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If you have the expertise/credibility and the writing skills, it’s increasingly easy to find relatively good paying gigs writing a blog for an existing website rather than trying to launch your own standalone blog/website then try to generate traffic and advertising revenue. I realize that making money by “blogging for yourself” is the topic of this thread, but making money by blogging for others is worth considering, too.
I’ve been a fulltime writer (as well as public speaker and so called “media personality”) for the past seven years, and after an initial, frustrating, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to launch and monetize a blog on my own, I discovered that I was already at a point in my freelance career where any number of sites would pay me to just a write a blog for their existing websites. The blogs are posted under my byline, and an excerpt is automatically posted on my own website which then takes the reader back to the hosting site to read the full post.
My primary blog, “Cheap Talk with Jeff Yeager”, is one I write weekly for the AARP website, and I also write a less frequent blog, “The Green Cheapskate”, for Hearst Publishing’s popular environmental news website, The Daily Green. In the past I’ve blogged a little bit for Wisebread (which, of course, is simply a coalition of independent personal finance bloggers), as well as various other smaller sites.
So paying opportunities to blog for existing websites are increasingly common, and the pay – while not spectacular – is decent enough (by freelance writing standards) and steadily increasing. Some sites pay bloggers by the number of view/clicks their posts receive; at least in my experience that’s a less desirable – and certainly less dependable – compensation model. I’m paid a flat fee per post (regardless of word count) for the blogs I currently write, which in reality has worked out to about 25-50 cents per word. The good news is that the writing is quick and easy, usually with a minimal amount of editing by the publisher, but the bad news is that web publishers generally want all rights (electronic, print, etc.) to what you write in the form of a blog, making it in essence a work for hire rather than something that the writer continues to own.
Obviously you’re probably not going to make a fulltime living just by blogging for other people/sites, but it can be a decent source of ancillary income and, if you want to be a fulltime freelance writer, it can mean a regular paycheck (albeit a modest one)—a rarity in the world of freelance writing. Since a majority of my income is from writing books and freelance articles (for both print and online publications), as well speaking gigs and broadcast work, I’m happy to let someone else handle the technical aspects of my blog, syndicating it across the web, attracting advertisers and readers, etc. What I get out of it is continual online exposure of my “brand” and a dependable paycheck in exchange for a relatively small investment of my time.
I’m glad to see these discussions here about personal finance blogs/blogging, and I hope to be able to learn and contribute more in the future.
Stay Cheap!
-Jeff Yeager, “The Ultimate Cheapskate”
I’ve been a fulltime writer (as well as public speaker and so called “media personality”) for the past seven years, and after an initial, frustrating, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to launch and monetize a blog on my own, I discovered that I was already at a point in my freelance career where any number of sites would pay me to just a write a blog for their existing websites. The blogs are posted under my byline, and an excerpt is automatically posted on my own website which then takes the reader back to the hosting site to read the full post.
My primary blog, “Cheap Talk with Jeff Yeager”, is one I write weekly for the AARP website, and I also write a less frequent blog, “The Green Cheapskate”, for Hearst Publishing’s popular environmental news website, The Daily Green. In the past I’ve blogged a little bit for Wisebread (which, of course, is simply a coalition of independent personal finance bloggers), as well as various other smaller sites.
So paying opportunities to blog for existing websites are increasingly common, and the pay – while not spectacular – is decent enough (by freelance writing standards) and steadily increasing. Some sites pay bloggers by the number of view/clicks their posts receive; at least in my experience that’s a less desirable – and certainly less dependable – compensation model. I’m paid a flat fee per post (regardless of word count) for the blogs I currently write, which in reality has worked out to about 25-50 cents per word. The good news is that the writing is quick and easy, usually with a minimal amount of editing by the publisher, but the bad news is that web publishers generally want all rights (electronic, print, etc.) to what you write in the form of a blog, making it in essence a work for hire rather than something that the writer continues to own.
Obviously you’re probably not going to make a fulltime living just by blogging for other people/sites, but it can be a decent source of ancillary income and, if you want to be a fulltime freelance writer, it can mean a regular paycheck (albeit a modest one)—a rarity in the world of freelance writing. Since a majority of my income is from writing books and freelance articles (for both print and online publications), as well speaking gigs and broadcast work, I’m happy to let someone else handle the technical aspects of my blog, syndicating it across the web, attracting advertisers and readers, etc. What I get out of it is continual online exposure of my “brand” and a dependable paycheck in exchange for a relatively small investment of my time.
I’m glad to see these discussions here about personal finance blogs/blogging, and I hope to be able to learn and contribute more in the future.
Stay Cheap!
-Jeff Yeager, “The Ultimate Cheapskate”
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