Anyway, not feeling like doing much writing today, I decided to relax with a cup of coffee, a muffin and my laptop. Everyone is still asleep so I can wander aimlessly around the internet uninterrupted. In my aimless wandering I came across Willow Sidhe’s blog, The Freelance Home Writer.

Honestly, I’ve been to this blog before, but had not spent enough time reading all that Willow has to say. I know many of you are avid readers of her blog and I can see why. If anyone is serious about becoming a freelance writer and is looking for online opportunities, Willow’s blog is the one to follow. She gives in depth reviews, personal experience and sound advice.

It’s obvious that Willow takes freelance writing seriously because it shows in her work. She also has a passion for helping other writers. After all, her blog’s tag line is “Helping writers find real, legitimate, freelance writer jobs to produce a steady income online,” and that’s exactly what she does.

After reading this post, mosey on over to Willow’s blog. You won’t be disappointed. I’d give her blog 3 thumbs up if I had three thumbs.

If you haven’t done so already visit the Griz. His blog How to Make Money Online for Beginners is chock full of great information for beginners and veterans alike. His information is free and readily available. You don’t have to buy a book or sign up for membership. You do, however, have to spend a little time reading the tons of information he’s got there.

There, I’ve condensed my Blogging 101 series into three words – Visit the Griz.

Bloggers

Here’s a questions for the bloggers out there. How many blogs do you have?

Did you start one blog, only to realize you had additional interests that didn’t quite fit into blog number one so you decided to start blog number two? Then on a whim, blog number three popped into your head. As time went on, you realized that blog number one is your “true love” and you decide to go back to number one to revamp it. Sound familiar?

Webmasters

Webmasters, you don’t get off the hook so easily either. How many websites do you have? Hmmm…..

The internet has made it easy for folks to cater to and get paid for their every whim and interest. It’s the one place where attention deficient tendencies are okay.

It’s not so easy to do so in the brick and mortar world. Try it. Imagine starting a job one day only to develop interest in another job, so you leave job number one to start job number two. Hmmm, job number two is okay, but you’ve suddenly developed an interested in job number three, so you leave job two for job three.

That won’t fly for a second in the real world.

Is it good or bad?

I’m not condoning or criticizing the behavior, I’m just pointing out that it’s a fact of life, and I’m learning to embrace the things that come naturally and work with them.

Some people are fortunate enough to know from a very early age what they want to be in life. My father, for instance, knew from the time he was little that he wanted to be an Architect, so that’s what he did.

Watching an interview the other day on TV Ellen Degeneres interviewed Cher. Cher mentioned that she new at the age of 4 that she wanted to sing and be in show business. There are countless stories of inspired and motivated individuals who knew from young what they wanted to be when they grew up. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those individuals.

So, to accommodate my hither and yon personality, I guess the only sensible profession for me (one that incorporates my attention deficient tendencies) is freelance writing. Where else can I spend time learning about anything and everything and get paid for it? Today the mating habits of the naked mole rat and tomorrow an in depth expose on whether or not women with big feet are truly happy.

The possibilities are endless

While chronologically I may be over the hill (at least my kids think so), physically I’m not growing any taller (and prayerfully not growing any wider), mentally, emotionally, spiritually and in all the ways that truly matter, I’m still growing. To have “grown up” is to have reached the end of the line. As long as there’s something to learn…I’m good to go!

Drawing a mental blank, I decided to write about 10 things I learned from my first 100 blog posts. Ready? Here they are:

