, guest blogging, PPC, networking, outreaching, etc. However, we will stick to the basics.

Lets assume you know the basics but you want some more tips on the subject.

Here are some tips, some may not seem so obvious.

Tip 1 – Always Tell The Truth!

It is extremely important to always be honest and only write content you stand by and believe in. If you try to deceive or write sales oriented content just to make a sale, even if the product you are trying to promote may not be all that it seems, then you will lose out in the long run.

You have to build up a level of trust and reliability with your readers because users these days are very astute at spotting white lies and if they associate your brand name with lies and deception, you will not make money online.

Think about it; wouldn’t you rather have a readership who respect you and believe your content? As opposed to writing thin and unreliable content which, even though you get sales, will never result in any return business or readership. Not to mention people will actively target you with negative reviews and unpleasant comments.

I know I would much rather build up a trusted and long term relationship with my readers and reap the rewards for providing quality content and honest advice.

Tip 2 – Use Less Call To Actions

Minimalist is the order of the day. When you design your website, use a lot of white and open space – do not litter you pages with adverts and links to products. Focus your attention on content with a small number of links within the words to products and services that you promote.

For example – you can see in this post, I do not place many links or products because I want YOU to trust what I am writing, and not simply click away from my website and buy something. This builds trust and this will lead you to read other articles I have within my pages.

If I give you quality content which is not littered with product placements and annoying up-sells, then you may click on my “Start Here” page or find other articles on my website which will then lead to sales.

Give your readers enough credit to find their own way and limit the number of affiliate links you place on your pages. I am not saying you should not use any but on a normal page, perhaps only use one or two links – no more.

Tip 3 – Collect E-mail Addresses!

Right from the start you should start collecting people’s email addresses. This is vital for a long term and stable income from blogging. Why? Well, this is because as your email list grows you can start to promote your websites and products to your readers through their emails.

This is extremely effective, especially if you have a trusted brand name attached to your website and people genuinely want to read what you have to say! This is why Tip 1 is so important because if you only speak the truth then people will listen and respect your words.

This results in $$ SALES $$!

You can see a fantastic email marketing walk-through with Jay from Wealthy Affiliate here.

Tip 4 – Never Use Any Black-Hat SEO Techniques

This tip may seem quite obvious but none the less bloggers continuously try and trick Google by using questionable SEO methods to rank highly within the SERPS!

Do not do this! You should only focus on creating quality content which is constructed in an SEO friendly way – which is not hard at all.

Avoid all tactics which involve;

• Crowd Searching
• Low quality backlinks
• Article spinning
• Article directory submissions
• Social bookmarking and spamming.
• Private blog networks
• and so on…

The reason I say this is because if you are serious about generating a long term income from your blog then using these kinds of methods with definitely STOP this from happening, in the long run.

At some point your dirty tricks will be found by the ever changing Google algorithm, then your income will stop over night.

Tip 5 – Do Not Stop Writing

This tip seems obvious but you would be surprised if you knew that 90% of all bloggers fail, just as they are about to see success.

Most bloggers simply give up too soon and within a few weeks of not seeing any revenue coming in, they throw in the towel. I would highly advise you to keep writing and keep developing your blog to it’s full potential.

The rest will follow naturally as your niche knowledge and technical skills grow.

All the fancy methods of blogging will come later.