EARN MONEY BLOGGING!
NEWS
Carbon Hill mother makes money from blogging
Eagle Reporter
Monday, Sep 01, 2008
Jerri Ann Reason and her 3-year-old son, Jace, play with one of the Cranium Bloom games Reason recently received for free and reviewed on one of her seven blogs. - PHOTO BY: JENNIFER WILLIAMS
Jerri Ann Reason of Carbon Hill, the mother of two young boys, has found a way to earn thousands of dollars per year and load up on free gifts for her family without leaving home. Reason is a professional blogger.
She currently has seven blogs. The names of these personal Web sites reflect the host of topics she writes about each day.
"Mom-E-Centric," the blog that started it all for Reason, contains stories about her life. Another blog site, "TV Boyfriends," is dedicated to posts about men who could be the perfect mate for lovelorn women if only they weren't separated by a television screen.
"Mom Is Teaching" deals with the education of children. On "Marital Talk," Reason discusses the joys and tribulations of being married.
She also manages blogs titled "Life in Reality," "A Crack 'n Life" and "Emotional & Mental Health."
Although updating seven blogs takes up hours of Reason's time, it also provides a helpful second income for her household.
Last year Reason made $10,000 from writing advertisements for her blogs.
She also received free books, CDs, Nintendo DS games, business cards, food, clothes and other items to review.
Reason gets so many gifts from advertisers that she often gives things away to family and friends.
Reason started her first blog in 2001. She made some posts on a preconception Web site while she was trying to get pregnant with her first child.
Then blogging became an Internet craze, and Reason jumped aboard.
"Overnight, blogging became the new black. That was the phrase," Reason said.
At the time, Reason and her husband were living in central Florida on a campground near the Suwannee River.
She was pregnant and on bed rest. So she spent her time writing personal stories about her past for her blog.
At times, her hobby has gotten Reason in trouble. On two occasions, she angered family members with her posts.
After that, she decided to stick to writing comedy.
"I learned the hard way to not blog when you're emotional," Reason said.
Reason began blogging for pay in March 2007.
She submitted an application at PayPerPost.com. According to its Web site, the company helps bloggers get paid for writing about Web sites, products and services they love.
The advertising opportunities that are available to bloggers are determined by their blog's page rank, which is based on the number of visitors to the site.
When Reason's page rank was at its highest, she was writing 50-word advertisements for $25 or $30 each. She also did several ads for $150 apiece.
The ads didn't have to be written in marketing jargon. Reason included the information about the product the advertiser required, including a link to the product's Web site, and filled up the rest of her word quota with her own comments.
Sometimes Reason had never used the products or services she was writing about.
"I would take ads for stuff I have no clue about," she said. "One of my favorite ones is tig welding. I don't know anything about welding, but what I'd do with my post is say 'Do you know how to tig weld? I don't know how to tig weld. I don't even know what tig welding is, but my husband is a genius and he knows how to tig weld.' In 200 words, I would take it off on a rant about how he knows how to tig weld and I'm sure he'd like to have some of the things that this company can sell to you," she said.
PayPerPost.com encourages such posts because people wouldn't read something that sounds like a typical ad, but they will enjoy personal posts that turn into an ad.
Reason was allowed to do three ads per day for each blog that she had. Most of the ads took only a few minutes to write.
From March until May 2007, she put in a 40-hour week on her laptop. Then she opened Small Treasure Christian Daycare & Preschool in Carbon Hill.
Between taking care of 40 kids at the daycare and spending time with her own sons, Walker and Jace, Reason had to make time for writing.
However, blogging part-time still earned Reason a $10,000 yearly payday.
Reason sold the daycare in July. Now she has gone back to blogging for a living, and she said she is loving every minute of it.
"I can sit here on my couch, blog all day, and still get paid," she said.
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