Our friend Alex (see the many posts here and her actual blog) has finally got around to writing a few posts on her new exciting life in Australia. She has moved over there to be with Mat, and it looks as though they will now not be sharing a flat with two other blokes, as the couple’s employers have rented them a vehicle, so they can commute instead of moving. Given the amount of time the two spent apart prior to their joyful reunion, this is probably for the best Anyway, if you have not done so yet, visit her blog, consider subscribing to her RSS feed, or at least give the site a quick Ctrl+D Oh, and I can’t remember if I mentioned it already, but congrats to Alex on achieving a Google Page Rank of 2!

How To Tell When Blogging Is Taking Over Your Life
(collated from a few sources, added a few personal lines, removed non-relevant ones)….

You meet new people, and really resent the lack of an ‘About’ page attached to their forehead.
You check your blog based revenue more than your bank account.
You can’t remember important dates - your wedding anniversary, family birthdays etc., but you know what your Technorati rank is.
You’ve got more “blog friends” than “real life” friends.
Your breakfast of choice is marmite on toast, cornflakes and Google reader.
You think LSD is something to do with RSS or XML.
Your family doesn’t call you anymore, they just check your blog.
You think Nike should make a shirt that says “just blog it”.
You would buy it if they did.
You’re listening to the travel news and get excited by the phrase “heavy traffic”.
You think the 3 R’s are Reading, Writing and RSS.
After 5 minutes of meeting someone really interesting you ask, “So, do you blog?”
You can’t remember what you did last week without consulting your blog.
Your blogroll is bigger that your phonebook.
When asked to feed the kittens, you wonder if they would prefer RSS or Atom?
You know what a blog carnival is.
You’ve participated in one.
You wonder if they do vacations at the Googleplex.
Your lifetime goal is achieving a Page Rank of 8.
You refuse to wear black hats because you think it will affect your SEO.
You understood the last one You have more than three friends with numbers in their names.
You try to offer links as a form of payment to non-internet companies.
You start getting withdrawal symptoms when you go a day without posting.
You get more “approve this comment” e-mail messages than spam.
The name Kubrick means more to you than the director of A Clockwork Orange.
You finish reading this and go to make a post with your own additions…

While many people blog purely for personal pleasure, you can earn at least a little pocket money if you want to. Hopefully at least enough to pay for domain registration and some hosting if you run your own server for example.

The basic premise of these schemes is that websites want people to link to them, and often create a ‘buzz’ about a new feature or news item.
If you’re willing to spend a few minutes researching them, and then writing an (original) post on it, you can be paid. The payments vary from a few dollars to hundreds. However, if you don’t yet have a lot of traffic or a decent Google Page Rank expect payments around $4-$15 at the beginning.

