New Writing Community Blog

If the seeming demise of WritingUp has left you down, then weep no more! From out of the ashes has arisen a site that will be better, stronger and much more reliable. It's called Communati and its mission is to take the best from WritingUp and leave the worst.

Here's what founder Mark Whitbeck has to say:

The philosophy about Communati.com, the way it looks, feels, and works, is to introduce something that is familiar while morphing into something completely new.

The best includes recreating that community aspect; leaving the worst means eliminating those darned trackbacks once and for all.

I signed up for Communati and so far, so good. I have already met a couple of old WU friends there and hope to meet more. So far, I am welcoming Communati with cautious optimism.

Check out my posts there. I'm wahmwriter (couldn't stay away from writing completely, but wanted more freedom to broaden my horizons).

PS. Did I mention that you get 70 per cent of Adsense revenue?

This is cross posted from Sharon's Writing Lab

Bloggerwave Pays You To Blog

I'm always on the lookout for new ways that you can get paid to blog and I've now found another one. It's called Bloggerwave and it works similarly to other paid to blog sites. You sign up, you get your blogs approved (lightning quick when I did it) and then you take up one of the opportunities. I signed up yesterday and have already written two posts for them.

At the moment, there are only a few opportunities but I am sure that will change. In the meantime, the system seems to work well. The site loads quickly, too, which is a plus for those of us with temperamental internet connections. So far, I like Bloggerwave, so I'm hoping for good things.

Why I Love My Writing Newsletter

A year ago I started a newsletter (called Writing Lab News) to bring some traffic to my site. At least, that was the idea. When I started I had a handful of subscribers and I knew most of those personally.

A year later, I have dozens of subscribers, so much so that I am changing to a new ezine provider and have put a new signup form on the front page of my blog.

I've really enjoyed doing the newsletter. I've been able to republish some useful articles and showcase articles and blog posts from other writers, many of them from right here on WritingUp. And the traffic building has become less important. I enjoy creating something useful. It has also become a way to connect with other writers and for them to find me. That means it works as a social, promotional and networking tool.

Here's an index of my newsletter over the past year:

Are You A Writer? - December 2006
Beef Up Your Blogfolio - March 2007
Best Ways to Generate New Article Ideas and Topics - August 2006
Blog Your Way To Working At Home - February 2007
Copyright Law: A Quick Guide For Freelance Writers - June 2006
Diary Of A Working Writer - Monthly
Ebook On Legal Services - July 2006
Feature Writing For Freelance Writers - March 2007
Five Ways to Become Published - January 2007
Free Resources For Writers - March 2007
Free Resources For Writers - May 2006
Free Resources For Writers: June 2006
Freelance Writers - Four Reasons To Get On The Net - May 2006
Ghostwriting Guide For Freelance Writers - February 2007
Great Gadgets For Freelance Writers - December 2006
Guru and Elance: Are They Worth It For Writers? - June 2006
How I Get Paid To Blog - May 2006
How I Put My Site On Steroids - Update - December 2006
How To Get Fair Pay For Freelance Writing - October 2006
How To Get Web Hits And Keep Them - February 2007
How to Grow Your Own Furniture - October 2006
How To Manage Writing Time - November 2006
How To Promote With Article Marketing - September 2006
How To Set Up A Writer's Home Office - November 2006
How To Write Copy That Pays The Bills - April 2006
How To Write Money-Making Copy - July 2006
Making It As A Freelance: The Art of the Interview - July 2006
Paid Blog Posts - And Not With Blogitive - September 2006
Press Here To Make The News - August 2006
Quality Pays Off In Freelance Writing - January 2007
Remind Me Why I’m Still Awake At 2 a.m.? - September 2006
Resources For Writers - April 2006
SEO Tricks - August 2006
So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer? - April 2006
Standard Rates for Freelance Writers - November 2006
The Revamping of My Freelance Writing Career - October 2006
What I Learned From Writing Reviews - February 2007
Writer promotion course - May 2006
Writing Articles for Newspapers - January 2007

Back issues can be seen at SharonHurleyHall.com, with the last few available as PDFs.

Blogitive: The Party's Over For WritingUp

I was an early user of Blogitive, back in the days when it used to be fun. I made up rhymes and other bits of nonsense and included a link as well. It was good for creativity and gave a few people a laugh as well, but it looks like the Blogitive party is over.

