Some people start a blog purely as a hobby, but little do they know when they have gathered quite a few of loyal readers, they can turn the blog into a lucrative business. Either that, or the big corporations are going to take advantage of them.

Receiving a press release in your email is a sign that nowadays businesses realize the value and influence a blogger can bring to the table. From a mommy blogger to a guitarist who shares their rants and tips, all of them build the kind of relationship none of the big corporations have.

The problem is in finding the right approach to turn the blog into a business. Many people worry about that because as a personal brand, they may put their names at stake if the readers think they are too aggressive in selling and monetizing their blog.

Here are 5 tips that can help you start turning a blog into a business:

1. Adopt the right mindset
When you turn a blog into a business, it is easy to focus too closely on the money part and lose focus.

For instance, this is one of the reasons why affiliate marketing is getting a bad name.

People are recommending products with higher commissions, despite the quality, just to squeeze more money. Credibility and trust are two most important things for a blogger, so make sure you don't ruin it.

In the long run, you are going to make more money if you only promote products that you personally believe in.

And yes, now you know that box of diapers you received in the mail is only a sample, a small cost that they spend to tap into the relationship you've worked so hard to build.

You can turn that into a business deal... without sacrificing integrity.

2. Provide value in your offer
In certain niches, the audience is less Internet savvy. If it is possible to add value to your offer, it can be very helpful.

For instance, while promoting a product, you may do the work on their behalf first by hunting bargains and research on the reputation and service of the various online stores.

There are a lot of ways to add value to the offer.

3. Sell ad space
This is the easiest way to start monetizing your blog. If you partner with ad networks, it also becomes quick and easy. Securing sponsorship is also not uncommon for popular blogs. Once you get going with this approach, you may choose to manage this yourself though.

There are pros and cons related to ads on a blog, but in my opinion, you should never apologize for those ad checks. You take the time to share information and time is the single most limited asset. Only if you make money that you can spend more time on your blog.

4. Educate yourself about this business
A business is a business is a business. A lot of strategies in real world business can be applied online, but there are also specifics.

For instance, learning how to convert more prospects to customers through education and email autoresponder, placing ads strategically to increase value and result for the advertisers, and so on. Certainly you want the ads to be effective for them to keep running the ads.

5. Networking is key
Bloggers usually work alone, but they also need to network with other bloggers. Not only that makes them feel less isolated, but also to seek opportunities -- directly or indirectly -- to grow their traffic and business.

Once you get yourself out there, you will never know the opportunities that are coming your way. Let's not forget that bloggers are more likely to link to others who they already know and trust.

How do you make money blogging? Share your experience and tips with us in the following comments.

Disclaimer: I am by no means a pro-blogger, and if that turns you off, so will the rest of this post, I guess. However, if you are interested in how to make money off your blog, even if it is not seeing like a thousand visitors a day, then read on. All of this is based on my personal experience and earnings.

Alright, now that you have reached this far, this post is about making money from your blog through paid blogging. I started an experiment some time ago to see what I can make by not spending more than 10 hours a week on this (I am employed full time and so I didn't want to spend anymore time). Also, this does not include any time that I have spent on freelance blogging (another awesome way to earn).

One and Only Pre-requisite: You need to have a blog. This blog should typically be at least 3 months old, with a regular posting pattern. This can be as little as one post a week. This has to be genuine content (that would also almost assure you a page rank). Once you have that, you can start registering your blog with Pay 2 Blog sites. I will list all the ones that I have had success with.

Success = Money in my PayPal account!

Here is the list (in no particular order):

1. PayPerPost.com - This is by far the most successful and famous such site. They have very strict requirements for admission and they have even stricter requirements for posting. However, they have a massive inventory of assignments and you are sure to find an assignment every day you go there. You are allowed to do 2 assignment per day. I do more like 4-5 per month here, but that is because of personal preferences. Once you have been paid for 10 assignments, you are allowed to add additional blogs which allow you to take more assignments per day. In two months, I have made around $120 here after doing 10 assignments.

   The kind of assignments you get here vary a lot depending on your Page Rank and Alexa Rankings. If you have a PR above 5, you can easily land assignments which pay over $200 a pop. They pay you after 30 days of your assignment submission (condition to approval). So, if you are posting every day, then after 30 days, you will start earning something every day!

