It's a trend that took of with remarkable speed and one that it seemed all and sundry wished to ride along with.
Many people did jump on the blogging bandwagon but there were very few that tasted the kind of success that they dreamed of at the start.
One thing to note is that some of the most popular blogs are those that are not created for financial gain, but rather created by people who are passionate about their particular topic.
Think about blogs you may read or subscribe to yourself, have a look at a few in your particular niche, copy what you think works well for you So if you are going to go for it and start a blog here are some of the rules you must follow when you first start, later on some of these rules can be tweaked somewhat...

• Pick Your Niche

Try and focus on a niche that you know something about and you have some passion for and try to stay on topic.
If your blog is about golf, its OK to add some of your personal life but don't prattle on about politics or religion or a dispute with your neighbour! People are there to read about golf.

• Have Realistic Expectations

There are an increasing number of people that make money for a living writing blogs, they have left their 9 to 5 jobs and are working from home.
They have learnt their craft, they have made some mistakes and they are pretty good at what they do.
You CAN make good money blogging, it won't happen overnight.

• Stick With It

It takes a long time to make a blog popular and get some followers, it takes even longer to start making money from it.
If I said it might take you six months for your blog to make $2-3 per day would you think it was worth it? What if you had 10 that made $15-20 per day? See where I am going with this?

• Quality Quality Quality

At the start of your very first blog try and completely change your focus, tell yourself you will not make a bean for the first 3 months, but instead you will try and provide as much killer content as possible.
Along the way think of products and services you can add to monetize your site, but don't let this be themajor focus at the start.
Focus on providing QUALITY, then see what happens...

• Learn Your Craft

These days its very easy to start a blog, you can throw one up in 10 minutes and have it out on the internet almost immediately.
Amazing huh! However, take a little time to learn how to do it, take a look at tutorials and have a look at forums, learn some shortcuts.
Don't try and be a blogging expert, you don't have to be.
A little care and a fair bit of effort and you will make money blogging.
Good luck and enjoy.