In the newsletter I get from About Freelance Writers one of the spotlight articles was How to get paid to blog. I'm not exactly impressed with the article, as it covers basics that anyone that's been around a while probably already knows - ie:
a. decide what to blog about
b. determine if others care about it too
c. read other people that blog about it
d. make your own blog
e. find someone to pay you for it
This seems like a good strategy, and it is, but what she does not tell you is what a paid blog as she defined it is. When you go to a site like Journalism Jobs or Media Bistro, you are looking for a job blogging about what someone else wants you to talk about. Sure you can get a job at someone else's website writing about dogs - but you have to write about what they want you to write about. They may want a blog about just general interest in dogs discussing the basics of the various breeds, and you really want to talk about showing dogs, or training a dog for work as a companion to the handicapped. How do you find someone that will pay you for that?
You could place an ad and wait, or you could pitch the idea to dog food companies and companies that manufacture products for dogs or the handicapped. This is a long process that may or may not produce a sponsor for your blog. What if you could actively find a sponsor, though? What if you could go to a website that listed a range of people seeking to have their product seen by others, people that offered competitive prices to bloggers for the chance to have their product mentioned in a post?
Imagine finding a website that sells medical alert systems and is willing to pay for an article that mentions their site in an article on falls at home. The perfect sponsor for the piece you have been planning on writing about the best way to train a dog how to respond to someone that has fallen, and all you have to do is add in a few lines to your already existent information on alternative safety measures for people at risk for falling at home.
Or imagine scanning a page of sites that would like to pay you for writing on your blog and seeing an ad from a respected company, that you have talked about before, that would like to pay for a link to their site in a post discussing something that your blog covers.
Placing paid links within the context of a blog post is something that has received a lot of bad press from some of the better known names in the blogging community, but it is also something that is highly misunderstood because of the bad press that it has received. Sites that allow bloggers to locate those who desire to pay for in-content links are something that I think every writer should look into. The main fear that has driven the misunderstanding on these sites is a misconception that readers will be deceived. Any decent writer is not going to mislead their readership, because a writer knows that the only thing they have is their readers. A good writer will look for things that they can honestly say they would endorse and write about even if they were not paid for the link, which nullifies the arguments that such links are unethical since the writer would have wrote about the subject and site anyway.
Just another idea on how to get paid for blogging, if you would like to find out more about this method you can check out the following sites, ranked by order in which I prefer them:
PayPerPost.com - by far the best. The people that run this site are great and a lot of fun, the bloggers that use the site are wonderful people with terrific blogs that I love to visit. PayPerPost has a very strong sense of community about it with active message boards, good friendships formed through the service, and a lot of fun and laughter. Payment varies. Low is generally $2.50 - current high is $200.00 - there was just a chance to win $500 for solving a puzzle that showed the new PayPerPost Blue Monster truck. Offers are at an average of 5+ added per day with a current listing of 90+ opportunities available to select from. Word requirements range from 40 to 100 words with a few requiring up to 300 words. Payment is made 30 days after posting.
Blogitive.com - A flat payment of $5 for each ad is paid, and they are ads. You need to write about a press release that the advertiser submits to Blogitive with the link for the advertiser in the context of a paragraph. The opportunities are randomly offered with an average in my current experience of about one every week or two weeks. Payment is once a week.
Blogvertise.com - A flat payment of $10 for each opportunity is paid with the ads requiring three (3) links in each listing and a minimum of 50 to 60 words. There is no request for positive or neutral endorsement, the site rules say you can be negative if you want so long as you meet the three link requirement and word count. I believe payment is 30 days after posting - don't really recall for sure.
BloggingAds.com - Ads arrive via e-mail from the site and vary in how much you are paid for the ads. I've been paid $5 and $10 for ads through this site. Each ad comes with three easy to cut and paste prewritten ads that you can use, or you can make your own ad. The drawback on this site is that on my PayPal pro account the payments are charged .59 per $10 so I only got $9.41 for the $10 ads. It is still a lot better than nothing and the payment was fast. Within a week of ad placement I do believe.
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