Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
Nov 10, 2009 Blogging, Content Promotion
Sponsored Tweets is the brainchild of IZEA, the same company that offers paid blogging opportunities. Joining Sponsored Tweets is free and you get paid to tweet advertiser’s links. All opportunities have to be approved or declined by you. The system does function automatically, so that once an opportunity is approved the link is automatically posted in your Twitter. No work to be done, but you get paid for it!
Two Options Available
The first option is where an advertiser pre-determines the text of your tweet and provides a link. You approve the opportunity and the tweet is sent out. The second option is where you write your own text and include the link provided.
FTC Regulations and Twitter
You may have heard about the new FTC rules where bloggers have to disclose where the reviewed product came from. We will have to disclose if the product was bought with our own money or if it came for free. This gives better transparency to reviewing and advertising. IZEA is very good about following FTC rules and disclosing paid opportunities. Every Sponsored Tweet has to include a disclosure (a hashtag such as #ad, #advert, #sponsored, etc). This is one of my favorite features of Sponsored Tweets, as we publicly disclose to our followers if this is a paid opportunity. You cannot accept a paid opportunity on Sponsored Tweets without a disclosure.
Sponsored Tweets and Pricing
The best thing about Sponsored Tweets is that you get to choose your own price for advertising. There is a suggested price feature, which says how much you can expect to get paid per tweet based on the number of followers and quality of your Twitter account. I priced mine lower though, because it attracts more advertisers and brings in great opportunities. You have to remember that Sponsored Tweets is still gaining popularity and advertisers. There is more paid Twitter users than advertisers, so it’s good to price yourself reasonable and attractive.
To cash out, your account has to have a minimum balance of $50. The minimum amount may seem intimidating but it is easy to reach. I look at it as a savings account and money that I forget about. Then one morning I wake up to see that my minimum payout is reached.
I have recommended Sponsored Tweets to my freelance writing friends, because many of us already use Twitter to advertise our article links. You don’t have to do any additional work but you still make extra cash on the side. The work is done for you and all you have to do is accept the offer. I’m very pleased with Sponsored Tweets and plan to use their service for a very long time.
Tags: advertising, making money, sponsored tweets, twitter
Nov 3, 2009 Blogging, Freelance Advice
I am a freelancer, which is the term I prefer over “work at home mom”. Calling me a stay at home mom is an insult. I had a career before having my child, and I’ve worked hard to have the liberty to work only for myself. I’ve been self-employed for many years now, but I also freelance in several fields including writing and web design. I also write web content, articles and anything else for private clients that come and go. Therefore the term freelancer best describes my working situation.
As I’ve mentioned on this blog many times, I write for several online publishers such as Associated Content and Demand Studios. I try to write for Demand Studios every single day, since their paycheck is consistent and always guaranteed. My other online writing gigs are more for fun. I can’t say that you can turn Associated Content into a steady and full-time paycheck. Maybe a writer or two would argue this, but I do not see it happening. It is still a fun writing gig and a way to make extra money. This month I expect to receive close to $500 for my October page view bonus from Associated Content.
Besides writing articles and content, I do paid blogging using this very website. I could start several blogs and run paid blogging on each site, but I just do not have the time. Still this single blog can make more than $500 a month in paid postings. The troubles with paid blogging are that every website has its own rules and payout schedules. The other problem is that you have to wish and hope that an advertiser will pay well. Advertisers do not always pay well for paid postings, sometimes they try to ask for everything and pay nothing.
Paid blogging however can be a great source of supplemental income. The time that I spent with my sick child, I was unable to work and had only enough free minutes to keep up with my e-mail. This affected my income but paid blogging payouts rescued me. I ended up receiving several payouts and meeting several minimum payout amounts, which gave me money when I needed it most.
I have done 65 blog posts for PayPerPost, and their requirement is having to wait 30 days for a blog post payment. Thirty days seems like a long time but it is a standard requirement across the board. The good thing about PayPerPost is that the payment is sent out on day 30, after a review and approval. There is no need to meet a minimum payout amount.
PayPerPost v4.0 comes from the same company that owns PayPerPost. This system is a little different, advertisers find you and make an offer. You write a blog post and after approval it is paid out in 30 days. However, you have to meet a minimum of $50 balance in order to withdraw the funds.
Izea, the same company that owns PayPerPost, also has SocialSpark. I like this system the best of all Izea brands, because it pays well and the blogging opportunities can be really interesting. After your paid blog post is reviewed it is paid out in 30 days, but this system has a minimum $25 withdrawal. So you have to wait for several opportunities to be paid out before cashing out.
