Ed Earns

I’m finally done with transferring my paid post entries that my admin has sent me. When I reformatted my computer, I accidentally deleted all my back up files in my other hard drive. Good thing I was able to burn my pictures in DVDs. However, my problem is with those other files that are also important such as my productivity when it comes to creating blog entries or sponsored reviews for my main site. Basically, I receive these tasks and I track them down with whatever Excel skill I have. I consolidate them so that during the time for me to be paid, I’d get the money and there would be no questions asked since I have a record carefully laid out for my admin to review.

I still have copies of those sponsored posts in my email and when the hard drive went kaput, but I had to painstakingly check the information and create another template for those entries I created since my last payment. One by one I had to type the titles of my posts and make sure that the payouts are correct. Now, I have the most updated records.

I’m just sad and upset because of the difficulty in retrieving the old trackers. I lost them which served as my accounting book whenever I’d like to audit the amount I’ve earned while blogging. Anyway, it’s too late to complain.

So this is one useful tip for bloggers out there. If you want to keep track of the money that you earn, I recommend that you create a tracker for each post that you have so that when you look at your income through this sideline, then you’d have something to refer to. It really is very useful for me since I have an Admin who usually sends me the tasks so I get to trace everything and she’d be able to just confirm them; reducing conflicts in turn.

Here is a screen shot of what I’m talking about. Here are the paid posts that I’ve done for Soloflighted.com for the month of July.

As you can see, it records the opportunities I’ve written for my Admin and this is what I send out when it’s time for payout. You can modify it according to what would be comfortable. It’s not really that much but it’s good enough for recording purposes. To think that I had to look 5 months back. Now I have to track back from when I started which from November 2007. Tsk tsk tsk.

I just realized that it’s already been a year since I started blogging back again to earn money and now that I found this out, I have to give a recap on the past year on how much in total I’ve earned through the different programs I’ve signed my website and then some other sites out.

These are my earnings during the year using soloflighted.com

These are my earnings in dollars for my site and then some.

In totality for the year, here’re my earnings.

I’m actually in a total shock that I’ve earned that much in a span of a year. But I’m equally in shock in locating where this amount has gone off. hehe. Of course, there are bills and other expenses. But I’m happy cause I didn’t expect this much to come to me.

I have 4 blogs to maintain, two have their own domain and two are free blogger accounts. I don’t earn as much in those blogger accounts but the domains are really vital.

For now, I’m planning to get another domain. hehe.

I haven’t been able to update this site as much as I wanted to. Probably because I went to Manila the past three weeks and I had to give more time to my full-time job rather than this blogging business. Anyway, I’m back! Though there are a lot of things I need to to so I can update this site.

But good news! I was able to earn $420 dollars in a span of 3 weeks! Yes! I was given a link my a company which required bloggers to have their own domain names and then link the keyword that the advertisers have and publish them.

There were 42 entries at that time with $5 dollars per entry. Again, the main requirement was for you to have a domain and not a free registered blog (e.g. blogspot, wordpress etc.) and since I have 2 personal weblogs, I hurriedly kept posting and posting till I my hands swell.

When I got to the middle of the process, I realized I didn’t have much time. That’s when I also realized that the requirement wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. They even allowed me to backtrack my tasks (or changing the date to a later time). That’s when I realized that I was wasting my time trying to compose as many entries as possible. Because what happened was that I just used my old blog entries and then integrated the keywords directly into those posts! Which wasn’t at all hard to do!

I’m so glad that I got to earn as much as that in how many weeks! But you might wonder where’s the money now? They’re almost all gone cause a lot had been allocated to house expenses and such. Oh well, easy come, easy go. But it was really that easy! hehe.

I’m very glad that those unexpected emails turned out to be legit after all. We don’t know how many crazy people are online who’d transact business only to fool you. I followed the tasks that they wanted, like putting a text link on my other domain’s main web page and also did some opportunities that required me to publish and submit the URLs right then and there.

Afterwards, I got paid the amount that was agreed upon. Now, I’m 105 dollars richer! I couldn’t believe I was able to earn that much in less than a week!

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t earn a lot still. But I like the way that I have some extra cash to spend *ehem* save. hehe. Knowing that my full time job can only do so much especially if you’re in a family of seven and there’s no stable income from your parents and your life started with full of debt. Anyway, before I get too personal, I’m going to cut this short.

I’m happy that again, I got some extra cash for my savings.

Because of the new project (my other site) that I put up, I’m also starting to reap some rewards of setting it up. I’m getting paid for the entries that I put up. That’s why I’m glad that it’s starting to earn. Although my site still needs more traffic or a better page rank, I’m quite happy that after barely 2 months, it’s slowly gaining some alexa traffic aside from my soloflighted.com.

