It’s amazing to see how the use of the internet has created new careers in our economy. Take for instance, Professional E-bay sellers. I remember several years ago discovering it had become a full-time job for two, unrelated friends of mine. There are books about it, there are strategies. Online actions have become an industry with Ebay as the mothership.

Over the last couple of years or so, we’ve seen blogging growing into it’s own industry. There are the top softwares, including WordPress, Typepad, MovableType. There are also books, podcasts, conventions and many, many blogs about blogging. There are blogs on anything from politics, the internet, photography and countless other topics. Blogs have had dramatic effects on our media coverage, political campaigns and various industries.

There individuals who have become leaders in the field, either on purpose or by accident (it could happen). Take, for instance, Darren Rowse, who writes Problogger.net. Darren runs a large number of blogging sites (around 60, I understand) and appears to make a very comfortable living doing so.

But where is the money in blogging? According to Darrren, the financial benefit of blogging can be found in several places, including the following:

Advertising Programs

The most popular, of source, is Google Adsense but Darren also mentions several other sources, including BlogAds, Adgenta, CrispAds, Text Link Ads, Intelli Txt, Peak Click, DoubleClickTribal Fusion, Adbrite, Clicksor, Industry Brains, AdHearUs, Kanoodle, AVN, Pheedo, Adknowledge, YesAdvertising, RevenuePilotTextAds, SearchFeed, Target Point, Bidvertiser, Fastclick Value Click and OneMonkey. Wow, this industry has grown…

Most of these programs are pretty painless, meaning they don’t add a tremendous weight to your administrative duties. Except, it is wise to keep track of the ads, how they are performing, how ad placement effects performance, etc. Ok, so maybe the first statement isn’t true if you’re working to leverage the ads. This is where your admin duties increase. The tracking, optimizing, etc. is optional but I’m noticing that money isn’t really made when you ignore income sources.

Affilliate Programs

Affiliate Programs are all over the web and not hard to find. If you’re going to link to a service or company, changes are they may have an affiliate program.

The challenge is finding a lucrative program. I’m sure it helps to be specialized in topic. The larger programs are Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction.

Digital Assets

This includes e-books, online courses and tele-seminars. There are other digital products that are sold by bloggers and I’m sure this will be growing as well.

Merchandising

Selling t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other physical goods is another way to, not only make a little money, but also advertise your blog or website. CafePress has been a long-time supplier of web merchandise. I’m not aware of anyone that has made a lot of profit this way. But, hey, there could be someone, or this could just be fun for readers. Guess it depends on what your coffee mug looks like.

Blog Networks

You could write for another blog network that takes care of the advertising, SEO, admin and other non-writing work. Different payment models exist, and I imagine it’s a lot like being a freelance writer.

Business Blog Writing

As businesses are increasingly recognizing the power of SEO, they are also recognizing the power of blogs. The two go hand-in-hand. More content creates higher rankings and blogs also create a new communication method with clients, consumers and strategic partners.

Businesses often task internal employees with writing for the corporate blog, but some are also hiring experienced bloggers to manage and maintain their corporate blogs.

Writing Outside of the Blog Sphere

Bloggers are also expanding into other spheres of writing, including off-line media such as newspaper columns and books.

Consulting and Speaking

With the increase of blogging seminars and ‘blogging parties’, the opportunity exists to speak or consult. Blogging has the unreal ability to make someone an expert rather quickly by being a prolific and smart writer on a niche topic. I recently noticed a ‘Blogging for Business’ seminar held by my local Chamber of Commerce and a local blogger was the guest speaker.

There are many ways to make income from blogging. Some methods require a bit more work than others, but the biggest area of work must be content. Content brings traffic and traffic creates revenue and authority.

This is what I’m learning as my own blog is growing. Studio12a has been running since 2000 or so, but I’ve only recently taken to writing regular, extended content and this has had a definate, positive effect on my traffic.

Credit: If you would like to read more on this topic, visit Darren’s website Problogger Website. Problogger is a great website on problogging.