More and more people are asking if blogging is still a viable way of making a living.  This is due to the fact that while creating content and developing your blog used to be quite profitable, the rules of the game have changed in the last few years.  Most people are not aware of how to properly earn money (or earn enough money to survive) order to be able to live solely on the profits from the website.

Furthermore, many people have a distorted idea regarding how money is earned from blogging, and how to turn this activity into a career.  This is partially due to the internal dynamics of the Internet itself, and partially a result of the fact that most individuals in the industry never truly disclose what it means to earn a living as a blogger.

This has lead to cases in which bloggers keep feeling that they are not earning enough money and that they must work for free before being able to earn the money they need to barely make a living.  Luckily, things are quite different in reality.  It is possible to earn quite a large profit by working as a blogger; however, not through means that are usually known to people.  It is extremely important to get rid of several misconceptions regarding this industry.

One of the main ones is that ads and sponsorships are the best means of making money from blogging.  While selling sidebar ads, banners, and doing whatever possible in order to get sponsorships is extremely useful when just getting into blogging, it is not where the real money lies.  The amount of money that one can earn through these methods isn’t enough to live on and it can also backfire after a while.  Audiences tend to get tired of seeing ads for various products and services everywhere on the website and may feel like they are being used after a while.

In other words, it a good idea to start earning money through ads at first, but don’t make them your only source of profit.  Think about how much time and effort you put into your blog.  You are practically developing a brand, and when you fill the website with ads you are effectively diluting it.  Find a balance between how much you promote other companies’ products and how much you focus on those tied to your own brand.

You have to understand that you must slowly eliminate the middleman if you want to earn more money through blogging.  Develop your brand, while sustaining yourself through the use of ads, and then move to start selling your own services and products.

Ad networks like Google Adsense and BlogHer may seem to be good ways of making money, but you need an extremely large number of visitors in order to earn enough to support yourself.  Three ads, a little over 165,000 page views, and about 75,000 unique visitors each day will only bring you about $300.  It’s pretty much impossible to live on such a small amount, especially when considering car payments, mortgages, medical bills, and other expenses.

The number of ads and people required in order to actually earn close to $1500 per month would be astounding.  Making money from ads is usually feasible only in the case of gigantic websites with millions of page views each day.

However, this does not mean that all is lost.  There are ways to earn more money, with less effort. You just have to be smart about it, and always think about the long run, rather than focus on immediate earnings.

Most bloggers think that full-time bloggers earn most of their money from ads and sponsorships.  This is not true.  It may actually also be close to impossible.  If you want to understand how to earn money from blogging, the proper way, you need to forget this misconception.

Instead of looking at your blog as a tool that you can use in order to have other companies pay you, you should start thinking about it as a hub for your brand.  Start using it as your very own platform for launching products and selling services.  This will enable you to earn a lot more money than you think.

Design and sell products is a great way to monetize a website.  There are a lot of things that you can do in order to cut yourself free from other companies.  Furthermore, this will give you the time that you need in order to develop your brand, and the more you develop it, the more money you earn.

In conclusion, if you really want to make money as a blogger, then do not be afraid to leave the “traditional” ways of earning an online income behind, and start focusing on your blog.  Remember that a blog is a business, and you need to treat it accordingly.  Think about ways through which you can make it grow, and figure out what products you can offer to your audience.  You can do this even with small groups of followers, and if things go well, your popularity will grow.

Always think of how other companies can help you gain popularity and earn more money, not about how you can sacrifice your popularity in order to get paid by other brands.