In the first part of the “How to Make Money Blogging” series, I discussed how to become a professional blogger by writing for others.  Also, in the follow-up to that post, I answered questions from readers.

Today, we’ll talk about making money on blogs you own, rather than as a hired writer for other people’s blogs.  This is just a basic outlined tutorial, because making money with your own blog is such a vast topic.  But, if you’re a beginner and you want to set up your own blog and monetize it, this tutorial is a good place as any to start learning.

Tools you’ll need:

• Domain name.  This will be the main address of your blog.  For this blog, it’s frugalpinoy.com.  I usually buy my domain names at GoDaddy.  I think it’s important to buy your own, easy-to-remember domain name, as it looks more professionaland has better recall.
• Web hosting. This is where your website will be stored.  My favorite host is CynicalDog, as I’ve never had problems with them and I’ve been with them for 4 years.  Other reliable hosts you can try: BlueHost, HostGator, WebHostingPad
• A blogging platform.  This is the software behind your blog.  For all of my blogs, I use the WordPress platform, because it is very easy to use and is highly customizable. Other blogging platforms: Moveable Type, Typepad.
• Some website-building knowhow.  Apart from learning how to use your chosen blogging platform, you may need some basic HTML or CSS skills, or at least know someone who is familiar with them.  This will come in handy when you need to paste advertising/affiliate codes on your blog, or when you’re troubleshooting.The internet is full of video and written tutorials on HTML, CSS, and blogging platforms.  All you have to do is search for them via Google.

What about free blogging platforms such as Multiply, WordPress.com, or LiveJournal?

Oftentimes, hosting with free blogging services has limitations.  You won’t be allowed to sell products, put up ads, or use affiliate links.  Also, most of the time, the formatting and layout of your blog isn’t fully customizable.

It doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to make money from these types of sites.  Blogspot allows you to make money with Google Adsense Ads – but that’s it.  Many Filipinos have also set up online stores via Multiply, even if they’re becoming more strict about it.  In other words, you can make money from these types of sites, but the number of limitations will minimize your opportunities. But you can always use these blogging communities to promote your professional blog.

Your blog’s content:

• Pick a topic.  And stick to it.  All of your blog posts should be related to the topic you choose.  For example, here at Frugal Pinoy, I talk about making and saving money (even if this is a non-profit site).  At Nintendo Nonstop, it’s all about Nintendo news and game reviews. You need one central theme because you want to attract a loyal audience who is interested in that theme.  If you talk about too many topics in one blog – gardening, your family, the stock market, your newest laptop, Pinoy Big Brother – it’s much harder to reach out and hold the interest of your readers.
• Plan your blog posts ahead of time.  I usually know what I’m going to write at least a month ahead of time.  But if you can plan and outline your blog posts for 6 months or more, that would be much better.  Doing this ensures that you never run dry of content, and your readers will come back regularly, knowing that you’re always updating your blog.
• Know your audience.  You have to pick an audience and commit to them.  Is your audience composed of stay at home moms?  Professional twenty-somethings?  Students?  Are they local or international?  You can’t say that your audience is ‘everybody’, you need to be very specific so you will know how to communicate with them and what topics they would be interested in.

Ways to make money:

• Advertising networks.  Ad networks such as Google Adsense and Text Link Ads display relevant advertising on your blog.  You are paid every time someone clicks an ad on your blog.  Setting them up is simple, because all you have to do is paste a bit of code on your website where you want the ads to appear.  Your success with these ads depend a lot on their layout and design. For those of you who are planning to use Adsense, here’s a video on how to optimize your ads.
• Private advertising. Unlike signing up for an ad network, selling private advertising on your blog isn’t automatic.  You will have to look for companies/businesses/websites who want to place their ads on your blog.  You can only do this successfully if you already have at least hundreds of daily visitors to your blog.
• Affiliate networks. I’ve discussed affiliate networks at length on another post, so just click here to learn more about them.
• Sell your own products.  These could be physical products such as shirts or mugs, or digital products such as ebooks, downloadable audio books, or software.  I recommend you start with digital/downloadable products, since they don’t require tricky shipping and handling, and the customer receives them instantly.
• Sell your services.  A blog is a great way to show that you’re an expert at a certain field.  Is it public relations?  Marketing?  Copywriting?  Web design? Use your blog to display your expertise and sell your services as a consultant or contractor.  Here are some tips on how to do it from Problogger.

