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Any kind of paid writing gig is valuable. At least, that's what I keep telling myself when my bills are due. Blogs are great tools for helping your writing career, but they are not good tools for making money in and of themselves.

Blogs can certainly help you with writing and promoting your writing. Just having to churn out posts on a regular basis helps keep your writing muscles exercised. So, you can think of blogging for money as a paid internship for writers. You can even use a blog set up for money as a virtual resume when applying for higher paying gigs.

The Pros

There are several really juicy advantages of blogging for money, whether as writer for a blogging network or for a company blog. The first is that you get a byline, which you can use for clips to higher paying gigs. The second is that there is a huge need for bloggers, even among very obscure topics. Next is that it's monthly or weekly income that you can count on coming in, as opposed to crossing your fingers whenever you send a query out, wondering if it will lead to any kind of money at all.

But the most important advantage of blogging for money is that you often get to have free rein (or nearly free rein) over what you write. Yes, you usually have to stand by the usual promises of not to promote hate speech, pornography or how many times you can string four letter words together, but other than that, you're often free to rock and roll. This can often be an oasis for a writer in the desert of writing to strict and often highly unusual guidelines.

The Cons

The biggest disadvantage to blogging for money is the extreme lack of good paying blogging jobs. Sure, you will hear about people who blog for corporations who make a thousand dollars a month, but those jobs are at the tip-top of a very broad-based mountain. Writers who snag those blogging jobs often do so either because they are a celebrity or an acknowledged expert in their field. (In other words you won't qualify, so don't even bother applying).

Just how cheap do you blog for? You're lucky if you get paid per post. Many blogging jobs open for beginning writers pay a monthly rate, which (if you break it down) often means that you are working for about $2 (US) per half hour. And often you don't get paid a certain set fee for a certain number of blog posts per month you just a small percentage of profit sharing from your client.

Many bloggers prefer a more flexible basis with their clients where they get a small up front fee per post but then get part of revenue sharing. This won't make you rich, but it does guarantee some income. Although you may think writing is so great, you'd do it for free it is nice to get a little cash for it.

Learn more about this author, Rena Sherwood.
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