Blogging can be a thankless task. Depending on what your blog is about, finding an audience can be hard, and keeping them engaged is a lot of work. But some writers manage to start something great, attracting healthy traffic and building their own online community, one blog post at a time. Some make a bit of money, some don’t.
Pay a Blogger Day aims to reward people who create great online content, “because they want to, not because of money and fame.” The site asks readers to do something on November 29 to give back to bloggers, either by donating cash or buying merchandise from their site.
The site’s Bloggers page lists blogs that accept donations, including sites like The Oatmeal and CitizenReporter.org, and smaller sites, listed on the “recently added” tab. You can add your blog to the list from the Bloggers page, after taking a short test that estimates your blog’s earning potential.
The company behind the site is Flattr, a “social micropayment” service that lets users click on a button to make a small donation on blogs and websites to support content they like. As a direct-payment system, it calls on readers to put their money where their mouth is (or where their eyes are), and it encourages writers and creators to make the internet a more compelling place to be.
And, perhaps most importantly, it recognizes that blogging takes real time and effort and that writers and other content creators deserve financial compensation for their work, online and off. Asking readers to pay up one day a year isn’t really enough, but getting them thinking about the value of online content—and the people who create it—is a good first step.
