It’s All About the Benjamins

Sooner or later most success stories strike up a friendship with the all-mighty dollar. And for good reason: build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. But how do you know if your blog is that better mousetrap? Is there a way to gauge the potential worth of your blog to advertisers?

The answer is a resounding yes. No, not that old Magic 8 Ball with its definitive "All signs point to maybe" kinds of answers. Instead, it's a tool you can use to increase the likelihood that your blog can become a marketable endeavor.

Spreading the Good News

There are several programs designed to search web pages for keywords and phrases. Based on their findings, ads can be placed on your site related to these keywords, which could result in cash in your pocket based on the number of click-throughs. The goal, however, is to make the ads relevant to your content.

You've probably heard of Google AdWords, which is a program that allows ads to be placed on your blog related to the content you're writing about. The goal is to attract your readers with excellent content, and while they're visiting your site, finding advertisements that might pique their interest. It works, but it behooves you to know what sort of money-making potential this kind of program can provide prior to signing up.

There's a nifty little tool called Google Keywords Traffic Estimator that attempts to predict what sort of money can be generated on a cost-per-click basis. While there are other programs designed to help you determine which keywords you should be using (such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool), the traffic estimator is used to provide an idea of what revenue you might expect given the proper use keywords.

Don’t Quit the Day Job

Thinking of quitting your day job in favor of blogging? You might want to think again. Not that it can't be done -- and many very successful bloggers are doing it -- but it takes a lot of time, hard work, and a certain amount of skill to game the system.

Game the system? Well, if you want to make money from your blog, it's time to loose the innocence, to stop pretending that blogging is only about communication in its purist form. For some, that's all blogging will ever be. For others, it might be time to take it to the next step and bring in a few extra bucks on the side as compensation for your blogging efforts.