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Putting Ads on Your Blog
This is done by many bloggers and is one of the quickest ways of starting to make money from a blog. The simplest way involves signing up to an advertising network, such as Google Adsense and inserting their ad codes into your blog. When a user visits the site, he will be shown the ads, which can be either text ads, banner ads, or in some cases video ads.
Usually you will get paid a few cents every time someone clicks on one of the ads. Alternatively, you can get paid on a CPM (Cost Per Mille) basis, where you get paid a fixed rate for every thousand visitors that see the ad, regardless of whether they click on it or not. With some advertising networks, it is possible to "rent" advertising space on your blog. This allows you to get paid a fixed rate for that advertising spot per day, week or month.
Selling Merchandise Through Your Blog
You may use your blog to promote your own items that you would then ship to buyers. This can be a very efficient way of selling certain types of merchandise online, as your blog will give you a place where you can explain how your products work as well as the benefits that they would bring to the buyer.
If you're selling items online, you will need to use a service that allows you to process credit card transactions and receive payments. PayPal is an online wallet service that is extremely popular among bloggers. The user can pay by credit card, bank account or from their PayPal balance. You will then receive the payment, minus a small processing charge for each transaction. Even though PayPal is the most popular option, there are other services that you can use as well, such as Moneybookers.
If you're making a lot of credit card sales through your blog, you can contact a financial institution to sign up for a merchant account. Here's a clever way to find out which merchant account fits you best , for example: bettermerchantaccounts.com/what-to-look-for-in-a-merchant-account-provider.
In this case, the money from your sales will be deposited directly into your bank account. Fees charged on each transaction vary from one financial institution to the other. However, you should know that merchant accounts have specific requirements associated with them and are more difficult to obtain than simply opening up a PayPal account. You would usually need to have a registered business, as well as make a relatively large amount of money in sales each month to qualify for a merchant account.