Some great resources you SHOULD NOT miss out on: (And since I’m kuripot, don’t worry, they’re free)

• Grab John Chow’s free ebook.  You need to sign up for it via his website, the form in the middle.  This guy makes at least $20,000 monthly from his blog alone, so he’s probably doing something right.
• 101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your  Readers
• Monetizing WordPress Plug-ins.  These are plug-ins you can add to your blog to help monetize it better.
• Grab Yaro Starak’s free ebook.  Over at his website, using the form on the right, you can download Yaro Starak’s “Blog Profits Blueprint”. In fact, read the contents of his blog, as I learned a lot from him when I was starting out.

Do you own a blog?  Is it something that you monetize?

Several readers sent me a note this week, asking me how they can start an online freelancing career.  Here’s one of the emails I received:

Hello, I’ve been writing professionally for quite some time, and I’m trying to augment my income by trying out freelance writing online. I’ve only had a couple of projects, which paid about a dollar per article.

If it isn’t too much trouble, I was hoping you might help me in trying to find good writing gigs online, and maybe give me some tips on how I can start out.

Thanks very much!

- Tim

Thanks to Tim and the other readers who wrote in with their questions.  I’m going to answer it in simple, concrete steps so that everything is clear.  Regular readers might note similarities between this post and my previous post, “How to Make Money Blogging (Part 1)”. If you haven’t read that post yet, click here to read it, because it contains some points and definitions that aren’t found in this post – especially a needed introduction on online writing.

Without further ado, here are the steps that you can take to start your online freelance writing career:

Steps you should take TODAY:

1) List 5-7 topics you want to write about.  Anything from travel, sports, music, movies, business, marketing.  If you can think of a topic, odds are there’s a blog out there for it.  You need to do this so you’re aware of what subjects are your forte.

2) Get an account at WordPress.com and explore the features.  Even if you don’t plan on really blogging there.  You just need to be familiar with WordPress, how it looks, how it works, what buttons to click – because this is what most professional blogs use.  If you accept an online writing gig, odds are it’s for a blog, and you’ll be asked to place the articles into the blog yourself – and you can only do that if you’re familiar with WordPress.

3) Bookmark or subscribe to the following job boards:

• Performancing forum – You’ll need to register so you can communicate better with the companies posting ads.
• ProBlogger Job Board
• SitePoint “Looking to Hire” Thread
• Online Writing Jobs – Lots of low-paying gigs here though. Rule of thumb on this site: the shorter, the more vague an ad is, the more likely they are to scam you or pay you an obscenely low rate.
• FreshWebJobs
• Freelance Writing Gigs

If you have PR/copywriting experience, you should also subscribe to the Copyblogger job board.

Bookmarking generally means you click on “Bookmarks” on your browser’s menu bar (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and save these websites there.  Subscribing means using a reader like Google Reader or even using your email to read updates from the websites above. The subject of blog subscription is outside the scope of my website, so click here to visit a tutorial on subscription yourself.

4) Bookmark or subscribe to the top 5 blogs in the niche/topic you want to write about. How do you do this?  Use Google. If you want to write about personal finance, type “best personal finance blogs” into the search engine, odds are you’ll find that someone’s actually compiled a list.  The same goes if you want to write for a gadget blog, travel blog, etc. Learn from these blogs, as the success of their writers can serve as an example and inspiration for you.  Be active in finding out which articles work and which don’t – because someday, you might be writing for them.

Steps you should take THIS WEEK:

1) Set up a PayPal account, if you don’t have one yet.

Here’s a tutorial from Pinoy Money Talk to help you get started.  However, note that the tutorial was written when PayPal Philippines accounts were limited – now we can send and receive payments like most users can.  If you can’t confirm your PayPal account today via credit card or debit card, set a schedule to do it within the month.

