Professional Blogging

I did an Alexa search of Today.com and I found that its ranking is very impressive: 2,579 (3 months average) and 1,643 (yesterday). If you have any idea about Alexa ranking then you can easily understand that Today.com is getting a huge amount of traffic.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/Today.com
This traffic is coming from dozens of blogs combined. So, while most bloggers will receive very small income (because $2 per 1000 page impression), the opposite thing will happen for the owner(s) of Today.com. Advertisers love websites that have huge traffic. So, I think that Today.com will become a very successful business venture for the owner(s) while most bloggers will get very small amount of money. Well, I don’t see anything wrong in it because this is the goal of any company (to get maximum profit from minimum investment).
If anyone is looking for some experience and exposure then joining this kind of blog network is very good. However, if someone is looking for long term real income then the best thing is opening a blog (either buy a domain or even Blogger/Blogspot is good because they allow you to put Adsense and other kind of advertisements) and keeping 100% of your income. In fact, I would recommend you doing the two things simultaneously: Join a blog network and at the same time open a blog of your own. Give same effort and time for both of the blogs and then see which one brings more income.

Razib - can you translate those numbers for me? What does a rank of 2,579 mean? About how many visitors does that equal?

Well, I cannot tell you exactly the number of visitors (as there is no visible Sitemeter or any other counter in Today.com) but according to Alexa:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/Today.com
Percent of global Internet users who visit this site (Today.com):
0.069% (Yesterday), 0.071% (1 Week Average) and 0.0498% (3 months average).
In fact, in January 2008, it was even less than 0.02%

I'm a today.com blogger and I am sticking it out to see what happens, if by the end of July, I'm not doing the numbers they expect, I won't blog for them anymore. I realize that they have to review but it seems like Deb has said, they don't do their homework when it comes to building a quality blogging community. They send the message that it's all about networking but it really isn't, it's about content too... and if the content isn't there, then they won't stick around long (the site and the blogs).

For what it's worth though, you can check out my little blog there http://theaplusactivist.today.com


Oh and if you are lowered to the $1 pay rate, it would take almost two months to earn anything because they don't pay out until you've reached $50 and they pay once a month. Like I said, I will give it a go, but they aren't going to get the greatness they are asking for.

I just found the site today and was accepted an hour or so after I applied (What's with that 30 day business they claim? Is that to make it seem more like a job application or what?).

They are advertising $1.00 per 100 word post now, so I don't think it had anything to do with the review after the first month for those that were getting $5.00 before. It sounds like they realized they couldn't keep up that payout level.

I get around the internet quite a bit and have already posted questions about today.com on another forum, and no one had ever heard of it. Still debating whether it's worth it or not and will be interested on hearing more feedback.

jenfreedom said:

They pay lower than some places, if they do only pay based on traffic after the first month.

Click to expand...

Ok, so I'll ask the big question.

Which other places pay more?

Well, well. I just went to the site and it says 'Public Registration Closed'. I wonder what gives?

Hi All,

Today.com is open to applications despite the sign on the front door stating registration closed! Or so I found out today.

Like you Ldyjarhead I was thinkign of tryign it out too but found the same sign hanging on their door until I saw a fresh posting at Craigslist asking for bloggers at today.com

Try this link;

www.today.com/register-new

For the first month of blogging you are guaranteed $1 per 100+ word post, and $2.00 per thousand impressions plus a $25 bonus to start!

Hmmm???

Reece10 said:

For the first month of blogging you are guaranteed $1 per 100+ word post, and $2.00 per thousand impressions plus a $25 bonus to start!

Hmmm???

Click to expand...

I am taking this to mean that you get $25 to start for the first month, plus the $1 pay per 100 word post, plus the $2 for impressions...

If that's the case, you blog for 25 days straight, you get the $25 bonus and then the $25 for your posts... IF you actually get a thousand page impressions in the first month that means you get an extra $2....

Do the math. That is the only way you will reach their $50 payout for the month.

After that, you're on your own. At $1 per post and $2 per thousand page impressions.

Just some food for thought.

Anyone here involved with corporate blogging? I have many years of experience maintaining my own blogs (LJ, MovableType, and now wordpress), but I was recently hired by a company that wants me to maintain a promotional blog for them. I'm just wondering if anyone has any wisdom to impart about the differences between personal blogging and corporate blogging.

To get you started, here's a question -- our main competitor maintains a blog, but they don't have anything related to their products on it... They just have random youtube videos and "funny" forwards, basically. That seems counterproductive to me, but maybe they know something I don't.

Can you think of any reason why you would put essentially random content on a corporate blog, rather than targeted content? I guess they just want to collect as many hits as possible off of google (they have an article about Brangelina, which should do the trick), and then hope people will click through to their website from there.

Should I be following the same theory? Or should I trust my instinct and stick with relevant content?

All opinions welcome, from corporate bloggers and indies alike.

Been researching this a bit myself as I am starting a recruitment company and intend to include a blog as part of my marketing techniques.

There are two ways of looking at it

1. Your competitor is trying to make something that will have people coming back again and again. Blogging gives a wonderful way of viral marketing.

2. relevant blogging allows better SEO, allows you to educate your customers and energise them

For me I would stick with relevant content. The SEO abilities of blogs are huge enough for that alone to be worthwhile. But if you keep the blogs on topic but with twists and news items from the sector... informative posts that will have people related to the industry coming back again and again, then you are doing a great job.

Unfocused blogging may increase traffic and stickyness to a wider bunch, but focused blogging will increase keyword and industry related traffic and hopefully your insightful content will keepn them coming back.

