How to Blog... and Get Paid for It

Quick Answer:

Blog for Other People.

Long Answer:



Looking for other people who could pay you to blog is extremely easy. The difficult part is in getting paid and then getting the cold hard cash to your bank account.

To be sure, you will jump through several hoops and navigate through the complicated world of online banking and transactions. You must be very excited by now, but before you start your blogging endeavor *REALLY pay attention to this - I'm serious.


I. There must be a way for you to be paid. 

A. Paypal.com
A1. Bank account where you could transfer those Paypal dollars to.
B. Moneybookers.com
B1. Bank account where you could transfer those Moneybookers dollars to.
C. Direct to Bank Wire Transfer (A pain really - trust me I worked in a bank once.)

• A. How to Get a Paypal account
• First go to Paypal.com

Clicka Me to Make Me a BiggeR!

• Choose personal account if you are a beginner, you can upgrade later on if you like.

Clicka Me to Make Me a BiggeR!

• Input the correct details, don't put in your pen name or alias. You won't be able to get the cash!
• Important Note: Do NOT select link to credit cart. Once you finish your Paypal application, link your debit card account, preferably Unionbank (Explained below).

Clicka Me to Make Me a BiggeR!

• Basically that's it. Not really. Here comes the fun part, you need a bank account - preferably Unionbank of the Philippines - so that you can transfer your funds there. 
• FOR NON FILIPINOS - You can skip this segment.
• The eon account is actually a debit card so it's safer when compared to a credit card. It works just like a savings account. If I'm not mistaken, you just have to keep 500 bucks there so that they won't close the account.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Why Unionbank? It's more Paypal Friendly than other banks. You can try other banks such as BPI or BDO, but trust me, it's easier to use Unionbank. Anyway, I just use my Unionbank account as a temporary means for transferring money. It's often empty - save for the fact when I use it to purchase something via Google Checkout.
• IMPORTANT NOTE 2: Once your dollars get transferred to your Philippine bank account, it gets converted to Pesos. 
• IMPORTANT NOTE 3: Unionbank's Forex Dollar to Peso Rate is not very happy. Let's just leave that at that.
• IMPORTANT NOTE 4: It could take you as much as 2 weeks to get your EON account. That's the reason why I started with this.
• B. Moneybookers to BPI or other Philippine bank account.
• I wrote about this before (click the link above) but basically you should only get Moneybookers IF for some reason you cannot use Paypal.

Blogging Platform

1. You don't need a blog to blog for others. (Gasp)

• When you blog for others, it's possible that you don't even need a blog! Most of the clients I worked for just asked me to send Word documents. OK, let me get this point across. 90% of the clients I worked for just asked me to send my work via Microsoft Word. One even asked me to send my work in *.txt format. That's just notepad. 
• Really? YES. They don't want the writers to know where they're going to put the article. That's just the downside to it. You don't actually get to be a blogger - you just get to be a GhostCopyBlogger. 

BUT....

2. Know the different blogging platforms

• Blogger. This thing that I am using now is called "Blogger" or "Blogspot". They're one and the same. It's owned by Google. 
• Wordpress. This is Blogger's fancy and costly cousin. It's awesome, with all the bells and whistles and some of the professional Bloggers use it so that others would use it, so that they can cut a slice from the cake which is called Affiliate Marketing. Just kidding, there's actually a free version that you can enjoy.
• Here's my comparison of Blogger vs Wordpress.
• Others.... 

Blogger is great for people who absolutely don't know anything about blogging. It's super easy to use. Really super easy. Most of the work done in freelance blogging is done mainly on these two major blogging platforms. Get to know a little of both and see which one you'd prefer. Choose the one which makes you feel comfortable and HAPPY!!!!.
3. Why you need to get a free blog anyway.

• Exposure. Potential employers don't know anything about you. Here, your degree in Harvard, Stanford (UP, Ateneo and La Salle) is absolutely wasted. No diplomas, no certificates, no nothing. What do they need then? Your style of writing. 
• Experience. When writing on your happy free blog. You will notice that some of your posts get noticed and others don't. Sometimes, it's not your style of writing that's important, but your ability to write for Google and Social Media. 
• Writing for Google. Most of the time, when you want to read something, you'll have to use Google first. Try typing in "Dannybuntu", then you'll find my blog. Try typing in "Make Money Online" then you'll most likely get Johnchow.com, carlocab.com, and a bunch of people just giving you tips but not money. Hehehe. Put your money where your mouth is right?
• SEO. Stands for "Search Engine Optimization". Basically, you need to know how Google will put you on the top of the Search Engine Results Page or SERPS. That's what SEO is for. 
• Personal Note:  I'd actually like to call it Social Engineering Optimization, because there's an element of needing to know how society would treat your work. 
• Basically, the usefulness of what you've written will be the key to your success. The more specialized your knowledge, the more that people will need it. But remember, not everybody is a rocket scientist. In my experience, and I totally abhor this, people like to read about showbiz. It's really crazy. Well, it just so happens that most people just want to be entertained. Try typing in "Paris Hilton" in Google and you will see the most successful blogs in the world "So help us God..."

Businesswise

You have to remember that you're not just writing for kicks here. You're paid, something that my real writer sister detests. (Yes I have a sister who is a real writer. She doesn't like to get paid writing about things she doesn't like). So a critical skill that you need to have and hone, is to understand what people like to read, what they like to buy online, and what your boss is promoting.


I think I could turn this blog post into a book, but that has been done so many times before.

There are many details that I've left out, mainly because I'm tired and I want to play with my kids, and also because, I think that this is enough hand holding for you.

Good luck to your blogging endeavor and if there's anything that you want to ask, just fire away in the comments.

Cheers!

The Most Important Tip of All: You do not have to pay anything to anybody to get a blogging job. If somebody asks you to pay for something, run away and fast! The beauty of what I am doing is that my only expense is electricity and broadband. I can write 1 article in 1 hour and that's basically what I do now. :)