Ed Earns

Like I said before, I’m posting all of my sites here just for reference and so I have something to blog about. hehe. I have 5 personal blogs in total and I don’t know what’s wrong with me if I have soe sort of multiple-personality disorder or something because all of them are personal blogs. haha. Usually, there’s a slight difference that’s why I post whatever I can in each one. I try to develop my own niche in each but sometimes my ,mind is too scattered that I just write whatever I want to write in each.

Have you found a common denominator? Obviously it has the first initial of my name on every domain. Can’t I be any vainer?

Soloflighted.com

This is my first site. All of the entries in my old blog (ed.blog-city.com) are transferred here and since I started blogging to earn some extra income, I was able to utilize this venue. This is also the blog where I showcase my travels and food trips so it’s also a thing to distinguish on.

Edcel.net

This blog is where I get a bit more personal. The things I don’t write in soloflighted.com are what’s usually written here. I like the domain because it’s me. And this site was created set up by yours truly which makes it more special. Since I wanted to try to understand what FTP, host names, DNS, etc. are, I had to start from scratch so I’d learn the art of seting up my own site in my own host.

Edearns.com

This blog is more of a personal accounting book where I blog about the things that gave me extra income online. This is where I notate the tasks and opportunities and my cash flow when it comes to earning money through the net.

Edstudyante.com

Because of the drive needed to release thoughts pertaining to my life as a student, employee and blogger, I created this site to get those random emotions that keep me busy. This is where I talk about school, office and again, blogging. This is a personal space for professional rants. hehe

Edsnaps.com

Lastly, the site that doesn’t get updated as much. hehe. This site is supposed to be where I put random snapshots since I also love to take pictures and share them with the rest of the bloggin community.

———–

Wonder why I keep these 5 sites? Of course, more sites equals more money but more sites also means more tasks. People might also wonder why I don’t consolidate all my pages into one single domain. The reason is the same one I just stated. I’m just waiting for the right time to fully blast my sites to their full potential. But then, with my busy life outside blogging, I have difficulty finding time. Oh well, I just wanted to share these to you.

Through soloflighted.com, I earned my fourth payout! It’s nice cause again, I’ve been referring to this payouts my quarterly bonus. It’s great knowing that there’s some extra moolah that I can get out of blogging. People understand why I blog for money anyway.

Come to think of it, since this is already my fourth payout, I should write an entry collating all the earnings I’ve gained out of soloflighted.com. I would need to create one for my other blogs as well.

3rd payout! Yey! I got my 3rd payout which is comprised of paid reviews from last week of May to first two weeks of August 2008. Again, this isn’t much to professional bloggers but I do this as a sideline so it’s nice that almost every now and then, I get a bonus from earning online money.

These were earned under my personal/travel blog: Soloflighted.com plus some extra tasks from my admin for her site. I also have earned some money through another personal weblog I created but I’m not using the moolah any time soon.

I’ll be getting the money from my Admin later on tonight and I’m planning to just save this bunch so I can pay it off for school.

I’m on a high already.

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.

To blog for money or NOT?

I asked myself this question a whole bunch of times before I returned to blogging. Right now, I’m still stuck in that stage where I don’t want to compromise my site in putting too much commercialism in it as I wanted to preserve the essence of blogging.

I used to blog for blogging’s sake. I wanted to express my thoughts just to have my piece of the pie in creating a statement, no matter how little that would be. Until it came to a point that I didn’t want to blog anymore. However, the interest came back when I learned I could blog to earn.

Right now, I’m really making some moolah out of my personal blog. But I don’t want to bombard it with too many side content that’s it’s already hard to distinguish what the purpose for it is.

That’s why if you have plans on how you want to blog, you need to sort out your sentiments if you really want to earn or not. As for me, I just wanted to be somewhere in the middle. I’d want to monetize my site, however, I still want to be a part of that small group with some entries that are worth reading.

Not that those sites that focus more on earning such as the one here, isn’t worth reading. We all have different perspectives and opinions on how we view blogging.

On my end, I had to blog because I needed the money. Of course, who doesn’t need some right? But again, we all have our own reasons, just don’t let yourself get caught in between. You should know what you want. If you think that you’d be compromised with the way you are writing and putting different ads or paid content on your site, then stop already. You do have a choice anyway.

As what a colleague at work commented when I was still having this inner conflict inside me whether to blog for money or not, he asked me: “What is the sole purpose why you blogged?” I replied “Because I want to earn”. There you have it, enough said.

So I guess I won’t be able to update this site over the weekend. I’ll be off somewhere. That’s why while I’m gone (as if I’ll be gone for how many weeks), I’ll think about some proper topics to discuss when I get back.

