This post was written by Deb
Today.com Lowers its Pay Rate for Bloggers
A month or two ago we started seeing a lot of ads looking for bloggers for Today.com. They promised $5.00 per post, guaranteed for three months, plus bonuses now and again. The past couple of weeks, we noticed ads for Today.com changed from $5.00 per post, to $1.00 per post plus bonuses. So they lowered their rate of pay significantly in only a matter of weeks.
I heard from many bloggers today that Today.com sent them a note telling them their rate has been lowered to $1.00 per post plus $2.00 per thousand page views. They said this was based on a monthly review and hopefully things will change in the future.
Now, if Today.com promised their writers $5.00 per month for the first three months, they’re in breach of their contract to lower the pay to $1.00. Also, many of these bloggers just started working for Today.com. Is it fair to have their rate of pay lowered after only a few weeks of blogging? Everyone knows it takes time to build up a blog and bring in the traffic.
I encourage any Today.com blogger who signed on at a rate of $5.00 per post guaranteed for the first three months to show their agreement to their editors. I also encourage the Today.com bloggers to read their contracts. Did they say rates can be raised and lowered arbitrarily after each month’s review?
I don’t agree with the practice of raising a bloggers base pay up and down like that - and so significantly! It’s a big difference from $1 to $5. Why not $2 or $3 or $4 based on performance? Surely everyone doesn’t have the same exact traffic. Is it $1 because now Today.com is advertising for bloggers and only paying them $1?
Please, Today.com bloggers, shed some some light on this and tell us your thoughts.
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24 Responses to “Today.com Lowers its Pay Rate for Bloggers”
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I’m probably going to leave my blog with Today.com. I didn’t sign on to work for $1 a post.
Here’s the letter. You can see they give us no rhyme or reason for dropping our pay. I mean, if it’s based on a review tell us why. Don’t send some (edited). vague form letter.
“Dear VIP Blogger,
This email is to let you know that your blog has been reviewed by an editor and your payment rates have changed.
When reviewing blogs we look at quality, productivity, popularity, and potential. Taking those things into consideration we made a decision to change your rate this month.
Your new rate is $1.00 per daily 100+ word post PLUS $2.00 per thousand impressions.
The new rate goes into effect June 1, 2008 ET.
Earnings already accumulated will not be affected by any rate changes. Posts from prior to the effective rate change date will still be paid at whatever rate you were on previously.
It’s important to note that the outcome of this review is NOT permanent. Every blog is reviewed once every 30 days. If your rate did not change this month it may in the future. If you aren’t happy with the changes you have the next month to work hard at improving your blog before it is reviewed again. Be sure to log into our forum for blog tips from us and fellow VIP bloggers.
Best Regards,
The Today.com Team”
I only had this blog for a couple of weeks. I’m not a miracle worker.
Even worse are the “I’m better than you” posts at the Today.com forum where the very few people who didn’t get their pay knocked down are getting up on their soapboxes and lecturing us.
I’m done with Today.com and I won’t recommend others to work for them.
I’m going anonymous here for obvious reasons.
I haven’t yet had my pay lowered (my contract didn’t state a three-month guarantee), but if I do, I’m outta there. I don’t feel the same as the previous commenter re: the “I’m better than you” posts (and not because I’m still on the old pay scale), but I too don’t feel confident blogging for them anymore at $1 per post, if that happens to me. Some people are very good at marketing their blogs and therefore might make more money overall on page views. I’m not one of those people.
Though it doesn’t take too much time for me to create a post, $5 is really the lowest I’ll go for the time I put into it.
I knew going into it that people were questioning them. I do like my blog and the people there, but at $1 a post? Not a chance.
I really do hope this ends up for the best and Today reconsiders. They really were a promising new network.
I was accepted at Today.com, but they wanted to pay me $2.50 a post. I said no thanks, but then they came back and said “oh so sorry, we’ll pay you $5 a post.” I still said no. The reason is because I noticed the contract said they were only obligated to offer pay up until March 2009, which sent up a huge red flag. I knew they were going to eventually lower and probably eliminate pay for the bloggers, so this wasn’t a huge surprise.