1. You can never get rid of spammers. Even though the WordPress plugin Akismet is installed on this blog, I still get a few errant entries that must be deleted.
2. You won’t always agree with your readers comments, but approve them anyway. My initial reaction was to hit the ‘delete’ button to send them into the cyber trash can, but I thought better of it. Instead, I welcome varying opinions. I say that with the caveat that if the comments are rude, disrespectful, ranting and just plain mean, they get deleted.
3. Google AdSense doesn’t always work well for blogs. My regular readers might remember my post about converting No Job for Mom from a website to a blog. After I converted it I noticed my AdSense income from this blog all but stopped. Initially I was shocked, but I realize it’s all good. There’s a larger plan in the works.
4. Blogging is a commitment (no duh). I’ve committed to adding 6 posts a week. I take Sunday off to honor God, spend time with my family and replenish myself.
5. You meet nice people blogging. Although my blog is new, I’ve met quite a few nice people here. The relationships are still young (like the blog), but I fully expect them to grow.
6. My family doesn’t read my blog. They know I spend a lot of time on the computer writing, but they only read a small fraction of what I write. No hard feelings.
7. I’d be lost without my digital voice recorder. In my advancing years, my ideas play a game of hide and seek (they hide well and I’m always seeking to retrieve them). With my digital voice recorder, I can always find and capture them. I strongly recommend a digital voice recorder for anyone serious about writing.
8. Don’t get intimidated. When I first started this blog I was easily intimidated because of the tons of good blogs out there on similar topics. I became paralyzed by fear and feelings of inadequacy. Other blogs had a large readership, they had a better blog design, they were around longer, they had newsletters and were earning tons of money. I focused on their success to my detriment. Now I look at those blogs, appreciate them and learn from them. They are a resource and not a competitor. It’s all about how you look at it.
9. Build a Blog Bank. Because stuff happens, I found there were times when I couldn’t blog about the topic I intended to. Therefore, I would reach into my ‘blog bank’ and pull out one of my almost complete blog post, complete it and then post it. It saves time and allows for continuity. Setting up pre-written entries to be published at a scheduled time works even better. I haven’t evolved to that level quite yet.
10. Be myself. Although this is the last item, it is by no means the least important. I’ve found the one thing that follows me everywhere I go is me and my personality. So, who else can I be but myself, and my blog is a reflection of that.

Blogging Goals for the Next 100 Posts?

Get 5% better. Sounds like a rather tame goal, but if I can complete 100 posts in 95% of the time it took me to accomplish the first 100 posts. That’s an improvement. If each month I increase my readership and my income by 5%, I’m headed in the right direction. If I get 5% more backlinks each month, that’s a plus.

As with the game of basketball, a team wins the game 1, 2 and 3 points at a time. There’s no 20-point shot in basketball. I’m willing to plod along increasing my success 5% at a time. I’m a patient woman (most of the time).

There are a few more things I learned from my first 100 posts, but judging by the snoring emanating from my computer, I’ll stop here.

Some of the advertisers on SponsoredReviews are new and are looking for a way to create a buzz about their site, while other advertisers have been around a bit longer but are looking to build backlinks and generate traffic to their sites.

Sign Up and Add Your Blogs

To sign up, go to SponsoredReviews.com create an account. Once you receive your confirmation e-mail you can then begin to add your blogs.

The blog adding process is a little interesting. I have a couple of blogs that I update rather frequently, and I also have ones for which I barely add new posts. Just for grins, I decided to add my most frequently updated blogs plus one that I don’t update at all.

The two frequently updated blogs were approved rather quickly. It took less than 24 hours. The blog that I didn’t update was rejected even quicker than my blogs were approved. I barely clicked the “Submit” button when I received a pop up saying something to the effect that the blog didn’t meet their requirements. No sense in fooling around. If the blog doesn’t meet the requirements, it doesn’t meet the requirements. I admired that quick rejection.

Finding Opportunities

Once you have approved blogs you can search through the various opportunities and select ones that appeal to you and that are a good fit for your blog. The advertisers have a price range for which they are willing to pay. You place a bid and if it’s accepted then you write the post as agreed.

Some advertisers require a link backs while others don’t. Some of course want blogs with Google page ranking while others don’t. The stipulations vary from advertiser to advertiser.

All about the Cash

SponsoredReviews takes their cut right off the top. If you set your rate at $20 for example, Sponsored Reviews takes their percentage and you’ll end up with something like $13.00. So, if you want to make more than $13.00 you’ve got increase your rate accordingly.

I find the earning potential per assignment to be higher at SponsoredReviews than at Pay Per Post, Smorty and PayU2Blog (I mention those because those are ones that I’ve had time to check out). The assignments at SponsoredReviews ranged anywhere from as low as $5 to as high as $500 maximum bid.

The image to the left is a screen clip of a few of the assignment prices from today’s login (click on it for a larger, more readable image). I purposely cropped the advertiser’s names from the image. I didn’t want to violate anyone’s terms or conditions.

I attempted to claim one or two of the assignments, but the positions were already filled. I guess I have to get a better feel for when new assignments are available and the best time to claim them.

Referrals

SponsoredReviews also has a referral program (as do most paid for blogging sites). The referral payout is not an exorbitant amount but every little bit helps if you’re looking to make money online. You get paid based off of what your referral earns. If your referral earns $50 you get $5, if they earn $200 you get $10, $1,000 you get $25. As you can see, you won’t get rich off of SponsoredReviews’ referrals, but to quote a wise man (my father), “It’s better than a stick in the eye.”

They appear to be a legit operation to me, but I’d love to hear from folks who have used SponsoredReveiws. I’d like to hear your take on them.