Nonfiction Book Reviews

I’ve told a couple of friends in the last few days that I get paid to blog on here, and they were all surprised.  For whatever reason, I had thought pretty much everyone I know already knew this, but apparently, I would be wrong.

So I figured I ought to write up a post, and invite people out in the cyberworld who are thinking about blogging, to check out the gig here at Today.com.  I have been paid to blog before, but this is the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had of it.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my blogging at Today, and I think it’s because I love my topic so much.  The last time I blogged for pay, the topic was “jobs” and that was nice, but I ran out of ideas to talk about too soon.  With this blog, there’s such a huge variety of things to say, I just don’t foresee me shutting up anytime soon.

When I’ve told people that I blog for pay at Today.com, and they can too, they always say, “But I don’t read many nonfiction books,” or “Do they choose the books you read?” or “What about fiction books instead?  Can I write reviews of those?”  That’s the problem with people only seeing one blog out of thousands (literally) - they think the one they’re looking at is the only possible version.

So let me be the bearer of good news, and say that there are as many topics being blogged about here at Today.com, as there are topics under the sun.  We have blogs about being a mother, spreading celebrity gossip, working at a publishing company, being frugal, living in Las Vegas, dealing with autism, being an Atlanta Braves fan, writing for a living, being single in LA, conservative politics, and much, much more.  There are 1500+ blogs at Today.com, so if there’s a topic you can think of, there’s probably a blog about it.

The even better news is, just because one person is blogging about a topic, doesn’t mean that Today.com won’t hire another person to blog about the same topic, because Today figures (correctly) that each blogger will have a different take on the stories, and will have a slightly different audience.  Let’s take celebrity gossip for example, just because I know there are multiple blogs on that topic.  We have CelebChitChat, Celebrity Today, and Celebrity World. I know there are others too, but I’m too lazy to go find them.

So in short, if there is a topic you are interested in, and you want to blog about it, then you can most likely blog here at Today.com for pay.

Now, here are the caveats (you knew they were coming…)

*They have to be defined topics, so if you like to range from politics to religion to crockpot recipes to the cute thing your kid said that morning, then go set up a free blog at Blogspot.com or Wordpress.com.  You won’t get paid for those blogs, but then again, no one is going to pay you for blogs on such a wide range of topics.  You have to pick one topic, and then stick with it, when it comes to a professional (ie, paid) blog.

*But as you can also see with my blog, Today.com gives you a wide latitude within that topic range.  I blog about nonfiction books, yes, but I also blog about my experiences at the library (since I figure that libraries tie in with books.)  And just a couple of posts ago, I talked about how I am changing from librarian to elementary education in my major at school.

All of that works, because I am staying (generally) on topic.  You’ll notice that I don’t put up posts about the really cool blog I found the other day on crockpot cooking (but if I was going to, I’d totally send you here), or blog about Barack Obama winning the presidency, or any of the other million and one topics I could be talking about.  I stay in my general topic area.  If you don’t love a topic enough to talk about it day in and day out (at least several times a week) then you need to pick a different topic.

*English needs to be your first language, and you need to enjoy writing.  Sorry if that was just a big fat “duh!” going on there, but I figured I should point it out anyway.

*You need to be fairly good at spelling, or at least be willing to look up words occasionally.  No onne is goyng to reed setenses liek thiss.  Just typing that made me want to poke my eyeballs out.

*You need to be fairly consistent in your posting (feel free to yell “Hypocrite!” at any time) because if you don’t post on a semi-regular basis, you’re never going to build up a steady stream of regular readers.  Today will kick you out of the program if you don’t post at least once a month, although I don’t suggest using that as your only guideline to posting.  Most people try for several times a week, and some adventurous souls (read: Not me) post several times a day.

Now to the fun part: Payment.

Today.com pays newbies $1 per post, plus a set amount of money per visitors, although I can’t remember how much off the top of my head.  This pay can be raised or lowered each month, depending on how your blog is doing in terms of visitors and income.  If your blog takes off, you get a lot of visitors, and you are doing a good job writing nice long meaty posts, they will raise your pay per post.

On the other hand, if you only write short, shrimpy posts occasionally, you have on average two people come to your blog a day, and you are bringing in pretty much no income from ads, then please know that your pay is going to get lowered.  If it gets really bad, they may kick you out of the program, although don’t quote me on that.  I’ve never really worried about it because I don’t plan on ever getting there.

Okay, so in a nutshell: $1 per post, only one paid post per day, and your post has to be at least 100 words long, although I cannot remember the last time I managed to write one that only had one hundred words in it.  I can barely say hello in 100 words.