At least that seems to be the theory I have read so far

Nick

My recruitment start up blog

Thanks, Nick! I like your analysis... that sounds about right to me. I think I'll stick with a targeted approach for now, and see how it plays out.

Skinny Moose Media

I recently started a blog (http://jimsjourney.wordpress.com/) and within a couple of weeks received an offer from a site called Skinny Moose Media. They offered to move my blog to their site and pay me 30% of any ad revenue.

My questions:

1. Has anyone ever heard of this outfit?
2. Is 30% a reasonable payment?

Thanks for your help.

Jim

1. I've never heard of them.

2. Do they have legitimate ads on it or is it Google Ads? If they have regular sponsors, that pay them a set amount monthly, that might not be bad. But if it is just Google Ads, forget it.

First of all, there are some benefits of joining a blog network. The page rank of your blog will improve and you will get a lot of links too for being a part of a network. That means that more traffic will come to your blog. It will also arrange an extra exposure for you as a blogger. Thus, it is a win-win situation both for you and the network that you are joining.
30% is not a good rate. You should go for 50-50 at least. Of course, if money is not your prime motive for blogging then 30% is perfectly all right.
You did not mention here other details:
1. What kind of advertisement they will put?
2. Will they allow you to put your own ads in the blog?
3. Who will own the copyright of your blog’s content?
4. If you want to come out of the network then what and how?


I visited this page: How Do I Join Skinny Moose Media?
http://skinnymoose.com/network/2007/02/10/how-do-i-join-skinny-moose-media/

It is stated there that in the past, they used to pay their “bloggers 60% of whatever their blog generates for revenue each month”.

Just so y'all know, I'm merging threads (as I find them) that all relate to professional blogging. I'd rather we have a general compendium of related knowledge in one thread so it's easier for peeps to find what they're looking for.

If you come across a thread that looks like it belongs in here, please PM me and I'll merge it.

Merging threads

The only problem I have with the merge is that my questions are less likely to be answered because my original post is now more difficult to find.

for those that are still with today.com who is still at the $5 a post pay?? Is there another review coming up in the next few days or has it already occurred for the month of July?

Great thread!

I've been a just-for-fun blogger for a while, & have been thinking about setting up a pro blog for a while.. & was wondering whether to also do a 'blog job' or such... I'm not sure if it's worth it, for just 1$ a post etc.

Donut, how is your blog doing? I personally found that sometimes people responded extremely well to 'silly/slightly unrelated things', but good quality on-topic posts (with pics & a twist of humour &/or catchy titles got well-received too..) Soo... can you make it fun & exciting & still-slightly-on-topic? (This seems to be a winning combination (?))

Has anyone checked the Problogger Job Board & got a job from there?

Andreya, that's more or less what I'm doing -- I'll rep you the link, you can see for yourself.

As for how it's going, I'd say pretty well! I don't have huge traffic yet, but I'm steadily growing and I'm getting some relevant hits off of google -- best of all, people occasionally click through to my employer's site. Don't know if it's led to any sales, yet, but it's still a young blog. I feel confident it will contribute to the company eventually.

Yeah, it does seem like a lovely combination of 'fun & quirky' & 'on topic'!
I really loved some of those pictures!!

/PS I wanted to subscribe/add it to my Yahoo/Google but couldn't find a button-?/

treehugger said:

I sent in an application last week and haven't heard back yet... and maybe that's not such bad news after all.

So what is a good place for newbies to apply for paid blogging jobs?

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It specifically states that up to 30 days before a reply is given.

Andreya said:

Yeah, it does seem like a lovely combination of 'fun & quirky' & 'on topic'!
I really loved some of those pictures!!

/PS I wanted to subscribe/add it to my Yahoo/Google but couldn't find a button-?/

Click to expand...

ACK! good point. I use firefox which makes it easy to subscribe through the address bar, but I didn't realize not everyone could do that. I'll go add feed link now.

Mustang Jim said:

I recently started a blog (http://jimsjourney.wordpress.com/) and within a couple of weeks received an offer from a site called Skinny Moose Media. They offered to move my blog to their site and pay me 30% of any ad revenue.

My questions:

1. Has anyone ever heard of this outfit?
2. Is 30% a reasonable payment?

Thanks for your help.

Jim

Click to expand...

If 30% of ad revenue's a good deal depends on how much traffic they can send your articles and what their eCPM is. If you're getting 30% of 100,000 pageviews @ a $3 eCPM it's a great deal; if you're getting 30% of 100 pageviews at a $.25 eCPM... not so much. And are they paying on net or gross revenue and is it specific to your article or a site wide average?

Also, can you post your articles elsewhere or do they want you to be exclusive?

(FWIW, bloggers on my site earn 99% of Adsense. Exclusivity not required -- you can crosspost elsewhere.)

-- Leva

treehugger said:

Does anyone blog for today.com? They are apparently hiring: www.today.com/apply What do you think? I'm completely new to the world of blogging-for-money. Is $5 per 100-word post a decent rate, or is it kind of paltry? Is today.com a reputable company, or am I better off trying to "break in" somewhere else?

Click to expand...

I really like Today.com. My blog is Low Cost Meals. I just recycle old recipes I have with a little info on how to cook more for less. Today only requires 100 words/ post, so I think it's a pretty good deal for I subject I wanted to write on anyway.
Plus, VIP bloggers can write short little 300 word "articles" for $5-$20 by going to the Article Calls section.

Oh, yeah, you get a free Today.com t-shirt, too.