Close Encounter With A Network Blogging Opportunity
This past March I inquired about an available position with a blogging network. I had seen several other bloggers join “the networks” and I thought, “why not me?” Sure enough, my note to one well known network was received warmly and their representative and I soon 
began an email discourse that eventually resulted in a job offer from them and my reply of “no thanks.” Yes, I turned down the network blogging position deciding to stick with what I was already doing — writing for myself and for my clients. Read on and I’ll share some information about my close encounter and what convinced me that I could do better elsewhere.
A Chance For Steady Income
Admittedly, I thought that deriving a steady monthly income from a blogging position would be a nice reward. Hey, it could even cover my car payment or give me a few extra bucks to toss around. Initially, money was not that big of an issue — that topic certainly did not even come up until the contract was sent. However, it was money that absolutely convinced me that network blogging was a bad deal for me, not worth the time needed to pursue this endeavor.
A Flurry Of Emails, References Given, And Then A Wait
Just so you know I am not going to reveal to anyone the name of this blogging network. There are several of them out there and I do not want to burn any bridges nor am I interested in bashing anyone. I am simply sharing this information to recap my experience and, perhaps, to help you understand what network blogging is all about.
Over the course of one month’s time, the representative of the blogging network and I exchanged more than two dozen emails, with the greatest number exchanged at the beginning and at the end of our discourse. These messages included emails sent by me featuring links to related blog posts I had previously written and posted, the forwarding of a detailed outline featuring ten posts I would write for their blog, and a unilateral promise by me that I would curtail some of my extracurricular blogging in order to concentrate on the new blog.
When references were requested I put together a list of three business clients and sent off their contact information; each person was contacted and later I learned that their comments about me were very favorable. In addition, I was told fairly early on that I “…have a good shot” with the position so I knew that it was only a matter of time before an offer of employment was extended.
At one point in the email exchange I didn’t hear anything from the blogging network representative for nine days before I decided to send a message to find out where we stood. A brief reply of “no updates just yet” was a bit of a disappointment but I figured that I would learn about their decision soon.
We’re Concerned, You’re Hired, No Thanks
A few days later I received a message from the blogging representative stating that they were “…worried about your time commitment. Will you have enough time to write both blogs?” I laughed to myself as I thought, “I explained to them previously that I wrote for eight blogs (not one) and that I would peel off four blogs to make room for their one blog.” So, I fired off a message reassuring them of my time commitment and soon received a “you are hired” reply with contracts and related information attached.
The contract was lengthy as it detailed what they expected from me and what I could expect from them. Toward the very end of the legalities I found the information about compensation and quickly came to the conclusion that my blogging aspirations for this company — writing six articles per week for $50 per month (plus a small amount of money per 1000 page impressions) — had to die. I sent off emails declining their initial offer and subsequent counteroffer coming to the conclusion that what I was doing all along was truly the best use of my time.
A Better Blog
Although I turned them down, several good things came out of the month long vetting process. For instance, I made several changes to this blog including replacing the theme, expanding my categories, and adding several plug-ins to help make the site much more user friendly. The result is evident: my traffic here has increased three-fold.
I suppose the prestige of writing for a blogging network is what inspires most people to join up. It has to be that as the pay is paltry. Granted, the personal exposure is terrific, but I wasn’t convinced that it would be of enough of a benefit for me to outweigh the low salary. Even after six month’s time I was told that I could expect to make about $300 per month, an amount I can make with my blogs in a matter of just two or three days.
Go ahead and join a blogging network if pay is not an issue for you. It isn’t the overriding issue for me, but when the pay is too low then it becomes an issue nonetheless.
Cheers to you for turning down a terrible offer. There’s no justification at all for giving up ownership of your time (what could be more precious?) for the sake of some ‘prestige’ and a few bucks a month. Way to fight the power!
Thanks, Mark. The content would have been mine, I would simply be giving them exclusive license to it for 30 days. However, its value would be seriously diminished to me once I posted it to their blog.
Prestige is so fleeting anyway!
Very interesting post.
I have unsuccessfully pursued a few paid blogging opportunities myself. The only one that I was actually offered I had to turn down because they didn’t want me publishing family-oriented articles elsewhere on the Internet. (I earn my living as a writer, this would have severely limited my income.)
You don’t say how long the six articles had to be, but the pay you describe is lower than most of what I’ve seen, so I think you were right to turn it down. It’s always a good idea to turn down offers that don’t make business sense.
I wouldn’t give up on professional blogging, if that’s what you want, though. I think that there are better opportunities out there.
