Article Surfing Archive

I started blogging for personal reasons: to keep in touch with long distant friends and relatives. Then I added a Q&A blog (http://thedabblingmum.blogspot.com) for my magazine (http://thedabblingmum.com) to host interviews I conduct with authors and entrepreneurs. Now I get paid to ghostwrite for blogs and you can too!

Tip #1

Understand the industry you want to be paid to blog for.

Let's assume you enjoy health and nutrition and have read up on this topic for years. In fact, you know many facts and 'insider secrets' by heart and often share this information with friends, relatives, and strangers in your local health food store. That's a topic you could easily be paid to write about. Because of your vast knowledge, the posts will come easy and when they don't you're magazine subscriptions will offer plenty of food for thought.

Tip #2

Never accept a non-compete contract.

As a blog writer, you will make your living writing for various blogs. A non-compete clause will prevent you from writing about the same topic on another blog and that's not good for business.

As a health and nutrition specialist, you may write for a vegetarian blog, a holistic treatment blog, a vitamin company's blog, and even a diet blog. There's no competition there, right? And no 'conflict of interest', correct? The non-compete clause won't even apply.

But what if you're asked to write for another vegetarian blog? That's when the non-compete clause kicks in and prevents you from earning a better living. Is there really a conflict of interest? Not if you don't post the same information on both blogs. You can write for five different vegetarian blogs and still not show a conflict of interest. It's all about choosing a different angle on the same idea and writing about it.

Tip #3

Never rely on revenue sharing as your sole source of income.

You're job as a blog writer is to write about topics relevant to the blog's theme and interact with commenters. Your job isn't to market and advertise the blog. That's the company's job. If the company isn't pulling its weight, the ad revenue will not exist and if the ad revenue doesn't exist, neither does your salary. It's best to be paid a flat fee, but if the company you truly want to work for only pays in ad revenue, negotiate a monthly stipend plus a percentage of the ad revenues.

If you're going to get paid based on ad revenue or clicks, and you're job is to also promote and market the blog, you should start your own blog. That way, you get to keep all the income you earn and don't have to share the revenues with a company who isn't doing anything to help promote the blog'aside from hosting (which you can get for as little as $7 a month and free if you stick to blog networks.)

Tip #4

Get paid in advance.

Negotiate a contract to get paid at the beginning of the month for that month's blogging. That way, you will never be out money for a project you've completed. And remember, if the company can pay the web host, the electricity bill, the web designer, the internet provider, and so forth, the company can afford to pay you!

Tip #5

When writers' block hits, to a search online.

Sometimes bloggers get what's known as 'writers' block'. Writers' block simply means you've run out of ideas to write about. It happens to the best of us, but it doesn't have to hurt your career as a blogger for hire. When writers' block occurs, get online and search for blogs, websites, and forums related to your blog's topic. After a half hour to an hour of reading, you'll have plenty of ideas to write about.