Online Writing Income

If you are a freelance writer and have any sort of presence in the blog-o-sphere, right after setting up your blog (as mentioned in an earlier post), trot over to the Google AdSense websites and open an AdSense account.

Personally, I’ve found that Google AdSense works better on websites than they do blogs. That might have a lot to do with my blog topics. If you have a blog that talks about the latest gadgets, insurance topics or health and fitness machines, AdSense may work out well for you.

Blogs that talk about writing or writing opportunities don’t seem to do as well with AdSense. The good thing about being a freelance writer in this day and age is that you can have more than one blog. If you have the time and the inclination, you can manage several blogs on the most lucrative topics and watch Google AdSense work for you.

Keep in mind that Google AdSense isn’t the only game in town when it comes to earning money through your blog. In later posts I’ll share some other ways I’ve managed to earn a few shekels over the past year or two.

In an earlier post, I suggested that it is wise for a freelance writer to have a blog. I still agree with that concept, but which will bring in more money? A blog or a website?

Well, there are quite a few things to consider.

Website Creation

Not everyone has what it takes to create a website. It takes some HTML knowledge, or knowledge of software that can create websites, a web host, SEO knowledge and a host of other things. You need a domain name, site host, etc., etc. All of that takes time, effort and some money.

Blog Creation

You can create a blog in 10 minutes or less depending on your blog-hosting site. After all, I have this blog here on the Today.com domain and it took just a couple of minutes. I don’t need to have intricate HTML knowledge or look for software to create my site. So, when it comes to ease of use and setup, a blog wins hands down.

Cha Ching Factor

Here’s where the hard work pays off. It’s been my experience that websites generate more money than blogs do. Wait…before you post comments about all of the successful blogs that are earning money hands over fist, stop to see how long they’ve been around and how large their following.

Just for grins, I started a website. It started earning money within the first few days and the earnings were starting to grow. Then I decided I didn’t want to spend the time coding, formatting and doing all of the stuff that needed to be done with a website so I converted it into a blog.

A blog is so much easier to maintain, but I’ve got to tell you, the earnings plummeted immediately. I found that Google AdSense and my other advertising worked better when the site was a website and not a blog. I have the exact same content, but just in a different format. Go figure.

One Person’s Experience

I enjoy the blogging format because it’s much easier to write content. It’s less formal and doesn’t take as much time to put together a post as it does an article. In my opinion, websites have more of an authoritative quality, where as blogs seem to share the wisdom and experiences of the blogger on a more personal conversational level.

And The Purpose Is????

What I’m trying to say is that as a freelance writer you should have a web presence to showcase your writing abilities. If you have the time and inclination, I also recommend that you spend a little of your spare time creating a website. You may find that it is more financially rewarding in the long run.

If you have a blog and are looking to earn a couple of bucks for your posts, check out SponsoredReveiws.com. Similar to Pay Per Post, they pay you to blog about particular topics and/or products.

The pay scale for SponsoredReviews is a bit higher than other pay to blog sites that I’ve come across and they always seem to have a lot of blogging assignments to choose from. Once you agree to blog about a particular topic, you must use the keywords and/or links provided by the advertiser.

Word of Caution:

The downside is once you agree to complete a blogging assignment, write the post as soon as possible. Don’t do what I did. On one occasion, I waited a few days before writing the post. I wrote the blog post well within the time allotted, but, after submitting the post for approval, I was turned down because the advertiser had changed their keyword and link requirements.

I was shocked and surprised. I thought I was hallucinating. I contacted SponsoredReviews to complain about the switcheroo, but they advised that the advertisers are allowed to change their requirements. They also advised that it’s important to write the posts as soon as possible (even though they give you 7 days to write the post).

As a result, I did not get paid for that particular post. To avoid such a problem, learn from my mistake. Once you accept the assignment, write it immediately and submit the link for approval. Send it to them before they get a chance to change the requirements.

In all fairness, I have received payment from SponsoredReviews in the past, but after that switcheroo scenario, I’ve stayed away.

A day or so ago, I mentioned that if you are a freelance writer, you should have your own blog. I also promised that I would share a few ways to earn money with your blog. Well, one of the ways is to get paid to make posts. Companies like Pay Per Post are willing to pay bloggers to write about products and/or services and make blog posts.

There are pros and cons to such do so, however.

Pros: You get to earn money with your blog. How much you earn depends on things like your blog’s ranking, popularity and advertiser subject (It is possible to earn money with a blog with 0 or no page rank. I’ve done it).

Cons: You may sacrifice your blog’s authenticity. Depending on the subject matter of your blog, a random post written for an advertiser may appear disingenuous, but like I said, it all depends on the subject matter of your blog.

Additionally, purportedly, your Google page rank may suffer as I’ve heard that Google doesn’t like paid posting. I’m not an expert on this so I cannot say for sure.

My Suggestion

Develop a blog you won’t mind writing advertisements for. I tried this experiment some time ago with a blog hosted on Blogger.com. Just for grins I took on a few Pay Per Post advertisers and earned a few dollars just to make sure it was doable, and it is.

So, if you’re inclined to make a couple of dollars for paid posts, give Pay Per Post a try.

If you are a freelance writer and you don’t have your own blog, it’s time to get one. A blog is helpful to a freelance writer in several ways:

• It’s a great showcase for your writing talent.
• You get to interact with your readers (that can be both good and bad).
• It gives you a place where you don’t have to adhere to anyone else’s writing rules except your own. You can let your creative muse flow.

Newbies should set up blogs on a free blog host such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com. If you intend to monetize your blog, use Blogger because WordPress does not allow ads on their free blog accounts.

Over time your blog hosting requirements may change and you may want to graduate to a more sophisticated blogging system. At that time you can look into self-hosting, but as a newbie, it’s a lot quicker and easier to use a free host.

Now that you’ve set up your own blog, stay tuned, because in future posts we’re going to discuss some of the various ways you can earn money with your very own free blog.