Confession:  I do NOT make very much money off blogging.  Not here on Indiepreneur. Not on my personal blog, A Lovely Thing.  Not on newly launched Shebeezies.  I didn’t set out to make money blogging, nor did I take it all that serious until recently when I reread Jane’s old post on the subject.

I enjoy writing and it gives me something to do while I’m looking for a real job.  Why not try to earn enough to pay for a tank of gas or a basket of groceries once in awhile, right?

With that goal in mind, I’ve been keeping an eye out for good information that I can put into action and build upon.

Grace Bonney of the infamous Design Sponge talks about selling advertising on blogs in a very informative article.

I have to say I snickered at her warning that advertisers will make demands on you, your time and editorial (post) space.  It’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed since I was a newspaper ad rep way back in the 1980s.

I find it interesting, too, that she recommends hitting at least a 4,000 daily visitor benchmark before incorporating ads on your blog. I put AdSense on my old blogspot the moment I heard about it. I’m still using it.

I’ve tried a few other ad services, settling on the Project Wonderful spaces over there —-> and put them on Shebeezies, too, because they’re set up for small time Indiepreneurs.  What can I say?  I have a soft spot for folks like me trying to earn a living in this crazy world.

Discovering Blogher and liking their reputation for quality blogs, I put A Lovely Thing on that network. I’m still trying to live up to all those other quality blogs.

Though I’ve gotten annoyed at some of the ads Google serves up, I’ve never considered selling the space myself.  It would be nice to have a bit more control. I’ll put doing it myself on my list of possibilities.

Grace goes on to talk about setting rates, other ad networks and mentions a number pitfalls for which to be on the lookout.  Well worth your time to give it a read … but Design Sponge usually is worth a read.

When I first set out to create my own web site for www.alovelything.com, it was immensely frustrating. I was a total beginner when it came to building a website and didn’t have a clue where to start.

Oh sure, like most people, I had visited 100′s of sites and blogs. But it was impossible to find information that a beginner like me could understand.

So, allow me to share with you what I have learned so far about establishing a stand alone web site of your very, very own

Choose a domain name.

In fact, brainstorm several domains and put the names in order as to which you’d prefer. If you’re lucky, as I was, you will get your first choice. If not, you’ll have a plan B, C or D if necessary.  Oh, and just because a domain doesn’t show up when you put it in your browser, does not mean that it’s available.  Get your list together before proceeding to the next step.

Choose a web site hosting service

The hosting service has huge computers that will store your site and make it available on the world wide web for visitors to surf. Both www.alovelything.com and www.Indiepreneur.org are hosted on Lunar Pages — see the button on the lower right of the page here.  When you sign up for the first time with Lunar Pages, you will get your domain registered for free. Lunar Pages has a service called Fantastico that can instantly load software for a shop or a blog or an auction site or a gallery site or any number of functions.  It’s really user friendly.

Determine what you want to accomplish

Do you want a blog? A shop? Figure it out before moving forward. I didn’t do that with www.alovelything.com . It was a blog at first and morphed into a shop … and all those great articles I wrote are lost forever .  Zencart is a free shopping cart and shop software — FREE! It loads with a click in Fantastico on Lunar Pages. For blogs, you can’t go wrong with WordPress — which powers blogs for sites like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and, your favorite site right here … Indiepreuneur.  And WordPress is FREE also!

Choose a free template

There are dozens of free templates available for both Zencart AND WordPress.  You’ll find very generous coders in cyberspace that create templates that will get you started.  As you gain confidence and experience, you can tweak and personalize your site as you wish to over time.  Both programs have forums and nice people who can help you with any questions and problems.

Populate your site with information

Add your content to your site. You’ll find that this step takes the longest of all the steps. Of course, writing your thoughts or product descriptions, and taking pictures is the fun part, too!  So, enjoy!

There you have it. Five steps – ALL are very easy to accomplish. Trust me — if I, a sorry excuse for a web geek, can do it, absolutely ANYONE can!