Keeping Readers Happy and Bloggers Earning
Bloggers have a very tough job of writing compelling and interesting articles that will keep their readers engaged and try to earn some money while doing it. This often necessitates bloggers to take advantage of sponsored or paid posts which can be a double edged sword as it allows for the blogger to earn some money, but may turn off the readers if the sponsored post is too outside the blog content focus or is a little to obvious and pitchy.
PayU2Blog is one of the best systems that allows bloggers to get assignments in the form of keywords (they just have to use these keywords in any normal post) and they get paid a certain amount for using the keyword. These keywords can be anything from “Mesothelioma Lawyers” to “Sale” so you have to find the best way to use these keywords in your blog post.
The good thing is your post doesn’t have to be about the topic but can be about anything with the keyword just placed inside your post. This allows you to keep your content spot on without writing about products which may have nothing to do with your blog niche. The bad thing is that you may be forced to use some ugly keywords and have to get very creative.
Then there are paid or sponsored posts such as the ones you would get from SocialSpark, PayU2Blog, SponsoredReviews, BuyBlogReviews, BlogsVertise and BlogToProfit which all require some form of paid review or advertisement post including several links and sometimes a declaration of sponsorship. The best thing you can do is find and take only ones that fill your blog niche, Technology blogs only do software or technology related paid opportunities. But if you run a personal blog, or a diary blog you have a lot more flexibility since you often can discuss or talk about any topic and stay on target for a blog focus.
There are benefits and disadvantages to using both types of services, SocialSpark has declaration of sponsorship but each link is a “nofollow” link which in theory shouldn’t hurt your PR as much. PayU2Blog is not obvious and non-obtrusive way to get some earnings for posts, but are “dofollow” links and will sap away your blogs PageRank if you do not have enough links coming in to offset the links going out. Also, PayPerPost, SocialSpark, BlogsVertise and BlogToProfit allow you to pick and choose which assignments you want to do (if you can snag them), but PayU2Blog gives you assignments and you must do them or risk being banned or penalized from getting further assignments.
I do my best to feature informative and compelling content and try to appeal to a wide audience, I also do need my blogs to bring in some earnings to justify the amount of time I spend blogging. My hosting fee’s alone are several hundred dollars per year including DNS names and the blog earnings are what offset that and allow me to get a few extras (I see my blog earnings as luxury money and often buy games, movie tickets, meals and such).
So the next time you are reading someone’s blog and see a paid post, or if you subscribe to their RSS Feed and a paid sponsorship is the next article, don’t be so offended and unsubscribe from the Blog and take it with stride. You sit through commercials or movie previews before the movie, you might as well accept the occasional sponsored or paid post in between the genuine content you are looking for. Let bloggers have a right to try and make some money to do what they do.
In addition Bloggers are obligated to keep their sponsorships and paid posts to a minimum of 50% or less make sure you are giving at least two decent and legitimate articles per sponsored or paid article (PayU2Blog and articles that just have a hidden and paid link are exceptions since they still are “on focus” articles). Just remember you might be tempted to do 10 paid opps this week and make that $50 or $75 from your blog, but you will have to do at least 10-15 non-paid articles to make up the difference. I would try to do no more than 1 paid article per blog per day, unless you blog full time and are able to churn out 3 or more articles per day.
For myself I only typically produce 1 non-paid article per day, which means I do no more than 1 sponsored article every 2 days (if I make an exception, I will write more non-paid content to fill out my blog better). I also don’t accept every post I qualify for and I turn down much more than I accept.
These is just some advice and opinions from the Dragon Blogger.
-Dragon Blogger
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I think you do a great job of writing interesting, well-written and easy to understand blog posts, that's what keeps me coming back vs. a lot of other sites. Just keep up the good work, be yourself and your blog should keep on rolling!
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