Every blogger’s dream is to get paid to post -well, at least that’s my dream! The only problem is I am over AdSense and affiliate programs that, even if you are a modestly popular blogger, only make around $20 per month. My desire to make some money from my beloved blog seemed hopeless.

But then I found out about these pay-to-post companies, where you sign up and get paid to weave product reviews, customer opinions, and links for advertisers into your blog entries. It was like a whole new world of opportunity opened up and I suddenly felt like I had a chance to monetize my blog in a classy, unobtrusive way. Advertisers win, I win, everybody wins.

The big question I had was “how does this system work?” Maybe it is due to a natural mistrust of something that looks like it is too good to be true, but I wasn’t ready to fully sign onto a program like this without knowing the ins and outs of how it works. So I did my homework.

There are quite a few get paid to post companies floating around on the web, some more legit than others. The most popular, and ostensibly the most reputable, ones I found included PayPerPost, PayU2Blog, PrintnPost, and Smorty’s.

While they all differ slightly in terms of presentation and attitude, they all seem similar in the process they use to do business, which is convenient not only for my understanding of the system but also for my ability to explain it to others.

The way these programs seem to work is that a blogger signs up with the company and submits their blog for registration.

Note that if these companies are reputable they will not charge you to join their program – if they ask you for a cent then close that browser window as fast as you can! After you submit your blog, the company will hold it up against the rules and stipulations they have regarding qualification – mostly, these include the length of time your blog has been active, how much advertising you have on the blog already, and the blog’s content.

After you and your blog have been approved you then need to put some invisible tracking code on your website’s html to finalize the registration and then are encouraged to go choose your first assignments.

The assignments are all listed in a bank based on subject matter and what level of member can accept it. You find an assignment that meshes with the content on your site as well as suits your level of work and then follow the client’s instructions as to how to get the information onto your post.

Once the post is finished you need to submit the information back to the program who passes the draft onto the client where it is reviewed. If it is approved by the company than they will accept it and put in for your payment, easy as that!

Most people I know who participate in programs like this say it is pretty straight forward and an easy way to make some cash on your blog. I have even heard of people making up to $500 using programs that pay you to post. The one thing all bloggers have to be careful of is not to turn the content of their blog into total advertising.

Readers can smell a sales pitch a mile away, so it is important to have other content on your site aside from your AdSense ads and any pay-to-post word you do. Remember that the only way to keep them coming back to take advantage of the ads you have already, and make money from them, is to give them a reason to come back!