Some people go to work Monday through Friday. While there if they do their job well and meet expectations, they get paid. For some, blogging IS their Monday – Friday (and weekends too) job. For others, blogging is a 2nd or 3rd job to supplement income or make ends meet. But, there is usually no steady income in blogging guaranteed every day like a 9 – 5. So how are bloggers paid? Some bloggers are paid to post content on other sites, some do paid posts through sites like Pay Per Post, Social Spark, Sponsored Reviews, etc. But again, this only works if the opps are there.
So how does a blogger REALLY get rewarded? A blogger feels rewarded when they know that they have done their job well. How do they know? Their readers let them know, right? You do don't you??? Well, if you don't, you should be.
1. The most obvious way is that if you read a post that helps you or touches you in some way, leave a comment and say thank you. Commenting also helps you promote yourself. Most bloggers that use WordPress these days have enabled their blogs with either Comment Luv, Disqus Comments, or another commenting system that allows follow links back to your own blog, which also helps you.
2. If you find a post helpful, retweet it, Digg it, Stumble it, link to it if you write your own post on the same subject, or share it on Facebook or Google Reader.
3. If you enjoy the blog, subscribe to the RSS feed, Networked Blogs, or Google Friend Connect.
These things will let the blogger know that they are doing their job and they will reward you, the reader by making sure that they keep providing quality content. In the end, this will greatly help the blogger out because…
If a blogger is looking to get paid to write content, or connect with companies to do reviews to share with you, the first thing that potential “employer” is going to ask for is the blog numbers. Questionnaires usually ask for number of blog subscribers, number of unique hits per month, number of page loads, Google page rank, Alexa ranking. You get the point.
Don't be a hit and run reader. Think of it as tipping. You visit a nice restaurant, you get good service, you leave a tip. So… leave a tip on your favorite blogs today!
EDIT: Be sure to read the comments below. Supermomplace makes an excellent point about the bounce rate on blogs! This happens when someone reads but does not interact then leave. It's called a “bounce” and systems interpret that to mean that the person did not like what they found on the blog, so they just left.
CHECK OUT THE FOLLOW UP TO THIS POST ON BOUNCE RATE HERE.
I always love your post! Reason why I subscribed! Your awesome giveaways are a bonus!
I was a tiny blogger and asked for a word of advice, you weren’t rude or turn me down. I really liked that when I was starting out.
3 months later, I have an alexa of almost 300,000 and almost 1000 google followers etc!
Thank you Faith! It does bother me. I am going to try to keep folks on my site. 🙂
Thanks Lois! And thanks for the FB add. 🙂 You said that you had some WP questions. Feel free to send them over!
I wonder about that, because my bounce rate is a very high 80%+ but I know for a fact that people do find what they have searched for because I keep track of my search keyword stats, etc. I think a bounce rate means that they read that one article and then leave and do not click anywhere else on the site. Because clicking elsewhere would mean that the site was interesting so they stayed and poked around.
I disagree for the bounce part. If you read the full article (so you stay a long time on the same page) it's not considered as a bounce.
I love your blog…this article is very timely for me….
Thanks again…glad I re-found your site!
Lois
http://ParentingTwinsandMore.com
True indeed, it is that sometimes better to have no visitors than have higher bounce rates. This a reminder to everyone especially to those hit and run readers. I hope they can absorb the fact that they affect blogs.
I was talking to someone yesterday and, as I made a point, he said “Oh, yeah. I read that on your blog.” I almost hugged him. I HAVE A READER!
Thank you so much! You are so so write. I forgot to mention the bounce rate! I will add that in and credit you. 🙂
Leading by example. lol I just tweeted and digg your post.
This is so true! Hit and run reader is so bad for the blog because it raise your bounce rate. sometimes higher bounce rate is worst than no visitors. I just wrote a post on this similar subject. “Together We Build Better Blogs”
This is great! I am so a hit and run reader and I am trying to comment on more blogs now. Thanks for the reminder.
I like how you said don’t be a hit and run reader. I can definately be accused of that. I do leave comments where comments are warranted. Sometimes there’s just nothing to say. But you are definately on point with your suggestions. I do like receiving comments and new followers so I do my best to interact with them. I find that I interact more when I don’t hit and run and actually make the time to read and comment.