Many online professionals have warned against using free hosting to build your online presence. These warnings come for many reasons including the risk of losing your content.

In a recent sweep, a free WordPress blog hosting website called Blogetery.com that hosted around 73,000 blogs shut down July 9, 2010.

Blogetery was a free blog service hosted by BurstNet, Inc., a company that has been established in the web hosting arena for nearly 14 years.

Explaining the reason why it had to take down Blogetery’s server BurstNet told that it “was a critical matter brought to our [their] attention by law enforcement officials” and in that case they had very little choice but terminate the account. BurstNet further stated that Blogetery was terminated due to “history of abuse and ongoing abuse”.

When you’re looking at making money online, and you are using a free hosting service, in a way you are at the mercy of everyone else using that hosting service too. Don’t run that risk. Put your blog or website on a REAL hosting service that actually manages their business and protects their clients.

So, you want to make money blogging.

But, how?

Which method is the best one?

Here, I will outline what I believe to be the top 10 ways to monetize a blog site in the best order I believe they are workable

1. Membership Programs

The “free” model is a huge and growing trend in online income right now. You provide a great deal of quality content to your audience for free, and provide a premium-level program to those willing to pay for it. You can charge a monthly membership that will provide a steady income stream.

Any blog can be turned into this style of membership program. We’ll cover that a little later.

2. Sell Your Own Information Products

The selling of knowledge is BIG Business! If you build your position within your market, you can then sell quality information to that market. This can be e-books, audio, videos, or all of the above. You can package in bundles or just sell them digitally. If you author the product yourself you keep 100% of the profit.

3. Provide Services

Another great way to make money with a blog is an indirect one. Use your blog to build your reputation, your brand and your audience. Then, make your money by directing that attention into offline services, consulting and/or coaching. I’ve seen many a blogger develop a nice, lucrative business just from coaching. The one drawback is the trading time for money so keep that in mind during your planning stages. How much time can you invest?

4. Public Speaking

If you develop your reputation, brand and audience to the point you can be considered an expert in your niche, you can turn that into a public speaking business that you get paid for.

5. Product Sales

If you have a physical product line to offer, you can use your blog as a venue for promoting your online store. Sell whatever you like. If you are an artist, you can develop an online store to sell your art pieces and a blog to build up audience and a following.

6. Affiliate Programs

Affiliate marketing is a great way to build up your income. You sell other peoples stuff to your audience and get paid when they buy it. In fact, any time I recommend a product or service to my audience, I check to see if they have an affiliate program. If so, I sign up and use my affiliate link. If I’m going to recommend something to my readers anyway, I might as well make a little something for the free advertising I’m giving them.

7. Direct Ad Sales

Banner ads and in-text ads a popular way to make money – but be aware, it’s not the most lucrative unless you have thousands and thousands of readers. This is usually the first method would-be bloggers consider.

However, if you’re going to try direct sales, selling the ads directly will result in more cash in your pocket. You should consider creating a media kit for your blog that includes ad sizes, prices and locations. As for pricing, a general rule of thumb is to aim for twice your eCPM from Google Adsense.

Why twice? Because that’s what Google is charging – you didn’t think you’d get it all did you?

8. Banner Advertising

If you don’t want to sell your own ads, you can still run network advertising from a variety of different sources. Personally, I use Adsense and keep it simple.

You can also direct sell ads and use network ads as filler for unused inventory.

9. Pay Per Post

You can get paid to review products, sites or services on your blog. Sites like PayPerPost, Social Spark and ReviewMe are among the most popular options. I’ve seen some blogs sell this option directly. When doing any type of paid posting, it is imperative to disclose the fact that it is a paid review. You also want to make sure to not challenge your integrity by giving a less than honest review.

10. Develop and Sell

You can build a blog, build an audience, sell it. In fact, some people actually buy blogs which are dead or setting idle. They’ll invest their marketing skills, build the SEO back links, cultivate readership then sell it for a profit. It can work.

