My Thoughts on Being Paid to Post
03. Nov, 2007 
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Earlier this week I discovered that a blog I occasionally contribute to (Devlounge) had been acquired by Splashpress Media.
AJ (the former owner of Devlounge) informed the Devlounge authors that our posts would remain up and that not too much would change. So far, Splashpress seems to be honoring that.
One interesting thing to come out of the acquisition is that I was told an amount I would be paid per post for each additional contribution. I’m not going to disclose the sum, but let’s just say it’s not a whole lot.
With a monetary value being placed on my posts, regardless of length and/or quality, I had to think long and hard about what value I placed upon myself as a blogger. To be honest, I’ve turned down any form of compensation from blogging. When I did a paid review for Devlounge, I gave 100% of the amount back to the readers for Reader Appreciation Week.
I’ve been offered paid positions on other blogs, but have turned those down as well. Why would silly me turn down being paid for blogging? I think Lorelle summed my position up nicely: I consider blogging my hobby, not my business.
When one starts blogging for money, there are new considerations. Who am I really writing for? Am I writing for my new boss that will pay me per post? Am I writing for Google so that people will search for the right keywords and click on my ads? Am I writing for the advertisers who demand mainstream articles that people will read?
I didn’t start blogging just so I would have to answer to some pie in the sky boss. I started blogging to air my thoughts, get out my writing, and share the knowledge that I have with others. I never started blogging to make money and frankly refuse to let money be my motivation to continue.
If it gets to the point where I’m blogging for cash, I might as well quit. I’m no Darren Rowse or John Chow. I will never make my living off of a blog, and I don’t really want to. I’m perfectly fine keeping blogging as a hobby.
So what do you think? If given the opportunity to be paid per post, would you go for it? Would you tell the guy to keep his money? What would you do?
Thanks for reading.
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AT LAST! Some one who gets it. I love the “readers first” logo and your thoughts on this subject.
Money does change things. I’m tired of people claiming it doesn’t, but it does. So thanks for being one of the choir for me. I really appreciate it.
*blush*
Thanks Lorelle. And thanks for the compliment on the logo.
I appreciate that, I’d never take up paid blogging either, even though I had some offers… Just like you said, it’s a place I opened to air my thoughts not to make money, for money I have a different place… !
Cheers for your post !
I liked your post a lot, and I share your thoughts on getting paid to write about things you don’t feel like. However, I would accept to be paid for writing reviews about services or products, if I saw something worth writing about and if they let me write exactly what I want. I always thought it was great to be paid for a hobby.
Shahzad Khan,
I can relate. I have a day job that pays the bills. Blogging is fun (sometimes) for me
Simonne,
Nothing wrong with making money from a hobby. But when does being paid for a hobby cross over into being a job?
To me, writing a sponsored post isn’t any worse then interjecting your own articles with adsense or other ads as long as the articles is clearly marked a sponsored post at the START of the article. I’ve been looking into SponsoredReviews.com lately, and every few advertisers will say “To be paid for this post you may not claim that it is sponsored directly in the article”. To me that is dishonest and not fair to the readers. But otherwise, I don’t have a problem with it.
Very nice post and very nice blog. I think that the answer to your question lays on the type of blog you write for. Think of a technology blog for example or a exclusively “link to news source type of blog” kind of a social news blog/page, those are, I think, a litle different than say a blog in which readers are expecting your sincere unbiased opinion on a given matter. My point is, in some blogs, it doesn’t really matter whether you do it for the money or not. Does it give the blogger the same satisfaction to do it just for the money? that’s a different story.
Take care.
@Alex,
Gracias por su comentario.
Yes, I suppose it depends on what niche you pick, as some are better geared towards earning money. But you hit a point in your comment about whether a blogger is happier earning money.
BTW, I’m learning Spanish and have been looking for Spanish-speaking blogs that interest me. You’ve just earned yourself a subscriber
@John,
You’ve brought up another side of this argument with regards to paid reviews and/or sponsored posts. I’m for full disclosure, but as recently witnessed, even Google punishes full-disclosure sites. So right now my opinion is up in the air on the issue.