A few quick generic explanations before the list of schemes…

PayPerPost (PPP) - This is in fact a specific company (see below), but until someone suggests a better replacement term, this is also how I refer to the idea of creating a post because a website/company will pay you for doing so (often via an intermediary scheme). Hopefully it will be fairly obvious when I’m referring to each. If someone would care to suggest a different generic label, I’ll gladly edit this post.
No guarantees - some of the following companies are still unknown to me, in terms of reliability and speed of pay out. I’ll mention those I know well or trust.
READ the T&Cs for all schemes - Different schemes have different rules. They don’t very often actually contradict each other, but the standards required do differ. If you write a bunch of posts for one PPP scheme, don’t forget to refresh yourself of the different requirements if you switch. For example, some schemes specify the min. word count per opportunity, others have a blanket scheme-wide minimum.
Opportunity - The terminology used by different schemes differs, but within this post, I will be using the word ‘opportunity’ to mean an individual offer for payment for one post/review on your blog.
‘Free’ WordPress blogs If you do not host your own site, and use WordPress’s free blogging service, you won’t be able to do PPP. The advertisers might not mind, but WordPress DO. They’ll delete your entire blog, often without warning.
Segmentation - Not all sites spell it out so clearly, but certain opportunities (often shortened to Opps) will only be available to bloggers with ‘impressive sites’. That basically means if you see an Opp that pays $200, don’t be surprised if your blog which has a PR of 0, an Alexa Rank in the millions, and a similar Technorati rank is NOT eligible.
No Follow - Some blogging systems automatically add the ‘No-Follow’ tag to all links you post. This is obviously not what advertisers require, so if you have a post rejected due to this, and aren’t sure how to disable no-follow, leave me a message, and I’ll try to assist.
Blogger/Publisher - It isn’t always spelled out clearly, but if given the option when signing up, you want to be a blogger or publisher. The advertiser option is for people who want to pay others to advertise for them, not vice versa.
Disclosure - Rules vary from one scheme to another, and even from one advertiser to another, but some will require you to either state within the post, something like ‘Sponsored by ADG Ltd’ or possibly have a separate full disclosure page on your blog somewhere. Let me know if you want more info on this topic.
Links - Where I can (OK having now written this post out, only PPP have a working scheme) I’ve included affiliate links for these PPP schemes. If you want to, you can of course strip the codes out and sign up without any credit to me. I shan’t be offended, nor will you be that I’ve put them there in the first place, hopefully.
English Language - Most schemes require opp posts to be in English. Some require there to be NO foreign language content on your site at all.
Neutrality - Most (thought NOT all) schemes do not require you to say ‘I love product XYZ’, they simply want your honest opinion on their site, as well as a link obviously. There are exceptions to this, and different schemes sit closer to complete neutrality. What it comes down to is, if you are going to completely slag off a site/product, the advertiser isn’t likely to want to pay for the privilege. On a more positive note, I’ve had several advertisers actually contact me when I’ve offered constructive criticism, and implemented some minor changes!
Tax ID - Unless you are an American citizen, you can safely ignore this field when registering with the schemes below. However, what information you must report to your own country’s tax authorities I obviously have NO way of knowing - sort this one out yourself.
PayPal - Some schemes offer alternatives, but the easiest system to use for receiving payments is PayPal.
Real Content - Almost all sites require your blog to be a real, personal blog. That isn’t to say you have to write about yourself, but these systems won’t allow scraped-content-based blogs. You’ll often need to publish AT LEAST one non-commercial post in between any type of commercial post. This does have its advantages - it makes sure you write regularly, which will attract readers & improve your stats.

Right onto the schemes now…

PayPerPost - This is the scheme I use the most. As with most companies in this sector, they are still relatively new, and you may encounter the odd technical glitch when using them. However, for blogs without much net kudos just yet, they seem to offer the most opportunities, and have a pretty good forum for their ‘posties’. If you pop into their forums, you’ll find me under the nick of SilentlyScreaming. When you sign up, you’ll need your blog to have existed for 90 days. If it has existed for longer than 90 days, you’ll need to have at least 20 posts in the last 90 days. If the blog is only just 90 days old you need to have 20 or more posts in your archives. Once approved, you’ll be able to take any available opps immediately, and once their statistic system has your sites info, more opps should become available. Since joining them, I’ve made the most money here. They have run promotions in April and this month. Last month saw ‘1K Tuesdays’. The format was altered over the weeks, but involved special opps that paid out $100, $500 and in a couple of cases $1000! The good part of the promotion was that there was NO segmentation (see above). This meant that ANYONE was able to take the opp, if they were the first to spot it in the listing.

Smorty - So far, this is my second recommendation to anyone who has cared to ask my opinion. To be approved, the blog needs to be more than 3 months old, and have an average of 2 or more posts a week. The reviews need to be between 150 and 400 words. Payout varies between $6 and $100. Payment is made weekly. They don’t currently have an affiliate scheme for bloggers to sign up other bloggers, only for finding advertisers.

ReviewMe - This site will let advertisers choose who THEY want to review them, not the other way round (hence non-English blogs are permissible). Obviously you can still to decline to review a product if you wish. 200 word minimum on posts. Require disclosure in some form. Monthly payment. No blogger affiliate scheme at present.

Blogsvertise - Opps are e-mailed to you (you then have 120 hours to complete the task), rather than requiring you to login and check manually. Require 3 links to the advertiser per post. 3 Paragraphs of at least 75 words are the minimum requirements. Blogs need to be 30 days old at least. Payment varies between $4 and $25 per post. They operate a ‘grab-bag’ scheme, if other bloggers have declined an opportunity, the opp will often be put into a pot luck section - if you see something that interests you, or at least pays well, you can grab it. If your blog is less than 90 days old, you may be put on ‘probation’ (reduced payments until you’ve proved your worth) to prove your not just in this for the money. No blogger affiliate scheme, only for referring advertisers.