Anyway, this is also one of the tips that you can get. If you have a number of blogs with a high page rank, then you can simply enroll them in those paid post sites. That’s where the real deal comes in where you can potentially try to quit your regular job (of course, I don’t want to recommend; hehe). But I know of a former colleague who did just that and didn’t bother that she’s become a bum because she has around 10 sites to maintain and yet her salary is way better compared to mine.

Well, I don’t know yet if I plan to quit my job just to become a professional blogger because I still enjoy the environment at work. We’ll see; as for now, I hope I can keep on raking it.

I feel guilty that I haven’t been able to update this blog as much. Maybe because I haven’t been earning as much? hehe. Ever since my Page Rank dropped, sheesh, I’ve been getting lesser opportunities from paid post sites.

But since I have another blog that I created and applied for different paid post sites, I’m getting the first-hand experience of anxiously waiting to get my blog approved in these opportunities. So far, there’s not much luck. But at least, I’m able to earn something. Again, it has everything to do with Google Page Rank.

Ever since my primary site’s PR was dropped to PR 0 from a PR 3, I’ve not been very happy with earning as much. I’m still in the process of retrieving and I’m wondering when the next Google PR update would be. dang.

Blogsvertise

Blogsvertise. This is where I’m getting most of my income nowadays.

They’ll email you if an advertiser wants to hire you to write about something. If you don’t like the task, you can simply accept or decline according to your preference. They would like you to provide some information on why you declined a task. This helps in filtering out the probable opportunities that will come your way in the future.

What’s great about Blogsvertise is they have a “Grab task” option wherein other bloggers who decline certain posts will be collected to a certain bin where you can grab the ones that you would like to create. You are limited for one task per day and I tell you, the range is quite good!

You can choose which one to add as added opportunity, which means added cash to your account.

Smorty, another paid post site I was introduced to. The layout has a greenish effect that is already okay since I like green, hehe. Anyway, so far opportunities aren’t that great, maybe because my page rank isn’t that high yet. I couldn’t get any more offers aside from the first post that I did for them. I guess I have to increase more traffic to my site.

What I like about Smorty is its payout. They pay approved tasks on a weekly basis so it’s really good cause other paid post sites would pay you after a month.

PayPerPost or usually termed as PPP. This is one of the paid post sites that were recommended to me by my colleague. You can sign up for this site for more information by simply clicking on the banner. Of course, if you’d be clicking on the banner, it will lead you to a page where you can sign up. It’s a referral program that they offer to bloggers to expand their network. And with referrals come bonuses. I’d get a certain amount if you sign up for an account. Anyway, if you plan to apply for one, then it’s already your choice if you click on my banner or just go to the their site directly so I wouldn’t have any credit.

Anyway, what’s nice is it’s interface because you’d readily understand what to do and where to go in order to find tasks or opportunities; at least for me anyway. The opportunities are properly sorted out with regard to tasks and your qualifications. If you plan to apply for sites,

PayPerPost is one of the top sites that are in every blogger’s list. You have to be alert too, cause available tasks would suddenly become full in a matter of seconds if you don’t act quick and reserve for them.

Note: If you don’t know what paid post sites are, you can refer to my entry about it: Paid Posts

So this is where I was able to generate my money… through paid posts.

There are a number of sites that are willing to hire bloggers to write a certain topic or interest. These are just some that I can mention at the back of my head. I know there are a number, but since I don’t have first-hand experience I don’t really have much knowledge. But since I don’t think it’s that hard to comprehend, I think I can explain it properly anyway.

Actually, these sites are just platforms for advertisers and bloggers alike. Advertisers are looking for advertisers who are looking for bloggers to blog about their products. But because I’m a blogger, I’ll be focusing more on a blogger’s perspective.

First, you need to sign up for these sites. Of course, in the process of signing up, there are some requirements and conditions in the process (e.g. your blog should be 2-3 months old, must have X number of entries, must be regularly updated etc.).

It may take awhile for your blog to get approved depending on how they will be able to review your site. So don’t fret that it may take some time, because it WILL take some time.

These paid post sites are where you need to apply so you can check some “opportunities/bids/tasks”. These tasks can range from $3-$200 or even more, again, depending on some certain qualifications. Sometimes, they will accept only those PageRanks (will be discussing this in future posts) that are high. But there are some that are not that hard to bid for; and that’s where we’re targeting more. Since I can’t demand for much (who am I, right?), I’m taking things slowly, and applying for bids that are quite okay for my range.

These tasks also have certain requirements (e.g. it should have an X number of words, should have some keywords mandated by the advertiser, should be posted on or before *date*, etc.). Once you follow their steps, and once they review your work; they’ll approve it and you can get your payout!

Note: I’m not so sure how long the cycle for the payout would be cause I’m not good with calendars. But I got my first payout after a month, and I’m still running on my second month through paid blogging at soloflighted.com.

I’ll try to post some useful tips to talk about paid posts some more.