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Yes. I Really Do Get Paid To Tweet and Blog.

This post started off as an email to a few family and friends, but I figured I might as well share with the world.

I’ll start with a clarification: If your only goal in using social media is money, you will probably fail miserably. A passion for writing and engaging with others is a requirement for success. I don’t care what your marketing gurus, experts, and alleged social media strategists have told you. They are wrong. You have to like this stuff to succeed in it.

Now, there are a bazillion ways to make money for tweeting and blogging. They all require that you have some type of following and that you are active. This may leave you with a chicken-and-egg problem if you’re just getting started, but this will be easily overcome if you refer to the first paragraph of this post.

Without further ado, here are a few of the ways I’ve made money from tweeting and blogging. I’ll spare you all the descriptions and details. Just go sign up and hit me back if you have questions:

Twitter

Blogging

I’m probably forgetting some, but how many do you really need? What you will find is that these services require you to create original content (besides whatever they’ll pay you to write) and build a community. If you don’t have any followers or traffic to your blog, why would they want to pay you?

Don’t just randomly flip all this crap on and spam your followers to death or you will end up alone. Try to be selective and stay focused on your brand/topic. It’s a fine line to walk and stepping off the path will leave you broke.

Of course, there are more advanced ways to earn money from your online activities, but we’ll save those for another day. With gas running at about a million dollars per gallon, it wouldn’t hurt to earn a little extra on the side.

 

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Would You Still Love Me If I Post for Pay?

I have to admit that the I was turned on to blogging because I wanted to make money. I kept reading about it being a good way to market online, but it also held a special attraction for me because, well….I’m a geek. Now that I have been blogging for a few months, I realize that I would much rather blog about whatever I find interesting and the “monetary gain” part has taken a back seat. BUT…I still gotta pay the bills, right?

Enter the PayPerPost blog network. I know…you’re already groaning and rolling your eyes. PayPerPost (aka IZEA) is definitely not the most respected company in the blogging community. They don’t require you to mention the fact that a post was written for money, so this opens up a whole can of worms regarding blogger respect and credibility. Which brings us back to my original question: Would You Still Love Me If I Post for Pay?

The answer is that I’m going to do it anyway. I care about my readers and their opinions, but I have mouths to feed. I try to provide the best possible content that I can with every post that I write. I aim to educate, train, inform, and entertain. If I find avenues where I can get some up-front money to cover a topic of interest, wouldn’t I be an absolute moron not to take it? So, here are the rules:

  • I will write posts for pay
  • I will not write about things that have nothing to do with my blog
  • I will blatantly flag these posts as being paid for
  • I will make sure that these posts only serve to further the goals of this blog

I’m not just going to turn my blog into a steamy, spammy trash sludge of product reviews and blatant advertisements for the sake of earning money. Quality is very important to me and I would like to make sure it is not compromised.

From where I sit, this is a good opportunity to get paid for doing what I love. I keep seeing PayPerPost all across the blogosphere, even on blogs that don’t suck, so it’s gotta be worth something.

It’s ultimately up to you, isn’t it, my faithful reader? Do you trust me? Have my past actions shown me to be a respectable and honorable person? Do you think I would jeopardize my personal brand for a quick buck? Do you post for pay?

Feel free to respond in the comments…