My mortgage blog was the last I ran on a blogging network. But this week, I decided to drop out of this blog, hosted on the Creative Weblogging network, too. The reason? The people behind the network weren't treating me well.
And that's a common theme on blog networks. They treat their writers like garbage.
Here's what my Creative Weblogging experience was like: I signed up late last year to write a mortgage blog for the network. Everything was set up. Then, two days before my blog was set to go live, I received an e-mail message: My blog had been canceled, before I had even made my first post. Worst of all, there was no explanation in that message.
So I checked with my contact person. Turns out, Creative Weblogging was struggling financially. All new blogs would be canceled.
Fine. I forgot about Creative Weblogging until about two months ago, when the network contacted me again. The powers that be were ready for me to start writing for them again. This time, my mortgage blog actually went live. For two months, I posted five times a week for $140 a month. Not a princely salary, but the blog posts were short.
Then, about two weeks ago, I received another e-mail message: My blog wasn't making enough money. Creative Weblogging wanted me to now post once a week for a fee of $28 a month. This time, I declined.
It just doesn't seem worth it.
Besides, Creative Weblogging wouldn't even give my blog a full two months to grow its traffic. Why should I stick with a network like that? Problem is, every blogging network I've worked with treats writers with the same level of contempt.
So avoid those networks. Even content writing is less degrading than writing for a blogging network.
Showing posts with label b5 media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label b5 media. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Time to give up on blogging networks
Blogging sucks.
Well, maybe I should make that a bit more clear: Blogging for a blogging network sucks.
There's a reason for this: The people behind blogging networks have no idea what they are doing. And for very low monthly or per-post fees, they expect their bloggers to not only supply their content but to bring visitors, and ad-click revenue, to their networks.
Blogging networks treat writers like garbage. That's what I've found, at least.
My first blogging network was b5 Media, where I blogged about residential real estate. I steadily grew the site's readership, increasing its visitors each and every month, sometimes by quite a bit. The pay wasn't great, but it was better than most blog networks, and it was steady.
Then b5 Media began counting its visitors a different way. Suddenly my monthly pay would be cut by about 75 percent. I decided that it was time to go.
I went to Today.com, where I wrote two blogs, for the princely fee of $1 a post. Still, the posts were easy to write. Why not? Well, because the geniuses at Today.com obviously had no idea how many site visitors would actually click on the ads on their blogs. Before long, the Today.com brain trust told me my pay rate was being changed. I'd be paid $2 for every 1,000 visitors to my blogs. That was below insulting, so off I went.
ContentQuake wasn't so bad. They always paid on time, even though their pay was bad. But it was a combination of pay-per-post and pay-per-visitors, so you knew what you were getting into. Unfortunately, last month, ContentQuake, too, ran out of money. Now they're not paying anything for bloggers. So long again, blogging network.
Finally, there's Creative Weblogging. The folks behind this blogging network gave me a whole two months before they decided that my blog wasn't making enough money. So they slashed my monthly pay from $140 to $28, and dropped my posting level to once a week. Add to this that they usually take a long time to pay each month's payment, and it's just about time to leave Creative Weblogging, too.
And that's it. No more blogging networks for me. And my advice for you? If you want to make money blogging, do your own thing. You won't make any money, probably, but at least you'll only have yourself to blame.
Well, maybe I should make that a bit more clear: Blogging for a blogging network sucks.
There's a reason for this: The people behind blogging networks have no idea what they are doing. And for very low monthly or per-post fees, they expect their bloggers to not only supply their content but to bring visitors, and ad-click revenue, to their networks.
Blogging networks treat writers like garbage. That's what I've found, at least.
My first blogging network was b5 Media, where I blogged about residential real estate. I steadily grew the site's readership, increasing its visitors each and every month, sometimes by quite a bit. The pay wasn't great, but it was better than most blog networks, and it was steady.
Then b5 Media began counting its visitors a different way. Suddenly my monthly pay would be cut by about 75 percent. I decided that it was time to go.
I went to Today.com, where I wrote two blogs, for the princely fee of $1 a post. Still, the posts were easy to write. Why not? Well, because the geniuses at Today.com obviously had no idea how many site visitors would actually click on the ads on their blogs. Before long, the Today.com brain trust told me my pay rate was being changed. I'd be paid $2 for every 1,000 visitors to my blogs. That was below insulting, so off I went.
