Success is subjective. Some people think they are successful at blogging when they finish designing their blog—complete with content. Others definition of success is when they start banking cash earned from their blogs.

This post will hopefully help you with both. It is presumed that you are familiar with html, search engines and web terminology. If you are not, then you will need to learn the basics from somewhere else. For now, this blog will show you where to begin, starting with setting up a blog.

Follow the steps below and happy blogging!

Step One: You need a blog – to be successful at it!

Actually, this post idea came from a web friend who emailed me asking me how she can start blogging. So thank you Denise!

First of all, you want to create a blog that gives you some flexibility, privacy and is free to host and doesn’t require any knowledge of scripting or css (although it would be helpful).

Google BlogSpot is the best one that comes to mind. Click here [Blogspot]

Best thing about Google BlogSpot (BlogSpot hereon) is that it is not only free and easy to learn, it also allows you to start earning online cash right away through Google AdSense. More on Google Adsense later.

Step Two: What is your blog going to offer?

So what’s your story? Are you creating a blog to simply learn everything about blogging there is—or are you actually trying to earn money from blogging?

If you are simply learning – then congrats and be sure to save everything you have learned so that you can offer it to others who are struggling to blog. Trust me, your trials and errors will results in Google AdSense cash some day!

But if you are seriously going to concentrate on earning money then you will need to have thought through the following

a. What is your blog about?

b. Who is your audience?

c. Who is your competition?

d. How will you advertise your blog?

e. Who will you be affiliating with, in order to earn cash?

f. How will you get people to visit and click on your ads?

This is YOUR investment of time and ideas. Decide on a topic and become a master on it. It is important to have plenty of content on your site so that when someone lands on your blog, they have plenty to read. Hopefully the “plenty” will also be interesting and of use to someone so that they return to the blog over and over.

Step Three: Bringing people to your website

You know what they say—you can’t just open shop and hope for the best! You need to advertise. There are plenty of ways to advertise your blog – some people actually invest money to reap more – so decide how you want to advertise and follow through.

Set some goals and do everything to achieve them. Set a low goal so that when you reach it quickly, you get motivated to see more. Example of a goal can be “Earn $35.00 per day from Google AdSense”. That’s a very attainable goal and if you are serious about making money through your blog then you will need to whip your behind into learning everything there is about bringing people (traffic) to your website!

Step Four: Join Blogging Communities

To get ideas on what you can do to be a better blogger, join blogging social sites such as blogcatalog.com There you will find plenty of people who are knowledgeable and willing to help newbies.

Step Five: Pay It Forward

Make a point of helping each other out. Some people help by clicking on ads when they see a product that interests them. Others help by actually sponsoring the site by adding an ad button or banner at a relatively cheap cost to get people started on their new blog and at the same time to advertise their own blog.

Some people help by producing free blog templates (thank you developers!!) and some help by spreading the word about a great site they stumbled upon and adding a link. Do your bit – no matter how small because what goes around—definitely comes around!

Good Luck!