2) Submit a guest post to a blog, preferably if it’s within the topics/themes you want to write about.“Guest posts” are free posts that are placed on a blog, usually when the regular writer is busy, ill, or away on vacation.  These can be a good way to promote yourself, since you’ll be allowed to link to your portfolio, and your guest post is always something you can link to as part of your job applications.  Simply search “need guest post” or “looking for guest post” via Google,and you’ll find blogs looking for guest writers.

3) Apply to at least two (2) writing gigs.  You can start by applying to any attractive ads you see in the job boards I linked to above.  It doesn’t matter what they are, and what you think your chances are, as long as there’s pay involved. Some tips when applying for the job:

• Follow instructions.  Read the job ad and follow the instructions to the letter.  If they ask for 2 writing samples, send 2 writing samples – not 3, not 1.
• Research the company/blog you’ll be writing for.  Odds are, you can see existing articles they have on their website.  Use these existing articles as a basis for your samples, so that you can write something close to what they’re looking for.  Also, this can show you if the company is legit, so you won’t worry about being scammed.  (Based on my experience, small-time modeling agencies and religious organizations are usually the ones who tried to scam me.)
• Don’t reply to the company within the forum itself saying “I’m interested, PM me!”  Why?  Because they have no time to PM you.  You’re the one who’s supposed to make the first move, and they’re just supposed to sit back and wait.  Directly send them a PM or email of your application, depending on what the instructions say.
• Don’t apply for jobs that pay anything less than $5 per article.  It is just not worth your time and effort.  Also, the $5 should be for less than 300 words.  Actually, many entry-level blogging jobs start at $8, but if it’s hard to find those, just remember you shouldn’t go less than $5.

If you get rejected, that’s fine – it happens.  I still get rejected sometimes.  Don’t think about it too much, just keep on applying.  I used to spend one day a week just applying to jobs.

But please, let me know when you do get your first online writing job.  I’m sure that the other Frugal Pinoy readers will be inspired by your progress.  I, for one, will be glad to hear that more Filipino freelance writers are starting to monetize their skills online.

I hope this post answers the questions of those readers who wanted to know more about writing online.  If you have further questions, simply comment on this post or send me a note via the Frugal Pinoy contact form.

I’ve been visiting some filipino forums the past week, and I saw that although many Filipinos are interested in online writing, many of them don’t know how to begin, or are compensated poorly for their efforts.  Maybe it’s because there’s a lack of local resources that discuss online writing as a career.

Because of this, I’ve decided to feature a series of posts here at Frugal Pinoy about how to make a living out of online writing. After all, it’s my main income stream and I have a little over 4 years of experience on the subject – especially when it comes to blogging. (In later posts, though, I’ll discuss essay writing and SEO writing, which are other ways to make money online).

Before we begin, we need to define what professional blogging is and what makes it different from personal blogging.

What is professional blogging?

First of all, the definition of ‘blog’ is this:

To put it as simply as possible – a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.

Source: Problogger.net

This means that a professional blogger is someone who writes for a blog on a regular basis – whether he/she owns the blog or not.  The professional blogger or “problogger” is separated from the personal blogger based on his/her intentions.  The intentions of the personal blogger is usually just to share information about one’s life to friends, family, and the outside world. Usually, when you write a personal blog, you talk a lot about your feelings and personal experiences. The intentions of the problogger, on the other hand, include the following:

• To share information to the general public, which the blogger may or may not personally know.
• To market and promote their blogs so that many people will visit and read it regularly.
• To make money from the blog.
• To make blogging their job, work, or vocation – whether part time or full time.

However, professional blogging doesn’t necessarily mean that you write about business all the time – in fact, anecdotes about your personal life and experiences tend to be welcomed by readers.

In the first part of this series, I’m going to discuss blogging for others.    This basically means that you apply to existing blogs for a writing position.  Another way of professional blogging is to create,and monetize your own blog.   However, for now, we’ll focus on blogging for others.
Also, note that writing online is different from writing for a magazine/newspaper.  Writing for the Web and A Dozen Online Writing Tips are 2 articles that discuss the standards of writing online.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, it’s time to discuss how to become a professional blogger.

