In an attempt to respond to the comment on my defunct blog (well, the blog isn’t defunct, it’s just defunct to me), I contacted the commenter directly. I explained that I no longer have access to the Today.com blog but felt her comment was worthy of a response (I also redirected her here).

After contacting the commenter, I realized that receiving email notifications of comments to the inaccessible Today.com blog isn’t so bad after all. This way I can convert my readers one at time from my Today.com readership to my No Job for Mom readership.

Thank you Today.com.

My email to Today:

Since you have disabled my account, kindly remove all of my content from
your site or continue paying me the latest going rate.

Thank you,

Felicia Williams

Today’s Response:

You were paid for all your content posted through February on March
10th ($51.86). Your current balance is $0.37. A $50 minimum must be
accrued for payment to be sent. We can reactivate your account or you
can forfeit your earnings to date of $0.37.

The blog URL will remain active and Today.com reserves the right to
reassign the site at a later date or reactivate the site if you decide
to return.

If you would like to continue blogging with Today.com, we have
additional programs available to earn money in addition to PPM and the
monthly Today.com bonuses.

A number of our bloggers are quite successful earning money through
our Advertising Revshare Program, Affiliate Referral Program and
Product Affiliate Program.

Sincerely,
Today.com Support

My Response to their Response:

When you say ‘reassign’ the site, are talking about reassigning the domain
name or the domain name and the content I wrote?

Their response to my response to their response:

Today.com could reassign the domain and the content which was obtained
via the work for hire agreement you agreed to.

Sincerely,
Today.com Support

There it is in a nutshell.

Fortunately, I didn’t write very much for Today.com so if they decide to reassign the domain and the content, they get to use approximately 30 posts, of which several have my affiliate links (I didn’t’ get paid for those posts).  However, before you decide to write for Today.com, be sure to read the fine print (which in all honesty, I didn’t).

Apparently Hospitalera had a pretty successful blog over at Today.com.  All appeared to be going great when one day she received an email from Today stating that they were changing her payment rate.  Shortly thereafter, she received another email informing her that they were closing out her account.

I don’t understand what and why because I had not previously followed Hospitalera’s Today blog.  According to her post her blog was in the “Top 100 and most of the time even in the Top 50 of their blog statistics.”

In the past I had recommended Today.com as a way to earn money blogging, but I think after my experience and Hospitalera’s experience and the experience of other unhappy Today.com bloggers, I’m going to have to rescind my endorsement of using Today.com as one of the online freelance writing tools.

Check out Hospitalara’s blog for more info.  Oh, and while you’re at it, visit Sher’s blog.  If I hadn’t stopped by the Czech Off the Beaten Path blog, I wouldn’t have found Hospitalera (I love my early morning internet wanderings).

The question is…do I want to continue writing for them.

I’ve recently decided that I want to double my online income in a period of 6 months. Last year it took me close to 11 months to double my prior year’s income. I’d like to be more efficient and do it in less time this year.

Is the goal realistic?

Yes, if I plan properly and follow the plan it’s a very real possibility. If I sit around wishing without planning, I’d never get it done, so I have to be hands on about it.

How to do it?

This is the tough part. Because I want to double the income, I have to look at what I’m doing and work smarter, not harder. Take Today.com, for instance. I get $1 per post and a few pennies in residual income. Because it’s a blog, in order to make it work, I’ve got to make several posts a week.

That in and of itself isn’t tough, but I made the big mistake when I signed up at Today to pick a topic that is extremely closely related to this blog. My Today blog is entitled “Online Writing Income.” Not wanting to repeat the information on this blog, I find it a bit of challenge to maintain two blogs on the same topic. One blog I love, the other an obligation (a low paying obligation at that).

Time to Prune Dead Wood

Part of coming up with a strategy to double my income in a shorter period of time is finding what works and working it better, and finding what doesn’t work and getting rid of it. The determination of what does and doesn’t work isn’t always about the money. It’s about the flow, the ease of writing and the enjoyment (along with the money).

Making money at what I enjoy is easy. It’s emotionally and physically draining making money doing something that is not enjoyable. It takes twice as long, I tend to procrastinate and not always do as good a job as I would if I enjoyed it.

Improving What Works

Instead of wasting my time coming up with blog posts for Today.com, I should work on my keyword and SEO skills to get a higher rate of return on my work. Sometimes it’s not how much you write, but how well you write it to get the biggest bang for the buck.

Initially I came up with a plan that had me writing 48 new articles/blog posts a week. It was doable but exhausting. By the end of the third week I couldn’t write anymore. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work (I was working harder, not smarter).

Now I’m back at the drawing board. I’m going to write less, but write each one better.

Bottom line, I hung around Today.com long enough to earn my initial payout, but I don’t think I’ll be around much longer. This is not to say that Today.com won’t work for someone else, but it just doesn’t fit into the flow of my money making plans.

A few of my readers shared pertinent information about their experience with Today. After reading their posts, I decided to do a little investigation on my own. I went to the Forums and the Today FAQ page and here’s what I found:

From the Forum

After weeding through many posts about promotions and links to blogs and general conversation, I found a closed post that stated:

“We’ve changed the starting rates for NEWLY CREATED BLOGS. This does not affect CURRENT blogs.

From now on new blogs get:

+ $2.00 per thousand unique visitors.

+ After a 30 day provisional period outstanding blogs may be promoted to our pay per post program.

If you participate in the referral program please make note of these changes when advertising today.com. We’ve changed the referral program so new incoming referred blogs will need to post at least 20 times over 20 days to become a qualified referred blogger.”

I guess the moderator knew that it would generate much conversation so the post was marked closed.

FAQ

Then I went over to the FAQ of my VIP account and read the following:

“…How much you make in the long term will depend on a number of factors including the popularity of your topic and writing. Generally speaking, the more steady readers the inbound links and you attract, the better. As you gain in popularity your earnings will increase. To get you started we guarantee you will earn at least $1.00 per daily post for at least 1 month. Your blog will be evaluated monthly and payments may be adjusted up or down depending on how well you are doing. “

My Take on the Situation

As a new blogger, I hardly find it worthwhile to earn $2 per thousand unique visitors. Just to give you an idea, I started blogging there in mid December. I made 17 “approved” posts in December and I posted 8 in January. I don’t know if my January posts are “approved” as yet because they have not been reviewed. Who knows, according to the info in the FAQ, they may review my blog and decide it’s no longer worth $1 per post.

As a result of the two months of posting I had 325 unique visits in December and so far 319 in January; a far cry from a thousand unique visitors on which a new blogger would earn $2. Unless you seriously market your blog and gain a quick following, you won’t make much at all. At my current rate, having a total of 644 unique visitors translates into a total of $1.34 in residual income.

On top of that I’ve earned $20 in referrals. That will dry up as soon as I explain the new payment structure to potential Today.com bloggers. Not everyone wants to write 20 blog posts for 20 days for such little reward. I know I wouldn’t.

I’ve got to admit; currently I put very little work into the blog. I sign in once a week, pre date three blog posts and I’m done. I only sign into my account if I receive a comment that needs to be approved. At $1 per post, it’s barely worth the trouble, but I’m a long-term thinker and believe over time the residuals will begin to pick up.

I’m willing to give it a few months before I throw my hands up and say, “It’s not worth it.” But, I’ve got to say; I don’t think I would sign up for a Today.com blog under the current pay structure. It seems that they want you to put in a lot of work for 30 days to see if your blog is worth $1 per post plus residuals. I think there are more lucrative opportunities on the internet without having to jump through such hoops. That’s just my opinion.