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
fooleda 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.
thanks for the info btw, would you believe?…all i know is adsense, textlink and amazon before this…
to casual readers, ads makes a website. consider it a thank you for the hard work.(yes, it is hard work to maintain a website or blog)
Hi Abe…
Some reader objects to your blog having ads, but s/he keeps coming back to read your stuff? Well, they can always use FF and ABP, right?
Ah, basta. This tells us one thing: You have arrived, Abe! :-)
* i meant writing a certain article.
It is not illegal. bloggers; pro and non pro is like commercial models they endorse certain products and they get paid in return.
Anyways problogging is the modern way to write a journal or newspaper. It is like reading a certain article in the magazine but instead of passing an article to a newspaper editor, the pro-blogger himself is the editor.
For a student like me, it will be hard to become a problogger. hehe…
Sana someday pero i will focus on my studies first.
Where’s the guy who ticked you off? Let’s go flame the bastard. :)
It’s subjective. I wrote about why I’m not a problogger – I have a day job, and my blogging revenues are just extra. They’re mainly a way of earning US Dollars without selling pesos.
If you are making money off your blog but you still have a day job, are you still considered a problogger?
ahh…hayaan mo ang mga yan. sabi nga pag maraming bunga ang mangga, maraming bumabato! ;-)
Yuga,
I look at pro-blogging slightly different. Pro-blogging for me is when one blogs primarily for income generation. It may mean that one is paid to blog, but it also means that someone is blogging to get more eyeballs in the hope that people click on ads or other companies pay for advertisements. The former can be likened to a paid employee; the latter to an entrepreneur.
In contrast, there are bloggers who do this purely as a hobby or as a means of self-expression, and he/she is willing to shoulder the expense, hoping that the ads can offset or subsidize the expnese.
Personally, I find nothing wrong when one tries to monetize something they feel passionate about. If someone is damn good in something, what’s wrong in trying to make money out of it?
wala naman pong masama kung pinagkakakitaan natin ang mga blogs natin. Parang alam ko yata ang tinutukoy ni Sir Yuga sa post na ito (hmmmmm journalist ba? secret)
Yung ginagawa ntin dito ay katulad lang naman sa ginagawa ng mga TV network natin dito sa Pinas.
Ang masama sa tingin ko ay yung tatanggap tayo ng pera para pumatay ng tao o di kaya ay ipropromote natin ang mga produktong nakakamatay….
Hay, naku, I rarely get ticked off but this time it’s the professional blogging livelihood na yung tinitira. It’s crossing borders na pag yung livelihood ng isang tao yung pakikialaman mo. It’s like you’re looking down at scavengers in Smoky Mountain and saying you feel so high and mighty that you need to give these basureros some advice on how they go about picking garbage.
It’s just plain wrong.
hmm. kapag may nagrereklamo sa mga ads sa blog ko, ang sagot ko lang… “pwede ko namang alisin, basta ba yung kinikita ko sa ads, babayaran mo eh.” =)
When people ask me what I do, I tell them driver by day, writer by night, tumatanggap ng labada pag linggo.
puso mo pare…
To those who don’t want ads in this blog, eh why keep on coming back in this blog? I go here to get infos from entries NOT to sight cutie Google ads. So c’mon Yuga, fill em up even more. Pique them jealous guys. Pinoy talangka mentality at its finest.
There just jealous….ingitero…ingitera…you are doing great, and that’s what’s important.
maybe they are envious of this type of business.
At the end of the day, it’s still your blog. You do what you like.
Hmm….you sound a bit edgy Sir Abe. Did the person who asked (criticized) you with the stuff you do with your blog ticked you off? ;)