Femme Power

Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’

I was having my time surfing the Web when I came across John Chow’s blog.  I’ve heard a lot about this popular blogger’s name and reputation many times over in the past but I never got to visit his site until today.  I used to associate the name John Chow to a busy social life that’s mostly partying, spending huge sums of money for anything money can buy.  I had this impression basing on the fact that this guy is said to be making over $40,000 a month through blogging alone.  So I was surprised when I saw John Chow’s video with his little daughter in the park having a quiet bonding time together. He called it the Dot Com LifestyIe. I was even more surprised to learn that he’s just like any of us, wanting to make money and yet have the time to spend with our family.

The only difference is, he has achieved it — by making money online.

John made a good point when he said that some people are earning a lot of money but they don’t have the time to spend it because they’re always caught up with work.  Some people, on the other hand, have a lot of time but they don’t have any money.  Me, I’m one of those people who long to have both time and financial freedom.  But is it really doable?  Many so-called financial gurus claim that it is.  As per John, he was able to achieve it by making a killing through his blogs.   He said the monetary rewards were just secondary but the ultimate price he gets from blogging is having time freedom — more time to spend with his family by not being tied up at work for 40-60 hours a week.

How happier this world would be if a lot of us can spend more time with the family while earning more at the same time.   The thing is, not everyone can duplicate what John Chow and other high-paying bloggers have achieved.  It’s not as easy as 1-2-3 and it surely needs time and effort to jumpstart your blog until you get lots of quality traffic and backlinks.

But to start with, I’ll be reading John Chow’s free E-Book and learn from it.  You may click on the link as well to get a copy of his E-Book for free.

How about opening our minds first that both time and financial freedom can be achieved?  For starters, We can learn from the man who has done it.  Then maybe we could finally get the Dot Com Lifestyle too in the long run — that’s making money and having more time with the family.  Isn’t that what we all want?

I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries from friends about the earning potential of blogging and how it works.  I figured that I should finally write about it to spare my friends from my usual lengthy monologues.  Hence, the next time someone gets curious about blogging again, they could use this post as a reference to (hopefully) help them start a blog and monetize it in the long run, if they choose to.

I’ve been blogging for almost two years now and it’s been giving me a steady stream of extra income while doing what I love - writing.  However, sorry to burst your bubble but blogging doesn’t offer any get-rich-quick sort of game plan.  It can pay for your utility bills and your groceries plus some not-so-expensive wants (I was able to buy two camera phones, some clothes and shoes, among others).  For the most part, it’s going to eat up a considerable chunk of your time and depending on how you view it, it could either be draining or rewarding.

So here’s the list of questions I usually get from some blog-curious bunch:

How do you earn from blogging?

1) Paid posts - There are many ways to monetize one’s blog but in my case, I’m comfortable about writing paid posts.  I choose the topics and sponsors that I write about. I don’t accept offers to write about products and services that I don’t believe in.  Average rate per post I get is $10.  If your blog is more popular, chances are you’ll get more and higher offers because advertisers put weight about your Page Rank.

2) I also earn from Adgitize by simply displaying their ads and clicking ads displayed in other members’ blogs. This way, members not only earn revenues but traffic as well.  Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!  And this is the only program I know that pays you to advertise and rewards you for updating your blog.  Click on the link to sign up for free and see your traffic rise when you participate actively.

3) Other bloggers earn big from Google Adsense (web-based, content-sensitive marketing) depending on the number of ad clicks and page impressions on your blog.  Meaning, it is primarily dependent on traffic hence the more traffic you have, the more moolah you get.  But if you don’t have much visitors in your site, then Adsense is not for you.  In my case, I still haven’t reached my pay-out target of $100 but I don’t wanna remove it just yet.  I’ll wait till I get there however slowly. You may also try other alternatives like AdBrite, Bidvertiser, Kontera, Text Link Ads, CMF Ads, and several other alternatives.

How do you generate traffic to your blog?

I get traffic mostly from Entrecard, Adgitize, and other social networking sites I joined including Facebook.  I also get traffic from curious surfers who search for keywords that are found on my blogs.

Who will pay us to blog?

If you want to get paid for writing posts, below are the programs you could sign up with.  You can find a lot more in the Web but these are the programs that have actually paid me since I started monetizing this blog:

1) Blog4Reviews - Established by Filipinos Janette Toral and Gary Viray, this is one of my favorite pay-to-blog programs because it is country-specific as to the sponsors and target market.  Hence, I’m more familiar with the products and services and can relate to them much better.  They also pay through PayPal two weeks after your post is approved.

