Blogging for Revenue

On my site, I recently found a way to make it possible to share Google Adsense revenue with my writers. I was pretty thrilled to be able to allow writers to post on my site and earn money. I am not a corporation and my site is young, so it would have been a long time before I could afford to front money to several writers.

But it did stir up a debate, particularly when one high-profile freelance writing job site refused to post my listing (and with quite a snotty, condescending email about revenue sharing as payment being some sort of scam beneath real writers). I actually write for a few sites in this way and, in fact, a big chunk of my income (that isn’t too shabby) comes from this sort of a pay setup or something similar.

I responded to that email with a message about the short-sightedness of the assumptions that writers don’t want to work for revenue share. It seemed odd to me that she would assume what types of jobs writers on her site want or don’t want. What interested me is that I was obviously correct that writers are willing and eager to write for revenue share. Within a couple weeks, I heard from 30-plus people who were eager to write for the site.

The interesting thing to me is that I think revenue sharing is fairer to all parties. I also find it a little amusing a job site would post information on jobs for book authors (who get paid by royalty, which is essentially the same thing as revenue share) but not for Web sites doing this.

There are some pros and cons for both setups, but it is certainly a legitimate way to earn a living as a freelance blogger.

Revenue sharing pros and cons for writers

The pros for writers are you get paid for years to come for one article you spent a few minutes writing, and you get paid based on what your work actually earns. If you write for a set payment, on the other hand, the Web site (or magazine or whoever you write for) continues to make that money for years to come instead. You only get paid once, instead of getting paid every month.

The biggest con, in my experience on the writing side, is the delayed gratification. It takes time to build income this way, since you start from article zero at the beginning. The more content you have, the more page views you get. The more page views, the more ad impressions and the more revenue. Another downside is you will want to learn SEO in order to drive more traffic and make more money. It isn’t mandatory, but it sure helps.

Revenue sharing pros and cons for publishers

If you have a Web site or multi-author blog, there are some great pros to using this set up. First of all, you don’t need a hefty business loan, major investors or a lot of cash in savings just to have a stable of decent, paid authors. You also are not taking major risks by committing to pay a certain amount for an article that may not repay you in returns.

On the downside, you are sharing. If your site and these authors’ articles start making a fortune, well, that’s their fortune, too. Personally, I don’t mind sharing the wealth. But this is no minor consideration, especially if making money on the Web site you publish is a major goal.

Would you blog for revenue share? Do you already? If you run a multi-author blog, would you ever consider sharing revenue (or do you now)? Is this a fair payment structure for a publisher and a writer?

Written by kelbycarr from Kelby Carr
Posted on January 29th, 2008 and filed under Making Money, Writing
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