There are many tools that could make you money on a blog, from AdSense and Text Links Ads, to affiliate programs, paid advertisements and sponsored review. Each of these tools has its pros and cons, each has to face controversy and each is a subject of debate.
Some bloggers question the ethicality of using a blog as a money making machine. But in the end it’s all about a reason. If you blog to make money then the resources bellow might help you. Understanding them and how they work could be beneficial even for the bloggers who question them.
I am one of the advocates of sponsored reviews. I use such resources to monetize my blogs and I use such resources to generate buzz for my clients too. I see this as a win-win situation and I don’t find it deceitful. Bloggers who publish sponsored entries on their blog usually have a disclosure policy clearly displayed in the menu and they also (should) identify each sponsored review, one way or the other. As far as I know, nobody minds advertisements in a magazine. We open the magazine, we read, we see the commercials and move on. We make our own opinions about a certain product or service based on the information we receive.
When normal people review a site is much better than receiving the information via a carefully conceived sales letter. Blogger reviews, even the paid ones, are more… genuine.
For example, eWritings has a special Sponsored Reviews category. And my reviews are usually harsh. You ask me to review your site, you get my honest opinion. Because I’m trying to give you value for your money. Ask for a positive review and I will refuse. Easy. No one can force me to publish something against my standards. A review on eWritings is not expensive. The price ($60) covers my time, and that’s enough. My usual freelance fee is 40 €/hour.
So basically, those who order a review from eWritings don’t pay for a link, but for a honest analyze that will hopefully help them fix some problems and fine-tune their sites. But enough about me. Let’s review the resources.
The Controversial PayPerPost
This is by far the most debated money making platform for bloggers. PayPerPost (aff.) is a tool for advertisers to promote their websites, products or services, for bloggers to get paid to write about these websites, products and services and for publishers to gain additional exposure. It sounds pretty simple, and it is quite simple, but… it leaves room for debates because there are bloggers who will get any opportunity to make money and advertisers who manipulate the public by requesting positive reviews.
The pay is usually low (starting at $5), but then again the expectations are not too high. There’s nothing easier than blabbing about a site in 50 words and inserting the required link. This doesn’t make sense for the advertisers. The best results come from contextual links in texts that have 200 words or more. But the buzz is good and the traffic increases for a short period of time.
I had good results for my clients with this service: increased revenue and the enrichment of the customer database. The links were beneficial secondary effects.
PayPerPost is also the company that has the most aggressive advertising campaigns. They are innovative and should serve as an example for any online entrepreneur. They are efficient in promoting their service, they radiate positive energy and they have an excellent customer service. I’ve read on Laura’s blog something about writers who accept to write unique articles of 1000 words and more for $ 1 a piece. Compared to that, 50 words for $ 5 sounds like a fair deal. PayPerPost pays 30 days after entry approval.
The Flat-Fee Bloggitive
Blogitive doesn’t pay more than $ 5 per entry and they have high expectations. They don’t require disclosure either, but no one seems to make a big fuss about this. The target is PayPerPost because they have the largest bloggers network and they are the most successful. But Blogitive pays weekly and there’s no limit for how many opportunities you take. Bloggers who have their own domains and work with wordpress platforms can maximize their Blogitive revenue by implementing the Blogitive directory plugin and selling links on their pages.
With Blogitive, once you reserve an opportunity, you have 48 hours to write and submit it for approval. At PayPerPost you are always in a rush: you have to review a site, product or service and write about it in one hour. If you miss the deadline you miss the opportunity.
Every Once In A While Blogsvertise
There are no opportunities to choose from. Blogsvertise (aff.) prefers to send you a link, the requirements for the post and gives you five days to complete your task. They don’t require disclosure either, but you can write about what you want (somehow related to the topic of the site you have to link to) and just include a link. Basically you do not publish a review, but a contextual link. The pay varies from $4 to $20 per entry. Blogsvertise pays after 30 days.
V7 Contextual
These guys pay you to include a link to a site within the body of an article. You make $ 10 per link and you have to be a member of V7N forum. V7 Contextual has a strict non-disclosure policy too. A publisher has to acknowledge that the fact that a fee has been paid for the website link is in itself confidential. In the end, if you don’t like the site you are supposed to link to, just don’t. Forget the $ 10. Remember: you don’t need to talk about the site you link to. You just need to use the keyword and link. For example, in an entry about online public relations you are given the key phrase “public relations” and you have to link to a specific page or site like this: “public relations is an important discipline for online success.” (The link leads to my website.) Payment follows as soon as the presence of the link on your site is verified.
Smorty
Smorty (aff.) is new and doesn’t abound of opportunities. It pays weekly, after entry approval. Once you reserve an opportunity you have 72 hours to complete your task. Smorty requires blog entries of minimum 150 words and maximum 400. Then, the advertisers have 5 full days to review your entry and approve it or dispute it. If they reject it for any reasons, you still get the chance to correct that and resubmit. The minimum pay rate for an entry is $6, but due to Smorty’s special blogger ranking system (PageRank, Alexa Ranking, Return rate of given tasks, approval/decline ration of given tasks and number of completed tasks.) you could even make $100 per post. Disclosure required.
