My blogging story

The other day, I received this comment on one of my posts:

"spunkovision has left a new comment on your post "Remember the days?": I'm not gonna comment about the content of your blogs. Just wanna say I got here coz of M****** from J******* who is a member of our RADIO- group. She mentioned something about you trying to increase traffic coz you need the revenue. This got me curious. I am compiling a list of sites (we already posted a partial list) in which Filipinos online can avail of any revenue or royalty-earning programs that some of them run. Do you know of any? And can you post something about the economic aspect of what you do (blogging) and how you started. It would help if you can give us a tutorial on how to start and how to enrol in such a program. Our thanks in advance. Any contribution to our efforts will be duly attributed to you and your link included in future writings related to this issue. Posted by spunkovision to Piece o' Kaje at 18 October, 2007 09:55"

I was bugging my friends some weeks ago to put my link in their blogs coz they knew I am into blogging-for-money. So when M was sick and stayed home, she decided to tell her e-group about what I do. Hence, the message from Mr. Spunk :)

I started blogging in April 2004 via Xanga. At that time, I wasn't really an internet junkie. I was a fresh Friendster-joinee when my brother said I can sign up in another community building site (Xanga). My hubby (then boyfriend) had a friend who wrote her thoughts and experiences in her website. I never knew that what she did and what I was getting into was actually called "blogging". I was that clueless. But realizing that I have found the right medium to practice my writing (or lack thereof), I was content.

Less than a year later, I transferred to Blogger because I just could not get around Xanga's limitations. Blogger has been my home since then (even putting up a wedding blog in the same platform, and this used to be my photoblog that I converted to my regular blog). But I do have a relatively new Wordpress blog with it's own domain (link found on the side). It is a totally different blog than this one.

During the times that I was also blogging for my wedding, I came across an e-group that helps Filipina Brides to prepare for the big day. This is also where I learned to Scrap digitally and found a Filipino Forum intended to help newbies become better at the craft. Almost all of the ladies from this forum had their own blogs (of course, to display their work!).

I don't remember how it happened but I slowly realized that some of their blog entries had links to websites I've never heard of. Checking out the forum, some shared the joy of making money while enjoying what they do best, blog! One of them shared that she earned about $3,000 in the first three months she was doing paid blogging and even told us that she was earning more from blogging than her regular job.

I was hesitant to try it as I have always been weary of internet stuff, too afraid to get scammed. But as the number of paid-bloggers (at least in my cyber-community) grew, I was assured of the authenticity of these schemes. The next few weeks, I found myself researching the net and following links so I could learn more. The following are the general criteria to have your blog approved (one must read the FAQs because each company is different):

1. Blog must be at least 90 days old.
2. Blog must have at least 30 posts (no posts more than 30 days apart).
3. Content must be in English.
4. Content must not contain adult material (porn, gambling etc. etc)
5. Must have Paypal to receive payments.

While on vacation, I started prepping my blog and fixed my Paypal. I signed up with Payu2blog, Smorty, Payperpost, Blogitive, Bloggerwave and Sponsoredreviews (add dot com and you will be led to the websites). These didn't happen all at the same time as I had to wait about a week or two before one application is approved before I moved on to the next. I started writing paid posts in June. The instruction is simple. The company will provide the blogger with the anchor links from the advertiser, they will say how many links and how many words are required. A little research would be helpful too. It doesn't matter how the entry is written as long as the tone is positive (or if it cannot be helped, not too negative). It could be a direct advertisement or the anchor text will just be mentioned. The advertisers pay the company and the company collects the payment in behalf of the blogger. Payouts are usually two weeks to a month from the time of the post.

The tricky part is this: the assignments and the amount of payout do come based on how popular your blog is (read: Page rank, etc). That one who earned $3000 in three months had a pretty popular blog having been known in the wedding blog circles as well as the digiscrapping world. People do visit her and a lot do put her link in their blogs. As for me, I only have a handful who check me out and very few friends who actually blog themselves. Assigments are scarce (oh I love Payu2blog, they never run out of assignments for me! And they also give the chance to send out $100 weekly to bloggers who put a Payu2blog logo in their sites). I haven't earned as much as my cyberfriend (only a tenth!) but I am happy to say that what I get, I can spend on myself. And besides, I do not plan to do this and turn this into my main source of income.

So there. I hope I satisfied Mr. Spunkovision's query :) I actually had fun writing this entry :)