Interested?  Have a topic you just can’t wait to blog your little heart out about?  Well, the news gets even better: It’s easy to apply.  Look to your right —> and up towards the top of the column.  Do you see the square ad that says, “Get Paid to Blog at Today.com” and then changes to say, “Join Now”?  Click on it.  The app process is pretty simple, and you should be on your way within minutes.

Although it says that it may take up to 30 days for a response, the chances are pretty darn good that you’ll get an answer much, much faster than that.  Most people get it within a couple of days.  While waiting for an acceptance email (and it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll get hired, FYI) I would suggest start writing up a list of topics you could cover on your site, so that when you get the acceptance email, you will be set to go.

Any questions?  Feel free to leave a comment below, and I’ll try to get back to you ASAP.  My only word of advice is, if the URL you pick is already taken (and you can pick the URL for your site; it isn’t assigned by Today) then simply pick another one - don’t feel as if you can’t blog on the topic because it’s already taken.  As I said above, Today will hire multiple people on the same topic, so don’t let that deter you.

Good luck, and I hope to have you join the Today.com blogging team soon!

Hava

WordPress for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us by Lisa Sabin-Wilson was one of the best reference books I’ve ever read on computers/blogging/website building, and believe me, I’ve read a lot of books on that subject!  I have three brainy brothers who are computer geniuses and although I’m not stupid when it comes to computers, I know that I still have a lot to learn.  I am in awe of their level of knowledge, and have read book after book on HTML, PhotoShop, and website building in general, hoping to catch up to them someday. Well, today is not that day, but I am a little closer, thanks to this book.

First off, as in all great reference books, the author injects a lot of humor into the book, which is fantastic.  Example: In the introduction, there are a string of headers with paragraphs underneath each one, “About This Book,” “Conventions Used in This Book,” etc.  Then comes the next header and paragraph:

What You Are Not to Read

Don’t read supermarket tabloids.  They’re certain to rot your brain.

As I explained previously, this books covers the details of how to set up, use, and maintain the software for the three free versions of WordPress.  I don’t intend for you to read this book from cover to cover. (Unless you’re my mother - then I won’t forgive you if you don’t.) Page 3, WordPress for Dummies

It’s the blasé transition there that I just loved.  If you didn’t think that was funny, you need to go have your pulse taken at the doctor’s office - it could be that you’re not actually alive and breathing any longer.  In that case, see the bright light?  Walk into it.

For the alive people out there, you’ll want to make sure to pick this book up if you have any interest in starting your own blog, or if you are blogging for a company and want to have a better idea of how the whole process works.  Why? you say.  Glad you asked! If you’re a blogger for a company, you probably don’t have to worry about things like picking your own theme and plugins, or how to set up a blog, just like you don’t have know how to change the oil or fix the engine in your car in order to drive it.  But you should know how to do these things (or at least the basics) because it makes you a better driver, and in our case, a better blogger.  (BTW, this is a case of do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do, because as I mentioned before, on a good day, I might be able to tell you where the engine is at in my truck.  Maybe.)  Luckily, my interest level is much higher when it comes to blogging than it is automobiles.

So back to WordPress for Dummies.  Lisa is not only funny, but she also knows what the heck she’s talking about.  She’s got the “street creds” as they say - she’s got tons of experience doing what she’s talking about, she isn’t just spouting what she’s heard from others.  She is also uber-patient and takes you through every tiny step of the process for setting up all three types of WordPress blogs: WordPress.com, WordPress.org, and WordPress Multi-User.  She explains the positive and negative aspects to each of these choices, and in general makes you a lot more comfortable with the whole thing.

The book does live up to its name: WordPress for Dummies.  If you’re an administrator of a large and popular WordPress blog or group of blogs, there’s probably little in here that you didn’t know already.  It isn’t for veterans of the field to learn from.  But if you’re just starting out into the big, bad blogging world, then this book will be right up your alley.  I started a blog back in March of 2007 with WordPress.com (I transferred the blog over from Blogspot, actually) and I was SOOO lost when I first did that.  I wish I had this book back then - it would have made my life much easier.  Then I transitioned that same blog over to WordPress.org onto its own domain, and was SOOO lost all over again, LOL!  I had to learn the hard way, and by bothering nice people (like, say, my brothers!) to help me.  I would have been 1000% better off reading this book.

Even now that I’m running two personal blogs, managing a group of 50 blogs, and writing on this blog, I still learned from the book.  It also clarified some things that I hadn’t quite understood before.  Now that I understand the basics, I’m going to delve into more complicated matters: Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, anyone?

I can tell what I’m going to be reading next…

4.5 out of 5 stars (marked down slightly because it was published right before WordPress released a huge new advancement in the admin panel of WordPress [think the change from XP to Vista - it was that kind of big], rendering most of the screenshots worthless and/or very dated.  The publishing company did not time that well.  Sorry, Lisa!!)  Other than that, not many complaints!

Havs