Bloggerwave
Bloggerwave is pretty new too. Bloggerwave pays 30 days after opportunity approval. Your entry gets approved if it meets the requirements of the advertiser: link, tone, image and special requirements. If your entry is denied, it’s not the end of the world: you have the chance to revise and resubmit. Then the entry needs to remain live for 30 days (not necessarily on the first page). There is no limitation to the number of opportunities that a blog can take up.
Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe
Sponsored Reviews is the only paid per review platform I used till now on eWritings. ReviewMe approved my blog too, but so far… no orders. I like Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe because they seem to be the most serious pay per entry platforms. ReviewMe set the price for a review on eWritings at $60 and they’ll take 50% of the win. On Sponsored Reviews I set my own price and I get to keep 65% of the win. From this point of view Sponsored Reviews is better. Sponsored Reviews pays twice a month, but what I really like about this site is that you are really expected to write in-depth, honest reviews and most clients require full critique.
And this is what paid blogging should be all about: honest reviews.
Great post! I know will be bookmarking this and refer back to it often. So far advertisements are the only thing that I have used (and not with a lot of success either). I have been thinking of either adding some of these other moneymakers, or adding another blog specifically for paid posts.
I am glad you like it and find it useful. I don’t know how much you will make, but I think it will be enough, because you have a good PageRank and your writing style is very good. If you need help or have any questions … you know I’ll answer.
Oh, in rereading it I see you reference the $1 an article ad. Here is a similar link, posted on a forum, for writers to work for links: http://www.wahm.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=374866/.
I see this kind of advertisment/post several times enough. In this forum, the regulars usually educate posters like this pretty quickly. Still, similar posts keep popping up–so some people must be responding.
Good link (although it is being redirected to the main forum page, I was able to find what you are talking about). It looks to me like these people have a lot of time on their hands or they don’t really know their own value.
I use PayPerPost and ReviewMe and also run google ads on my blog. As long as they are not hidden, nor the purpose of the blog, I think there is no problem! However, I had no idea there are so many ways to monetize blogs! thanks, it’s actually a great place to start researching the topic. I’ve signed up for Sponsored reviews, as it sounds really interesting. let’s see how I fell about it later on
Sponsored Reviews is really the best. And the thing is that the owner of one of the sites I made a review for made a real order from Pamil Visions too.
Hi Mig
Thanks for your rundown and opinion on these opportunities. I’ve been thinking of this too, but didn’t want to lose faith with readers. Your point about magazines having advertising is a good one, as long as it is clearly indicated. Your post has given me another perspective on things. I want to get rid of a lot of my Adsense ads, so I will look into this further, and consider it some more.
Thanks again.
Yvonne
Hi Yvonne, I think our readers are intelligent enough to understand that we need to monetize our blogs, especially as freelancers or WHAMs. But I also think we need to be honest with them and mark the advertisements and paid reviews clearly, as you said. Through these programs I discovered pretty good sites and useful tools, I’ve even received free copies of different ebooks (to write a review about a book you need to read it) and I think that there’s a lot to explore here.
Great information! I’ve never heard before of several programs you mentioned. Unfortunately, Romania comes after the world ends, so I cannot receive money via PayPal. They recently added Romania to their list, but the accounts are for sending money only. I’m really upset with this, because I find myself limited to AdSense and a few more programs which send checks.
I’m sure PayPal will soon revise this and provide all its services in Romania. It’s just a matter of time. But you could make an account in a country accepted by PayPal and work with that. Ask Alina Popescu (comments above) how she did it. As far as I know ReviewMe pays via PayPal only and Alina has a ReviewMe badge on her blog.
Thank you for this post. It is the best review about this topic that I have found in the last weeks. I had to bookmark it in my onw blog. Greetings from Vienna, Robert
Hi Robert,
So you are not so far… and it just happens that I love Vienna. I always stop there on my way home (twice a year) when I drive from Germany to Romania. I’m glad you liked this entry. It looks like there was a real need for such a review.
Mig
Which the best for an advertiser, do you happen to know? I mean not in terms of price but in terms of quality. I am thinking about advertising my site in the service like this but I can’t choose one. I assume since you are an experienced publisher, you should know about the other side.
Thanks in advance.
It really depends. If you don’t want the readers to know that you bought a review, the best are blogitive and blogsvertise (remember to mention in your requirements that bloggers should not mention that the review is sponsored). But there are not many bloggers who accept to write without disclosure.
In terms of quality of the review, the best are Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe. But they are also quite expensive.
The one that gives you the fastest results (and the lowest fees for that matter) is PayPerPost. Here you could also specify “disclosure not required”, but unless you write: please do not mention that this is a sponsored review, the bloggers will disclose.
If you just look for links (no review), V7 is affordable ($ 10 per contextual link) and you could also give blogsvertise a try.
Give me a link to your site, and I’ll tell you which service I consider best.
It is a blog about copywriting offering also copywriting services. It is under construction now but you can have a look: copywriting911.com. Thank you very so much!