It seems that blogs on WritingUp, BloggerParty and a few others are no longer going to be accepted from today. If you have a blog on one of those sites and have already had your post accepted, you will be paid, but they're not planning to issue any more offers. Here's the post that lays it all out.

I have mixed feelings about this because it started as an easy source of income, but it's not so easy now. I haven't been posting as many Blogitive posts here because of two of their rules (the 'only write about the press release' rule and the 'two posts in between rule'.) Apart from that, I haven't had much time, so writing three posts to make $5 is less cost effective than writing one. I know some people can do it, but it's been difficult to fit it in with my other writing work. Other paid posting sites don't impose those rules (at least not yet, and I can write a fun post in five minutes and get paid).

Maybe Blogitive has done me a favour. I won't waste time looking for WritingUp offers that I have to reject. It may also be the kiss of death for my BloggerParty blog. Who knows? On the plus side, I've still got a couple of other blogs they will accept, if I can be bothered to write anything for them. I hope you do too.

(Thanks for the heads up, abi.)

ReviewMe: A New Paid To Blog Opportunity

This is a sponsored post about a new way to make money online. I first read about this site on Believin's blog and rushed over to sign up. When I visited ReviewMe I saw an attractive site with an laughably easy sign up process. In fact, I was able to sign up while chatting online with a couple of friends. I put in my name, address and Paypal address and was good to go. You can also opt to be paid by cheque.

The way it works is that you submit your blog to be considered for reviews. I haven't yet figured out what criteria they use, but I suppose they want a blog that is indexed and gets a decent readership. I submitted three blogs for consideration and had two accepted, this one and my Writng Lab blog. The other blog was not accepted, but that's no surprise, because although it's been going for months, even Technorati won't accept that it exists. Something's strange there.

Anyway, back to ReviewMe. The blog submission form is simple. You need a name, URL, feed URL, category, six tags and a description. Your site is checked and accepted or rejected straight away - no hanging on waiting for confirmation emails. You can submit six blogs and do unlimited reviews on each one. Once you're set up, your blog is assigned a value per review based on its popularity and other factors. You earn half of that price for writing a review. My blog was assigned an initial value of $40, which means I should get $20 for this review. I'll keep you posted. They pay once a month at the start of the month.

So far, I like what I see. ReviewMe insists that bloggers disclose that posts are sponsored. I like that too. Watch this space. I'll keep you up to date with my ReviewMe Adventure.

Blogitive: More Posts, Less Time

I've always been a big fan of getting paid to blog. I've written posts on how I get paid to blog and getting more out of Blogitive. But now this is getting to be hard work. $5 for 10 minutes work was fine, but $5 for an ad and two posts in between is less cost effective.

And, wouldn't you know it, this has coincided with a flurry of offers. I'm hoping that other paid blogging sites are not going to go the same way.

I wrote to Blogitive to complain (I won't put a gloss on it) about their new policy and to say bloggers needed more time to do all those posts. This is what they said:

We had to do this to increase the quality of the Blogs in our network. Clients don't like to see Blogs that just have posts written for our clients. Blogs should be about many random things and this forces everyone to write about different things that might interest them beyond our offers. The time to write posts isn't an issue for most Bloggers and we have even considered shortening it so more Bloggers can get offers easier.

Looks like my Blogitive days might soon be at an end.

New Ways To Make Money From Blogging

One of the things my blog is about is how to Make Money from freelance writing. One way that works well for me and brings in some nice pocket change is Blogitive. But in order to qualify for the program you have to have a blog that's indexed in the search engines and one that is popular.

There are lots of ways to do this, including submitting your site to directories, burning a feed with Feedburner and doing what you would do anyway - visit people's blogs and comment on them in the hope that they will comment on yours. That part isn't difficult and at $5 a time for writing about a web release, it's a nice little earner, particularly during the slow writing months.

Now they've got a few more programs. One of them is to put news headlines on your blog (which probably wouldn't work here), but the other is more exciting. It's ghost blogging, which I do anyway, so I'm looking forward to the chance to make more money with fewer ads.

Want To Be A Professional Blogger?