2) Blogsvertise - They give out 3-4 tasks in a week, depending on your level of participation. Register your blog and once you get accepted, you’ll start getting tasks. You may accept or decline the tasks. Write about the tasks any way you want according to your own editorial perspective.  You may either write a review about the advertiser’s products and services or simply mention them in your post or better yet, relate them to your own personal experiences.  Create at least three links to the advertiser’s website and then submit it within the time frame allotted to you.  They pay through PayPal 30 days after your post has been approved.  Yeah, it’s quite a long wait but it’s better than nothing.

3) Payperpost - I liked the old version of it because I didn’t have to wait for tasks to be assigned to me. I could take on any available opportunities from my dashboard, choose the advertisers myself, then write about their products and services.   But now that they’ve changed their platform where advertisers choose the bloggers and then negotiate the price, etc, I rarely log in to it.  Most leads that I’ve been getting lately wouldn’t match well with my blog or simply not the kinds that I’d want to blog about.

4) Blogtoprofit - This is the program that gave me my first blogging income almost two years ago.  They give out assignments in bulk and pay you through PayPal or your bank account in two weeks.

Other programs that have paid me to blog were Sponsoredreviews, ReviewMe, Buyblogreviews but offers from these three were scarce.

One thing is for sure, it’s not a walk in the park if you intend to blog for money or to put it bluntly, if money is the only or main reason that you’re blogging.  Blogging is a fun outlet to express one’s self.  Sometimes, even if you have wonderful people around you who are willing to listen to your thoughts, it’s quite overwhelming when you’re able to express yourself in writing and drown yourself in words.  Sometimes the writer in you just comes out, whether you’re being paid or not.

So if you love writing, go on, start a blog and if you choose to, monetize it.  It’s a matter of choice.  The most important thing is, be truthful to your readers and to yourself and you gotta love what you’re doing.

I’ve been keeping tab of my visitors coming from Entrecard and Adgitize but I wanted to do more.  And that’s by showing my visitors’ links right on my homepage whenever they drop by.  So I recently added a widget by  TheBlogFrog on my left sidebar where anyone can link up by just adding their URL in it.  Just click on the line “Want to show up here?” and add your site or better still, join the BlogFrog community.  It’ll not only grow your blogging network but will also give your visitors good chances of getting clicked on, hence generating more traffic for them.  I believe it’s a good way of giving back to my frequent visitors and commenters.

I put a premium on quality traffic - those who don’t just drop and run but stay a while to read posts as well.  I usually leave comments on other blogs that interest me regardless if they comment back or interact with their commenters.  The reason why I don’t get to drop on 300 (Entrecard) blogs a day is because I take time to read a lot of the blogs I visit, though honestly, not all.  And I do appreciate those who take time to leave me comments so I usually leave them comments too.  But that’s not really because I feel like I owe them but it’s because their blog posts are worth commenting on, if you just read them instead of dropping and running.

I love my visitors and I feel that it’s high time to give back through this link love via TheBlogFrog.  I’ll be happy to see your links on my sidebar. *hugs*

By the way, you may have noticed that I changed my blog’s theme and most of the pictures are quite in disarray.  I’m still on the process of tweaking it.  I’m trying to do a blog makeover and hope that I could find a better-looking template very soon.  I’m also doing the same attempt on my other blog, femme.news.views.  That’s about it for now.  I’m about to scour the Net to find new ways to grow traffic and earn online.  Will update you about it soon.

For now, check out my TheBlogFrog widget at the left sidebar and show your links on this blog for free.

I’m speaking from my own experience so if you’re new to blogging or currently contemplating of getting into it, stop by for a moment and read this.  Then you decide if you want to take a plunge into the blogging arena.

1. Blogging can give you restless nights.   Blame it on the excitement.  Crazy but I’ve gone through nights waking up from deep slumber impatient to write a new post and view opportunities.  When a topic suddenly pops out of thin air, sleeping is probably the last thing you’d want to do so you wouldn’t lose your trail of thoughts.   Especially when you get offers.

2. Blogging can make you see things differently.    No it doesn’t make you crazy but just a little bit different.  I look at anything trivial and I’m like “Hey, that’s something to blog about!” Tsk tsk tsk.

3. Blogging can be addictive.  It can make you high and glue you to your computer for hours everyday writing posts, developing your site or blog-hopping.   It doesn’t FORCE you to get out of the bed because you need to work but it gets you out of the bed because you can’t wait to blog!   Interestingly, it keeps your enthusiasm high expressing yourself, working at your own pace with very minimal pressure yet earning decent sums minus a boss gawking at you.

4. Blogging can invade your privacy.   You can say goodbye to being a loner and say hello to virtual friends.   You’ll be surprised how many bloggers like you are making a killing out of this craft and are willing to help other bloggers succeed.   The more social communities you join, the merrier!

5. Blogging can make you splurge. Like it or not, blogging can put extra cash in your pocket (if you choose to monetize it).   So go and pay the bills, buy your much-needed groceries or go to your favorite salon for a make-over.   Better still, save it for something bigger.

Do you still want to blog?