Following on from my article on how you can earn money as a blogger, I thought I should share some basic information about how to monetize your blog.  If you weren't put off by the long hours of hard work I mentioned and possess the buckets of patience I said you needed to have to make a blog succeed, then here are the six top ways to monetize your blog.  Some of these you can implement immediately.  $1 per week from adsense hits is better than nothing until your traffic levels and page rank allow you to sell off advertising space for bigger bucks.

Over the next six days I will be sharing the most common ways to monetize your blog.   Some require nothing more than building a blog, registering it with a company, popping in a code and collecting the cash while others only accept quality blogs with a particular level of traffic.  Other methods might be more work to implement but can reward you with larger payouts in the long run.

Part 1: Adsense

Adsense
Probably the most popular form of monetizing a blog, this system of displaying contextual ads is quick and easy to use.  You earn money each time an ad is clicked.

Adsense is the trade name for Google's contextual advertising program. You will have seen these on the majority of websites that you visit.  The reason that they are so popular is that they are easy to install, can be used by any website large or small, are customizable, and (used correctly) they aren't too intrusive for your visitors' browsing experience.

By simple copy and pasting a snippet of code, these ads can be popped into your posts or site template to show up just about anywhere you want them.   If you run your blog onGoogle's own blogging platform, all you have to do is select the "monetize my blog" option, enter your account code and tell it where you want to adsense units to appear.

Another plus is that these ads are tailored to match the content of your blog.  If, for example, your blog post is about West Highland Terriers, then Google will automatically show ads relating to these cute fluffy dogs, the idea being that these will be of most interest to your readers and therefor more likely to be clicked on.

Yahoo and Microsoft also run their own contextual ad programs, and there are lots of other smaller companies offering similar services too.  Experiment with each to optimize your earnings.

Top Tip for this money maker:

• Place at least one ad unit in a prime spot, above the fold so that if a visitor lands on your site and it is not what they were looking for, they immediately have some relevant alternative links.  If they don't stay on your site, at least you might earn a few cents from them leaving.

A Word of Caution:

• Don't overdo it!  Too many ads can distract your readers and send them away from your blog quickly.

Next up:  Selling advertising space on your blog.