The Online Journalism Handbook: 7 things you should know about blogging

Blogging is an affordable way to be an online publisher. You can do it in different languages. You can post anything you like: photos, videos, podcasts, surveys...An average blog hosting package costs around $142 for 2 years paid upfront + add 2 years' domain $19, making it $160 investment to become an online publishing mogul. You can do it free on blogger.com but you won't be able to sell your blog later.

You can get an Adsense code from Google and paste it on your blog. The fun starts from here:

1. Your blog on politics may be the millionth blog on politics. Lesson: Choose a unique topic or point of view.

2. A blog in the Technorati Top 100 blog is at least 33 months old. Lesson: It will take time.

3. A top blog is frequently, some are updated multiple times during a day. Lesson: Post often.

4. Blogs in the following topic area tend to make more money than others: gadgets, games, shopping, films...Lesson: choose profitable topics to write on, if you are in it for the money.

5. Blogs on politics face great competition and chances of making money are slim at best. Some of the best political blogs, like dailykos.com are more than 5 years old. Lesson: It takes time.

6. Only a few bloggers are able to make serious money from blogging. Assuming that advertising and sponsorships won't cut it, especially now that the times are hard, you must think if you can translate your blogging efforts into book deals (fiction/non-fiction/self-help), appearances as speakers (must establish yourself as some expert), consulting deals (must write a lot on the industry. must interview a lot of people in the industry), affiliate marketing (must write a lot of posts reviewing products and services, without annoying Uncle Google)...these are some money-making ideas that you can consider.

7. Have an exit/exploitation strategy: How are you going to benefit from your blogging?

Is it for fame, for personal satisfaction or for money?

We talked about the money aspect above. Many people blog for personal satisfaction - writers, retirees, moms and so on. If it is fame that you want, you must start with a personal branding raodmap - what topics will you cover? On what sites will you promote? How many social networking sites are you going to be a member of? How many events will you be covering? Most importantly, how many people/bloggers are you going to personally try to flatter and impress?

Another aspect of fame is career advancement, whereby you cover the latest trends in your industry, interview the top guns on your blog, participate like mad on career sites such as http://linkedin.com, answering questions like an oracle and there might be hope for your yet.

The force is with you.