99% of the people who start blogging wish to make some extra money (at least) with their blog, even though their hidden dream is to earn a living online. Why? Because you’re your own boss, you work at your own pace and rhythm and you do everything from home or while sipping up some fancy cocktail somewhere in the Caribbean. Doesn’t that sound like something would like to do? Wouldn’t you like to make money with your blog? Of course you would. But it’s not as easy as it seems.

Or as other people promise. Really, all those eBooks and programs to make you rich over night are 99.9% scam and the remaining 0.01% will immediately lose value, so if you’re not amongst the first to try it, you fail. However, you can still make some extra money online (to say the least) as long as if you are ready to take some chances and to respect a strict daily schedule. About it and the answer to the question “can you make money with your blog” will be found below. Explained and detailed by a person who doesn’t make $1,000 per day and will never lie about the income.

First thing and the most important of them, if you are to start a blog and earn money with it, is to know exactly what you have to do. You should check out sources, you should read articles, you should go out there and try your hand at writing. Before I started blogging, I had already knew as much as I could (being a total noob before) about AdSense, about PPC advertising, about Affiliate Marketing, about SEO, Page Rank, Ad placement, about the sandbox and the keyword ranking. Do you know anything about these? If not, start searching, start reading and only start after you have a clear idea about what’s going on “behind the scenes” of the page you’re looking at. And yes, there are many more things to learn about than those I have used as an example above.

However, if you will start searching on Google about making money online, about earning a living with your blog, you will find out that it’s incredibly easy to do so. You will read success stories, you will get your enthusiasm rocketing to the ninth sky and you’ll be screaming to start. But it’s not that simple to make money online, I repeat that! The pages you will first read will actually be the ultra optimised pages written by experts who knew exactly what to write and how to play with their knowledge in order to rank high and be amongst the first results in the Google search – the results you have clicked on. Unfortunately, these success stories, even if true, are hard to reach without an incredible hard work and documentation.

So start planning. You probably have an idea already about what you’ll be blogging about, but you need to plan everything, step by step. Because, except for the topic of your choice, you will still have to take care about the article writing itself. You might love the old TV show MASH, but would you be able to write 600 articles about it? Most likely not, and either way people wouldn’t care. So, while you are planning your future blog, make sure that the topic you choose is potentially INTERESTING for the people out there and you can actually produce QUALITY content on that topic.

But that won’t get you any money because you still need visitors. You need your blog’s name out there, on the people’s lips, and most important, in the search engines, which is the most difficult thing to do.

Basically, for a start-up person, like you and me, without some real experience, scoring high on specific keywords (aka your niche) will take quite a while: it takes time for the search engines to trust your website! So whoever promises you high ranking in a few days on a specific keyword, for a brand new website is exaggerating: although possible, the effect will most likely fade away soon and you’ll get little or no value in return. In exchange, if you keep working and delivering content for your public, the search engine will start trusting you and eventually you will start rising up the search results.

One of the easiest ways to gain a search engine’s “trust” is by being active on social networking sites. I am talking about sites like Twitter or Facebook or Digg, to add an article sharing service in the mix. By being active in such websites and promoting your HIGH QUALITY content, you have the chance to let much more people find out about your content. And some of these people might decide to reply to your story or simply share it with the world, on their own blog. Therefore, you would gain a link back, that would make the search engines’ trust in your website rise a little more. Of course, this is a very crude example, since in reality a single link won’t help you that much, but link by link you will become a name. And a big one!

Next, you should get ready for a long wait. Instant success is not something that works well hand in had with earning your living online, from blogging. I am sorry to say that, but prepare for the worse. At first you might have no traffic at all (or “fake” traffic if you opt for a traffic exchange program that generally generates page views but not “real” visitors interested in your content), no income at all and soon you’ll start losing faith.

Don’t let yourself defeated! This is when most bloggers fall apart and quit their project and their dream. Don’t do the same thing and keep working hard! At last three-four months need to pass until you will start feeling the increase in traffic and income. And it will be then when you will wish to start experiencing other side-methods to earn money online: AdSense alternatives, programs that will generate money from blogging, a less income for you but one that, added at the end of the month, will be satisfactory!

So basically, the point in here would be that yes, you could earn some nice money online as long as you are capable of working hard, of being consistent and always keeping your knowledge up to date: always learning new things, always reading, always TRYING NEW THINGS. Because you don’t have to listen to the others and follow the “secret recipe to success”. No. Do things your way. Do them as you feel that they should be done, but put most of your strength in it. Soon, you will be earning online. Soon, your dream will come true. Just work hard and don’t let the bad days overcome you!