A few weeks ago, I wrote a post detailing where bloggers can get paid for their writing. I also had some in-depth follow-up discussions with some of my closest blogging friends about syndicating content and when and if we should ever write for free. There was a resounding NO to the latter. While I agree, that blogging for money is better than blogging for peanuts (or t-shirts or mugs), I do believe there are several exceptions to this rule. When writing a post can generate a lot of eyeballs and drive traffic to your blog, I say go for it! Page views and unique visits are the long-tail aspects of monetization.
Below are a few rules of thumb:
- Don’t spend hours or days on a post you’re not being compensated for or posting to your own blog.
- Opt for short, quick posts that answer a specific question or are in how-to format.
- Test the waters with sites that receive a significant amount of traffic and heavily promote trending content.
- To track performance, refer to Google Analytics.
- Reach out to other bloggers in your niche and ask for recommendations. Ask where have they published content that has generated traffic for their blogs.
Three places I recommend checking out:
LinkedIn Publishing Platform
LinkedIn recently announced that its publishing platform, which had previously only been available to LinkedIn “Influencers”, is now available to regular users. When you post original content on LinkedIn it immediately becomes associated with your professional profile and shared with your network. LinkedIn receives over 214M global monthly uniques and over a billion page views! That’s a lot of eyeballs! Be sure to check out LinkedIn’s Publishing Plaftorm Help Center to learn what type of posts will be removed if they are not deemed beneficial to the community. Don’t fret if this option hasn’t been made available to you. LinkedIn is slowly rolling this out to all users.
Answers Writers Community
The Answers network of websites boasts more than 200M users. They recently opened up their writing platform to the general public and it’s definitely one to test drive. I receive a good chuck of traffic to my blog simply from the link I placed on my Answers profile. You can select from various templates and easily create SEO-optimized, user-friendly pieces of content in minutes.
Business 2 Community
Business 2 Community is not just a place to syndicate content. Once you’re accepted into their publishing network, you’re also free to post original pieces. My posts have performed exceptionally well, syndicated and otherwise. While their audience isn’t as large as LinkedIn or Answers, they do a tremendous job promoting trending content across their social channels. Larger media sites often run B2C posts, too. One of my top B2C posts showed up on the homepage of Yahoo! Small Business Community last year.
Where have you published content that has generated traffic for your blog?
