10 SEO Strategies for Turning Your Blog into a Cash Machine

Increasing numbers of bloggers out there are quitting their day jobs and dedicating their time to maintaining several blogs as their main source of income. To the majority of us, monetizing a blog is largely unexplored territory. Or maybe you've thought about it but don't know where to start. Keep reading to learn basic strategies for making money from a currently existing or new blog.

1. Post Good Content: You'll never make money through blogging unless you develop a broad readership, which happens when you're interesting and relevant to a large number of people. Be creative and think about what your current and potential readers would be interested in.
2. Be Consistent: The best way to keep readers interested is to post regularly. You decide what "regularly" means it could be every day, twice a week, once a week. You can also broaden this strategy by determining which types of content to post on certain days (many bloggers do Wordless Wednesday). Just about anything will work, just make a plan and stick to it. People don't like flakiness in person, they won't like it in the virtual you either.
3. Use Clear Formatting: Blog writing is different than most other types because you have a much shorter window to grab readers' attention. Most blogging experts say to write like your entire audience has ADD. Use short paragraphs, headings, and emphasis on important phrases.
4. Use Keywords In Blog Titles: If you're not doing this already you're missing out on some major SEO opportunity. By using major keywords in the title of your posts you allow Google to more easily determine the post relevant to that particular subject. The danger here is keyword stuffing that looks spamy make sure the titles are natural and the posts titles match with the content.
5. Feature Guest Posts: One of the very best SEO strategies for increasing traffic is allowing guest blog posts on your site. First of all, making connections with other bloggers in your field is never a bad thing. When you feature a post from someone who has a solid readership, they will promote the post on their own blog and urge their readers to check it out. This is a great way to gain new readers, especially if the guest poster is in a similar industry.
6. Write Guest Posts For Other Blogs: Equally as beneficial as hosting guest posts is to find relevant blogs to guest post on yourself. Not only can you capture readers, but you also gain links that are very telling in the eyes of Google. By connecting yourself with high quality, relevant industry blogs you associate yourself with market leaders that they may be linked to.
7. Promote Posts Through Social Media: Having really awesome content on your blog is something to brag about, and this is the best way to do that. Readers may not be checking your site for updates every day, so take it to them!
8. Urge Readers to Repost: A great way to get links and increase traffic is to ask your readers to share your content. Generally if people like a piece of content they want to share it, so make it easy for them! Place share buttons at the bottom of each post and let your dedicated fans do the rest.
9. Market Your Products/Services In Posts: If the purpose of your blog is to be an extension of a larger company site, why not give your main site some love? Work in links to product pages or other resources hosted on your main site. If your blog is for personal use you can also link back to other posts. This is a great way to tell Google that your old posts are still relevant.
10. Comment On Related Blogs: Besides just being an active member of your blogosphere, commenting on other blogs also provides SEO value. Every time you make a comment you gain a link, which again tells Google your site is relevant to the topic you're writing about. And making deep, relevant comments can draw people to your site as well.

Many of these strategies don't require much more effort than you're already putting into your blog, but they can bring a plethora of SEO benefits. Monetizing a blog takes a lot of time and diligence, but is definitely worth it in the end. Do you have any SEO tips or experience turning your blog into a cash machine?

Author Bio: Colby is an SEO Specialist and avid student of online marketing. Along with his passion for writing and being on the cutting edge of SEO advancements he hopes to help provide SEO value to the industry.