Good luck!

http://www.independentngonline.com/poli/ente/article03

Social media marketing is the rave right now. Facebook is sexy, Twitter is fast and easy, and MySpace - well, you're nobody without a MySpace page. So where does that leave good old blogging? A has been? But, not so fast. Blogging is still one of the best ways to make money online.

If you want to make money blogging in 2009, the following 11 blogging tips offer some sage advice on how to go about it.

To make money blogging in 2009, get back to basics

1: Create A Posting Schedule

It makes it easier for readers to follow you; indeed, look forward to your posts. If your schedule is erratic, it will take you that much longer - if not ever - to build up a loyal following:

Posting Schedule Tip: Try to do so at least once a week.

2: Post From Experience

Did you know that information is the best selling product on the web? And, much of it is written in a "how to" format by authors who've experienced it first-hand.

So share your experiences with readers using the first person (i.e. "I". Readers will come to know, like and trust the info you provide. And, that will make it much easier for you to sell to them (which is the ultimate goal, after all). It will also build up your credibility as an authority in your niche.

3: Choose A Niche

Speaking of niche - choose a niche and stick with it. It's where the money is. There's so much info on the web that it's impossible to be everything to everybody. So, clearly define your niche and always post with the wants and needs of the audience in mind.

4: Interact With Other Popular Blogs In Your Niche

The most effective way to do this is by commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. Make your posts relevant. Don't just post to post. This is pointless and is a waste of time. Use the space to leave helpful, relevant feedback.

5: Use Good Grammar

I don't care how good your post is, if it's poorly written, you will lose credibility. Never underestimate the power of good writing.

6: Get A Clean Design

You don't have to be a web designer to have an effective blog. After all, readers come for your information. If design is not your forte, don't sweat it. Just use a clean design that's easy to navigate. A clean, simple design is like a little black dress - it's classy - timeless.

7: Get Plugins

Plugins are things like "most relevant posts," "most recent posts," etc. They encourage readers to hang around longer. The longer a visitor stays on your blog, the more likely it is they will buy from you - whether right now or at some time in the future.

Blogging Tip #8: Blog With SEO In Mind

What I mean by this is, center each post around a keyword phrase. And, the writing doesn't have to be bad to "force a phrase," just keep SEO in mind when you blog.

Many bloggers forget this. They tend to think in terms of articles or web content when they think of SEO. But, the concepts apply to blogging as well.

9: Don't Forget To Market Your Blog

Don't stop at posting. Get mileage out of your posts. Employ "sexy marketing", i.e. social book marking and networking. Tweet them on Twitter, post them to Facebook and MySpace, stumble them on StumbleUpon, etc.

Social book marking and networking tip: These are time-consuming marketing strategies because you have to interact with these communities to make this type of marketing effective. So just keep this in mind when you start with them.

10: Personalise Your Blog

Be you; inject some of your personality.

11: Don't Give Up

Blogging is more time consuming than many think when they first started. This is why there are so many dead blogs on the web. But remember, success is a marathon, not a sprint. So don't give up.

The best way to make money blogging is through pay per post, you can make as much as $50 per post. read my latest post on www.dollarsites..com

Yeah, but how do you make money off your blogs?
My take is advertise someone else's product or sell yours. I did read somewhere that the advertising model may not be looking too good due to the current financial climate. Can't remember where I read it, but bloggers in these times have to get creative if they really expect to make money off their blogs.

Interestinq

Really interesting, i'm really enthused by Nairaland, i'm kinda glad I found this site, so much info here, keep em coming yawa-ti-de

I thought ths might also be useful.
I found this site and its very interesting you might want to check it out. They accept nigerians and they pay well. infact they give $100 on sign up.
You can click on the link below to sign up. it is totally free.

You can sign up Obafemionline.com

Interesting subject here!

I think it is also important you need to give some freebies on your blog, to attract more visitors.  If yu plan to make money immediately you create a blog website, this is likely impossible and your goals may not be realized.

