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Sepvalia

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Hey gang,

I am on Today.com as well. I would advise making a blog here that is related to another spot you've got on the web. That way, you can take advantage of the $2.00 per 1000 page views. Sending traffic back and forth definitely helps.

I have a costume blog on today.com, and a DIY fashion blog at about.com, so I'm able to shoot traffic back and forth.

Otherwise, I don't see these blogs paying out more than 30 bucks a month. The extra calls for content help, I suppose. Most calls for content are $5 for 300+ words, which isn't hard for a decent writer to crank out.

It's a nice supplemental experiment...$30 will at least pay my water bill, so hey, it's worth a couple minutes a day. They use Wordpress, too, so you can blog for an hour and then set the blogs to drip all next week if you like.

I will gladly comment on other today.com blogs if you pop into mine!
 

Talia

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There are several B5 writers here. I've heard nothing but positive feedback from them, but obviously there have been recent changes. I guess if your blog has been culled or your pay packet is going down that would create problems.
 

TemlynWriting

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Is anyone here on b5media? I've been following this discussion on Performancing, and I'm very curious about the rumors.
I don't know what's going on with the rumors that are flying, how much truth there is to them, etc. I had a blog there that was cut/culled recently during the mass pruning of blogs.

However, I hold no grudges against them. My experience there was excellent, and I hope to be able to work with them again in the future with a different topic. Actually, the pruning happened at a time when I needed to focus on some other projects, anyway, so it was somewhat convenient, even.
 

kristin724

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I knew there was a today.com thread here somewhere! I'm going to give it a try. I only hope I don't hit a burnout with all these blogs!

classicmovies.today.com Just starting to work on it and see. Between this and my adsense from my two on blogspot, well, I used to call it 'gas money' but not anymore!
 

donut

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Hey all, looking for opinions...

Right now I blog daily for my employer as part of my salaried job. I get $12/hr, but in addition to blogging, I do a lot of other office-y stuff, answering phones, etc.

I'm about to take three weeks off for personal reasons, but I offered to keep up my blog while I'm away, and my boss asked how I should be compensated.

I'm thinking he should pay me per post, so I won't feel guilty if I wind up skipping a day or two... what sounds reasonable? I don't want to ask too much, but I also don't want to cheapen the work I do for him by setting my price too low.

I was thinking like $10-15 a post, for ~five posts a week. Does that seem like the right ballpark?
 

ChessSafari

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I'm a late comer and, thanks to this thread, I have started a today.com blog.

It only took an hour for them to "accept" my application.

I'll let you know how it goes.

The link is below.
 

kristin724

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Okay, I've been at today.com for three or four months. Granted I haven't posted nearly as much as I should, but now instead of being paid a dollar per post for one post a day, I've been demoted to $2 per every 1,000 unique visits. This kinda of sucks.

On one hand, I found the post once and once only a day a bit annoying. If I was on a role I had to stop, or I could post and get nothing. I couldn't link or copy anything from other material I had online, either, and I think I was punished a bit for the few times I did.

So now it should be cool, right? I can just worry about content, but now I feel a bit jipped. Why should I 'work hard on my blog' so my rate can go back up next month. Where's the incentive? I've only had 600 unique hits thus far? How long until I hit 1,000. How long until I get paid out? Why should I bother with it? I understand the need for content and traffic, but I could also post to wazoo and make plenty of money and still not get visitors.

I'm moody now, so I have to think on it and come back with a clear head for discussion later.
 

kristin724

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Alright, so I thought about it, and I don't think its worth it to continue with Today.com. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to delete your blog. There's nothing on the site anywhere that tells you how to cancel your account. So finally I used the contact form inquiring how to end my blog.

I've got some rl issues, too, and I really can't be fighting to do a blog for chump change. I thought I was doing something I enjoyed, I do adore my topic, but all this choker chain over so little money has really dimmed this blog for me. I have another blog that I really enjoy. For free and for me and its great.