ContentQuake wasn't so bad. They always paid on time, even though their pay was bad. But it was a combination of pay-per-post and pay-per-visitors, so you knew what you were getting into. Unfortunately, last month, ContentQuake, too, ran out of money. Now they're not paying anything for bloggers. So long again, blogging network.
Finally, there's Creative Weblogging. The folks behind this blogging network gave me a whole two months before they decided that my blog wasn't making enough money. So they slashed my monthly pay from $140 to $28, and dropped my posting level to once a week. Add to this that they usually take a long time to pay each month's payment, and it's just about time to leave Creative Weblogging, too.
And that's it. No more blogging networks for me. And my advice for you? If you want to make money blogging, do your own thing. You won't make any money, probably, but at least you'll only have yourself to blame.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
ContentQuake in trouble
I've been blogging for ContentQuake for more than a year now. I've liked working with the company. ContentQuake doesn't pay a lot, but it did pay on time and regularly.
Well, those days are now over. ContentQuake sent out an e-mail message today to contributors saying that the company was taking a furlough starting Sept. 1. That means that bloggers can continue to post for ContentQuake, they just won't get paid for those posts after Sept. 1.
I won't be posting. I can't justify doing any free work.
Combine this with my experience with Creative Weblogging earlier this week, which you can read about one post below, and I've just about given up on writing for blogging networks. I've now written for Creative Weblogging, ContentQuake, b5 Media and Today.com. None of these experiences have ended well.
I think blogging networks have never made the kind of money the people behind them expected to see. And I'm tired of being asked to not only write for these networks but to promote my writing, too. The networks ask a lot for not much money.
I think the days of the blogging networks that pay per post are ending. The real money in blogging? It lies in blogging for businesses or corporate clients. Writing for blogging networks usually means little to no money.
Well, those days are now over. ContentQuake sent out an e-mail message today to contributors saying that the company was taking a furlough starting Sept. 1. That means that bloggers can continue to post for ContentQuake, they just won't get paid for those posts after Sept. 1.
I won't be posting. I can't justify doing any free work.
Combine this with my experience with Creative Weblogging earlier this week, which you can read about one post below, and I've just about given up on writing for blogging networks. I've now written for Creative Weblogging, ContentQuake, b5 Media and Today.com. None of these experiences have ended well.
I think blogging networks have never made the kind of money the people behind them expected to see. And I'm tired of being asked to not only write for these networks but to promote my writing, too. The networks ask a lot for not much money.
I think the days of the blogging networks that pay per post are ending. The real money in blogging? It lies in blogging for businesses or corporate clients. Writing for blogging networks usually means little to no money.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Exploring Creative Weblogging
You might not have heard of Creative Weblogging. But it's another blogging service, one that has blogs focusing on business, technology, digital media, sports, family and other topics.
Last month, I began writing a blog for them. It's not a lot of money, but it is a set payment every month that I can count on.
I'm glad I began working with the company, too. A residential real estate blog I wrote for ended my contract last week. Again, it wasn't a ton of money each month, but it was steady pay that I could look forward to.
The problem wasn't the writing, the real estate company told me. It was the visitors. There weren't enough of them.
The blog had existed for about eight months. The real estate company was hoping for 10,000 visitors a month. I never felt this was a realistic goal, even though I tried to help out by posting messages on related forums and using Twitter. But the company wasn't paying me enough to promote the site as much as it needed to be.
Which brings me to this question: Why do blogging networks expect their writers to do all the work involved in promoting their blogs? Many of the networks I've worked with have asked me to Twitter for them, or promote them through services like LinkedIn. I'd be happy to do this if the blogging networks weren't paying me peanut money each week.
I mean, what are the blogging networks themselves doing? Are they doing any work, or are they just collecting money?
We'll see, then, how Creative Weblogging goes. So far, it's been hassle-free. Let's hope it stays that way.
Last month, I began writing a blog for them. It's not a lot of money, but it is a set payment every month that I can count on.
I'm glad I began working with the company, too. A residential real estate blog I wrote for ended my contract last week. Again, it wasn't a ton of money each month, but it was steady pay that I could look forward to.
The problem wasn't the writing, the real estate company told me. It was the visitors. There weren't enough of them.