I do encourage the bloggers to check their contract as you said, however.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone taken the time to think about the long term benefits of a $2 CPM rate on posts?
If you wrote a post that took you an half an hour, and made a $1 off of it being published, but the post brought in 10,000 page views (thanks to half an hour of promotion on social networks), that’s $20, plus the publish fee of $1, making your rate $21 for an hour of work.
It is definitely much harder to promote posts to bring in huge page views each time, but it can be worthwhile for those that are good at it.
Today.com have quickly realized, like many companies that performance is what they need, not content. Unfortunately, most of their blogs will end up sensationalist and probably fairly crummy as a whole, but this is definitely an issue that all blog networks are facing… Performance vs flat rate vs other payment systems.
Everyone needs to balance the books.
I do think this is very unfair, and that their rates shouldn’t have gone all the way down to a dollar per post, but I understand the need to make sure performance is a consideration.
100 posts in a month that bring in 1,000 page views is nothing but an expense to such businesses.
10 posts that bring in 10,000 page views is money in their pocket.
It definitely requires a different blogger than the original agreement, and is very disappointing to those that were excited, but to be honest, either rate, $5 per post or $1 plus $2cpm is a joke. Neither is properly balanced, nor a way to make a living.
They should have used something in the middle. $2 per post with a sliding scale CPM based on traffic. Starting out with a higher $3 CPM for low traffic blogs, and slowly inching towards $1 CPM for the crazy high traffic blogs.
This would have been a decent system for most bloggers as a single post bringing in 1000 page views would have meant $5 back in their pocket, bringing the rate back to the $5 per post but helping assure performance on each post.
Hi David,
As someone who has several blogs with a network, I do know the traffic bonuses can be quite lucrative. The problem here in the beginning is that these new bloggers are all of a sudden having their rates knocked down to a really low level. Most of them haven’t had a chance to build traffic yet - so while it may have benefits in the future, right now it’s not much motivation to make one want to post.
Also - if I’m not mistaken they can only get paid for $1 post a day - which means they’ll earn a dollar a day until they build up traffic and page views.
I think this might be another case of people starting a blog or in this case an entire network, and having no clue the real time it takes to build traffic. I thought that they sounded like a poor job option when I saw their first ads out, because they had that “for the first 3 months” deal in there. It sounds bad right away. A job is a job, and you should get paid. I know traffic matters, but when it comes to a network, there’s also some responsibility on their end to seek out funding, ads, sponsors, etc.
They aren’t the only people cutting wages right now though. But still, I wouldn’t work there. If blog wages all around go too low, I’d go back to other writing gigs, before selling out for too low of wages.
Yes, I’m super irritated that Today.com cut my pay (and others) to $1 a post (plus page views).
I didn’t have a “real contract” to start with. I have pasted below what they sent when I was accepted:
Payments are sent on the 10th of every month via mail so please make sure your mailing address is correct in your account profile.
Payment terms are $5 per post of 100+ words with a max of one paid post per day. In order to be paid you must have accrued at least $50 in earnings, otherwise payment will be carried over to the next month until you meet the minimum.
Your blog will be evaluated by an editor monthly for quality and productivity. At that time we may elect to adjust your payment terms depending on how well your blog is doing.
If you have any problems, questions, or need help let us know.
Welcome to Today.com!
—–
I received the same letter as “Today blogger” cutting my pay to $1, and yes, I have complained about it on a forum (though my posts are being neutralized by pro-Today.com people as my blog must not be up to par or that I need to do better on my traffic). Yes, I do agree that I should work on getting more traffic, but I think getting the majority of your pay cut after one month is ridiculous, especially when the payout has to be at least $50 and you can now only make $30 a month in posts (plus page views). It takes time to build traffic and one month is not enough time to expect VIP bloggers with brand-new blogs to get 1,000 page views or more a day.
Guess when they added the traffic stats? May 23. So, how were bloggers to know how much traffic they were getting before then?
