There are a few ways that bloggers make money:

(1). The most common way for bloggers to make money is through ads. When blogging first started, Adsense and Blogads were the way to create income. But since that time loads of other ways have emerged. Some of these are Chitika’s eMinimalls, Adbrite, Adgena, AVN, and many more.

(2). Sponsorships are another way to earn money with your blog. Once a few bloggers and a few companies figured out how lucrative this could be for both sides, it was on from there. They found it was an excellent way to advertise and to sell.

(3). Another way is through affiliate programs. By signing up with affiliate programs like Amazon or Clickbank, you can advertise and sell their products on your blog for a commission. If you’re a good marketer, this can be a very lucrative way for you to go.

(4). You can sell and advertise ’services’ as well and make money. These would be things like eBooks and tele-seminars or marketing courses.

(5). You can write for other people’s blogs. Lots of people who have blogs don’t do their own writing. You can write and post for them and earn yourself some money that way. If you’re good with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), then it might pay you to look into this.

(6). Some blogs operate strictly on a ‘donation’ basis. They leave it up to their visitors to leave something if they find any value in what they read or their experience on the blog. They put on a lot of free stuff, and then depend on charity for how much they own.

(7). Then you can sell retail. Blogs have become a popular way of selling retail items. Anything from T-shirts to kitchenware can be found on a blog. A blog is just a dynamic way to advertise practically anything.

(8). Consulting is another form of revenue earning on blogs. If someone is an expert on something, then they can set up a blog and interact with people and give advice and charge a fee. Most bloggers always try to come across as an expert in their niche, so keep an eye out for the so-called ‘experts’ in any given field.

Anyway, these are just a few of the ways you can make money blogging. If you’ve never tried blogging you owe it to yourself to see if you’re any good. Who knows, after a while you may be able to quit your regular job and make a better living blogging, and have more fun as well.

This is what freelancers should be aiming for in addition to their freelance work. It makes good use of your free time.

We mentioned in earlier posts the revenue “dip” phenomenon and how you could go about making sure that its negative effects are reduced. There was mention of diversifying income; this is where your residual income strategy should come into play. There are absolutely a ton of ways in which you can attain a residual income; and as a freelancer it could really help.

Here are just a few ways in which you can attain residual income:

• Make and sell copies of Wordpress themes on ThemeForest.
• Make flash elements and sell them at FlashDen.
• Run a blog or general website on your interested, gain a good amount of daily traffic, and then monetize through private advertising, Adsense, or affiliate programs.
• Make a script, sell copies of the script on your own website.
• Write up an eBook that has quality, VALUABLE information in it, and sell copies of that.
• Provide some kind of subscription service, such as the Themes Club at WPDesigner.
• Make a templates website where you sell templates that you make on your own website.

The great thing is whether your a freelance designer, coder, or writer you can still produce a good residual income. Even if you freelance in a very niche field, you could probably think of a way of gaining a residual income whilst still using your skills in that particular field.

In my personal opinion, residual income is a very valuable asset that should not be looked upon lightly. If you can earn even the smallest amounts of residual income it means an awful lot as it accumulates pretty quickly and you don’t even need to think about it. Also, if you manage to create a business or sorts that you sell a copy of script on or sell designs on, you’re producing something with lasting value, which if needed, you can sell at a later date for a boost in cash-flow.

This is just an initial rant on residual income. I will expand more on residual income in later posts as I want to go through a case study on residual income to show you just how valuable residual income is.

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