I have come across mixed opinions about blogs that contained paid-to-review, also known as, paid to blog. Some people are not fond of it, while others are happily writing posts they will eventually get paid for. Blondish.net does have paid posts from time to time. Since my site revamp, my focus has prevented me from accepting some paid opportunities that I normally might take. I only pick opportunities that have some relevancy to my site.
However, I am alarmed to see so many people posting just about anything on their site, while complaining that their site is not doing so well. This is why I am writing this post. I will say this first: I am not discouraging anyone from taking opportunities. However, if you wish to improve your blog and connect with others, you might want to read.
When you create a site and make others aware of it through social networking, you are drawing people in because you want them to see what you are saying and hopefully provide some type of feedback, whether commenting, linking you back, or even returning. The issue lies in your site’s content, particularly your site’s focus – what your site is all about. As much as anyone loves money, if you are filling your site with more advertisements, and less content, you are not being effective in conveying your blog’s message. In fact, you are far more likely to have people tell others that your site has a lot of spam. Here are some pointers:
1. Make sure to only accept opportunities that are relevant to your blog. This will eliminate the confusion on what you are trying to say. Your blog is all about you, so make it you. If you are a walking ad billboard, then so be it, but do not complain if you are not getting the responses and traffic you desire.
2. If your site contains many focuses, perhaps trimming it or splitting it up might be a good idea. If you talk about lawn mowing on the weekend while drinking a beer, and then post another blog after it about some tech gadgets, that might be strange, unless the mowing has a story with something techie in it. You may have to make a separate blog for personal stuff. This means you can take opportunities relevant for both sites, but not mix up your ads.
3. Although some paid to blog sites allow you to post back-to-back or even every other post, you should strive to put more quality content between your paid opportunities. If you have to, make a list of your topics ahead of time and then insert your opportunities every few posts, even if you have to blog several times a day.
4. Try not to write as if you were trying to be a pitchman. When you take a paid blog gig, you need to make it you and try to incorporate how it is relevant to your site. People want to connect and see that you are honestly blogging a message rather being in it just for the money. They will understand you might need the money, but be honest about it.
5. If you do take an opportunity, stand behind it and share the link out in the social networks. Make sure to write your post open-ended so you can get responses.Treat that paid post as if it were like the rest of your blog.
Do you get paid to blog? If so, do you have more advice on this subject? If not, what do you think of getting paid to blog?
Great advice. I personally don’t really like the paid to blog trend and I choose to not use any ads at my blog, but I can totally understand why some people might take the opportunity. I have seen people who do use their paid blogging quite successfully and maintain a good reader base, but I have seen other people abuse it, post 10 entries a day with one sentence each, and then complain that their sites are not bringing enough traffic. Everyone should read this if they are getting into paid blogging. Well said.
Paid to blog has been around for more than 5 years, so it is no longer a trend. However it is for those who have recently discovered and as you have said, abused it.
Although people like to see some interesting products from time to time, I can agree with you, 10 times in day of it is a bit ridiculous. Hopefully others will read and learn.
I don’t like “paid to blog” type entries for my blog. The most I’ve done is reviewed a book where the book itself as given to me by the publisher for that purpose, and I made it very clear before reviewing it that I needed to have the freedom to pan it if necessary.
On the other hand, my blog directly got me a job as a columnist at an industry magazine ( http://www.simple-talk.com/author/matt-simmons/ ) that pays more (I image, anyway) than paid-to-blog type things would . It’s win/win, and I look at my column as sort of paying me to blog without the need to constantly pander to advertisers.
Yes, it is nice to be able to write for a magazine and have some form of steady income. I think that people lose the fact that the paid-to-blog are not to be the focus, but an occasional addition without being obtrusive. It is bad enough there are sites with pop-ups and excessive banner ads.
Now since I have refocused my Basically Geeky blog, I am much more picky about what I will post there. Now if it is merely a keyword that I can work into a post that I would normally be writing, then I will go ahead and take the opportunity.
However, some companies, instead of giving you something specific to write about, request that you just use a contextual link. I work for one of those companies. A lot of times, I can work the keywords into a post, sometimes it is a challenge. Those posts are basically just personal posts that happen to have a link worked into it somewhere.
However, i have slowed down on a lot of the blogging where I talk about specific products or services. Regardless, if I post it on my blog, I still tweet it out to Twitter as I do any other blog post.
Yes, and that I have noticed. It is good to see that you refocused, and I noticed split up your focuses into different sites.
How many blogs are you writing on?
Great advice! I rarely do paid posts but if it’s an interesting campaign, I might join in because of the publicity and the fun. But most of the time, I don’t because I like to have some quality in my content.
But of course, if a certain opportunity arises where I can become a brand ambassador for something that I personally like or really fits with my blog, I won’t turn down the opportunity. 🙂
That is a great attitude and reason to do ptb opps. 🙂 If you are fully behind a product, that makes it relevant, especially in the spirit of sharing your opinion about that in an honest manner. 🙂
I don’t do paid blogging, not because of lack of offers, but because I don’t think I could do it rightly. 9 times out of 10, I have no idea about the product. Plus, even if I did, I never feel qualified to make an accurate review.
Oh and I’d much rather write a critical one. So much more entertainment potential 😛
Yes, that does pose an issue sometimes. If you are against a product and want to talk about it how you want, I do not think the advertiser would be happy.
In that case, you could always blog about the opportunity you saw and say why you did not take it anyway. Although no money would be given, at least there would be a response out there in case a certain product or company did not live up to expectations.
I have done numerous articles dedicated to this topic and blog focus and articles, you did a good job summarizing in a single post. Paid content is ideal for people who know about the products they promote, better if you can promote something you have already used or use currently. I don’t take opps that don’t fit into my blog categories, but personal blogs and diaries have a lot of leeway since you can pretty much blog about anything you want without requiring focus.