I’ve sold three websites now ranging in price from $100 for one that I had that was dying on the vine and being underused to the more lucrative ones at $6,500 and $95,000.

There’s a nice amount of money to be had in flipping websites IF you have the skills to develop and market them to the point they become desirable to buyers.

You guessed it – I have been having MAJOR FOCUS issues lately.

The short version is summer is here, I’m in a very slow process of moving, I have a wonderful man in my life who just so happens to have a lake house we visit as often as we can and my two, very active teenage boys keep me hopping. We all know how bored teens get and how absolutely disastrous life can be when that happens.

While taking some “me time” to read over some of my favorite websites and blogs, I was pleased to find a particular blog entry from Rosalind Gardner. The post is entitled, “Affiliate Marketing: Mixing Pleasure with Business” and is SO appropriate for these summer months when what I really want to be doing is relaxing by the water with my family.

As I am determined to concentrate on focusing, I have begun a stockpile of articles that are my way creating fuel to help get me get back on top of my game even when the water is calling my name…

There is one fact that every professional blogger needs to know – and that’s how to market. Marketing is a key element in being able to make money.

It is one thing to write quality blog posts or articles – after all, that is the very foundation of blogging. However, you’re not going to make very much money from writing alone. Marketing is the key. You have to know how to market your website in a way that brings you traffic, sure. But you need to know how to market those products in order to turn that site into a substantial income.

Good marketing requires genuine knowledge. You’ve got to gain that knowledge somewhere. As may well know, there are tons of so-called experts selling information about internet marketing and making money on the Internet. Many of those experts are simply regurgitating and re-branding information from elsewhere.

The market of “making money online” ranges from the $15 e-book to $1,000 plus course and coaching products.

So, it is easy to see how tons of money can be thrown around in an effort to learn how to make money online.

Do you know how to recognize whether you really need a particular offer?

Don’t – Buy From a Fake

Anytime there is a large, saturated market, you’re going to have a gazillion people trying to do it and promote it. When it comes to “making money online” products, there are at least a half-a-gazillion faks. There are many people who duplicate what others are doing, do a mile re-write and then sell the product as their own. You’ve got people who will buy private label rights (PLR) content and re-sell it.

I’m not going to say this practice is entirely unethical. PLR is all perfectly legit and does come in handy for creating fill content on topics that simply hold the same shape – I mean there are only so many reasons for male-pattern baldness, right? Nothing new to create!

There are however, a lot of shortcuts in this market, and many people take them.

Now, as a consumer, don’t you want to spend your money with a person or business who actually knows what they’re talking about?

Given the economy, many people don’t have hundreds to spend on tools. It can depend heavily on the price point. If we’re talking about a $15 e-book, maybe the person who wrote it doesn’t matter so much. It’s only $15. But, for some of the higher priced items, it most definitely matters.

Being the skeptic that I am, I prefer to do business with people who have a proven track record or that have actually done what they teach. I like to look for valid proof that they’ve accomplished goals similar to those I have mapped for myself.

Don’t – Be a Product Collector

I’ve seen people who want to make money online but always seem to be an information and product collector rather than a doer.

The product collector generates a nice revenue for those so-called gurus. They’ll buy the product, perhaps hoping that that product contains the one magical element that will open the floodgates to their online income.

The collector then ends up with a bookshelf that is littered with similar products under different disguises – many of which they’ve never acted on at all.

This business is all about ACTION.

There are tons of tactics and strategies out there that lead to the same result in different ways. The one single common denominator is that all tactics require that you stop making excuses, get off your rear and do something with the knowledge you’ve gained!

If you purchase a marketing product geared toward online marketing, plan on applying it – make a commitment, above all else, to do so. Otherwise, you are doing nothing more than wasting your money.

Have you spent money on “make money online” products? Which ones? What mistakes have you made and what recommendations would you make to someone just starting out?