Someone once asked me what’s the difference between pro and non-pro. I said the pro’s get paid to do it. A professional driver gets paid to drive; a professional photographer gets paid to shoot pictures; a professional basketball player gets paid to play hoops; a professional crier gets paid to cry on burials.

In the same sense, a professional blogger gets paid to, you guessed it, blog. So, what’s so damn wrong if professional bloggers are getting paid to blog, except for the fact that the concept is so new to people beyond their 40’s (excuse the pun)?

Professional blogging is still in its infancy in this 3rd world country of ours and that every day, income generation evolves just as it was first revolutionized when Google Adsense was born in mid-2003. Do I need to enumerate them still?

• Bloggers place Adsense codes, tweaks them, layouts them on top of the fold, colors them like their own blog theme, blends them within the body of their content hoping that visitors gets fooled a little confused in clicking the ads as if it were part of the content. Others even try to hide the line that states “Ads by Goooogle”.
• Bloggers sign up with link advertising services like Text Link Ads(aff.) and get paid to display links of advertisers. Others try to hide the paid links by blending them with their blogroll to avoid the wrath of Google (allegedly) but that’s another story altogether.
• Bloggers add Amazon Associates codes for books, gadgets and whatnots then sometimes label them “must reads” and “this blog recommends” hoping that their readers would buy the items and eventually get commissions from the sale. And yes, the bloggers don’t need to have personally used each of those items he endorsed on Amazon.
• Bloggers sign up with InText link advertising like Kontera which automatically add links to the text in the body of their blog content hoping that for each click of a curious visitor, they get a few cents out of it.
• Bloggers sign up with affiliate marketing campaigns, puts an affiliate link and even write a neat endorsement post (peppered with affiliate links) about the product or service and pray that it converts (CPA). They later receive fat cheques from the affiliate program.
• Advertisers send free accounts to paid services or sample products in the hopes that the blogger writes about it and eventually adds to the awareness campaign.
• Advertisers pay bloggers to have testimonials or endorsements added somewhere in their blog to promote a service or product.
• Bloggers may also employ advertisement schemes that displays a whole page ad on top of the page, just like an overlay. I’m sure most of you have seen those nasty Adbrite ads I had here once.
• Ahhh yes, and just recently, bloggers are now also getting paid to do reviews.

And to the uninitiated, yes, that my friend is the evolution and diversification of blog monetization and professional blogging. If you don’t like them, you are free to remove those Adsense ads in your own blogs (i.e., if you have a blog).

I have, at one time or another, used many if not all of those monetization schemes I mentioned above. I tell my readers what advertising campaigns I employ and which ones are paid (in the case of paid posts or affiliate links). I even post a thank you note with link loves to all those who’ve successfully signed up under my affiliate account. Still, I don’t understand why others would criticize the way I handle advertising campaigns or revenue models for my blog.

If some accidental reader doesn’t want me to maximize my blog’s revenue potential and earn my keep, they can always click that cute red X button on the top right of their browsers.

permalink