Another income generator that is often overlooked are companies that will pay you for using their content. One program that I use often on all of my blogs, business and personal, is the Voxant Network (http://www.thenewsroom.com). The Voxant Network is a leading news provider that prides itself on having the most current global headlines.
These headlines cover almost any topic or category that one could imagine. The sites entertainment headlines report the latest movie, television, and music information along with some of the juiciest celebrity gossip. Finance headlines deal with stocks, banking, real estate, and any other industry that is being affected by finances. There are also world news headlines and you can also find your own local news. The Voxant Network gets its news from the following sources:
Associated Press
AFP
CBS
NHL
MTV
The Wall Street Journal
These are only a few of the most recognized sources. The network constantly searches for, and screens, quality content so that you don’t have to. Now blog owners don’t have to waste time searching through headlines for relevant, researched, news and information.
Once you find headlines that will appeal to your readers or fit in with your existing blog content you can then choose what format you want to post the content in. I usually use the text player but there are also streaming videos and high quality images. These images are extremely popular on celebrity and entertainment related sites.
The network then pays you, the blogger, for each page impression that their news content receives. That means that each and every time a visitor goes to your site and the voxant content is loaded into their browser you are earning money. The payout varies depending on the content and you are also paid for referrals. The payout schedule is as follows:
Video Feeds: $4.00 CPM
Video Story: $3.00 CPM
Text Story: $1.00 CPM
Image: $1.00 CPM
This might not seem like a lot of money at first, but once you factor in your traffic and the fact that you are essentially getting paid to use free content the value increases.
Another way to earn money through your blog posts is to recycle and, if your willing, share them. There are days when I write really researched, and inspired blog posts that I think can benefit more than just my clients and readers. When I feel that way I will syndicate my content.
The first way is to recycle your content is to submit it to Associated Content (http://www.associatedcontent.com) as a Non-Exclusive article and you will be paid $1.50 per thousand views. Associated Content is a highly recognized source for articles that is free to set up and easy to use. They allow you a link back to your own blog in your profile and within the article. Not only does this help me get even more traffic thanks to my inspired posting, but it also earns me a pretty good residual income. I’ve found that my posts on finance and technology get the most page views.
I strongly recommend Associated Content to those who are new to writing or syndicating articles. The pay is made on a regular basis through Paypal and it is a nice way to get the most out of your blog posts. I try to submit at least one post a week to Associated Content and it has paid off pretty well. Once you have established a pretty impressive collection of articles with them you can expect to receive a passive, monthly income deposited directly into your Paypal account.
Another site to use when syndicating your posts in article form is Constant Content (http://www.constant-content.com). This site allows you list well written posts for sale at a price you set. Prices vary from $5.00 to $50.00 for non-unique articles and payment is made through Paypal. While the review process can be a bit strict this is a great place to post your well written posts. I usually charge $15.00 for other sites to use my article and in many cases your byline will be included which means you will be gaining a back link.
In the event that you are not that comfortable posting your articles on Associated Content or Constant Content, or if you would prefer focusing on targeted traffic and backlinks, you might want to consider article directories. There are many free article directories that will allow you to submit your longer posts to their directories. These article directories will let you include a link to your site and byline so that when your article is posted on another blog you will receive an incoming link. Some article directories to check are:
Article Base: http://www.articlesbase.com
Article Rich: http://www.articlerich.com
Article Circle: http://www.articlecircle.com
Article Fever: http://www.articlefever.com
Ezine Articles: http://ezinearticles.com
Go Articles: http://www.goarticles.com
Insnare: http://www.isnare.com
These directories are great for viral marketing and syndication. Your article will be used by blog owners that have content similar to what is on your own blog. This means that they will be advertising your site to a more targeted audience. This is a great, free, way for your blog posts to be put to work earning you traffic.
Even if you don’t have any articles to submit you can put these directories to good use too. Using these free articles will provide you with some additional, free, content for your site to help out during busy seasons when you are not able to write your own unique content. Remember to make use of these free articles temporary and to supplement posts containing free content with original content of your own.
Since many blogs are popping up that do nothing but promote different ad programs using free content some search engines, Google included, are starting to penalize blog owners for having excessively used content. Using your own, unique content, in addition to free content will keep your blog from being targeted. I recommend keeping at least 2/3rds of your content totally original to avoid having your blog penalized.