Short but sweet

Just came across an entry at Random Suprises regarding bite-sized blog posts that got me thinking.

I’ve been blogging for about 8 years and I used to post quite a few times a day when I was younger. I would post links, videos, and images that I found interesting and other musings in posts that were anywhere from a few sentences (10-50 words) to a few paragraphs (hundreds of words) long. Sometimes I didn’t feel like elaborating on why I found something interesting, or how I felt, or why I posted something… it was just a short blurb, something I wanted to quickly share, and nothing more.

Looking back on it, that was when blogging was fun for me- when I didn’t worry about how long a post was, how frequently I had to update, and how a post would be perceived in terms of “quality.” Granted, doing daily memes has restored some fun to blogging, but it’s not quite the same as when I was young and would post short entries on a whim. Posting several short entries on a daily basis seemed very real and personal.

Some may argue that short blogs often lack depth and even quality, but I believe just the opposite is true. There’s a lot to be said for a simple, short-but-sweet entry. Why scrounge for ideas to fit a long, “scroll down 3/4 of the page to read the 30 paragraph entry” blog post when something can be summarized with 200 words or so? Short musings are powerful, and let’s be frank: it can be boring to read a long blog entry about the events in a person’s daily life, unless it is about something particularly engaging.

Aside from the sponsored posts, which I actually very much enjoy writing (and not just because I am paid to write them), I don’t force myself to pick a topic and write about it for the sake of updating my blog on a regular basis. Therefore, if I have nothing to blog about because nothing is going on in my life, and there isn’t something interesting that I came across that I willingly want to write about, then so be it. Writing on my blog is supposed to be freeing and enjoyable- not a daunting, monitored task like I’ve sometimes made it out to be by worrying about perceived quality and word counts.

With that said, I would encourage other bloggers to follow in the same trend and relax already. Don’t be a slave to the word count, which could force you to write more than needed. Try posting a blog entry of 200 words or less and write it in Notepad if you find yourself constantly checking to see how many words you have. Hell, try posting an entry that’s 100 words or less, or summarize your feelings in a sentence or two. It’s liberating.

Bloggerwave

Do you have a blog you would like to make money with online? Bloggerwave is a new service, similar to PayPerPost and others, which gives bloggers the ability to make money through accepting a task and posting about it on their blog. It is quick and easy to do. You can register up to 5 blogs on your Bloggerwave account, and earn $10 for your first post!! For more information, be sure to visit their website.

PayPerPost

I removed the Google AdSense ad that was at the bottom of the page as well as a few other little buttons I had. They weren’t doing much of anything for me, anyway, as far as revenue is concerned. I think AdSense is optimal for high-traffic, popular websites and not so much smaller or personal websites. Anyway, after I removed those few things, I tried submitting my blog to PayPerPost again, just to see what would happen, and it was accepted this time. Hooray!

From what I can see, PayPerPost seems to be a decent way to make money on the internet and the whole process is relatively simple. First make sure your blog fits the initial criteria set by PPP. Once your blog is accepted, search for available opportunities and follow certain blog ethics when posting your sponsored posts (in other words, don’t bash what you are supposed to be promoting and will eventually be paid for!) Finally, submit your post for approval and repeat the process.

I see on the website that there are people who have made thousands of dollars with PPP, a feat which is quite amazing. Imagine posting something on your weblog… and making $100 off of it. That would be awesome! …but not practical for my website, I am afraid.

PPP works with page rankings, so the higher the page ranking of a website, the more money the website owner can make per post. I was surprised to find that, despite having been on the internet since 2002, fuchsia-revolver has a page ranking of 0. Does that mean that PPP won’t work for me and my website? Not necessarily. I can still accept posts, but they will be for lower values. Frankly, I would be happy if I could have a post that is worth at least $10.

So has anyone had any success with PPP? I would be interested to get some feedback and hear about other people’s experiences. I can’t say a lot about my experiences with the campaigns on PPP, because this is my first offer; however, the customer support is very friendly and efficient, which is usually the sign of a good company, and it looks like there are a lot of offers to choose from. We’ll see how I make out.