One of the great things about blogs is that they are so easy to set up and maintain. The way companies such as Blogger.com have handled it, it's about as easy as typing a letter or any other word processing document.

Another great thing that internet entrepreneurs have discovered is that they are fast and easy to set up, can attract a huge of potential customers, and can make A LOT OF MONEY for the owner of the blog, and we are going to discuss how they do it. In fact, we are going to talk about how almost anyone can set up a blog and be in business on the internet in a matter of hours.

After a start that included soaring, swooping, and gliding in lots of different directions, the internet settled down a bit. Although it is still all things to all people, one of the largest aspects of the internet is its ability to quickly deliver a huge mass of information on almost any subject under the sun.

Most of the millions of people using the internet have one thing in common...they are seeking this information. Whether it is something as significant as alternative energy sources or something as relatively frivolous as the comings and goings of fashion or comic books, there are huge numbers of people searching the internet in hopes of finding this information at any given time. That's where blogs come in.

Many of these people want hard data...facts! Many, however, are content to read, learn, and perhaps interject their own comments on subjects they find interesting. Couple this fact with the simplicity of building a blog, and then add a few income producing links, and you have the basis of a simple internet business.

If you have been unable up to now to believe that you could have a successful internet business, you are now free to change that thought. All it takes is an interest in some subject area; poetry, baseball, cartoons, cars, cooking, stamp collecting, and you too can be an expert with an income producing blog.

WHAT IF YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT BUT ARE SIMPLY A FAN?

In the world of blogs, this is NOT a problem! The purpose of the blog is to provide information and comment. Nobody said the information or comment had to be YOURS! Of course you will want to participate in your own blog, but there are many web sites on the internet, such as EzineArticles.com which can provide substantive content for your site. Just to use our baseball example, I just did a quick search at EzineArticles.com, and found 175 articles on the subject. By the time you used up all 175, more would have been written, your readers would have provided comments, you would have interjected your own ideas, and other sources of articles and other content on the subject would have come to your attention. Starting with this example, you could run a blog on the subject of baseball for several years with no problem.

HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY WITH A BLOG?

My first recommendation is that you learn more about blogging for internet income than I can offer in this small article. But don't worry, the subject of blogging as a business is simple and after a little training in blogging and internet marketing, you will be an expert on the subject and may even find yourself teaching other what you have learned. Once you have a grasp of the basics and have begun publishing your blog, you can use the following to help you make money with your blog.

JOIN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS: There are an unknown number of affiliate programs on the internet, ClickBank, PayDotCom, and Commission Junction to name a few. You can find affiliate programs relative to the subject of your blog, and, by placing links to these companies you can make income from your blog.

JOIN GOOGLE ADSENSE: Google Adsense allows you to show ads on your blog which may be of interest to your visitors. Staying with the baseball blog, the ads would have things to do with baseball or sports. You would receive a commission whenever a visitor to your blog left by clicking on one of the ads.

SELL YOUR OWN PRODUCTS: If you have a product to sell which is related to the topic of your blog, this would be a great place to promote it! Many people become regular visitors to interesting blogs and feel that they come to know the blogger who runs it. Any internet or network marketer can tell you that people are more likely to buy something from someone they know and trust than from a stranger.

VISIT OTHER BLOGS AND FORUMS: All across the internet are vast numbers of blogs and forums on almost every subject imaginable. Many people wander from blog to blog or forum to forum in search of information on these subjects, and the more blogs and forums where you leave your footprint, the more that may find their way back to your blog.

LINK BACK FROM RELATIVE SITES: Nobody said that every web site linking to your blog has to be somebody else's! It's great when you get someone to mention your blog on their site, but with a little experience and training, you can possibly learn to create web sites, or perhaps other blogs, which also link to your blog, thus raising its popularity with search engines and perhaps leading live visitors to you.

"PING" YOUR BLOG AND SUBMIT TO DIRECTORIES: People go to blog directories to find blogs on the subjects they are interested in. "Pinging" your blog through services such as pingomatic.com will will alert the services when you have updated your blog.

UPDATE YOUR CONTENT REGULARLY: While you don't have to update your blog daily, you should update it regularly. Use information relative to the blog topic. While information is king, making the information palatable will help improve your blog's popularity.

TURN YOUR CONTENT INTO CONTENT: Huh? This is one of the most effective ways to increase the popularity of your blog, but it is also one of the easiest. Once you get a handle on the sorts of things people are interested in, you may find yourself able to write a few comments of your own. In fact, the daily content and comments on your blog can often be turned into interesting articles of 600 to 1200 words. Once you have done this, submit it to an article directory such as EzineArticles.com. Once accepted, not only will it contain a link back to your blog, but, when others use it on their blog or on their website, there will be another link back to your blog.

Blogs are, simply put, one of the easiest way for computer and internet novices to become involved in the growing world of internet business. If it is your hope to someday kiss the old job good and quit the ratrace, blogging for dollars may just be the answer for you.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Health and Weight Loss, and Real Estate Investing.