Making an Honest Blogger’s Dollar
Anti “Blog Advertising”?
If you’re a writer, you know or will know the struggle to try to make earnings off your writing. People need to eat and need a place to live. As I said in The Next Big Thing, it’s okay to want to make a dollar off your writing.
But are there more forces working against you earning that dollar than you think?
In my constant searching for opportunities not only for myself but the readers here, I came across Blogitive. Blogitive is basically another pay-per-post service. I found it highly recommended and decided to check it out. I didn’t even get to the signing up process before I saw a post about blog hosts who don’t like Blogitive posts. Not only do these hosts take down posts, but they also delete pages and close accounts.
I was and am outraged.
Talk of one or two blogs vanishing could be blamed on a bug of sorts, but people are losing their accounts as well. I am posting this here as a warning to writers who generate income the way of Blogitive and other such services. Be careful.
Having taken the time to review free blogging sites, I feel I must bring this to your attention.
In the words of the site – switch to hosting your own blog now. It’s an investment, but one that will pay off in the end. I might just do that myself with my other blogs. I certainly don’t want to lose what has taken so long to build up.
Blogitive, blogging, blogging for money, money, blogging sites, free blogging sites, hosting a website, pay-per-post, blog advertising, freelance writing
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Blogitive sounds interesting, JM. I wonder what Blogger thinks of it? They allow other ads, why not this?
News people are paid to write about news; that’s all this is, right?
bobbi c.
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Blogitive does sound interesting, but the word is on Blogger you may be safer, but not completely safe. I think the big name out there for cracking down right now is wordpress.
Well, not so much news as advertising. It’s a mix when it comes to reviews. News as far as your opinion goes, but advertising if you’re talking about products and services.
I’d love to do this myself, but I’m waiting until I get on my own domain and such.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 am
I’m ambivalent about the whole making money by writing thing, mostly when it comes to blogging. Obviously I’m a hypocrite since I’m doing just that, even if I’m not making much out of it. Part of me thinks that the old way is better, that writers who are published through traditional means are more respectable. Web 2.0 certainly has allowed anyone to express themselves without any quality control, which I kind of see as narcissistic in someways and is kind of a disturbing trend, but at the same time I guess it’s very free and democratic and it has connected many people around the world. I don’t mind so much when people are trying to express themselves for free, but this commercialization of the web is an even more disturbing trend to me. It’s all unavoidable though and was bound to happen. Sometimes I wish I could just write for the drawer, but I can’t suppress my desire to be read. Sorry, I’m kind of scatterbrained right now.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:27 am
Honestly, I thrill more at the increase of views (knowing I’m being read) than whatever pay comes from it. I think that is one of the marks of a true writer. The unfortunate thing is when, for a writer, it comes down to writing for money through not-so-traditional means to be able to afford the cost of living, or the bad alternatives.
Quality control is definitely an issue. I have no doubt that a lower quality writer with higher traffic would be chosen over a higher quality writer with lower traffic by some organizations. It’s a shame that happens, but blogging is the word of mouth you *can* buy.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:44 am
Yeah, I agree that’s it hard to make a living as a writer, and I guess there are different types of writers, in terms of the writing they can do.
For me I enjoy writing fiction and that is the only writing I truly enjoy doing, though I do like writing creative non-fiction essays sometimes.
Like I can’t see myself as a journalist, technical writer, or newspaper writer. I’d rather get a non-writing related job.
Also the flaw of blog writing is that to be popular depends a large part on word of mouth, like you mentioned. The more links to your site the more viewers, and of course the quality is what will keep readers coming back. And also networking plays a big part. At the same time this also applies to selling books and media and basically anything you want to sell. Advertising plays such a big part.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:54 am
It’s just unfortunate that unless you’re already a big name, you likely can’t live off blogging fiction.
With more free blog hosting services pushing away from advertisement posts, big business benefits - we pay for hosting and domain names in the hopes we break even from what we earn for advertising.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Most people I know have been sorely disappointed with blog money opportunities. I’ve found that, at least for now, non-fiction’s where the money’s at. Technical writing and journalism have supported my nasty habit of creative writing.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:45 am
With people trying and then getting disappointed, perhaps this is just a trend?
March 26th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I have been blogging for blogitive since last May. All my blogs are hosted on blogger.com
I never faced any difficulty as you have mentioned.
In fact I am getting similar assignments from four other such services.
I wish you tried it yourself and posted your true experience.