Comments on: Love it or Shove it?

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Great point, Rebecca. I think the main thing blogging gigs have going for them is a steady check when you need one.

By: Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:38:00 +0000

Great question, Lori (and Sal)!

I don't have any blogging gigs, and I'd only consider one if the pay was good and if it didn't interfere with my other jobs.

I find that writing brochures, ads, and, yes, even press releases (!) is more lucrative than writing blogs -- and those jobs tend to lead to other satisfying projects.

I guess everyone has to go with what works best for them!

By: stephanerd

stephanerd — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:20:00 +0000

@kirk: I don’t know that I’m the best one to give recommendations on a lot of the paid-by-revenue sites out there as, by and large, I avoid them. I got my main blogging gig for the web mag through a job ad. Unfortunately, finding sweet gigs like that are difficult. My other regular gig I landed when I met someone at a blogging meetup who was looking for, well, what I had. And I suppose that’s the best way to do it. As with anything else, it’s about who you know (or who you meet and subsequently charm).

Of course, you could also go the ProBlogger route (check out problogger.net!) and try to start up your own blog. That’s what I do with Freelancedom but, while I have minimal advertising on the site, it’s not really a project I do for money but rather a means of interacting with other freelancers.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:05:00 +0000

I won't touch that, Kathy. LOL!

Sal, it's a pretty good way to build up credits - that's very true. And like you said, you're just starting out and each of us have our pain points when we do that. As you know, I made a whopping $15/article back in the day. I knew then it could be better, but it was my foot in the door and it was credible.

That's the part you gotta focus on. Like Kristen hinted at, it's gotta be credible or it gets you nowhere fast. There are lots of credible blogging jobs out there, but there are just as many schmuck jobs waiting to take your time, work you like a dog, and pay you like an elephant - in peanuts.

This blogging gig you have sounds like you enjoy it, you have the expertise for it (thus creating your own niche), and you're okay with the pay for now. Like I said before, under those circumstances, by all means stick with it. It's a nice way to get started.

By: Irreverent Freelancer

Irreverent Freelancer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:46:00 +0000

Not to reopen the neverending floodgates of controversy, but I actually secured my blogging gig from a freelance bidding site. It’s been a steady source of good income for almost a year.

By: Kristen King

Kristen King — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:33:00 +0000

I’ve never blogged at per-post pay, but I did calculate what I was making per post with my monthly income, and it wasn’t great. But there’s more to value than just the cash you bring in, so depending on the circumstances, I wouldn’t rule out $5/200 words immediately. I’ve blogged for more and I’ve blogged for less, and it’s all been helpful because I picked and chose the times to do that. If it would position me to do something I really wanted to do (and I don’t mean “gret exposhure”), it would be worth it at that rate. But if what I wanted to do was make a decent wage on blogging alone, no way. 😉

By: Sal

Sal — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:25:00 +0000

I am glad to see such an interesting conversation going on here. I guess the reason I took it was, like Samar, I needed something to help start a portfolio. I figured it was either free for the local paper or $5/post. It is nice when you had the opportunity to start with $15 per article, but the question is, how do the new freelancers do that today.

Lori, you said it, the writing market has gone down, which leaves the beginners scraping around at the bottom. Trust me, I would like to charge $25 a post, but it just doesn't seem possible without a past. It is great to read all the books on becoming a freelancer, but they were written by people who were already established (at least the ones that were recommended to me were).

Hmm, maybe that is an idea for a book. Beginner Freelance for the Economically Challenged.

By: Carrie Wilson Link

Carrie Wilson Link — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:14:00 +0000

Hmmmm… now you got me thinking, what WOULD be my “price?”

By: Kirk Petersen

Kirk Petersen — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:59:00 +0000

stephanerd (love the name), you seem to be familiar with a lot of the options — any suggestions on which site to try first? I always assumed those sites were bogus, but if there really is money to be made… even in small amounts… it beats competing with my kids for jobs at Home Depot. My blog is primarily about politics, and I don’t imagine there’s much of a market, but I can bloviate convincingly about a variety of subjects.

Just got a check in the mail from a NEW CLIENT, after a long dry spell… but I still need to scratch for more income.

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:40:00 +0000

Sal, thanks for sending all the new folks over! Welcome everyone!

Kim, we do have our priorities. ;))

Sal, if you're content with the work and the pay, stick with it!

Devon, agreed. Currently, we make enough doing other things to allow us to turn these jobs down.

Stephanerd, what you said: "Now, with many writers moving online, standards have fallen." And that is exactly why I rant about writers valuing their own skills. I don't think blogging gigs drove our online value down - not alone, anyway. It's the proliferation of these "Put up a marketing site, fill it with content, and get rich!" people who offer (and the foolish writers who accept) 50-articles-for-$5 "jobs." While blogging rates have come way down, I believe it's in response to the online market, not so much a contributing factor.

Angie, you definitely need a java blog. :))

Amanda and Kathy, how did you score those gigs? What makes them different from the lower-paying ones?

Samar, the answer to your question - no. We didn't start out at our current rates. Currently, I charge $100/hr. When I started, it was more like $35/hr. That was 15 odd years ago and that was mainly because I didn't value my own abilities enough. Stick around - we talk about this sort of thing a lot. :)