The blog had existed for about eight months. The real estate company was hoping for 10,000 visitors a month. I never felt this was a realistic goal, even though I tried to help out by posting messages on related forums and using Twitter. But the company wasn't paying me enough to promote the site as much as it needed to be.
Which brings me to this question: Why do blogging networks expect their writers to do all the work involved in promoting their blogs? Many of the networks I've worked with have asked me to Twitter for them, or promote them through services like LinkedIn. I'd be happy to do this if the blogging networks weren't paying me peanut money each week.
I mean, what are the blogging networks themselves doing? Are they doing any work, or are they just collecting money?
We'll see, then, how Creative Weblogging goes. So far, it's been hassle-free. Let's hope it stays that way.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Writing for peanuts with ContentQuake
If you're hoping to get rich writing online, well ... I don't know what to tell you. If you want to make at least a little bit of a guaranteed money, then a blog network might be for you.
I haven't always had the best luck with blog networks. I've had some bad experiences with Today.com and b5 Media, two networks that suddenly changed the way they paid their writers. The changes, of course, would have left me with a monthly income that was drastically reduced. A drastic reduction from peanut-level money didn't sit well with me.
I still write for one blogging network, ContentQuake. You might not have heard of it, as it doesn't seem to be nearly as well known as b5 Media, Today.com or Examiner.com.
It's a simple setup here: You get paid for each post you write. You also get money for page views. (Don't rely on the page views, though. I've struggled mightily to get more than 200 or so page views a month on my ContentQuake blog.)
The pay is low, of course. For the first three months you write for ContentQuake, you get 50 cents for your posts. The next three months you get $1. Three months later it jumps to $1.50. Three months later it goes up one more time, to $2. And don't think you can simply write 100 posts a month. ContentQuake will only pay you for 20 posts a month. You can write as many as you want, of course. But anything over 20 is payment-free.
I'm currently in the making $1-a-post stage at ContentQuake. That means I'm making peanuts. For instance, I made a little bit over $18 for February.
Now, I'm writing for the network's business channel. If I was writing about celebrities or a popular TV show, maybe I'd be making more money per month because of increased page views.
There are positives, though: For one thing, it takes me about 15 minutes, tops, to write a ContentQuake post. And I'm hoping that the longer I write, the more monthly page views I'll attract. We'll see.
On the whole, I find blogging networks to be a bit of a waste of time. I can't explain, then, why I'm sticking with ContentQuake when it certainly qualifies as an extremely low-payer. Maybe it's the laid-back nature of the place, or the fact that it gives me something to do when I'm waiting for return phone calls or e-mail messages.
I haven't always had the best luck with blog networks. I've had some bad experiences with Today.com and b5 Media, two networks that suddenly changed the way they paid their writers. The changes, of course, would have left me with a monthly income that was drastically reduced. A drastic reduction from peanut-level money didn't sit well with me.
I still write for one blogging network, ContentQuake. You might not have heard of it, as it doesn't seem to be nearly as well known as b5 Media, Today.com or Examiner.com.
It's a simple setup here: You get paid for each post you write. You also get money for page views. (Don't rely on the page views, though. I've struggled mightily to get more than 200 or so page views a month on my ContentQuake blog.)
The pay is low, of course. For the first three months you write for ContentQuake, you get 50 cents for your posts. The next three months you get $1. Three months later it jumps to $1.50. Three months later it goes up one more time, to $2. And don't think you can simply write 100 posts a month. ContentQuake will only pay you for 20 posts a month. You can write as many as you want, of course. But anything over 20 is payment-free.
I'm currently in the making $1-a-post stage at ContentQuake. That means I'm making peanuts. For instance, I made a little bit over $18 for February.
Now, I'm writing for the network's business channel. If I was writing about celebrities or a popular TV show, maybe I'd be making more money per month because of increased page views.
There are positives, though: For one thing, it takes me about 15 minutes, tops, to write a ContentQuake post. And I'm hoping that the longer I write, the more monthly page views I'll attract. We'll see.
On the whole, I find blogging networks to be a bit of a waste of time. I can't explain, then, why I'm sticking with ContentQuake when it certainly qualifies as an extremely low-payer. Maybe it's the laid-back nature of the place, or the fact that it gives me something to do when I'm waiting for return phone calls or e-mail messages.
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