Allow people to download ebooks free of charge from you blog site.
Provide useful informational resources beyond what others are currently providing ( I noticed that most people are now copying and pasting jobs vacancies from other sites to their  blogs sites with the hope getting visitors attention and  making money through google adsense). This will become saturated with time and no one will win the game except those that have already established credbility in this area.

Establish yourself as an expert in a particular area/field. Your opnions will highly considered and followed. In this process, you are winning the heart of people and you can start influencing their decisions by giving direction or navigation of what you want them to do on your site. ( This is where yu start making money). Have a look at this blog from someone, though not Nigeria blogs, but at least helpful for this purpose. http://www.helium.com/items/1344738-how-to-advertise-free-on-yahoo.
If you are a good and original writer, you may also become a freelance writer on that site and start earning money as well.

How about if someone starts writing on "Global Recession. What Will Happen Now?" I tell you most people are curious to find solutions.

mycode

To contribute to this topic, I will reproduce a post I have on my blog titled

How do I make money from blogging

This is the commonest question beginners ask. There are many proven and tested means of making dosh from your blog. They work very well because I use them. Almost all the methods involve placing adverts on your blog site. It works pretty much like television stations. They run adverts between programmes to make money. The more audience a TV station has, the more they charge for their adverts. The newspapers and magazine do it too. Think about Vanguard newspapers and some obscure newly launched newspaper. Vanguard charges more because they have a wider readership. So the first step is to build up readership for your blog. Then you can place adverts (reasonably) on it for income. I want to explain the steps I use personally.

Before I go on, let me explain some terms. Affiliate programs lets you earn a commission each time you refer a person and they end up purchasing a product or service. Amazon.com has a very good affiliate program.

Contextual Advertising like google adsense react to whatever is on display and pulls appropriate adverts unto your site for readers to view or click on to learn more. You are paid per each click on the adverts.

Below are some of the methods I use to earn income on my blogs. In a future article, I will talk in general about the various methods bloggers make money.

   1. Google Adsense: Google runs the Adsense program which allows them put content sensitive adverts on people's websites. They pay these site owners for each time users click on the adverts. Before you can join this program, you must have a fully functional website because they will inspect it before allowing you to install any advert codes. Google adsense is one of my main income sources. Look to the right of this article. You will see my adverts from google there. Its a good place to start. First create your blog. Then register on www.google.com/adsense/ for the programme.

      Many people get banned from the program for clicking their own adverts or getting their friends to do it for them (click fraud). If you want to grow in this business, don't cheat. Work on offering good content and building your traffic. The rest, as they say, shall be added unto you. I know people who earn thousands of dollars every month from this unique programme. Its real. Some earn in millions per annum.
   2. Amazon Associates: As explained before, affiliate marketing involves selling products for other people via your website. You do this by including links to the product marketer's website.  For example, if your blog is about movies, including links to where your readers can buy any film you review will be absolutely fine for you. You get a commission for each purchase they make coming through the link on your site. I use Amazon links on at least 2 of my blogs. There are many affiliate marketing companies out there including Linkshare, Commission Junction and Clickbank. etc.
   3. Sponsorship Adverts: I don't use this method but it operates like the newspapers do. You basically accept and float banner adverts on your site. When your blog grows in popularity, advertisers will actually approach you to put advertise. It will happen if you own a high traffic blog.

These are the methods I use but other bloggers use a variety of other programmes and methods. As your experience and network grows, you will experiment with and come to know which is better for you.

I strongly agree with Albato on affliate marketing.  Have a look at one of the blog site that I turned to affliliate site with amazon and with good domain key words. If yu search millionaire books, my site is on the first page on google permanently. http://www.millionairebooks.net There are no contents on the site, but purely html and RSS links. Believe me , there is reasonable amount of income generated from this site on monthly basis.

Google is now very happy to promote your site on search engine if you have good combination of domain keywords and site description with your keywords. At least you are guaranteed good position on the search engine. You now need to work on the traffic thereafter.

mycode