Professional bloggers make money for a living. That's all they do - blog and promote, blog and promote, blog and promote. I have to say the idea has begun to appeal to me, as long as I can write other things as well. Using social bookmarking, Blogitive and other promotional tools are a good start, but there's much more to problogging than that.

If you want to know how to become a professional blogger, you should visit Darren Rowse's problogging site every day. This week he's published his A-Z of Professional Blogging. This is a list of tools and sites to help bloggers. Even if you don't want to turn pro, you can learn something helpful here. I get a new tip every time I go to the site. The A-Z of Professional Blogging has so many links that just following those will give a mini-course in blogging. Check it out.

Getting The Best From Blogitive

In How I Get Paid To Blog, I told you about a (then) new way of earning money from your blog. That was back in April, and although I've updated the original post, people have been asking me questions about how it works. So here are the answers in one tidy(ish) package, as well as a few tips I've picked up along the way. Old hands may wish to scroll down to question 9.

1. How does Blogitive work?

Just in case you're new to this, Blogitive works by giving bloggers key phrases to use in their blogs, with a link to a particular website. Blogitive gives you a web release as well, which you must refer to. For each successful post you get $5. I have made way more with Blogitive than with Adsense, so it does work, and if you look around WritingUp, you'll see plenty of other bloggers using it too. To get started, you just need to register your blog with them.

2. Will they accept all my blogs?

They may not. I tried to get this blog accepted three times before I succeeded - and my WriteNiche blog still gets rejected. The best way to make more money with Blogitive is to register all the blogs they will accept. Then your only problem is how to write all the ads.

3. How often do blogging offers come along?

This varies considerably. When Blogitive started, there were only a few offers and the more people signed up, the fewer offers there were to go around. That seems to have improved. I usually get offers twice a week, near the start and end of the week, sometimes as many as 10 at a time, because I have three blogs registered with them. Occasionally, I go a whole week without offers. This no longer panics me.

4. Can I reject offers?

Yes.

5. How else can you make money with Blogitive?

By referring other people - $5 a time. Just tell them sharon [at] doublehdesign [dot] com sent you. :) There's also talk of making money by writing posts for others eventually, but so far that hasn't happened. The referral system is a bit hit or miss. I've been credited for some referrals but not others.

6. How often do your posts get rejected?

I had two rejections in the first week and none since. The first rejection was because I corrected the grammar in the link they gave me (it was missing an apostrophe). Once I'd gritted my teeth and put the phrase back the way it was, I got paid on that one. The second was because I had too many other links in the post (no more than three other links are allowed). The third key thing to remember is to put the link in its own paragraph with no other links. And finally, remember to refer to the web release.

7. Do I need a Paypal account to get paid by Blogitive?

Yes.

8. How often do Blogitive pay?

They pay weekly. You'll get a notice of a pending payment, which clears in a few days. If you get a lot of offers, you may find it difficult to remember which ones you are being paid on.

9. What's the best way to include the links on your blog?

When I started, I used to create a whole post around the phrase. This was good creative writing practice. Now that I've got more offers, I take a more workmanlike approach. I simply put a paragraph at the end with the link and the reference to the web release.

10. Do you write a different ad for each blog?

Not usually. I usually try a paragraph on one of my blogs and if it works I use it on all of them.

11. Can you include more than one Blogitive offer in your blog?

Yes, I usually include two. I haven't dared to go for three yet, but one day I might. As long as I put each in its own paragraph and use the correct phrase, my posts are accepted.

12. Can I use Blogitive on old posts?

Yes. I have put Blogitive offers on posts that are more than four weeks old. Again, these have been accepted. (Thanks, gracepub, for this tip).

13. Is putting ads on your blog wrong?

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a freelance writer and writing is how I make money. There's little difference between writing an article or an ad for money. On my blog I try to signal by a horizontal rule (ugly, but effective) or a change of font that the content that follows is not the main subject of my blog. Most people who came to WritingUp were attracted, at least in part, by the prospect of Adsense money. Even if that's not the primary motivation any more (being the get-rich-slow scheme that it is), there's nothing wrong with it, in my book.

These are the answers to the questions I've been asked most about Blogitive . If you have any more, be sure to let me know so I can add them to this post. And if you have any more Blogitive busters (strategies that have worked for you), I'd love to hear about them.

