Will you use your old typewriter to upload posts? Nope. But perhaps you could write a post about old typewriters.

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Wake up late in the morning, write about what's on your mind and draw a paycheck -- all without ever changing out of your pajamas. Sound too good to be true? Well, some talented Internet personalities have actually turned this dream into a reality, thanks to the popularity of their online blogs. The term "blog" is a hybrid of the phrase "web log," and a blog is basically a Web site where a person posts text, images, or video about any topic they wish, for others to read. While this concept may seem a little too simple to be interesting, it's not; some blogs draw millions of visitors each month, making their authors very famous -- and wealthy. With a little advice and a lot of luck, you, too, could turn your great idea into the blog that the entire Net is talking about.

Chances are that you've heard of, or even forwarded a link from, one of the Web's most popular blogs. Take Christian Lander's tongue-in-cheek blog, "Stuff White People Like." Lander started his blog, which pokes fun at the tastes of liberal, upper-middle-class Caucasians, in January 2008. By March, it had attracted 20 million hits and a book deal from Random House [source: Wolinsky]. Since then, Lander has published a second book and traveled the country giving talks about his successful blog. Another incredible story is that of Perez Hilton, a celebrity gossip blogger whose Web site reportedly drew 4 million hits per day in 2007. This remarkable level of traffic translated into an estimated $111,000 a month in advertising revenue [source: Tozzi].

Of course, these results are not typical. According to a 2011 survey by the technology Web site Technorati, only 14 percent of bloggers earned a salary, which averaged just $24,086 per year. The outlook was even worse for the 10 percent of bloggers who were paid by the post; half reported earning less than $25 per post, and half made less than $1,000 in annual income [source: Technorati].

Making money blogging is a challenge, but it can be a little easier if you know what you're getting into. Click over to the next page to see where you might fit in with the four various types of bloggers.