About Those Blogging Jobs
It seems as if there are more and more blog jobs of one sort or another. Some pay only revenue share, some pay per post, some require x number of posts and pay monthly, etc.
I got started in blogging when I was the Freelance Writing Guide over at About.com and they changed the way we posted our articles to a blogging format. I still don’t see About.com as a blog, but I guess, at least in one sense, it is.
Shortly after I was let go, an acquaintance started a small blogging network which I joined. It evolved and was bought by b5media.com and is now The Golden Pencil. That’s always been a revenue share deal. It also feeds and synergizes with one of my websites, www.aboutfreelancewriting.com.
I answered an ad for blogging about teenagers and drug and alcohol recovery which resulted in a pretty good paying gig that lasted about six months. It ended when the client decided it wasn’t working as the marketing tool he’d hoped it would.
Another ad resulted in a blog about seniors and internet banking; again I was paid monthly for x number of posts and again the blog was killed when the marketing department decided it wasn’t worth the money.
I’ve started several blogs on my own but have discovered that, at least for me, without the support of a network for marketing, it’s not really worth the effort. Others, of course, have had a different experience.
The point of all this? Blogging is in one way, just another freelance writing gig. It’s worth considering when you’re looking for freelance writing work.
Write well and often,
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POSTED IN: Blogs for Writers, Freelance Writing Jobs, General Freelance Writing
8 opinions for About Those Blogging Jobs
John Hewitt
Jul 13, 2007 at 11:37 am
The one great thing about About.com is their ability to pull in traffic. Their size and their SEO skills give them a lot of clout. Back when you were referencing my job listings on About, it would drive hundreds of job seekers to my site each post. When you and About parted ways, it cost me about $300-$500 a month in traffic. I miss that money.
Anne Wayman
Jul 13, 2007 at 12:30 pm
lol, that much! wow… I was making quite a bit too, which I no longer miss, but it was a shock when it happened.
Star
Jul 14, 2007 at 9:41 am
I had a very lucrative blogging job for a bottled water company ($1000 a mo), but try as I might I could not get them to understand the concept of integrated marketing–linking the blog to local ads, health fairs, etc. It just sat there, with the so-called marketing director wanting to rise on the engines–hey, you can’t deliver water to India, buddy. Anyhow, it petered…oh, and the puffed up execs would post their daily schedules (picked up ths award, spoke here) amidst my light-hearted daily takes on water. It was a horror!
Anne Wayman
Jul 15, 2007 at 10:42 am
hard to let go of the income, but it sounds like you’re well out of it… amazes me, sometimes, what marketing ‘experts’ do/think
Devon Ellington
Jul 15, 2007 at 10:52 am
Blogging requires a commitment, too. If you want to grow your readership, you need regular, new content. So, if you pitch for a blogging job, make sure it’s about something that will keep you fascinated at least six times a week for about a year or two.
Anne Wayman
Jul 15, 2007 at 11:53 am
good point
Amy Derby
Jul 15, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I’ve often wondered about many of the people who post for blog networks (b5media for example) — how bored or frustrated must they get trying to find something new to blog about on some of these topics? Blogging about one celebrity, for example. Unless it’s someone always in the tabloids, it must be difficult to find something to write about 6 times per week (or whatever the required number of posts is) for a full year.
Star, I had to laugh when I read your comment. Someone in the legal field (environmental law) approached me about starting a blog and writing in it for him. I thought it would be a blog about environmental/legal issues, to try to attract clients/new business, but what he really wanted was an outlet for spewing the god-awful anecdotes no one else in his life would apparently listen to. I respectfully stepped out of that one fairly quickly.
Anne Wayman
Jul 16, 2007 at 9:38 am
Of course, I don’t blog about celebrities… I’m totally out of the loop there… but usually it isn’t too hard to come up with a couple of posts a day about writing… it is what I do and there’s often something going on that interests at least a few people.
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