Thursday, August 28, 2008 Toral: Earning from blogs By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
LAST Monday, I was a guest in QTV’s The Beat.
Miriam Quiambao, the host, focused her questions on how blogs are set up and how one can earn from blogging.
It is interesting to see how much interest blogs have generated these days.
Some bloggers have attained a certain prominence after being featured in publications. They have made a living out of blogging, which is seen as a potential entry path for portfolio building, online career and even business ventures.
Earning from blogs, in my experience, is possible through two aspects. The first is that of a service provider. This is where one offers time and skill to perform blog set-up, hosting, content development or writing, template design, graphics creation, promotion and advertising, among others.
The blogger may either be a company or a freelancer. Some companies and prominent individuals, who do not have the time to experiment, outsource to an expert the blog set-up process.
Those who are not capable of building the content entirely on their own may also hire freelance writers. Copyright and byline are transferred to the entity that paid for the writing job.
Promotion and advertising is often availed of by product or service sellers with the hope of immediately attracting attention to their blogs from potential visitors, buyers and search engine blog trackers.
The second aspect in blogging for income is when a blogger uses his or her blog as site for advertisements, reviews, product display and service offering, among others. Income is generated through direct sales, advertising fees, feature fee and other options.
I believe that those who thrive in this area are those who are capable of creating their own niche product or service and sell them online.
Another indirect way bloggers generate returns from their blog is by joining contests and taking part in activities. These include writing or video creation projects, sponsored get-together, search engine ranking on targeted keywords, and many more.
But I am bothered by talks about taxation. There are very few bloggers in the country, I would even say less than a hundred, who can claim that they earn more than P60,000 a year on blogging alone. Most bloggers today consider blogging as a pastime and for portfolio building, and do not consider the activity as their sole source of income.
For those interested to watch my interview on QTV, there will be a replay on Saturday at 12:45 pm.