I also use Sponsored Reviews, BlogToProfit and Blogvertise. I’ve never had problems with these companies but I haven’t had much in offers. The payments have usually been reasonable, but I’ve noticed a few advertisers trying to sneak in too many links for the price of one. Advertisers need to understand that we are trying to make a living too, it’s unfair to ask for 4 or 6 links in a single blog post and pay as much as they would for a single link.
Paid blogging payouts can take some time to meet. I’ll be the first to admit that I get annoyed waiting around for payments, but I also completely forget about them. Then one day I get e-mails that payments have been sent to my PayPal account! This week I was lucky to meet payout requirements for most of these websites. They certainly saved my behind when I needed the money and had no possible time to work. So paid blogging gets a big “Thank you!” and thumbs up.
If you are a writer for Associated Content, Demand Studios or any other content website, consider having a blog. It does not take much to setup a decent blog and start building up traffic. Monetize it and do some paid blogging, then use those funds for supplemental income. You can do wonders with the extra money that shows up in your Paypal account.
Tags: blog, paid blogging, payperpost, sponsored blog, sponsored post
Sep 24, 2009 Blogging, Freelance Advice, General
I was looking through my daily list of assignments and realized that I write over 10,000 words a day. This is on a normal day consisting of blogging for a private client, Demand Studios, paid postings and articles I’m working on for Associated Content or Bukisa. On some days, I even add more work by blogging or working for private clients. AND I prepare articles to be resold on Constant Content.
I’d like to meet my daily goal of writing 2,500 words for Demand Studios. I’d like to achieve my second goal of writing at least 1000 words a day on Associated Content. With Demand Studios paying so well and on time, I push Associated Content aside to have more time for DS assignments. Writing for Associated Content though can be a relief, especially since I can write about celebrity news or any gossip that interests me that day. But I dislike Associated Content views because I feel like their daily views counter needs some tweaking. That is the only thing that discourages me from writing daily articles and publishing on AC consistently.
My other goal that I would like to achieve is daily blogging. A daily blog post here about freelancing and all of the helpful tidbits that I find along the way. Also, I’d like to have some time to blog every day on my pet project about reality shows. It’s such a fun idea but I can’t seem to find the time to do it all. Husband and child need to be fed and played with…
I do write every day, no matter how large or how insignificant a task may seem. I also realized something today. No matter how many words I write or how many articles I have written, I will have spelling and grammar typos. That is so damn annoying.
I’d like to say that the points of my post are that every writer should have goals, but they should also write daily. Even if you do not meet your daily writing goals, keep on typing those words! You do not have to write a 10,000 word masterpiece every single day. A 250 word blog post can do wonders for your writing career and it can help warm your fingers up in the morning.
Tags: advice, articles, blog, Blogging, Demand Studios, freelance, how to, writer, writing
Sep 2, 2009 Blogging, General
Pajamas and Coffee is one of my favorite blogs and the owner Mary is a cool ass mom. I’ve had the honor of exchanging messages with Mary and we share a good sense of humor. Mary Mac was recently interviewed by ABC News, for their Moms Get Real show. Moms Get Real is an interactive show that let’s mom voice it all and a lot of Mommy Bloggers are featured.
I can’t wait to see a clip of Mary’s segment. She wrote about her experience at ABC new station and it is hilarious. Check out 15 Minutes of Fame? Out. Sweatpants? In. My favorite line is “and omg, he just dusted me with something that makes me look less like a hag, and yes, I’m definitely in love.” Hilarious! Big congratulations goes to Mary and Pajamas&Coffee, you make the rest of us mommy bloggers so proud.
*This is not a sponsored post
Aug 27, 2009 Blogging, General
I am very interested in answers to this question. With the internet evolving every day, we come in contact with more blogs than ever before. It seems like everyone’s mother, daughter and even dog has a personal blog today. Although some bloggers keep strictly to their personal lives, some venture out into the world of opinions, rants and sponsored posts. How do you feel about reviews and opinions posted by bloggers?
I take everything I read online with a grain of salt. It could be that I’ve been around the world of blogging since the days of Greymatter (I just cringed a little) or that I write online. Part of my article writing includes research and finding references to support any claim. The difficult part with doing this online is that so many websites are built just for the purpose of advertising. They have no quality information or sometimes even have articles that make me worry a little. Where is the transparency? Where is the “this might not be safe” mentality? If you post something online chances are some will ignore it and some will consider it to be as real as unicorns.
Then there is the all-powerful world of Mommy Bloggers. I like that crowd, because there is a lot of fun information exchanged, networking and often entertaining reading. Mommy Bloggers are becoming notorious product reviewers, ranters and “pay me and I’ll like your” business women. Not that is it always a bad thing, but I guess we should all pick and choose what ends up on a website with our name on it.
