This is a question that lots of soon to be bloggers and blogger newbies ask themselves. Is it really possible to make money blogging? This is a fair question when you consider how many people try to make money online versus how many actually succeed at doing so. Not to mention all the scammers out there waiting to sell another newbie the dream, only for the newbie to realize that he just wasted another $97.

So it is not surprising that so many aspiring bloggers quit after initial failure, yet I firmly believe that most blogger are following an inefficient business model. The prevailing wisdom regarding the steps to successfully make money blogging is really a lot of bologna.

The problem with the make money online niche is that it is dominated by newbies. You think you are learning reading these popular blogs (which shall remain nameless) but you just don't realize that the blogger himself is just rehashing the same stuff he read on another clueless MMO blog.

The current 'A-Lister' type method is basically to build a 'readership' and then to sell everything you can to them. And judging by the products I see advertised on many A-List blogs, they are rather indifferent as to the quality of the products they advertise. I see "get rich quick" and "Secret ways to make MILLIONS!!!!" type products all over these A-Lister blogs. The idea is to build credibility with your readers by pretending to be an expert in your niche. Fake it till you make it. See, the credibility is supposed to foster a relationship of trust between you and your 'readership'...this way you can more easily soak them for everything they are worth.

So in order to make it using this method you really need to hit it big. There are only a handful that become name bloggers, and thousands who never are. But don't let this depress you.

In fact you can make money blogging! You don't need to do all of those A-Lister chores like constantly providing fresh and excellent content. You don't need to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and you don't need to sell advertising and links on your blog if it ever becomes a PR5.

There is a simple but effective business model for bloggers in niche blogging. This is basically where you set up a blog that acts as a small site. A mini site at that. It will look like a blog and feel like a blog, but it will really be a static site. You write about ten posts focused around your main keyword and leave it alone from there on out. Then you just promote the site with lots of links using your anchor text. Once the blog ages a couple of months you put adsense on it. Your only job is to get enough links for the blog that it ranks on the first page, ideally at number one. You put almost all of your time into building links to your blog.

Of course this is real internet marketing so you will need to learn to do your keyword research and how to analyze your competition, but this is the way to make money blogging without really having to blog at all.