Now you can earn while you blog

If Amitabh can write about how his luggage never makes it to the carousel and Aamir write about why you should buy his latest DVD and also attract an audience simultaneously, so can you. If the writing bug has bitten you, all you now need to do is to create some space in the virtual world and start blogging. And in the process make some money too.

Karamveer Singh, (Jim Karter to his legions of fans in the world of cyberspace), raked in whopping USD 70,000, last month. He maintains 200 websites and blogs, and apart from writing for them, he also has around 15 people who keep contributing.

Singh's most popular blog is perhaps jimkarter.com, a blog which in his words, "gives the low down on how to earn while you blog." It has tips from how to generate more web traffic to how to maintain the blog.

Another popular blogger who writes for withoutgivingthemovieaway.com always loved Bollywood movies. But things changed when she got married.

Her husband refused to watch a movie without reading a review, and much to her chagrin, she realised that almost all reviews gave away the plot. Soon enough she started maintaining a blog, wherein she reviewed movies. She had hit the jackpot. As word spread, her blog started getting many visitors, and she decided to go commercial. Now, the blog called withoutgivingthemovieaway.com, gets around 1,500 visitors a day and makes her richer by at least 15,000 a month. "I have grander visions", says she, as she now blogs on relationships and the like in another blog. "I think such a blog is extremely viable for the market."

"It is essential to write on what you are passionate about and can apply your mind to," says Palin Ningthoujam who works for Weber Shandwick, a public relations firm, and blogs about the world of public relations. He has more than 1,000 subscribers and his posts include '22 tips on how to work with journalists' to a discussion on how intelligent were the PR manoeuvres to make popular the superhero Hancock in the movie by the same name. "Apart from me, I have five regular writers who are good writers, and know the profession well for my blog," he says. "I haven't yet decided to support ads, but will do so at the right time," he continues. Until then he bides his time.

"Google Adspace is most commonly used by bloggers to promote ads," says Singh. For every click on the ad, the blogger gets a certain amount. "Other forms of ads are those that are rented out for a certain amount by bloggers."

So popular are Gautam Ghosh's posts on his blog that deals with human resources, career moves and office-related issues, that he often gets invitations to press conferences. "You will surprised by the number of people who read blogs," he says.

If you have a thing or two to say and wouldn't mind making a little bit of moolah along with it, then the time is ripe to reach for your computer and start blogging.

b_lhendup@dnaindia.net