What you need before starting your blogging career:

Know your goals.  Whether you’re doing this part-time or full-time, it’s like getting into a new career.  You need to know what you want out of it, and how you plan to get there.  How serious will you be?  How much time can you devote to blogging?  What topics do you want to write about?

Learn the craft. Like I said earlier, blogging is different from writing for other media such as magazines or newspapers.  You need to devote some time to actually learning how to blog professionally. The following articles discuss the art of blogging in depth.  They are a good starting point if you’re not sure what a good blog post is:

• What makes for a good blog?
• The Beautiful Post
• Write Gripping Content
• Why Great Writing Doesn’t Matter Online
• How to Write Excellent Blog Content
• Using Titles Effectively on Blogs – The title is just as important as the post itself, so pay attention.
• 10 Tips for Writing a Blog Post – The most essential read among these articles.
  
• Two Simple Words Every Blogger Should Know
• 5 Powerful Techniques to Help Your Posts Stand Out

Subscribe to (or regularly visit)  several blogs.  Why? So you can have a basic idea of how they work and why some blog posts are more successful than others.  The following blogs are well written, and they also teach you a lot of business skills you’ll need to make it as a professional blogger-for-hire:

• Freelance Switch
• Web Worker Daily (I write for them as well)
• Problogger
• Skelliewag

I keep track of all the blogs I read via Google Reader (I subscribe to over 100 blogs), but if you’re not sure how to use it, that’s fine.  Just add the blogs you want to read to your browser’s bookmarks and read them daily.

Create a portfolio. 

Even before you start applying, you need to compile a portfolio to show your work.  This could be through an existing blog you have, as long as it is about your target subject.  For example, if you want to write for a blog about gadgets, you can start your own blog and review the current gadgets you have, such as your cellphone, laptop, or mp3 player.  Or, if you want to be a food blogger, start your own blog of restaurant reviews or recipes. This blog can serve as your portfolio, and you simply send the address of your blog along with your job applications.

I recommend that you start your portfolio blog at WordPress.com – NOT in Multiply, LiveJournal, or Friendster.  This is because WordPress is the platform used by most blogs on the internet and you need to familiarize yourself with it, especially if the blogs that hire you will require you to post the entries on WordPress yourself (rather than just submitting it via email).  Plus, since WordPress doesn’t place ads on your blog, it looks more professional.

Alternatively, you can also write 3-4 sample posts on the subjects you want to blog about, and send them in when someone asks you for work samples.  Just make sure to send ONLY your best work when you apply for a blogging job.

How to start looking for blogging jobs:

Before you start applying, you need to know how to read an online job ad (click here to read an article on the subject).  There are several clues you can get from the ad to tell if the person/company is trustworthy or not.  Basically, don’t go for jobs that promise exposure only and no monetary compensation.  Also, research the company or individual that placed the ad to find out if there are any ‘scam alerts’ against them.

The following websites are good places to start looking for work:

• ProBlogger Job Board
• SitePoint “Looking to Hire” Thread
• FreshWebJobs
• Freelance Writing Gigs

How to get paid:

You’ll find that your clients will have different ways of compensating you.  The first, and my personal favorite, is to be paid per post.  Many blogs pay $10 for a 300-word article, while others can go as far as $100 or more – it’s entirely up to where you’re applying.  When you’re just starting out,$8-$10 per post is a good price.

Another style of compensation is to be paid a flat rate plus a percentage of the blog’s profits.  Or a flat rate plus a bonus for how much traffic you bring in.  Although these deals can be reasonable for very popular blogs, they are often low-paying, especially if the blog is new.

Many blog owners will prefer that you have a PayPal account, which Filipinos can now avail of. In fact, if you’re really serious about blogging, a PayPal account is a must-have for you.

Next time on Frugal Pinoy… On the second part of this series, I’ll discuss how to make money from your own blog – where you are the owner and creator, instead of just writing for others.  Stay tuned!  If you want to receive future updates from Frugal Pinoy via email, simply click here.

Have you ever thought about becoming a professional blogger? Why or why not?  What are your experiences when it comes to professional blogging?

Follow-up articles to this post:

• How to Make Money Blogging Part 2: Monetizing Your Own Blog
• Q&A: How do I start as an online freelance writer?