What's Your Pleasure: A Blogging Career or a Little Moonlighting?
Do you love blogging so much that you'd like to make a career of it? Perhaps you'd rather simply find a blogging gig or two that would allow you to express yourself in a more personal setting while picking up a few extra bucks to supplement your other freelance writing income. You might even hope to use your new-found blogging gig to underwrite or help promote your current AdSense-revenue-only blog. These are all great reasons for seeking work as a blogger.
Blogging Gigs: Regular--But Not Always Substantial--Income
One nice thing about blogging gigs is that they can provide a writer with regular income--a handy commodity in the uncertain, feast-or-famine world of freelance writing. But, though regular, often blogging income isn't very substantial. This is one of the realities of the Internet culture in which we ply our writing craft. Blogs are everywhere! Yet, there are companies that understand and want to capitalize on the booming popularity of blogs and are therefore willing to pay fairly decent to quite lucrative compensation amounts for regular blog posts on virtually unlimited topics--particularly from seasoned and/or popluar bloggers.
Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Paid Blogger?
If you enjoy blogging and have a fair amount of knowledge about one or more topics (or an area of personal interest, coupled with some great research skills), if you can express yourself clearly and explain your topic well, and if you have the ability to make your topic come alive via an engaging writing style, these elements can add up to opportunity for you. Every company requires a different level of expertise of its bloggers. In fact, some don't require anything more than the "gift of gab," a real interest in your topic, the ability to write about it in an engaging manner, and some proof that you have the ability to post consistently on your topic (i.e., a regularly-updated past or current blog).
Blogging Gigs: What Are You Looking For?
Every blogger is looking for something different in a blogging gig, and available opportunities vary widely. Some offer only a share of advertising revenues, some "pay" you by providing a forum whereby you can promote and link to your current website or blog, others pay token amounts, and still others offer reasonable to excellent compensation for your posts. You'll need to assess your own needs, wants, talents, experience, availability, temperament, and current financial situation and weigh these against the opportunities available if you hope to make professional blogging a realistic part of your writing business.
Caution: Blogging Gigs Can Raise Your Blood Pressure!
Before considering a blogging gig, be sure you're prepared to face the sometimes stressful requirement of providing fresh, new, interesting content on a recurring basis. Some companies require 3-5 posts a week, others, daily posting, and still others, multiple posts per day. Be sure you'll be up to the task and able to think clearly under the incessant pressure of daily or weekly blogging quotas and deadlines. If you have a tendency to experience a disproportionate amount of stress under deadline pressure or become excessively anxious over impending projects, paid blogging may not be the gig for you.
(Now and then, you'll actually find companies that require less-frequent posting--e.g., once per week. Periodically, you'll even run across ads seeking individual blog posts as contributions to already-existing blogs. This is a great way to take the pressure off and might prove the ideal answer for those who enjoy blogging yet prefer to avoid the stress of assuming the entire responsibility for administering a blog.)
Always Remember That a Blog Is a Community
Another factor to consider where blogging gigs are concerned is that, whereas most freelance writing simply requires writing an article or other type of copy and submitting/selling it to a publisher or website, a successful blog requires interaction with its readers. Be sure you're prepared to spend the time it takes to reply to comments and build a rapport with your readers before you accept a blogging gig. Figure in the time you'll inevitably spend in this activity when considering whether or not the compensation you'll receive will be sufficient for the time, energy, and effort expended.
Follow-Up Post: Blogging Job Sites
Stay tuned for my next post, in which I'll provide links to some websites that list blogging gigs. In the meantime, give a little thought to the question of whether these are the kinds of writing gigs you should focus on, whether you should simply consider them as an adjunct to other types of writing, or whether you should, perhaps, avoid them completely--except, possibly, for submitting an occasional post to an already active blog. Only you can answer that question--though it might take you a bit more time and experience to figure it out!
Happy blogging!
Jeanne
Did you enjoy this post? Have any insights on paid blogging to share? Have you ever seriously considered focusing exclusively on blogging gigs? Perhaps you already do. If the only blog you currently write is your own, how different do you think it would be to write a blog for someone else? Would you consider it? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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