Blogging For Dollars (sounds like some kind of competition lol)
I don’t understand ‘getting paid to blog’. How does that work?’
Kat over at Tough Girl 101 posted a blog yesterday about how she gets paid to blog, called Can You Make It As A Paid Blogger? I answered that I didn’t quite understand the mechanics of it, but I wanted to make a blog out of my response anyway to see what you all think about it.
I’m not against getting paid to blog. On the contrary, I would love to get paid for it. But at the same time, I think it would lose it’s attraction if I felt I was obligated to do it. Blogging is something I simply love to do. But if I were to feel obligated to do it, it occurs to me that I might not want to do it anymore. That maybe getting paid for it won’t be as fun as just doing it for me?
I mean… who pays you? How do you claim that on your taxes? Do you consider yourself to be self-employed? And what do you blog about to get money? Do you have to blog about specific things? I’m sure I can’t get paid to blog about how I sit at my computer every morning before work and debate over whether or not I have time to play WoW, or about the enormous amount of ice cream I ingest on a weekly basis while I watch TV shows with my sister. I’m just sayin’. I think there’s only so much out there to get paid for blogging about, isn’t there? I don’t know a whole lot about any one specific topic (except for Star Wars), not enough to blog about anyway (except for Star Wars lol).
So can someone explain to me how it works, this blogging for dollars thing? And what do you think about it?
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Blogging could be a freelance writing gig if you got someone to pay to you produce material (eg: an online publication makes you a paid contributor) in which case you’re their employee- or an independent contractor- depending on how that deal worked out.
Alternatively, if you had a strong enough audience, you could either create a site where people pay to read your stuff. Or you could solicit web advertisements (pay-per-click or just paid space). Or do a combination of them. In those cases, you could be your own business.
The assumption for me would be that you’d have more flexibility as your own business. I’m sure there are other variations on it but I think it boils down to whether you work for yourself or someone else and if you’re directly or indirectly responsible for revenue generation.
Whatever route is taken, I think it’s safe to say that all existing talking-head types who get paid to give their opinion got their start somewhere.
On the surface, I think it would be cool to get paid to do what I already like to do. But I do wonder if my love for doing something recreationally would get blunted if it became my job. Would it become a proverbial grind? Is it better to find you love what you get paid to do or get paid to do what you love?
It makes me think back to years ago when I was in high school and dinosaurs had just become extinct. I loved to read…until I was told to do it as an assignment. I just couldn’t get into reading when I was told I had to do it. It didn’t matter if it was for a test or a book report- as soon as reading transformed from recreation to work and the motivation to do said activity changed from internal to external, I had a hard time with it. But, that was then and this is now.
I wonder…
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Adrian already covered the basics -
My revenue generally breaks up this way: 1/4 comes from odd jobs here and there (in real life), 1/4 comes from my blog (Mainly Tough Girl 101) and 1/2 comes from me working for other people. Other people get me to blog for their business so that they can manipulate page rank, and get backlinks, and establish a sort of community of followers for themselves.
I honestly like all aspects of it, and even if it’s stressful, it’s something I ENJOY. It’s like getting paid to do art – it sucks sometimes. It might even feel like a nightmare. But ultimately, if it is any kind of passion or calling – you just do it. It’s like the job picks you.
Kat Argonza´s last blog ..Optimism, sometimes it works.
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Great post!
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