Flogging Will Not Cut It With The Savvy Blog Advertiser
A reoccurring theme on this site is money – specifically of the “how to” variety. So today’s post provides you with another resource to check into – a how to get paid to blog. This can be (and is) lucrative for many. However, that said, you should be aware that Sponsored Blogging (Is) Not As Easy As It Seems.
A quick check of Wikipedia reveals numerous facts you should be aware of:
o The use of “fake blogs” (flogs) will eliminate your potential to make money blogging. Companies that pay bloggers to post insist that you physically have a hand in the formation of the information on your blog. In other words, using auto-posting scripts and thinking you can have a hands-off blog and still make money will not work.
In addition, the savvy advertiser can tell the difference between the genuine blog and those “mass produced.” Blog advertisers are looking for the real thing, blogs that have solid Alexa rankings (thus proof that the blog does and is receiving traffic on a consistent basis).
o Having your own domain and your own hosting is critical. The reason is simple. If you are part of a free blogging network like WordPress or Blogger, your hard work can easily be shut down. In fact, according to Wikipedia.org:
“On 10 July 2007, following a discussion on the WordPress ideas forum and a post by Mark Ghosh in his blog Weblog Tools Collection, Matt Mullenweg announced that the official WordPress theme directory at http://themes.wordpress.net would no longer host themes containing sponsored links. Although this move was criticized by designers and users of sponsored themes, it was applauded by some WordPress users who consider such themes to be spam.”
Take note of that last line in the quote. It takes but one complaint by a member within a free blog system to close you down. Once shutdown, you have a next to nothing chance of them changing their mind no matter how honest and trustworthy your blogging efforts have been.
Also, establishing a true PR (which is considered much less important nowadays by even the top bloggers, website owners, and smart advertisers online) is impossible if you are blogging off a free platform. It is WordPress or Blogger itself that gets the link love and ratings, not you and your blog. Your blog can easily become lost in a sea of other free blogs – not something you want to have happen if you’re working hard to establish yourself online.
o It can take time to be accepted by the “get paid to blog” companies. Rightly so, many insist that your blog be at least 90 days old (which in my opinion seems a tad excessive) and have numerous posts within that time period on a consistent basis. This smart move eliminates individuals thinking they can (once again) make money by doing next to nothing. Making money online does require work.
The positives of building a blog are many. You not only create an easily updated space for yourself on the internet, but you need think only in “broader terms” for keywords. The search engine optimization (SEO), while still a critical component of any site, happens much more naturally and takes much less time. What it boils down to is search engines love blogs, and rss feeds go crazy as they chomp down on fresh material literally by the (nano)second.
And, as mentioned above, blogs also are excellent resources to check out from an advertiser’s point of view. Using get paid to blog resources where individual bloggers write specifically about you and/or your product is a potential avenue you should not overlook. Posts – per blog – create more than one entry. Categorized and tagged correctly, in addition to the main post itself, a properly optimized post can create hundreds of thousands of possible ways the advertiser’s write up can be found in the search engines. And remember, search engines are your hottest market!
So there you have it for today. Explore the potential of blogging to get paid and, conversely, as a resource for all you advertisers out there looking for effective internet advertising.
Most bloggers don’t want to put forth the effort a quality blog takes. It is even more difficult to write a quality blog and get paid for a few posts here and there.
What they are missing out on though is the vast amount of real fun truly getting into blogging provides… too bad for most, lucky for the rest of us