Blogs have become ubiquitous, much like the cell phone: ten years ago, having a cell phone was considered a luxury. Nowadays, it is hard to find someone without one!

There are two types of bloggers out there: the social and the niche. Social bloggers will register their blog under a free host site like Google Blogger, WordPress, or Today. You can always tell it’s a free blog because the sub-domain name will be something like jane.today.com. 

Social bloggers will market their blogs through very simple means, such as by telling their friends about the blog, or by printing their blog address onto their business cards. They may also list their blog on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The social blogger may have pages and pages of content discussing all kinds of subjects, from what was had for lunch to whose grandmother recently died. The social blogger may also have affiliate links on the blog, but not necessarily, since the primary purpose of the blog is to socialize and not make money.

Enter the niche blogger, whose primary purpose for creating a blog is to make money. Niche bloggers do lots of research on search engine and keyword optimization before creating a blog and submitting content. Niche bloggers also typically do not create blog pages and posts with lots of content, since the purpose here is to drive traffic to the web site via the optimization. More traffic means more page views, which translate to affiliate ad clicking and revenue.

Regardless of the type of blog, once sufficient traffic has been generated, most individuals start applying directly to affiliates for ads (as opposed to using more general affiliate sites like Google Adsense). When these blogs are checked and approved, an affiliate link is e-mailed to the blogger. The blogger places the link into his or her own blog, and anytime someone clicks on the link or buys from it, the blogger makes money.

However, the problem with doing major monetization is this: if you have a free blog on a site like Blogger or WordPress, these sites may not allow you to post affiliate ads and links. For example, Wordpress will not allow you to post a Google AdSense banner. Likewise, you will probably not be able to sell your blog. The reason is because free blog sites (and all their content) belong to the blog host, not to you.

Another complication with free blog hosts is that your content revenue is split between the blog host and you. Today.com, for example, will monetize your site and then take a significant portion of your ad click proceeds. Even writing sites like Helium, Associated Content, and HubPages (which are in effect just well-organized blog post sites), do no less: your page view income is derived from how much traffic you drive, which of course is based on ad clicks. For the privilege of having your content posted where there is plenty of online traffic, you lose at least one-half of your affiliate earnings. 

To avoid this problem, consider carefully before starting a blog. If you hope to make serious money from your blog, then you are better off paying a few bucks for your own domain name. Sites like HostGator, DreamHost, and GoDaddy will sell you your own domain name for about $15/year or less.

After that’s over, perform keyword and SEO research in order to pick a good title for your blog. Do not make your blog about everything. Instead, pick a popular niche and discuss the products found in that niche. Advertise your blog by submitting articles to directories, by creating press releases, and by generating RSS feeds to its content. Once you have around 200 backlinks going to your blog, you will see your earnings take off.