Blogging has been around since the early days of the web. The term ‘weblog’ was apparently first used in a Usenet group posting on August 6, 1995 to promote the presentation of research papers by G. Raikundalia & M. Rees, lecturers from Bond University in Australia. However, Jorn Barger of RobotWisdom.com was the first to use the term in its’ modern context. Weblog was originally pronounced as ‘web log’ but by 1999 the pronunciation had evolved to ‘we blog’. Eventually the ‘we’ was dropped, leaving us with the modern term ‘Blog’. I’m sure that’s more than you wanted to know about the history of blogging.

So what is blogging? I’m glad you asked! Blogging has changed drastically over the past ten years and there is no hard set definition for today’s version of a blog. A blog can be anything from an online diary of your life to reviews of movies you see each week to rants and praise about your favorite sports team. Stay at home Mom’s write blogs discussing the daily struggles of raising children, photographers write blogs to share their experiences and tips and politicians have blogs to promote their agendas. A blog can basically be whatever you want it to be. Afterall, it’s YOUR blog.

One word you will read over and over throughout this series is ‘Passion’. It’s perfectly OK to blog with the hope and expectation of making money, but to build a successful blog, you MUST have a passion for the material on which you write. If not, one of two things will happen; either you will quickly get bored with your blog and you will gradually stop writing as frequently or your readers will see right through you. Find something you love or feel strongly about and build your blog around it.

While we’re on the topic of money, did I mention you can make money with your blog. Lot’s of money if done right. I have made a healthy five digit income from my sites for over ten years now. I also have a full time job and coach a varsity basketball team. In other words, I have generated annual earnings of $25,000 to $50,000 a year working LESS than 20 hours a week at the most and only 5-10 hours during basketball season. I don’t say this to brag. In fact, that is pocket change to some of the big time bloggers. I don’t exaggerate when I say there are thousands of bloggers making over $100,000 a year and many even bring in over a million dollars a year.

If that peaked your interest then I hope you’ll stay tuned. I’ll show you exactly how it’s done and you’ll be amazed how easy it is. Take a minute to subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll get the latest lesson in your email. Just enter your email address in the form in the upper right corner.

In the next article we’ll look at the first steps you need to take to become the Internet’s next hot blogger.

If you’ve ever had an interest in starting your own blog or website but had no idea where to start, this series is for you.

If you have a blog but it just doesn’t seem to be getting off the ground, this series is for you.

If you have a blog or website and you want to use it to generate part-time or full-time income, this series is for you.

If you’re wanting to learn how to clog, you made a typo when searching Google, this series isn’t for you.

I’ve been asked several times over the years to help someone setup their own blog or website. For many people this can seem like a daunting process. While you certainly don’t have to be a genius to install, customize and manage your own blog, it can seem very intimidating to anyone not familiar with the technical side of the Internet.

I grew up during the computer age of the 70s and 80s. I got my first computer, a Commodore Vic-20, when I was 12 and haven’t stopped using one since.

I’ve noticed that people who began using computers at a young age have no fear of experimenting and learning by trial and error. For me, this has always been the best way to learn anything computer related. When using the trial and error method you learn more from your mistakes than you do your successes. If you read a computer book it shows you the correct way to complete a particular task. Yeah, you learned how to do that task, but you didn’t learn other techniques along the way from making mistakes. Those mistakes may not have helped with the task at hand but through a process of cause and affect you learned techniques that may help with other projects in the future.

Even though I’m going to provide you with a step by step guide to blogging and monetizing your blog, I challenge you to step outside the process outlined here and experiment. I’ll give you some tips along the way on how to do that without compromising the work you’ve already done.

If at anytime you have questions stop by the ChristianWebsite.com Forums and post your question in the Blogging section.