End of the Paid Blogging Era

S A J Shirazi

Paid blogging has been one of the most popular modules for bloggers to make some money by writing sponsored contents. Businesses and organizations from all over the world offer to pay bloggers for mentioning them, their products and or services in blogs in order to create an online buzz, get more traffic and better page rank. Many online services are serving as market places where bloggers and advertisers can meet and work together. The services manage growing demands by advertisers and arrange supply through interested bloggers.

I have been working with some of the services for sometimes. Paid blogging trend seems to be slowing down. It happened after FTC published their Endorsements Guides that rustics bloggers to endorse. Result, I see lesser number of opportunities for bloggers to chose from and write. The offer amount is also reduced. I see 200 words and a link opportunity being offered for $0.50 for page rank 3 (PR is still taken as a measure of the blog popularity) and higher blogs. The same platform was offering the opportunities from same advertisers in $25.00 some time ago. Ok, it is the bloggers’ choice to accept or decline but this may lead to quality deterioration.

I think the bloggers work should be valued and there should be some industry standard for the minimum offers. In the beginning, when paid posting started, analysts thought that this module will self regulate and clear ethics, standers and other rules will come up. That has not happened and this might mark the end of paid posting, or sponsored blogging as it is called sometime, era. What you think? Also at Logic is Variable

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How Bloggers Make Money in Pakistan

Given my personal experience in blog monetization and making money online, I have come across problems too. In the past decade since I started blogging for money, two of the paid posting concerns (eBuzzing and Snap Bomb) got the work from many bloggers and vanished. I tried to contact them via email but no reply and they still owe me money. Telecommuting and working online from home is a module that is based on trust. All concerns have payment schedule and they follow strictly. AdSense users are familiar when Google releases money in month’s time after anyone has made 100 US Dollars. Similarly ReviewMe sends out checks on the first working day of each month, Sponsored Reviews and Smorty pay twice a month and PayPerPost pays for each post after 30 days. Read more here!

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Twitter has decided to run Advertisements

Everyone's darling microblogging site Twitter founded a way to generate some revenue. Twitter has decided to run advertisements.

Among its community, Twitter itself is the only party that has not been able to monetize its 44.5 million monthly visitors effectively (traffic as of June 2009, according to comScore). Many users work with Twitter to promote their brands, publicize deals and engage customers. Some services, such as Magpie, even serve ads into a user's Twitter stream, delivering a revenue opportunity for both Magpie and the user -- but not Twitter.

The real winners with the terms of use change are Twitter's venture capital backers, which have been watching a company grow quickly without any revenue to match the wealth of eyeballs. On the company's official blog, founder Biz Stone writes , "[W]e leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open as we've said before."

The terms, which are subject to change, state that the "services may include advertisements, which may be targeted to the content or information on the services, queries made through the services, or other information." Additionally, "In consideration for Twitter granting you access to and use of the services, you agree that Twitter and its third-party providers and partners may place such advertising on the services."

Twitter announced some other changes to its terms which may look a bit dull at first but are actually quite important. Users continue to own all their tweets – digital gold, right? – but they give Twitter the right to "use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute" them. Why? Because, Stone says, "that's what we do." Users also authorize Twitter to make their content available via its application programmers interfaces, better known as APIs.

No decision has been made yet as to whether ads will run. Stone is concerned about alienating his users, and potential advertisers may be concerned about the risk of seeing their brands displayed alongside offensive – or competing – content.

The "flourishing" of the Twitter "ecosystem," as Stone puts it, may actually dilute the effectiveness of Twitter as an advertising platform. Alternative ways to access Twitter, which do not involve the website, compromise traffic results, minimizing the potential for advertisers. Serving ads into users' Twitter streams overcomes this problem but presents a host of others. In my experiences using Magpie, a third-part Twitter ad service, followers became confused by the promotions, thinking they were real tweets. One day, I had several friends ask me if I was planning a trip (I also contribute to travel blog Gadling) – because of a Magpie ad they saw in my stream.

Twitter is prudent to alter its terms of use and equally prudent not to take any immediate action. Right now, the company needs options, and this move provides them. Yet, potential does not translate to results. Twitter still has to figure out how to make the cash register ring.

Source

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Start a Blog, Monetize and Don’t Wait

S A J Shirazi

One can’t move much without coming across claims like making money online, how it is easy and how everyone can do it. After having experienced with some of the more obvious ways to skim the milk from new models of income by blogging, the best I can say is; Making money online is easy, and yes anyone can make. money. All it takes is a little hard work. There is no short cut to it. And that is how it is.

Yes, many people are successfully making money. If they can why can’t I, someone may ask. So let us see who are making money by blogging. I find they are geeks, nerds, techies with good knowledge of computers (html and coding) or are heavily staffed organizations. They have over saturated the niches for computers, gadgets, photography, graphic designs and the like. You need to compete with them? If not, then find out what you like and are good at. The most surprising thing is that some people want to make money by blogging but they have not decided what to blog about. I would suggest if you have nothing unique (ok fairly unique) to tell and add value then don’t start. And those who do, may make their first $100 with Google Adsense within than nine months. The beginning has always been like that.

Second, those who have flair for writing can make good money with high Google PR blogs by writing reviews of products and services on their blog. Here some blogger would find it difficult to write about subject like mesothelioma lawyers, consolidate loans, refinancing mortgage, tax attorney, ameriquest mortgage, mortgage refinance or about an all inclusive holiday package to a place they have not even heard about. Start learning.

So what are the options? You can start a blog, put in your best and do so consistently over a period of time, six months to a year, the money shoul follow and will follow. There is no other way. (Also posted here)

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