I agree with what the other Today.com bloggers have previously mentioned. Also, I want to express my frustration with my Today.com experience. I too, got the $1 per post letter after I had had my blog for 1 month, to the day of its start. What bothers me even more though is that my blog posts were being selectively read and paid. For example, I would be paid for a post for the previous day’s work but have one from the day before skipped over. This kept happening and I just had to delete the unpaid ones and re-post them to the current day. This cost me time and money. Also, my blog was all set up with a Firestat counter, which was deactivated on my blog. I have 3 other friends who have had the same thing happen to them with the skipped posts and the deactivation of the counter.
I’m sorry, but they are not getting another post from me until I see my previous month’s money in my account. After that, we’ll see, as it has occured to me that with a $50 payout minimum, what if after another month I get dropped even lower? I would be out a whole month’s worth of work and have to wait until I would get 10,000 hits in order to make the $50 payout.
I wanted to just clarify a few things in regards to this post, as a Today.com blogger and community leader.
Initially Today.com did a trial run with a handful of bloggers that were guaranteed $5.00 per post for three months and thereafter the blog would be evaluated by an editor monthly for quality and productivity, and payment would be adjusted accordingly on how the blog was doing. As one of those bloggers I can tell you that I was paid accordingly as outlined in timely fashion.
After that any writer that signed on at any other amount, between $1 and $5, all received a welcome email from Today which has always said: Your blog will be evaluated by an editor monthly for quality and productivity. At that time we may elect to adjust your payment terms depending on how well your blog is doing.
I’m confident there has been no breach of contract. Some bloggers have stated in our forum and elsewhere that some bloggers may even make more than the $5 they were making since the offer added the page view incentive. See one of your reader’s notes on that here as well.
Granted the pay is not as high as many pro-bloggers, I still stand by the fact that Today.com is trying something different and I’m certain as they grow there is no reason why we shouldn’t see greater things from them. They have cash incentives for those who exceed each month and there is a positive growing community of bloggers who have taken the time to share their blogging experience and offer assistance to others. I’ve found no “you’re blog is better than my blog” attitudes with the pro-Today supporters and have found their advice very helpful. I need all the help I can get since my blog made under $10 in the first few months.
I’d like to add that to those who have mentioned technical problems, these issues can be addressed in the Today.com forum or by contacting support. Today Blogger #4, regarding your skipped posts, it is just that they aren’t read in order every time, the newer ones are at the top of the queue so sometimes they get read and approved first and a few earlier ones wait for a little longer for approval. There is no need to delete and repost, post reviews lag a bit on the weekends or during holidays. We are always given a heads up in the forum when they are delayed.
I am sorry this is a disappointment for some but I’m happy to see there are more and more blogging opportunities everyday. Today.com and others like it that I am familiar with are taking chances in starting new networks and in the future more lucrative opportunities will be available for all.
I agree with many of the disgruntled bloggers who had their pay reduced as I did as well. At $1.00 per post (and no more than 1 post per day) it would take over a month to reach the minimum payout of $50. I emailed and spoke to someone at Today.com in regards to what exactly made my blog a “reduced pay” blog. I got no real answers. At least nothing specific. I’ve seen other bloggers ask specifically what their blog needs to get the $5 back. Myself included had only blogged there for a month when we got slammed with the notice. I still believe that it’s poor business to “review” someone’s performance without offering specifics as to why they’re being demoted (I equate it to as much).
@Today bloggers - I have a question. Can you do more than one post a day. Say you do five a day, will you get paid $5 a day? Or just the $1.00?
Because honestly, I doubt blogs will get much traffic ever at simply one post a day. I’ve almost never seen this happen. Maybe once or twice. But I know that to get to 100,00 at a typical non-celebrity blog can take from 8 months to a year and that’s posting five plus time a day typically. One post a day is unlikely to ever bring in good revenue traffic. At least at an unestablished blog.
You can post as many times a day as you want but you will still only get $1 a day as far as the “pay per post.”
Not offering specifics as to why a blog was knocked down from $5 to $1 isn’t helpful. How can you build your blog, traffic, page views,etc. and get your rate of pay up without specifics.
Also, I need to remind the powers that be at Today that it takes time, months, to build up a decent blog. Many bloggers take years to get to a good place. Punishing your bloggers after a few weeks isn’t motivating at all. Disgruntled workers can be very damaging to one’s reputation.