I really want to get serious with earning online and making some money through this. I don’t think I would have to attend a university online to do so.

Once again, I managed to receive a reply from the same reader, Lorie. And I’m posting my response here as well as her message, with permission of course.

Hi, Ed! It’s Lourie, actually.

Thanks for the prompt response in Istorya! Yes, I’ve read both of your blogs and will try my best to continually visit soloflighted.com to help increase your traffic there…to support you in my own little way. Okay, I won’t call you nice, but I still think sharing this information is nice enough for me. Hehe!

Wow, so this is really helpful…I mean, getting paid to blog (or advertise products by word of mouth). I’m glad it has helped you out. I can’t believe why I have not known about this in my years and years of online life. Hehe! I’m glad to know all about it now. Thanks to you! I actually have a job, too, but like you said it’s still not enough. =) Question. About your post on earnings, was it good for how many weeks? Was it your first pay since signing up for these sites?

I actually checked out those sites that you mentioned. I browsed around and found out that their terms and all are interesting. I also read those blogs of one of their members and I got amused. I think I can do it. I hope my blog gets approved. Or if not, I’ll just create a new one and build it up for three months before I apply.

I have a question about domains. Do you really have to buy one? I mean, can you not get a free account from blogspot and use that? My current one is on Wordpress, and… It’s privated and I’m not that active in posting. I might have to open it up if I’m deadset on using it for earnings…and post as often as I can.

I actually use my Unionbank Visa card to purchase groceries and stuff. It’s a debit card, right? I can’t use it to buy stuff if it doesn’t have any money inside. If it’s not okay, then I’ll just create another one.

I agree that it should be balanced; it shouldn’t be all advertising or marketing. I read this one blog last night from a member… xxxxxxxxx.com. She’s one of their top earners but most of the entries are advertisements. You can only count the personal contents. Haha!

Sure, you can go ahead and post my message in your blog…just edit out the email address though. It’s hard if we get spam. Hehe!

Again, Ed, thank you so much! I might have to bug you every now and then for questions. I hope you will not mind.

Take care, too, and best regards.
Lourie

This is my reply again:

Hey Laur.. I mean Lorie. toinks. Of all the things, why’d it have to be the name that I misspelled?

Yeah, at first I didn’t like the idea of advertising products because like I said, I was really a blogger for blogger’s sake. It seemed that my site became commercialized because of these paid posts. Even now, sometimes I don’t like the idea of advertising, it’s because I was able to create a network with pure bloggers before. However, in a more practical perspective, I’d rather do this rather than not blog at all. Instead of me looking for another job, I’d rather blog as a sideline.

Anyway, what’s good if you’re already approved is you have full control on your site and the content. Because there’re a number of advertisers out there that has a number of topics to choose from. So you don’t have to worry about posting a topic that you don’t like because you’re the one who’s going to pick the topics of your interests to post. Also, you don’t need to get some Online Degree Programs just to earn, okay?

However, it’s not everyday that you get to choose any topic you like, because these advertisers have certain requirements (e.g. you need to have a page rank of X, etc.) These tasks can range from $3 – $200 or more.

It’s easy once you get approved. I have a colleague at work that’s a mother of 2 kids and wants to earn online. She just kept on posting everyday for about 2 months. But it came to a point that she became frustrated because she felt that she’s not making any money because of the less number of traffic. I encourage her to keep on going though; cause it’ll be like that the first months. Until the time came that her blog was approved, she became ecstatic.

About Unionbank, I believe it’s okay. You can check this entry so you can apply for paypal. hehe. Shameless plugging:

http://edearns.blogspot.com/2008/04/paypal.html

About the domain, I don’t think you really need to purchase one as there are some bloggers who are still earning despite their accounts are hosted. However, if you wish to maximize it, it would be better if you purchase one. Because there’re some advertisers that don’t accept blogs that are hosted somewhere else.

What I do usually with paid post entries is post them in between personal entries. That’s also one of the requirements in some paid post sites; that your post should be sandwiched between personal entries.

It’s okay if you still have some questions, you can take advantage of emailing me. As long as I’m not that busy with life, you can email me!

And thanks for letting me publish your message; I just realized I write very long replies. Am I really that talkative? hehe.

Thanks.

I’m so glad that somebody took the time to email me when I posted a topic in istorya. With her permission, I’m putting her response here since she’s interested with how I’m able to earn online; so in turn, people who are interested with the idea may also find some useful tips in return.

This is an edited version, I converted some words to English. hehe.

Hi, Ed…is your name Ed?

