In Making Money Blogging - Part 1, I discussed pay per click advertising companies (e.g. google adsense). In Making Money Blogging - Part 2, I discussed affiliate networks (e.g. commission junction).
In this blog, I will be explaining how you can get paid to write a blog for a specific company, or about a specific product (for example - you would be asked by a toothpaste company to write a blog about cool mint toothpaste). This is the primary way that most people will make money from their blogs - and it can be a fair bit of money as well (the top earners at blogitive & pay per post earn up to $US1000 per week - just form their blogs).
This sounds a difficult task to achieve (getting a company to ask you to write a blog about their products), and one would expect that you would need a very well know blog to achieve this - but in fact it is very easy, and you don't need to have a "known blog" to be able to write for a specific company.
How do you go about this? Well - there are several blogging companies, that will accept an established blog* into their "network of bloggers", and will send you different topics to blog about ,depending on the type of blog that you have (for example - you may have a shopping blog, and be asked to write about some new electronic equipment from Company Bravo).
*An established blog is based on a number of factors, which differ depending on the blogging network you choose. As an example - blogsvertise accept blogs that are 1 month old, blogitive accepts blogs that are 3 months old & have a certain amount of traffic - read more on the requirements below.
If you apply to a number of different blogging network companies, or have a number of different blogs - you can make a fair bit of money (for example - you may get 3 blogs at $5 each from blogitive, and another 5 blogs at $7 each from pay per post, and another blog from blogsvertise at $10) - so you have 9 blogs to write, and make $US 60 doing it).
The other good thing about applying to more than 1 network is that some of the networks require that you write 2 blogs in-between blogs for them. For example if you write one blogitive post, you need to write a further 2 non-blogitive posts before you can write another blogitive post. If you are also a member of pay per post, and blogsvertise, you could write one blogitive, one pay per post, one blogsvertise and then another blogitive post (which means all of your blogs for the day are paid). It takes a bit of juggling but can certainly be done.
The following companies offer paid blogging opportunities:
http://www.blogitive.com Blogitive have several opportunities for bloggers. You don't need to say that the blog has been sponsored, and you don't need to write nice things about the product (i.e. you can write that product x is awful and should never have been invented). You are generally paid $US5 per blog. Requirements are as follows: - Blog must be 3 months old - The Blog must receive (or can receive) some level of traffic - The blog must be indexed in the Google and Yahoo search engines. - The blogs must not contain violent, hate related content or be adult natured - The blogs must maintain a minimum of 3 posts per week - You must write 2 other blog posts in between paid blogitive blog posts - Blogs must be active for 1 year (but payments are made at the latest 1 week following the post) - The blogs must not be hosted on the following networks:- Writingup.com, Bloggerparty.com, Blogcharm.com, Clearblogs.com, Xeeks.com, Blogfeast.net, Wordpress.com (blogs that use wordpress software but are hosted on individual url's (e.g. http://www.shoppersclub.co.nz) are acceptable and Geocities.yahoo.com
http://www.payperpost.com Pay per post have probably the biggest range of opportunities on the market for bloggers today. You do need to notate that the blog has been sponsored, and you may be asked to write positively about a product. Payment is from $US4 to whatever the advertiser is willing to offer (e.g. $10, $15 etc..). The advertisers have more leeway at Pay per post, and can specify blogs to have a minimum page rank, traffic range etc (this is great for advertisers, but not so good for new blogs). Requirements are as follows: - You must be 18 or over to participate in Pay Per Post (and have a valid Tax ID if a resident of the United States) - Your blog must be at least 90 days old, verifiable by a third party index of the site - If over 90 days old, your blog must have at least 20 entries in the past 90 days. If just around 90 days old, your blog must have 20 pre-existing entries. - No blogs with gaps over 30 days (no entries posted for 30+ days) will be accepted. - Blogs must remain live for 30 days - you will be paid after 30 days. - You must write 2 other blogs in between a pay per post blog.
http://www.blogsvertise.com Due to being a newer blogging network, Blogsvertise currently have a limited number of opportunities for bloggers. However, they do tend to offer more money when they do offer blog posts (e.g. $US 7.50, $US 10.00). Requirements are as follows: - Blogs must be 30 days old - Blog entries must be permanent - You will be paid after 30 days (once the blogs have been verified). - Blogs must not be adult related - The blog posts are not required to be positive (i.e. you can negatively review a website or product) - You are not required to say that the blog has been sponsored
[http://www.creamaid.com] Creamaid is great in that there are NO requirements. Anyone & everyone can write a blog about any of the creamaid products. The advertiser (rather than the blogging network) will review your blog after your write and approve/disapprove it (I've never heard of one been disapproved yet - but I guess if you are writing very negatively about a product it may just be...).
As well as writing a full blog on a topic, you can also place text links on your blog (so you would place a text link at the bottom of your blog, or the sidebar of your blog, rather than writing an entire blog about the subject). The good thing about text links is that you set the price. If someone wants to advertise on your site, they will have to pay what you ask. If this suits your blog or yourself best, some networks to look at are: - http://www.text-link-ads.com - http://www.textlinkbrokers.com - http://www.linkadage.com
And... that my friends - are the most common paid blogging networks in the blogosphere today.
And... that is also the end to my Making Money Blogging Series - keep tuned for more money making opportunities.
Shirlene Moore
If Ya Want - Making Money Working from Home