Sponsored Reviews - Require full disclosure that post is sponsored. This scheme uses both variants already mentioned - advertisers can contact you directly via seeing your blog’s info on the SponsoredReview site, and you can also select advertisers from the list of current opportunities. The one novel feature with this scheme is you can ‘bid’ on jobs. So if the advertiser is offering between $12 and $400 for a job, you can bid whatever you think is fair for your blog’s worth. If you take the mickey, and want $60 to write a post on a blog that is new, has not got good stats, and no evidence of a large readership, the advertiser will of course reject you. Advertisers can make counter-bids - bartering if you like. Once someone accepts an offer of yours, you have 72 hours to write the post. Payments are made every 2 weeks. No affiliate scheme known.

BloggerWave - I’ve included this one for the sake of completeness, but I would approach with caution for now. There have only been 2 opps in the last 3 weeks, and the entire site and system is a complete copy of PayPerPost.com. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery… I’ve made the two posts for this company, and will report back if they do actually pay out. The opps were listed as $10 each, so I decided to ‘risk’ it. No affiliate scheme.

Loud Launch - Just (4/4/07) had my blog approved. There are plenty of $10 opps here, will have to wait and see how many fresh ones are added, and how often. You can receive e-mail messages when new opps are available. Blog must be more than 2 months old, with regular posts. You can make a maximum of 2 paid for posts per day, per blog. Not certain, but I suspect you must have some sort of Alexa ranking, even if it is in the high millions. Payment is made every 30 days. No affiliate scheme.

InBlogAds - More specifically their Content Links system, at least within the scope of this post. New submissions suspended whilst they catch up with their backlog. WordPress (hosted on your own server) blogs only. Monthly payout, $10 minimum. 60% of Ad/Content Revenue is yours. Can be used in conjunction with more traditional PPC advertising schemes. (Google don’t like other PPC advertisers on the same page). No affiliate scheme known.

Blogitive - I’m currently unable to login into the system, so only basic information for now. They appear to offer both the conventional pay per post method of earning money, and a link directory. Weekly payments. Blogs must be at least 3 months old, have traffic and have 3 posts per week already. Average payout is apparently $5. Will update when I can get back in No affiliate scheme known.

PayU2Blog - Another one I’ve not heard from since signing up. Details known are $5 per post, paid every 2 weeks. One link per article, which must be 60 words or more. NO negative posts. The scheme to submit details of your post appears a little more complex than competitors - will know more once they send me details of my first opp. No affiliate scheme known.

Blog2Profit - Again, waiting a while for blog approval on this one. No information other than the sign up link, sorry. No affiliate scheme known.

Blogging Ads - Waiting for blog submittals to be re-opened, after the site/system was re-designed. May be worth checking back on occasionally.No affiliate scheme known.

CreamAid - TBH, I’ve not done anything with this scheme. Which isn’t saying don’t use them, its just that they use a slightly different setup to the others, and I just don’t have the time to alter my current workflow patterns to this scheme just yet. Instead of specifically signing up one of your blogs, the idea is to simply contribute to (often already ongoing) conversations spread across the web. If anyone has actually used them, please do leave a comment. If you have some useful information, and you’re the first to post, I’ll be glad to insert an affiliate link at the beginning of this paragraph. If they have affiliate links…

Well there you go, that’s all I have to say for now. Having read all this, you may decide to ignore it completely, and stick to what you know already to generate income. No insult taken, obviously.

I should probably point out that this post has been written by me, (Chris Merriman), and is NOT in any way sponsored by ANY of the companies above, or anyone else. I simply thought it might help others in a similar situation to me.

Let me know your thoughts on this post, if an area needs further clarification or is simply not covered, and also how things are going if you do decide to sign up with any of the above schemes.

Also, any specific requirements/benefits mentioned above may be subject to change. These schemes often implement new methods, so do make sure you read their site to confirm details. If you’re reading this post a few months after I’ve posted it, and know of any inaccuracies now present, please do let me know.
Thanks

Many website owners are currently checking their statistics, as rumours are rife that Google will be updating their Page Rank statistics any day now.
This site is currently at a PR of 2, which basically equates to a few people linking to me, and Google not considering this site to be a complete waste of your time.
OK, so that is paraphrasing and interpreting Google’s views on their own system, but I hope you’ll forgive me.
Anyway, quite a few forum members are currently asking if anyone has seen updates occur, but we all need to remember that mistakes do occur.
Click the link below to see the picture which illustrates the fact that machines CAN make mistakes
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