You've all seen the adverts. "Freelance writers wanted!" they
scream from the pages of just about every freelance jobs site on
the Internet. "Get paid to blog!"
To many people, this sounds like some kind of dream job. If you
keep a blog yourself (and Google says that a few thousand of us
do), then the chances are you're currently blogging for free,
either because you see blogging as a good opportunity to drive
traffic to your website, convert traffic that's already there
into sales, or just because you feel you have something to say.
If this sounds like you, then of course you're going to jump at
the opportunity to get paid for something you'd do for free. Who
wouldn't? And if you're a freelance writer looking for work,
you're probably going to jump at the opportunity to: you write,
you make money. What could be simpler?
Well, the paid-to-blog business isn't quite that simple,
unfortunately. You see, you're technically not being paid to
blog. What you're doing is blogging on someone else's website,
and being given a share of the Google Adsense profits your posts
make - in most cases, 50% goes to you, the rest to the web page
publisher.
Still sound good? It may well do. After all, on the Internet,
content is king. There's good money to be made from Google
Adsense (the program whereby you displays Google adverts on your
website and are paid every time someone clicks on them). Isn't
there?
Well yes, there is. But in order to make money from blogging on
an Adsense site, you're going to need to be able to do more than
just write. First of all, you're going to have to be able to
identify a niche to write in. This can't be just any old niche,
either: it has to be one which you can churn out content on, day
in, day out - and content which people will want to read.
You also have to know how to drive traffic to the content you
create. On the paid-to-blog sites, some of the traffic is
already there: but in order to make real money from this type of
writing, you'll need even more traffic than that. Where are you
going to get it? What do you know about internet marketing?
About driving traffic to websites? What do you know about search
engine optimisation? You'll need knowledge of all of these
things if you want to make money from blogging - and even if you
have that knowledge, you'll still need the energy and enthusiasm
to blog every day.
Say you have all of that. What can you make?
Theoretically, there's no limit to what you make. There are
people out there making a very nice living from blogs and
adsense. There are even more people, though, who aren't making a
cent. Realistically, you're much more likely to fall into that
second group. So, is blogging for money a great freelance
writing opportunity?
In a word, no. Blogging networks are great places for people
who'd like to make a few dollars per month doing something
they'd happily do for free anyway, or for people looking for a
lively blogging community to join. They're not for serious
freelance writers who want to make a living wage from their
writing.
Still want to make money from blogging? Find a corporate giant
who needs someone to maintain their blog - and is willing to pay
for it. Save the paid-to-blog network for your free time.
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