2. ReviewMe.com - This site is a little low on assignments and I have only received 5 assignments so far on this site in a couple of months. However, it allows you to register multiple blogs in the beginning. You cannot choose an assignment as you can in PayPerPost. An assignment is made available to you and you can accept it. I have made around $20 on it in 2 months.

   Also, you don't receive any notification if an assignment is available to you, so you need to login and check regularly.

3. Blogsvertise.com - This, like ReviewMe, doesn't have a great inventory, but it has a higher per post payout than ReviewMe. It works in the same way; assignments are assigned to you and you have the option to accept/reject them. It also allows you to add multiple blogs. I have averaged 1 assignment a week with this and made over $30 here so far.

   Unlike ReviewMe, an email is sent to you the moment you receive a new assignment. Also, the payout here is similar to PayPerPost: they pay you 30 days after your submission.

4. SponsoredReview.com - This site has a lot of advertisers and also a unique model. It allows you to bid for assignments. Once you bid, the advertisers than approve/reject your bid. However, it takes forever for an advertiser to reject your bid and new opportunities are updated only about 2-3 times a month. But, I got one approved opportunity and that alone fetched me $32.50.

   You can add multiple blogs, and their payout is within 14 days after completion of a successful review. So, I keep bidding here, because the earnings can be big. The only drawback is that they keep a large amount of money (35%) (for example, on my successful bid, I had bid $50).

5. Bloggerwave.com - This particular site has been termed as fraud by many on the Internet. I just did one assignment for them and though it took more than a month, I eventually got my $10 from them. I include this here simply because I got paid, which equals success.

   They also don't have a lot of assignments and you have to log in and accept assignments (PayPerPost style: in fact a lot of people say that they copied the PPP website).

6. Smorty.com - This site is pretty low on inventory as well, but they do keep getting new assignments and send you an email. However, their assignments get taken up very fast, so you have to login and accept one fairly quickly. They however pay your quickly (usually within 7-10 days of completing the assignment).

   In two months, I have made $24 doing in 4 posts (their minimum payment is $6 per post).

7. LoudLaunch.com - this site has a similar model where you have to log in to accept assignments. However, they also notify you of new campaigns (which get taken up pretty fast). They allow you to add multiple blogs and have a feature where for the same assignment you have a different payment rate for different blogs, depending on the PageRank. So, for the same assignment, my PR3 blog gets $7.5, while my PR4 blog gets $15!

   They pay monthly for the post approved within the first 20 days of the previous month. So far, I have made only $15 posting once from here, but that's because I always am too late to react to new opportunity announcements.

8. PayU2Blog.com - And last, but not the least by far. I have made the most money from them. They are more into selling links than reviews. They usually pay you $5 per post (though I have made more), and they payout every two weeks. The difference is that they give you an assignment and you don't have an option of not accepting it. You have to do every assignment. In 3 payment cycles I have made $180 with them, and my next payment cycle will get me another $100.

   So far, I haven't had to blog about anything totally stupid. They give you a lot of assignments. And minimum length for a post is 60 words. And they don't even care if the post is a review or not as long as the link with the requisite keywords is present.

Warnings!

• There is a lot of debate about making money this way and the authenticity of your blog if you do and how it is unfair to your readers. I only get about 50-100 visitors a day, and I have about 20 odd regular readers. And I keep them isolated from this activity very nicely (visit my blog to see what I mean). I am not going to write about this debate here, but Google it to read up on it.
• Google has declared that it will start penalizing sites which do sponsored reviews. And I can understand their position, because technically, this is equivalent to buying your way to a page rank. So, do it at your own risk.

Please feel free to ask me any questions, and I will answer. Cheers.

My blogs don't have high PageRank. They don't get a tremendous amount of traffic. Yet my blogs earn me thousands of dollars every month. How? Affiliate ads. Why?

I know what my readers need.

My blog content is geared toward filling my readers' needs. So it makes sense to only display ads which also fill a need. For example, my blog geared toward beginning freelance writers exists to give writers tips on how to make money freelancing. As a freelance writer, I know new freelance writers are looking for freelance writing jobs and ways to make money writing, maybe even an occasional book on the topic. So rather than relying on Adsense ads alone, I also incorporated job ads through Indeed's publisher program, a few books on learning to freelance from Amazon's affiliate program, plus a few ebooks on writing for magazines and winning writing contests (through an independent affiliate program).

I know what my readers don't need.

