Make$ Money$ Blog - Truth, no scam

I have earned over USD500 from [tag]PayPerPost[/tag] and received more than USD100 so far.  Some similar companies actually wrote to me and offer links for me to write for them but usually, I try to be selective and only take what I feel can blend into my blogs.

A few bloggers also wrote to me to ask some questions because initially, we do have problems getting our posts approved.  Here are a few tips that I can think of:

1) Make sure you understand your assignment well.

Some advertisers tend to ramble on and on with too much information that we don’t need to know.     Remember that many of the advertisers may not be familiar with  how the search engines work.  Some probably are expecting you to be the copywriter.  We are not.  Our main purpose is to get their link online.

2) Always try to put the advertiser’s link in the first or second paragraph. 

Never add it at the last sentence.  Remember that those people who approves our blog posts are human too.  They need to read hundreds of posts per day.  Make their job easier by getting to the point and link at the top part of your story.  They will approve faster this way.

3) Know your anchor text.

Usually, the more tech savvy advertisers will tell you clearly what their anchor text is.  Anchor text is the few keywords they want to see highlighted and get linked to their website.

4) Don’t be rigid 

As bloggers we owe it to our blog readers to provide them something worth their time reading.  So, at all times, try to construct your sentences without the rigidity of an advertisement.  Through my experiences, I know most of my casual mention of the anchor text gets approved. The anchor text blends seamlessly and subtlely into my post.  I have seen some blog posts that actually ramble on like a bad advertisement and it reeks blatant advertising.

5) Minimise the number of outbound  links

[tag]Blogitive[/tag] specified only one link.  [tag]Blogvertise[/tag] wants three links.  PayPerPost depends on what their advertisers want but usually it is one link unless otherwise specified. [tag] ReviewMe[/tag] doesn’t specify but I take it as one and throw in an extra if I am paid well.  Do not bother to go beyond the numbers required.  Remember that in the long run, one can easily pick up our outbound links from our URL.  If we have too many outbound links, things are going to look ugly, spammy and reeks of splog.  We may even be penalised by the search engines.   You can read from PatrickGavin’s blog what are inbound and outbound links.

If I get an advertiser who wants more than six links, I will tell them to find it elsewhere.  (ok, I don’t get a chance to tell them to the face but usually, I will not take it unless the payout is really good)

6) Do not be afraid to experiment 

Sometimes the advertisers’ offers seem daunting with all sorts of technicalities.  Well, just take it and do it your way.  The most is your post is rejected.  Nothing to lose because like I said in point #1, the advertisers may not know what they want, really. Most times, they will offer you to edit your post and you have a winner there.

7) Avoid too many  short posts 

A few advertisers aren’t sure how word count works.  Many thinks 50 words is good. I have seen one asking for 10 words!   Actually, a 50 words post on our blogs can look kinda funny if there are too many 50 words posts. All our sidebars, header and footer will overshadow  a 50 words post.   So, give the advertisers something worth their money.  Double it.  I think 100 words is pretty short and sweet for any posts.

8) Don’t treat your blog readers like morons

Avoid starting each post with an apologetic sentence of ‘Actually, this is something I am writing for money’.  Dude, that makes you look bad, your advertisers feel cheated and your blog readers feel like morons because you actually need to point out to them.  The regular blog readers know and they can just live with the fact.  I have a sentence in my personal blog that says, ‘I blog  for money, so?’ and linked it to my disclosure policy.  Well, not really a policy, it is just a disclosure that I do insert some paid posts in between regular ‘programmes’.

9) Don’t register your posts on communities type blog portals 

We have small cosy groups of blogs portal that we ping to.  If you want to survive writing for money, then, don’t send every single paid post of yours to these small communities pings (like PPS).  I can tell you that you are asking for an early death because people do not take kindly to frequent posts from you.  Create a peaceful blogsphere.  Your advertiser is paying you only for the link on your blog.  Therefore, we do not owe them any number of clicks to their  sites by driving up traffic.  However, there are indeed many interesting things that I had written that I really like to share.  One of my PayPerPost post even got Dugg.  Remember that if you ping, there are probably 10 other bloggers who are writing about the same thing and if they ping, the community blog portal is going to look bad.

10) Don’t be afraid to ask questions and share what you know with others

PayPerPost has a great forum and I have learnt so much from the posties there.  We help each other out and the community feel at PayPerPost is just fantastic.    I think we do not have to be unduly worried about too many people joining in a paid post blogging programme  because not every blogger is cut out to blog for money.   We need a decent command of English, some creativity, fast   typing and a quick grasp of what is expected of us.

Do you have more tips to share?  Please do post your comments here so that we may be able to improve paid posts.