There’s been no breach of contract only because they did not offer a contract to their writers. The ad I replied to clearly stated $5 a month for the first three months but then they never supplied a contract to reinforce that. Three weeks is no time to build a readership for a blog and $1 a day is insulting. I think the site clearly took on too many people all at once without thinking about what they were getting into.
They never sent me a contract so this makes it really hard for me. All they ever sent me was this-
Congratulations,
Your account has been activated and you are now a part of the growing community of professional Today.com bloggers.
You can get started right away by logging into your account.
Your today.com username:
Your today.com blog:
You may login via the following link:
Payments are sent on the 10th of every month via mail so please make sure your mailing address is correct in your account profile.
Payment terms are $5 per post of 100+ words with a max of one paid post per day. In order to be paid you must have accrued at least $50 in earnings, otherwise payment will be carried over to the next month until you meet the minimum.
Your blog will be evaluated by an editor monthly for quality and productivity. At that time we may elect to adjust your payment terms depending on how well your blog is doing.
If you have any problems, questions, or need help let us know.
Welcome to Today.com!
So I knew they might elect to change it. In the two weeks I’ve been writing, I had 52 views and 5 posts. It’s not great, I realize that, but I’ve only been posting for about 2 weeks (started May 15th), so it’s not like I have had a ton of time to prove myself. Now having been offered the rate of $1 a post, I see no point to continue.
What I don’t know is if I can just stop posting and let the blog go untouched or what?
@Jennifer - it does state in the FAQs page that you are only paid for one post per day. You can post as much as you want, but only one post will net you any money.
Um…for those of you who say there wasn’t a contract, I think you’re mistaken. If you would have paid close attention when signing up for the site, there are a few screens you have to go through. One of those is a “check the box here if you agree to these terms.” THAT was the contract. Too many people don’t take the time to read the terms.
I’m NOT saying that the terms are acceptable, however. I declined the offer after reading the terms, and feel bad for all the bloggers now being punished, or whatever you may want to call it. Today.com is really shooting itself in the foot.
What I think is bad is that Today.com is continuing to advertise in a way that does not reflect the contract. I noticed that they are currently running ads on lists promising $1 per post (not mentioning it’s only once a day).
Thanks Today bloggers. Yeah, at one post a day, you’ll never get traffic, not great traffic, not without some insanely lucky stroke of luck. I’d say that alone makes Today.com a poor gig idea. Because I’m guessing it’s a good long while before the majority of bloggers there see any decent income unless they do a ton of work for free. You could make more on your own blog and not be subject to post approval.
Jennifer - that’s what I’m thinking. And I can post ads, Amazon links etc.
I took a blogging job with today.com to gain some more experience with blogging and online writing. I have not yet received a notice about a pay decrease, but it won’t surprise me if I do.
I was not sent a contract, BUT there was a “terms and conditions” type box I had to check when I applied. That contained a contract, which I pasted and haved saved on my computer. I was not guaranteed any amount of pay for three months, only the first month. It sounds as though, depending on when you signed up, payment terms and other details are different for different people.
I knew from day one my payment terms could be changed. Its the only job of this kind I have taken.
If they lower the pay, I doubt I’ll continue to write for them. I’m satisfied with my experience, and the fact that I’ve got several posts is a nice addition to the “online writing portion” of my resume.
Being able to post as much as you want but only get paid for one post per day ISN”T worth it.
I am sure ALL of you could find something better. b5media.com, about.com, splashpress.com and more. Go searching, contact REAL blog networks. Don’t take $1 per DAY!
They are now advertising the following:
“Compensation: For the first month of blogging you are guaranteed $1 per 100+ word post, and $2.00 per thousand impressions. A maximum of one post can be published per day for pay. Blogs are reviewed monthly for productivity and popularity and payment may be adjusted up or down or to either a fixed amount, based on pageviews, revenue sharing or a combination ”
So they are saying max one per day for pay, but only paying a dollar per post. So not worth anyone’s time. Why not just post on your own blog?