Paid To Blog | Dot Com Mogul

Feb 27
2008

Get Paid to Blog: Career Blogging

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I was reading a blog post the other day from a fellow Entrecarder who disbelieves that you can make money online. Unfortunately, many people like this blogger has come across numerous “make money online” scams and have drawn the conclusion that affiliate marketing as a whole is a scam. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve made my living online for about 10 years now and many others do as well. Here’s a monthly payout for one income stream to show you the kind of money that can be made. How do I do it? I don’t sell scammy little ebooks that tell you how to make thousands in your sleep. I use numerous legitimate income streams and many niche blogs and sites to promote products and get a commission from the sales. In addition, I use other monetizing methods such as Kontera, Chitika, and reviews on my blogs and websites.

There are many ways to make money online and work at home, but it takes a whole lot of hard work, knowledge, patience, and some ‘being in the right place at the right time’ luck. If you’re unwilling to put in the same kind of time and effort in your online career as you would working for someone else, then you probably won’t be successful and definitely should not quit your day job.

Career blogging is one of the ways to make money online. What does it take to turn blogging into a full-time living? Career bloggers are in high demand. Businesses realize the many benefits of a company blog. These companies are willing to pay you to blog, usually on a contract basis. In addition, there are numerous sites that pay you to host links and ads on your own blog or to provide a review of the site on your blog.

Getting Started as a Career Blogger

First you will need to create your own blog. This will serve as your portfolio or blogging resume. Two popular blog sites are blogger.com and wordpress.com.

Next, decide what you wan to blog about. Since you will be blogging for businesses, you could show off your business-sense in your blog. If you are a marketer, you could blog about sales and marketing. Blog about a topic you are very familiar with or an expert in. If there’s a particular niche that you want to blog about for hire, show your expertise on the subject in your own blog. Keep your blog updated with fresh content and build your traffic and readership.

Getting Your First Blogging Jobs

Now that you have your blog, you need to get hired. Use your About or Profile on your blog to advertise your availability as a career blogger. You can also Google blogger job or blogging jobs and browse the search results. You’ll likely find dozens of search results for blogging jobs. Other resources for finding blogging jobs are Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and HotJobs.com. Just submit your resume and contact info to be contacted by companies looking for professional bloggers. In addition, there are many contract blogging jobs posted on freelance boards such as Elance and Guru and others.

Get Paid To Blog

Indeed

Blogging job list from a job search site. You can enter the same search term in any job search site for additional career blogging jobs.

About.com

There are also blogging/writing opportunities at About.com. They are seeking experienced writers/bloggers to write articles and email newsletters, host discussions, and provide personally-reviewed links on a certain topic or subject. There are numerous topics to apply for. They offer a base salary but some About Guides make in excess of $100,000 annually depending largely on page views of your section.

In addition to contract or full time blogging positions, the following sites pay you to write about their companies on your blog. The best one I’ve used thus far is Sponsored Reviews. It has the highest quality and highest paying advertisers of the ones that I’ve used. . Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan 20
2008

OIOpublisher: Could the Cow and Chow be Wrong?

Posted by DotComMogul in paid for reviews, paid to blog, pay for posting, plugin

I ran across OIOpublisher a short while ago and did a mini review. I had not purchased the plugin yet, so couldn’t go into a lot of detail, although it sounded like a great idea. If you are selling text ads, ad space or reviews on your blog, this great little plugin (for wordpress) cuts the middle man right out. I recently spoke of my disappointment in the services offered to bloggers to monetize their blogs through paid reviews and ad space. You have to bend over backwards to get accepted to a marketplace that is either very sparse with offers or full of real crapola. The prices that advertisers in their marketplace are willing to pay are insulting and when you take out the commission that the “service” charges … well, you are providing a paid review on your site to these cheapos for practically nothing. When word really spreads about this plugin, you can kiss those services good-bye. Instead of taking commissions from your earnings, OIOpublisher charges a one-time fee of $37 for the plugin. I purchased it and have it installed now.

