Blogging started out more than a decade ago only as an online personal diary. The early blogs contained rambles about everyday events from normal people who are just trying to make sense of their lives and sharing their insights to family and friends. Indeed, blogging was a convenient way to keep in touch, updating a group of people the blogger personally knows (and even those he or she doesn’t) on the ups and downs of life. Soon enough, both private individuals and corporations alike realized the tremendous potential of blogging as a tool for marketing and advertising products and services. What used to be a way to keep in touch with readers has now become a creative and relatively easy source of income. Blogging is easy, fast, and most importantly, free. You never have to get up from your personal computer or laptop to earn money from it. Here are 3 steps in starting a profitable blog:

Step 1: Choose a blog platform
Many people around the world use Blogspot and WordPress to run their blogs. These are free services that you can upgrade if you buy a domain name and pay for monthly or yearly hosting. Once you’ve chosen a blog platform, register your unique blog URL to start blogging. Voila!

It’s really a no brainer to put up a blog since blogging platforms are constantly trying to make it easier and smoother. Set it up with a good stimulating theme to attract visitors. You can hire a web designer for this or make your own if you can. Just remember that the more unique and tasteful, the better.
Step 2: Decide on the content of your blog
What do you want to write in it? The most effortless topic to write about is usually the one that you are most passionate about. It could be sports, news, politics, beauty and lifestyle, travel, entertainment—these are the most popular topics, and the ones that attract advertisements from companies both online and offline.

It helps to choose a niche where only a few bloggers venture in, since you won’t share the traffic with other similar blogs. Being unique definitely has its rewards on the web. However, take care not to choose topics that are too specific and only interest a few people; your goal here is to get as much traffic as possible from visitors in order to increase your revenues.
Step 3: Produce content
This is the most crucial step. Instead of writing blog posts, you may want to make podcasts, video posts, or photo galleries. Always make your content interesting, fresh, and concise. Do not plagiarize other people’s works because this can get you blacklisted if the real owner finds out. If the revenues start to kick in more consistently, then you may opt to hire writers for your blog. All you have to do then is to sit back and watch the money coming in. Blogging is as fun as it is profitable. However, it takes time and patience to carve your little place in the Internet before you start to earn from advertisements. Don’t expect to earn immediately. You need to build your reputation and credibility first before this happens.