Pay Per Post: 4 Cautionary Tips To Still Get Paid Without Losing Your Blog

I first came accross paid blogging during my emo blogging days. I visited a friends’ blog expecting to read about his usual rants regarding the banality of his existence but instead I found myself reading stuff I’ve never known him to be interested about. I felt like I stepped into the twilight zone.

I checked the site to see if I had made a mistake. I was exactly where I wanted to be. I scratched my head and wondered who this person is, why is he talking about rhinoplasty, and what has he done to my friend? It was a tiny button at the end of his entry that informed me that it was a paid post. I was relieved but I certainly was disconcerted at first.

For those not in the know, sponsored posts are paid posts where bloggers provide a plug for whatever product or service is being pushed by those get paid to blog sites. Depending on the page rank of a particular blog, fees for sponsored posts can range from $5 dollars to as much as $200 per post. Not a bad deal considering that you only spend very little time writing these entries.

As a quick source of income, nothing beats this revenue stream. You don’t have to wait for a month to get your earnings. Most of these pay per post sites usually pay on a weekly basis.

I wouldn’t get too excited too soon about this though. This source of online revenue is extremely competitive, with the lion’s share going to those blogs with high page ranks. Some advertisers actually insist on that. The ironic thing here is that usually those with high page ranks, wouldn’t even bother.

This is something to think about if you are salivating over the prospect of coming up with dozens of paid posts a week. It just doesn’t happen.

But if you must write those sponsored posts, you may want to consider these simple tips:

1. Choose your topics. If you’re writing for a niche market, as much as possible choose those products that are related to your blog. If you have a tech blog for example, you may want to write about technologies, and gadgets, and softwares. Choose those products that would not stick out like a sore thumb when taken into the context of your entire blog.

2. Be creative. If you must write about something that’s totally unrelated, be creative and relate it to some of the things you write about in your blog. Citing the same example as in number one, you could be a tech blogger and still write about ancient castles in Europe by citing the crude technologies that they used in erecting those structures or how present technology restored these magnificent edifices to how they looked today.

If you are creative enough, you could write about almost anything and still relate it to your general blog content.

3. Exercise restraint. You could be one heck of a creative writer and can relate your paid posts to your usual blog content, but if you string together these sponsored posts five times in a row for example, your readers could wisen up and see through your subterfuge. That’s not a good thing.

4. Be prolific. If you can’t exercise restraint, then you have to be as prolific as possible. Interspace those paid posts with your usual content. That way, your readers wouldn’t feel that you’ve completely gone mercenary.

Paid blogging can be a double-edged sword. It can line your pockets with cash, but if you’re not careful, it could also turn around and bite you in the ass. Following these four simple tips could very well save your blog from going under.

7 Responses to "Pay Per Post: 4 Cautionary Tips To Still Get Paid Without Losing Your Blog"

1. 

   johnny November 15, 2007 7:43 pm
   
   

   yes. You are right
   balance between these 2 should be made.

2. 

   ghee November 16, 2007 5:49 pm
   
   

   oh yes,very similar to my post,i cant agree more!

   thank you for dropping me some lines in my blog,i enjoyed reading your thoughts. :)

   so,are you planning to monetize your blog,too,someday?or youre already on it?

   have a nice weekend!!

   ghee

3. 

   Cyberpunk November 18, 2007 6:26 am
   
   

   nice tips…I used to really hate those sponsored posts (right until I signed up hehe) because most bloggers tend to endorse products and services that they haven’t and will never try (like plastic surgery and hotels in other countries), which made me feel that the blogger cared more for the dollars than the interests of his readers…

   a balance, yes, the blogger must strive for that…tricky but achievable…

4. 

   Tom November 18, 2007 2:05 pm
   
   

   Nice tips. Thanks for sharing.

5. 

   Lazarus November 19, 2007 9:23 am
   
   

   i haven’t really made a launching post for PPP. i should have done it last week.

6. 

   Tere May 23, 2008 5:51 am
   
   

   Thanks for dropping by! Hmmm why did you not invite me to that free lunch. I was betting on David Archuleta with no money involved though hahaha.

   Anyway, do you have tips on how to get back my PR4 which I lost due to this paid blogging? That would be a big help! Thanks!

7. 

   Javi May 23, 2008 6:42 am
   
   

   Hi Tere, nice to see you around these parts. You can actually work your way back to your PR4 ranking. You just have to spend some time creating a lot of backlinks. I know some posties who have recovered some of their lost PRs. However, if you’re still at it, paid blogging I mean, I do think Google will continue to deny you of your PR. Still, you might want to consider if regaining your PR is worth your not being able to do paid blogging.