You may be surprised to discover that blogging has in fact been around a lot longer than most people think.

Here's a potted history:

o June 1993 Netscape begins running it's What's New! list of sites.

o Jan 1994: Swarthmore student Justin Hall creates first blog ever.

o April 1997: Dave Winer launches Scripting News. His company, Userland, will release Frontier, Manila and Radio Userland, all website and blog content software.

o Dec 1997: Online diarist Jorn Barger coins the term "Weblog" for "logging the Web."

o April 1999: Programmer Peter Merholz shortens "Weblog" to "blog."

o July 1999: Pitas launches the first free build your own blog web tool.

o August 1999: Pyra releases Blogger which becomes the most popular web based blogging tool to date, and popularizes blogging with mainstream internet users.

0 Jan 2000: Boing Boing is born.

Fast forward...

o June 2003: Google launches AdSense, matching ads to blog content.

o Sept 2003: Jason Calacanis founds Weblogs, Inc., which eventually grows into a portfolio of 85 blogs.

o Dec 2004: Merriam-Webster declares "blog" the "Word of the Year."

o Jan 2005: Study finds that 32 million Americans read blogs.

o Oct 2005: Calacanis sells his blogs to AOL for $25 million.

o Dec 2005: An estimated $100 million worth of blog ads are sold this year.

All of this took place well before most of today's web users had actually heard the term "blog".

In December 2007 blog search engine Technorati tracked more than 112 million individual blogs on the blogosphere, confirming that blogging has become and is set to continue as a massive, mainstream trend.

Not surprisingly, many blog owners look to converting their online journals into some form of income generator. This begs the question; Is it possible to earn money (even big money) from blogging?

Results show that as more people figure out ways to monetize their blogging activities, it is very possible to generate an income from a tightly targeted niche blog.

While many bloggers will find they can make some money from their blogs, it is a fact of life that there will be a few who just "Get It" and apply techniques which blast their blogs into money-making hyperdrive.

One such person who has done this is UK based 22-year-old Rob Benwell who claims to earn six-figures from his blogging empire.

Rob maintains that his massive success is down to five simple but little used techniques (he calls the 5 Blogging Commandments) which have literally transformed his blogs into non-stop cash machines.

1. "Most people are still on the SEO kick," he explains. "They stuff keywords into posts and go overboard trying to fool the search engines. Blogs should be more organic and imitate nature. Google,Yahoo and MSN are looking for quality sites by real people, not someone spitting out hundreds of blogs each month filled with keywords and ads."

2. "Every post should offer visitor value. This doesn't mean it has to change their lives or anything. Even posts about a related article with a link or a product review are good. Blogs filled with RSS vomit don't offer value and won't last."

3. "Your blog should have people coming back again and again. RSS buttons help and an opt-in newsletter that offers more than just updates is always a good idea. The number one way to get people to come back is to give excellent, likable content."

4. "After extensive tests I've seen huge differences in blogs that are kept up to date against others that don't get new (or very few) posts. You don't have to post every day or even every week, but make sure you don't just set them up and forget about them because they will die off."

5. "If you are after making the most money you can from a blog, then the most important decision you make will be the market you blog for. So make sure you research it well beforehand."

Rob has written a step by step blueprint which lays bare everything he does to build long term, profitable niche blogs, and although from a grammatical standpoint, it could be improved, the information in this publication goes way beyond anything else that is available regarding turning a standard blog into a fully focussed cash generating mechanism.

As rough and ready as it may be, this is a great resource for any blogger who wants to earn money (dare I say big money) from their daily posts... I've already started to make the recommend changes to my own sites. See you at the bank!