Are Writers Selfish?

I lay in bed this morning, waiting for my daughter to go downstairs with her granny so I could go to my computer. This is not unusual, at least at weekends. Most other days I get up and play, or help her get dressed, or brush her hair or whatever, but I have to confess that sometimes when I'm doing that I'm thinking of the next deadline or writing task.

The trouble is, I get obsessed with my writing and blogging. It doesn't matter what the subject is, either. Whether I'm writing on writing, video chat or another project, I start to focus on the project to the exclusion of almost everything else. I don't hear when people speak to me. I'm in a world of my own. When the writing is going well I forget to eat, drink, even go to the bathroom. I know this is not healthy, that I'm risking RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome and, worst of all, a fat behind, but when I'm writing I really don't care.

Here's what my family say when I'm writing:
Daughter: 'When you've finished your email, can we play, pleeeease?' (in plaintive tones)
Hubby: 'Go back to your computer if you have to' (in long suffering tones)
My mum: 'If you have to work, get it out of the way so you can focus on something else' (I knew I loved her for a reason).

So I've been asking myself - am I focused or am I selfish? I hate being interrupted when I'm writing. I have to really force myself not to sound grumpy. But interruptions are part of the life of a WAHM, so sometimes I just shut down my computer, sigh and go off to play.

I would write all the time if I could. The trouble is, I also want to play with my daughter, spend time with my husband, see my friends. It's a shame I have to choose. I bet I'm not the only one who gets obsessed with writing and gets flak from her family. What are you like when you are writing?

Ka-ching! (almost)

Last week I talked about whether Guru and Elance were really worth it for freelance writers. I concluded that they were not and decided to concentrate my efforts on Craigslist and other job opportunities. So far, it seems to be working.

This week, I've had emails from another paid to blog site (I'll tell you about that in another post - or you could search this one for a clue), a site that wants me to blog about freelance writing, and someone who wants me to write a parenting article and is prepared to pay decently for it. This week I feel as though my decision to go freelance was the right one. Whether I get paid or not (because I still could get scammed), there are at least a few people who think I can do a decent job and will pay me fairly. So, keep your fingers crossed; next week I might get paid.

How I Get Paid To Blog

I love writing and I love getting paid to write. So when JohnSunshine wrote about a new service that would allow me to do that, I went straight to the site and signed up. The service is called Blogitive and this is not a scam. I have actually earned money from this site.

Signup is simple. Fill out a form, add your blogs and then wait for them to place appropriate phrases in the 'open offers' section of your account. There are three ways you can earn money.

The first is to be paid for a post. The blogger is given a phrase, such as Mother's Day Flowers, and a link to a website. New info: There is also a web release related to the phrase. The blogger has to create a post around that phrase and include information from the web release. This is actually fun as I have to write about subjects I wouldn't choose and make them sound interesting. It's a good exercise for a writer. It also solves the problem I have on some days of deciding what to post about. Inspiration can come in some unexpected forms. So far, I've been paid $5 a time for these posts. Not bad for 10 minutes' work.

The second is ghost blogging. Like ghost writing, this involves posting fresh content to a company's blog. I haven't had any offers on this yet. The third is comment moderation. Again, I haven't tested this bit yet, either.

There are two important things to remember when posting. The first is to use the link only once. The second - and more important - is to use the phrase exactly as given, even if it contains typos.

Which Blogs Qualify?

I'm not sure about this. I have three blogs and only two of them made the grade (not my WritingUp blog, alas). I don't think this has anything to do with WritingUp itself, as I've spotted a few other bloggers making posts that I'm sure come from Blogitive. However, my WritingUp blog is quite specific and my two others are general - that's probably why Blogitive were interested in them.

How Much Have I Made?

I'm sure that's what everyone's dying to know. I don't think there are any restrictions on discussing my earnings, but just in case, I'll put it this way. I've made enough so far to treat six to eight people to Starbucks and cake (provided they're not greedy).

What About Referrals?

Bloggers can also make money by referring people to Blogitive, though this is not easy as there is no automated system. Bloggers who sign up need to leave a comment giving the name and paypal email address of the person who referred them. I've signed up under my real name so if people want to let me have the referral money they can use that and PM me for the Paypal email address. This does not take anything away from those bloggers' income.

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