Blogging is a great way to make extra money and pay down debt. It gives you a free way to present your knowledge and ideas for others to enjoy and you can gain revenue in a variety of different ways.

This is what I have done so far to build an income from blogging:

Start A Blog
First I suggest getting a blog from either blogger.com or wordpress.com. I use blogger, but that is just because I like the interface. Start putting some decent content about what interests you the most. I currently have two blogs. This one and my one about health. This is because personal finance and health are my two favorite subjects.
Here is a link to check out my health blog if you are interested.

Apply for Google Adsense
Put some content on there and apply for a google adsense account. Use the link below on the left to sign up.

To read more about google adsense read my article, How to Earn from Google Adsense.

Build a Squidoo Lens
You don’t even have to have a website or a blog in order to build a Squidoo lens. The great thing about a squidoo lens is that it can actually make you money!

If you already have a blog or website a Squidoo Lens can help to bring more traffic to your site. If you don’t have a website that can act as a nice one page site for you to promote the programs you belong to such as CashCrate and others.

Sign up for an Affiliate Account with Amazon.com

I mainly did this for my health blog because I talk about health products all the time. I thought this would be a nice way to earn a small income from all of the product reviews I have been doing.

Another great program is Commission Junction. I have made a few bucks here and there from that program as well.

Other Programs

There are a lot more things I can do to help build an income from blogging, but most of them require a site that is at least 3 months old, that has a lot more content than I have and a lot more traffic. So I am going to have to wait on those. I will add them to my list here when I am able to implement them.

One program I am particularly interested is Text Link Ads. With their program you can get paid to put text ads on your site. It is really simple too because all you do is add some code to your site and they do the rest, while you get paid. However your blog needs to be at least 3 months old before you can apply to their program.

For information on how to get traffic to your site using articles read, How to Use Articles to Get Free Traffic.

I tried applying for PayPerPost.com, but they rejected my blog because I don’t receive enough traffic and it is not 90 days old. I will try re-applying around August or September. They pay you to post on certain topics and do reviews about companies and such.