I feel part of my success with affiliate programs is knowing what people don't want. Sticking with the theme of freelance writers, I know that most freelance writers aren't looking for a get rich quick scheme. Freelance writers aren't looking for ebooks on how to make thousands of dollars per day doing data entry. And most aren't looking for membership or bidding sites that charge them fees to use their services.

I know what my readers can afford to pay.

Many affiliate programs offer truly great, super useful products. But if they're out of my readers' budgets, there's no use in listing their ads on my site. That's why on my freelance writing blog I post job ads that are free, and why when I post ads for books I go through Amazon (cheaper prices, even used items). If I post an ad for something that's a little more pricey, I make sure it's for something REALLY good that's worth splurging for.

I don't recommend any affiliate product I wouldn't use myself.

I've learned that the key to affiliate marketing is only partnering with affiliate programs who offer high quality USEFUL products. I can't stand visiting blogs whose sole purpose is to recommend any junk product just to make a few bucks, and I can't imagine that others like seeing that kind of thing either. So, my affiliate marketing method is to only post links for products or services I myself have used and found to be helpful. The book and ebook recommendations on my site are all for books I myself have read and felt were worth the money. I promote Indeed's jobs because I use their search engine regularly to find my own writing jobs. Maybe I'd earn more money promoting any related program, but a) I feel that would be unethical and b) I feel more confident promoting products I can personally recommend.

A blogger's income doesn't have to be defined by pay-per-click ads. Although Adsense rakes in a good chunk of change for many bloggers, that hasn't been my experience. I've found that incorporating affiliate ads is a relatively easy way to earn extra money recommending products I'd be recommending anyway. It sure beats joining a "get paid to write a review on your blog" site, at least in my experience.

If you've used affiliate ads on your blog, I'd love to hear about your successes (or failures), tips you might have which I've no doubt missed, etc.

I took part in a radio interview yesterday. It was with the work at home radio network and had to do with blogging as career choice. My interviewer was most interested in how to earn money through blogging, especially through monetizing one’s own blogs. I told her what I told everyone else: when you’re just starting out, money should be your last concern.

I can’t tell you how many brand spanking new blogs I’ve come across that receive a couple of visitors a day, yet have big, flashing ads on either side. This tells me two things:

• The ads are more important than the content.
• This person is hoping to pull in some quick money.

So I ask you, how can you earn money with a blog receiving no traffic?

If you build it they will come

If you’re asking my opinion, and I’m assuming you are since you’re reading this, I’d say build up traffic. Don’t waste your efforts on ads; the money will come in time if that’s what you’re after. Instead write pages and pages of good, useful content. Offer your readers sound advice, humorous anecdotes and links to important resources. Once you have at least a dozen pages written, it’s time to bring in the traffic. You can do this in many ways. When you’re just starting out, I’d recommend:

Visiting other blogs and commenting. Don’t leave spammy “hey nice blog, check out my content” comments, instead, offer your point of view and that’s it. You’ll notice a spot to drop your link in the heading boxes, that’ll do just fine.

Visiting online forums. Just as with commenting, you don’t want to seem spammy. Offer a useful point of view and drop your link in the signature. If you offer a useful opinion, people will want to visit your blog.

Digg, Stumble Upon and other social networking and media sites. If you believe you wrote something brilliant, take advantage of the different social media sites. You may not make it to Digg’s first page, but there might be a person or two interested in reading what you have to say.

Offering up your services as a guest blogger. A great way to drive traffic is by guest blogging on someone else’s blog. Trust me, I know. A couple of months back, I was a guest blogger for Darren Rowse and traffic to all my blogs soared.

Installing a stat tracker. I use Site Meter and Google Analytics (and of course, PMetrics). Stat trackers are a great way to tell why people come to your blog. You’ll learn which topics and keywords are most popular, giving you an idea of what type of content to write. That isn’t to say you should revolve your blog around keywords and search terms. Nothing turns me off more than a blog filled with obvious keywords.

Writing lots of content. The more great content you write, the more pages will be indexed by Google and other search engines and the more people will visit your blog.

Now, I hate to harp on this, but I’ll say it again. All this takes time. It takes time to achieve Google and Alexa rankings, it takes time for people to find your blog and it takes time to achieve the amount of traffic likely to enable you to earn a decent income from your blog. In fact, I’ll venture to say not everyone can expect to earn a revenue check each month.

If you truly want to make money blogging, you’re going to have to work hard to bring in the masses. Once the traffic is flowing, once you have a great community built up, once your name is out there, then, and only then, should you worry about the ads.