I wish you would share what you do to actually make money with your blogs. Mine is spectacularly unprofitable at the moment. It’s a good thing that I have clients.
Hi Laura,
I am amazed at the restrictions put on some bloggers by these networks. Telling a blogger that they can’t publish similar themed articles elsewhere is ludicrous. If they paid me accordingly I would consider this option, but you know that the pay isn’t all that good.
The six articles they wanted per week were of undetermined length, but I must tell you that they were leaning on the longer articles, not the one paragraph “fill in the space” type entries that bloggers sometimes use. I have to tell you that even this article took me two hours to write, proofread, and rewrite — I wouldn’t do the same elsewhere unless I was well paid for my work.
Because I run several blogs, I monetize them in different ways. Once in awhile you’ll see a paid post here, but I reserve the bulk of my paid opportunities for several other sites. I charge for the links in my footers and have Text Link Ads (just one at the moment) running on top of the sidebar.
Although I don’t always make $200 plus in a few days of blogging, I can. Instead, I derive the bulk of my monies from writing work for clients too.
In the end, if there is a professional blogging position available, it would have to be a spectacular offer. However, this blog is doing very well and I am not wanting to do anything that would take away from it.
I hope this explains things.
Regards,
MattK
Thats funny cause i have been invited to all those networks and i turn them all down too, hope im not making a big mistake
Hi Cameron. You aren’t making a mistake if what they are offering to you doesn’t mesh with what you want from them. Even if pay is not the issue, does being part of a network appeal to you?
Thanks Matt for your helpful answer!
I have been studying really hard about monetizing my blog and hopefully eventually I will earn a little from it. (I don’t do paid posting there, but I am thinking of creating a blog for that and for other off-topic subjects.) I have noticed that bloggers who make a decent income from blogging seem to have multiple blogs.
As you can see from my blog, I am part of a non-paying network (Gack Ink). But to clarify that, I went into it knowing that it was not paying. It is more like a fellowship of bloggers and there are no restrictions because everyone retains ownership of their own blog.
I noticed the “Gack Ink” logo, but never clicked on it until today. I like an association better than a blogging network — I want to retain full control over my blog and the content. This particular blogging network would license the content for thirty days, then I could use it for whatever purposes I wanted later. Still, I prefer full control.
Having additional blogs is the way to go. I set several of them up to help out customers — they wanted a place for their articles to be published so these blogs were the place for that. I can monetize them as I see fit too.
Hey Matt,
I think you did the best thing for yourself by turning them down.
A network would have to have an incredible amount of prestige for something to pay off to work for ’slave labor’. You’re already well established as a writer to not have to fall for that kind of bait.
I have no experience to be able to make an educated comment, but my personal perspective is that it’s an insult. The network receives precious original content written by a talented writer for a pittance of pay in return.
Once an article has been indexed for 30 days, what good is it to you … using it will merely create duplicate content, which is of no value to you at that point. You’d basically have to re-write the article.
I had no idea network blogging positions were so low paying. These guys are getting cheap labor. Even my blogs, which are not as high traffic as yours just now, bring in $50+ a day for me. There is no way I would accept both financial and freedom restrictions for the going rate.
Hi Deborah! You have all of the perspective of someone who knows when they see something not worth taking. I agree: with a soft license, the article isn’t much good for me as it has already been picked up and indexed by Google. A duplicate article would fall into their supplemental listing, rendering it virtually useless to me.
Angie, you got that right. I decided that being beholden to someone at that price would make me very unhappy. When I am unhappy it shows up in my writings. We all lose out!
Hi Matt. I’ve been reading through the comments on this article and found a conversation between you and Laura about writing for clients. I just started my blog about three months ago and am still pretty clueless about blogging - and making money from it. Can you explain what you mean by writing for clients? Thanks
Hi Denise — I apologize for not responding sooner.
Writing for clients includes freelance writing projects for companies, individuals, what-have-you that have been obtained through the marketing of our services. If you have a talent for writing, then you can market your work. Laura does this, I do it, and there are many of us who provide writing services to clients.
Advertising is an important method for monetizing your blog. It takes a lot of work to manage a blog, but the rewards in the form of advertising revenue and writing projects can be very good.
[...] to be a pittance. Regular readers of this blog may recall my May 2007 article titled, “Close Encounter With A Network Blogging Opportunity where I shared a story detailing my rejection of a writing position with one well known blogging [...]
[...] of offering them 20 to 30 posts per month. Regular readers of this blog probably recall my Close Encounter With A Network Blogging Opportunity and the reasons why I turned down the chance to blog somewhere [...]