Zero Commission Taken: Keep 100% of the revenue for every sale made. Many other networks take up to 50% commission per sale made. That adds up to quite a nice chunk of change you’re missing out on!

More Sales Options: Most other services feature only one option so you have to have one account to sell Text Ads and another account to sell paid reviews. With OIOpublisher you can sell whatever combination you choose.

Instant Payments: When a purchase is made, the money is yours…. simple as that!

Installation is simple. There is a “Business” tab on your dashboard once installed. The PHP code for the non widget wordpress is listed on the main Business Tab. Simply paste it within my sidebar and it will do the rest or use the widget version! The screen shot here shows links after each purchase to purchase links in a specific post. You choose your price, the length of time an ad or link will run and the plugin does the rest.

Right now the marketplace does not have a lot of blogs listed … but surprisingly, John Chow and the Cow guy are both using it. I noticed that I have been seeing the Cow ad on a lot of smaller blogs … well, OIOpublisher is the reason. It appears that not only does he list his blog, but he purchases a bunch of ad spots.

You can of course, set the plugin to allow you to approve the ad before payment is made so that inappropriate ads won’t be purchased. Additionally, you can also set it to allow your own affiliate program for your links and ads, paying others a commission to sell your ad spots, reviews and links.

Conclusion: This plugin is very new and it appears that they have a lot of plans for marketing it and further development, based on customer feedback. With the lackluster offerings from the services that take a commission, I suspect that this plugin will be very popular once the word spreads around. Why give away money to a middle man if you don’t have to? Download OIOpublisher and cut out that middle man!

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Jan 19
2008

Anything for a Buck

Posted by DotComMogul in Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Project Wonderful, blog reviews, paid for reviews, paid to blog, pay for posting

I’m a bit disappointed in the services that are available to help bloggers sell their “real estate.” I’ll be honest .. I started this blog when I was a newbie at Internet Marketing and it’s early life was nothing more than a splog at best. Not really knowing what made a great blog or even the best way to push products, I went with the highly overused “review” blog. Throw a few banners up and talk about products and people would come in droves to buy them … right? Wrong. I’ve since deleted all of the original posts and started over some time ago. My goal now is to publish content that people actually want to read … and if they buy some products while they’re here or a paid review or ad space … so much the better.

So when I first began this blog, I ran across all those paid review sites and applied to them. I was promptly told that my blog did not meet their rigorous quality criteria. Well, now it does and I’ve been accepted into all of them. However, the problem I am now finding is that their advertisers don’t meet my rigorous quality criteria … with my main gripe being … they are cheapos. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan 15
2008

PrestoGifto & PopShops - Two Cool Shops for Blogs

Posted by DotComMogul in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, PopShops, PrestoGifto, affiliate programs, make money online, paid to blog, shop

I found these two shops for blogs … PrestoGifto and PopShops. PrestoGifto integrates CafePress products in your blog and PopShops integrates products from Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale, LinkConnector, Performics and Red Galoshes, so you will need to be a member of these networks to utilize these shops.

If you look at the links in my nav bar, you’ll see Blogger’s Shop. That is a PrestoGifto shop. The one that says Books and Stuff is the PopShop. So far, I’m getting a lot more clicks on the PrestoGifto (CafePress) products, but I just installed these yesterday so it’s too soon to tell how either of these will work out.

Both shops are easy to install and integrate. PopShops takes a bit longer to set up since you can choose up to 100 products. Both of these shops are still in Beta but seem to function beautifully. PopShops has a feature you can install that will put a little pop button in your “write post” bar and you can pop a product in the post. I’ll pop one in here to show you … lol. They do have a much larger selection of products to choose from so if you aren’t pushing “blogging thongs” not to worry. You can choose your products by keywords. Very simple to add an ad to your post with PopShops. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan 06
2008

The Celebrity “Cow” and “What’s for Chow,” John Chow?

