If your attempts to make money blogging continue to elude you, rest assured that you are not alone. As simple as the concept of blogging may be, many fail to realize their goals. It should be noted that although these goals vary from one blogger to the next, the obstacles often times responsible for their lack of success are the same!

These obstacles develop within 4 areas:

Blog Set-Up

Your blogging platform should reflect a feel for who you are and on what subject you are blogging about. The layout or format will go a long way towards accomplishing this so spend some time and thought in this area and have fun with it. And while we're on the subject of the layout, be sure yours is not too cluttered and can be navigated easily by any visitors. Encourage your readers to leave comments and make it easy for them to do so.

The site should also be optimized properly for the search engines thereby enabling the people interested in your subject to easily find your blog. Most blogs come available with widgets or plug-in's that easily allow you to accomplish this task. Don't overlook this part of the setup.

Generate Targeted Traffic

Put the effort into seeking out targeted traffic to your blog. Let people know you exist and what you're all about. Visiting forums, social network sites, and perhaps writing articles are great ways to increase your exposure and also pick up new ideas for both your blog design and also what to blog about within your particular niche.

Continued Research and Education

Continually find new sources of information for your own education and for content. Failure to do so will eventually kill both your dream and your blog. You've hopefully chosen a subject in which you have an interest if not a full blown passion. It is this interest or passion that will keep you motivated to regularly seek out the fresh news and information that will sustain the life of your blog.

Post Regularly

This is an area that most have the most difficulty with. No matter what the goals are you have, you will not reach them if you do not keep fresh content on your blog. Search engines love blogs for this very reason. Actually they show a bit of favoritism towards blogs in the search rankings due to the continual cycle of fresh content to be found on them. For this very same reason readers will keep returning to see what 'new' on your site.

It's important to point out here that you should not make a habit of posting something just for the sake of having a new post. If you can't make your post interesting, innovative, revealing, informative, or at least entertaining then it's time to go back to doing some research.

Your research will give your posts some quality while your posts will give your blog the same.

No matter if you want to make money blogging or perhaps just gain exposure for one of your passions, attention and effort must be continually given in these 4 areas in order to reach your desired goals.