Fwitw, I read again the terms about double posting. Twice I repeated film reviews from my review blog to my Classic Movies at Today. The terms, however, say they deter from this because of plagiarism fears. While I understand this, I also find it a bit weird that if I have a real reviewer and a real editor checking up enough to know that it's a duplicate from elsewhere, that they can't also bother to see the byline and blogs are owned by me, the same little person?

Oh well. Any advice? Has anyone made real money with today?
 

razibahmed

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Kristin,
I doubt if anyone can make any real money with Today.com. Frankly, if someone knows how to get 5 thousand or 10 thousand visitors a day then they do not need to work for Today.com. They can open their own blogs and keep all the money.
 
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veinglory

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I have moved from Today.com as discussed here: http://cliteratureblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/cliterature-redux.html

Some people like it, but the rate has gone from $2 to $1 to new bloggers starting out at no flat rate and $2 per a conservatively estimated 1000 unique visitors--that and the move to a uniform template makes them less desirable as a host than they used to be.

You can't delete your blog--it is a work for hire and they own the copyright of all written content--I think this is something many bloggers there failed to appreciate, and when asked the staff conspicuously refused to comment. But it is right in the TOS.

This is also why duplicate material is absolutely not allowed. They are paying for all rights, and using them--not cross-posting allowed.
 
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kristin724

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Well I did get an automated response from my query and it simply said that blogs inactive for 30 days are automatically deleted. So, that will close my blog. I can rework the handful of reviews I had there and post them later on my own blog. I'm just surprised that there are so many of these work for hire blog networks out there. I've tried several and none of them are in the writer's favor in my opinion.

FWIT, I like your blog Vein. ;0)
 

veinglory

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Hmmm. I know of some blogs that are still up and haven't been updated for over a month. Are you shure they delete the blog rather than just close your account (hopefully paying anything due even if under $50).
 
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I have moved from Today.com as discussed here: http://cliteratureblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/cliterature-redux.html

Some people like it, but the rate has gone from $2 to $1 to new bloggers starting out at no flat rate and $2 per a conservatively estimated 1000 unique visitors--that and the move to a uniform template makes them less desirable as a host than they used to be.

You can't delete your blog--it is a work for hire and they own the copyright of all written content--I think this is something many bloggers there failed to appreciate, and when asked the staff conspicuously refused to comment. But it is right in the TOS.
.

Yes, I'm moving for the same reasons. I'm thinking that there ought to be a way we can organize as a community of bloggers in a more effective way.

I keep seeing things of yours that I want to link to and comment on.
 

veinglory

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There should be a way to link bloggers without using an umbrella like Today. Not just for community reasons but also to share some resources on ethical/effective monetising.
 

kristin724

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Agreed folks. What annoys me most about these places like Today, BNN, or Helium, is I find their home pages to be very mismatched and tough to navigate. You've got to scroll through a lot of labels and ads and random posts to find what you are looking for. I don't think you could gain new readers by someone just going to the homepage and searching. Unless you campaign on you're own, common folks won't find you.

I did think the 30 day comment was odd, too VG. It used to be something like a year before geocities would delete your pages back in the day. In this me me fast fast now now era, maybe they are speeding things up.
 

veinglory

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I double checked, after 30 days they disable the account and pay the balance--but the material stays up. So if leaving a Today blog make sure you take down any widgets for ongoing projects. And honestly, it might be worth a token monthly post for as long as they last, to get the CPM payments.
 

WFTW

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I enjoy writing and just submitted an application for today.com. Mine topic is called The Problem With Today (hahahaha...wonder if that will get it shot down).

The content will be things I see, hear, read about, etc, that tick me off...sort of how old people say "That's the problem with you kids today"...although I'm not old. :) I can picture a lot of people reading it and saying "yeah, YeAh, YEAH!!!" in agreement.

It will be a little edgy but straightforward, no b.s. Even if I don't make much money from it, I think it will be fun.
 
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