Posted by DotComMogul in Facebook, John Chow, John Cow, blog reviews, paid for reviews, paid to blog, pay for posting

There must have been a day when the big name blogs were interesting … otherwise how would they have gotten so rich and famous? I make it a habit to visit other blogs to see what they’re blogging about, and maybe gain some insight into what makes them money. I am consistently ~~bored~~ disappointed when I visit John Chow’s blog, but tonight takes the cake. The newest post is a guest post by John Cow and it is the most arrogant post I’ve ever read on a “make money” blog. Here are some highlights:

Here’s something to think about when you’re dealing with an ‘Internet Celeb’. (Oh we’re so full of ourselves)

1) We’re all just people with a blog. Don’t treat us like rockstars or behave like groupies.
(Glad they told me that … my knees were getting sore from groveling at their ~~hooves~~ feet)

3) Don’t overdo it. Some people just keep mailing and mailing and mailing. At a certain point we’ll get fed up with it. Wouldn’t you? We don’t have all the answers either and we use Google, just like you.
(Ah … such a quandary … the life of a “celebrity cow.” All those annoying, adoring fans. What’s a cow to do?)

4) Its fine if you appreciate our blogs, we love to have you around as a reader and participant in the comments. Just don’t act like you’re worshipping us
(Unless I’m begging you for votes).
(Now they tell me … after I’ve built a shrine in my foyer)

5) Appreciate the fact that you’re not the only one that tries to build some sort of relationship with the blogger. The more known a blog is, the more people will try to do the same. And unfortunately we just can’t all be friends.
(There goes my dream of world peace. Why can’t we all just get along?)

Well, you got the link. Read it for yourself and see if it doesn’t smack of one arrogant cow. After this enlightening, informational post, we get to read one product review after another … we know what John Chow eats and where he eats it (call it “What’s for Chow” John Chow), plus the never-ending ” Web Celeb” contests … they all seem to be running for something and soliciting votes for the latest honor to be bestowed on them, from who has the most subscribers to who has the best design or blog name. Yawn … time for a nap. So tell me, where is the interesting content that people are subscribing for? Where’s the useful tips for making money online? Where’s the beef?

Here’s a post I found today that sums up my feelings and a great Facebook group to join if you feel the same.

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Oct 04
2007

Getting Paid to Blog & Write

Posted by DotComMogul in Blogging, Most Recent, Work at Home, make money online, paid to blog, pay for posting

In addition to monetizing your own blog with advertising spots, paid reviews, affiliate marketing, etc., there are many opportunities on the Net for getting paid to blog.

ProBlogger has a list of blogging opportunities on it’s site.

Sign up at Helium. “Where publishers and freelancers meet.” At Helium’s Marketplace, publishers post the titles they need articles for right now. Publishers are paying from $20 to $200 for each selected article.

B5 Media. They normally post their job openings for bloggers at ProBlogger.

Blogger Jobs.biz. Career blogging listings. Read the rest of this entry »

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Oct 01
2007

Getting Traffic to Your Blog from Your RSS Feed

Posted by DotComMogul in Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, SEO, make money online, marketing, paid to blog, search engines

A friend in a forum that I’m a member of ran across This article by DotSauce with at least 55 active RSS directories that accept your RSS Feed link. I spent a relatively small amount of time submitting this blog to all of them and have noted a big increase in traffic pretty much immediately. If you’re into domaining, DotSauce is a great online resource in addition to the very useful RSS Feed list that he posted.

Here’s another list I found of directories to submit your blog to and in some cases, your RSS Feed. Some of them are redundant, but some are new.

My Top Five Recommended Blog Directories:

1. Best of the Web Blogs

2. Blog Catalog

3. Blog Hub

4. Blog Flux

5. Blog Wise

Other Blog Directories To Consider:

Blogarama

Globe of Blogs

Blogbib (paid or reciprocal required)

Blog Dex