I think advertisers understand the value of Mommy Bloggers and serious bloggers. They have a following, a faithful base and the means of letting the whole world know you suck. Take for an example a vary popular blogger that recently threatened a large appliance company with a negative blog post. She also took to her Twitter to bash their customer service and the fact that her new washer failed, even after repairs.
The large (very large) home appliance company not only contacted her through Twitter and tried to remedy the situation, but they also got on the phone quickly before her negative post made it public. The fact is that a blog post is online for the world to read, and the all knowing Google will display it in people’s search results! Insert PR and some sweet talking, hence no negative blog post publishing. Not every blogger can achieve the status of successfully manipulating a corporation. The world of blogging is large and you are just a pea in a very large pod.
How do you see bloggers? As entertainment or as information you can bet money on? Do you even trust anything you read on a blog?
Tags: Blogging, dooce, make money, maytag, monetize, money, sponsor, sponsored, twitter
Aug 23, 2009 Blogging, Writing Resources
The idea of this post comes from Michy’s recent blog post on why writers should blog. I agree with Michy’s list of benefits, although I wanted to elaborate on some and add my advice on how a freelance writer can benefit from blogging.
Blogging does require less structure and it can help you warm up for writing an extensive article that requires some research.
Having a blog can also help you rant, complain or post a snippet of daily thoughts. I have said many times that blogging (and writing) is cheaper than therapy.
With blogging, a freelance writer does not have word-count or keyword requirements. It is your property and your writing outlet. Write whatever you are thinking about, at any given time.
You can write opinion pieces, since there are no requirements. Do you follow the news a lot or feel strongly about a particular topic? Blog about it. Open up your WordPress and click on a New Post. Then write whatever it is that you feel about politics, a political figure or anything else that may have come across your screen.
I especially enjoy networking and feedback that I get from readers. I will get questions e-mailed to me about a particular website that I am writing for. I have even received e-mails about articles I have written that someone wanted a further explanation on, or some of my research links. It gives your followers a way to know you better, as a person and not just another freelance writer who publishes articles for a million websites.
As I mentioned, blogging does not require keywords, but you can get keywords and keyphrases for writing articles! I use a WordPress plugin called StatPress, which is free to install and use. The StatPress plugin allows me to see my referrers, or websites that have linked to me, but also to see keywords someone entered in order for my website to pop-up on Google.
I get a lot of hits for Associated Content and Demand Studios, anything from how to apply to what these websites are about. I could easily turn these keyphrases and keywords into articles, and monetize them. Which means that my own blog is giving me free ideas that I can turn into web articles, page views and profits.
Also, your blog can help promote articles that you have published and that pay you a residual income. Websites such as Associated Content pay residuals for every page view, and you have multiple ways of linking articles on the blog. I for example use RSS Feeds to automatically update my published article list. Driving traffic to these articles from my blog means higher page views, which means a bigger monthly payment that will be coming my way.
In addition to earning a better income as a freelance writer, you can monetize blogs with Google Adsense, AdBrite, or by paid blogging. The amount of money you can make from your blog by monetizing varies, although a few dollars a month would be enough to pay for your web hosting fees. Know what that means? You can have a blog for free 
I think the two main concerns of freelance writers is not knowing how to build a blog site and being afraid that web hosting fees will cost them a lot. I use WordPress, which is completely free to install. I can even install it through my web host just by clicking on a single button. There are hundreds of free WordPress templates you can use too, and a web hosting plan is not that expensive either.
You would need two things: a web hosting plan and registered domain name. I do not particularly like GoDaddy.com, but they do have good deals on domain name registrations for as low as $6 a year. I would strongly advise not purchasing web hosting from GoDaddy, there are better companies out there. While my web hosting plan does not cost me anything, I can tell you that reputable companies sell plans for as low as $5.99 a month. And as I mentioned, you can monetize your blog and pay that $5.99 hosting fee, which means you have a free blog to play with.
I am sure that there are many more benefits of blogging that freelance writers can take advantage of. If I think of more, I’ll be sure to post them. My brain works in very random waves, but I promise you that I know what I am talking about when it comes to blogging. I’ve helped build thousands of websites over the last 11 years, and I have experienced first hand how article promotion through a blog can improve freelance writing income.
If you are a freelance writer and reading this, feel free to ask me any questions about blogs or how to start one. I would be more than happy to help a fellow writer out. That would be free too! Now, please start blogging!
Tags: advantage, benefits, Blogging, Fellow Writers, freelance
