Equitable pay for writers? That’s been a bone of contention ever since Gutenberg. Don’t get caught up in that debate, you won’t win.

You are an Excellent Writer! And if you get some ad revenue, as a bonus for doing something you enjoy and do quite well, then good for you. There is no sin in being a professional blogger. But toughen up and be on the offense, not the defense. You do not need to justify what you do/write to anyone, especially not some stranger at a convention!

I’ve been a writer for over 30 years and let me tell ya’ — no one pays writers what they’re worth — so take what you can get. Print literary journals offer two (wow! TWO!) copies of their journal as payment. Writers who’ve had short stories published by accepting this kind of payment are considered successful. Online journals offer “exposure” in exchange for a 10,000 word story. My husband said he’d take $50 over “exposure” any day. Even my literary journal, The Dead Mule, is guilty of such things… but the site has no ads and no sponsors, just my husband and me, so the “no pay thing” is justified — whooops! There I go! Now I’m justifying writer pay or the lack of it. See how easy it is to get caught in the debate, go defense and take it personally?

PayPerPost has not created a new breed of wordwhores. They ask for sincere ad copy. Believe me, readers will eventually spot the bogus bloggers. You provide real content.

My husband looked at a lot of ad revenue brokers and thinks PayPerPost has it all over the 2cents-a-click guys. Magazines like Woman’s Day, Glamour, Time — almost every magazine (except The Nation and a rare few others) — are over 65% advertising. Check the stats! Often the reader can’t tell the ad from the copy. At least with PPP you guys are upfront about the ads.

So now my husband writes for PPP. He’s a very good writer, and works hard — wants to be interesting and readable. We think he should receive at least $25 for 100 words but since he’s jonesing for a new iMac, he’ll write 300 words for $20 just to build up his savings. If people/readers don’t like PPP, then they don’t have to read your blog. Or my husband’s.

Don’t let someone else’s idea of worth affect your self-worth. You hang in there and keep writing!
Oh, and Rob’s blog is macewan.org btw.

-Valerie MacEwan

AND, you earn $20.00 for your first post, which is I think 100 words (maybe 200) about PayPerPost! Thank you for the support. I am NOT a whore, of any kind. I am a WORK AT HOME MOM. I made $571.00 in July writing paid posts (all paid blogging sites combined), and I didn’t have to put my kids in daycare to do it, or stress myself out doing a job I didn’t love. I LOVE blogging, and I pink puffy heart LOVE getting PAID to blog!

Make sure to check out the PayPerPost forums (click the Community Tab). There are people on the boards almost 24 hours a day, they will answer any question you have. It’s a great group of terrific bloggers who are EMPOWERING and SUPPORTIVE, and I can’t think of anything better than that. So go on and GET PAID!!

I’m going to look into PayPerPost after I get done writing this.

Anyway, back to the point…I swear there is one.

I am getting tired of reading about how people who blog for $ are somehow bad. Let’s be honest. They are on the cusp of calling us whores.

I’m a stay-at-home-mom. If I can bring in an extra $400 a month writing about something that I would write about for free then how is that a bad thing?

The difference I assume between writing a blog and being a professional marketing writer is that more than likely (and again, I’m assuming, because I don’t know for sure) the marketing writer has a college degree in marketing, or at least a minor in it, is that correct? I have a Bachelor’s in English and a lot of experience writing papers about imagery in The Great Gatsy or comparing Shakespeare’s plays, but as for actual marketing experience, no.

PayPerPost, LoudLaunch, Smorty, PayU2Blog, BlogtoProfit–these are the companies who will give bloggers a chance to earn money by writing about specific topics. The pay does not equal what a marketing writer can earn, because bloggers are not marketing writers, do you see what I mean?

I have a post in the works about the new class structure that is arising among bloggers, how bloggers who write for PayPerPost seem to be perceived as less dedicated to their writing than someone who writes five posts a week for ClubMom in exchange for FIFTY DOLLARS A MONTH. No one is talking about how THAT devalues the blogging community!

Last comment- In my own way, I have taken that stand you wrote about. Before I went to BlogHer, my rate for PayPerPost Direct was $25.00 a post. PPP Direct is a directory of bloggers that advertisers can hire directly to write just for them, as opposed to offering their job to the whole group in the Marketplace. When I came home from BlogHer, I raised my price for a post here on Table for Five to $60.00, and have already been hired at that rate. I will no longer take $5.00 for anything, unless I can really relate to it. I’m doing what’s right for me. Thanks again for your comment.

Personally, I think this is your blog and you should be allowed to do with it what you want. I was feeling tons of stress to write a new post a week (yes, I’m so lame I can barely do one post a week!), but then I decided to forget about this and just enjoy writing when I can. If you enjoy PPP, just go ahead and do it.