Anyway, I find your post here about earning through blogging very interesting. It’s very nice of you to share this information to help others.

I’ve been blogging for a year now (on and off though), and I didn’t know you could get paid for your blog posts. I would love to know more about it, if you don’t mind helping me out. I spend quite a decent amount of time online, and I think it would be best to get something good (like money, perhaps) out of it. I’m married with kids, and I could use whatever little (or big) income that I could get to help the husband with the expenses.

Anyway, I’ve read your blogs, and and I got intrigued by them. So all I need to do is do the same things that you suggested there? I have an existing Unionbank savings account (Visa), can I use that? How do I link that to a Paypal account?

As for posting…how exactly do you post to get paid? I mean, should you always write about products all the time? I read your Siargao series and it was fun. Did you get paid for it? Can you blog about personal stuff, too? I’ll read more of your blog to be able to understand more about this paid post thing. Hehe!

Sorry, I have so many questions. You don’t have to answer any of them, but I would appreciate any help or input though. Here is my email address: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com. You can email me there if you’re not comfortable with Istorya or anything.

Again, thanks for sharing your “secret” to success. Hehe! Godspeed to you, and may your blog continue to rake in all those moolah. Hehe!

Best regards,
Lourie

This is my reply

Hi Laurie… Laurie is your name as well, right?

Thank you for your long message. That’s actually what I want to share here to other people. Since I know my blog’s not that high in traffic, and I believe I can reach out to more people using forums. I’m trying to regularly update my other site. Here’s the thing, my own blog is at http://soloflighted.com, while the entries on how I was able to earn online is thru http://edearns.blogspot.com. Don’t call me nice though, hehe.

Anyway, thanks for reading my post in istorya! hehe. I was able to blog for 3 years for the sole purpose of blogging. Until a friend informed me that I could earn while at it. Honestly, there was a point that I stopped blogging, but I was able to return to this hobby because of this new-found interest of earning money. Especially since my family and I are not that well-off in life. I have 4 other siblings and my parents don’t have a stable job. I stopped school cause it’s a bit expensive and there are a number of things I want to do that I can’t. I already have a job but I feel it’s still not enough. That’s why I just want to help other people as well, just to spread the news. When I talk to people at work about blogging, some wouldn’t believe and find the idea tiring. So I decided to just find other people to talk about it.

About posting… you need to apply for paid post accounts online. That is your blog needs to be approved by paid sites. There are sites who are accepting advertisers and bloggers. The advertisers are the one who are looking for bloggers to write a particular topic and link it to their website. All you have to do is meet their requirements (e.g. you have to update your blog regularly, there should be an X minimum of entries, it should be at least 3 months old, etc.).

Honestly, I’m not the one who applied for my site, since my domain, soloflighted.com, is still a bit new. I didn’t have enough hits or traffic. I was just able to migrate all my entries from an old blog to my new one so that explains why I don’t have a lot of visitors despite the long list of entries since 2003.

About paypal, I’m not so sure about the savings account. But it should accept a credit card. I think it’s okay cause you said it’s a Visa. First you have to sign up for a paypal account, then it will ask you to type your card number so you can link them together. From there, you will most likely know what to do.

Lastly, about Siargao, no, those were personal entries; your entries should be balanced.

Thanks again for taking the time to read and actually sending me a message! Remember, you don’t need to have an online degree to earn. By the way, is it alright if I put your message in my blog to let other people know about it? So I can add another entry to my site. hehe.

Take care,
Edcel

I just got my first payout for the month of April from the admin. $110, not bad for somebody who’s just starting out. Not some mba programs could give me this money in such a short span.

I received the fruits of my labor 5 days ago and it feels so good knowing that I earned something this big for a craft which is already a part of me.

I even created an Excel format (just basic computations) to keep track of what I’ve posted and which tasks I’ve published.

I’m just so high right now, knowing that I finally generated some income out of blogging. I’m not one of those skeptical people who thinks that earning online is such a big joke, but neither did I really believe I could earn some dough out of it, until now.

I went back to blogging mainly because I wanted to earn some cash in the process. I had a colleague at work who was earning some money out of blogging and I got intrigued while learning a lot from her. She was studying a degree program and she was working and she was earning extra as a sideline. So I tried to revive my then defunct blog at Blog-city.com. The only problem is the site was kicking out bloggers who had free accounts by the end of that year (2007). To think I had more than a hundred entries on that site as I was blogging for about 3 years using that domain.

Anyway, after some negotiations with the same colleague, she proposed to buy a domain for me provided that I of course, give something back in return. Business is business after all.

please click on the link for the full entry on why I started blogging again:
Back to Blogging