May 18, 2016 at 8:49 am

@s-stephens It sounds like you worked with a great bunch of teachers! I’ve definitely known both teachers and teacher’s aides to look after their students in times when they had unmet needs. Yes, it is a labour of love.

May 18, 2016 at 7:36 am

@s-stephens The upfront pay has so far been small. Like, less than 50 cents per published post. The more significant earnings are from the passive income once you share a link. There is also the 10% commission if you have an active user who signs up with your referral link. If that person writes often in the forums or publishes a good number of posts, you stand to earn small sums fairly regularly. If you can get a number of prolific writers to sign up with your link, the passive earnings could be significant.

May 18, 2016 at 6:30 am

@slayer08 The teachers union here in British Columbia has recently asked the ministry of education to cease funding to private schools. We can only hope if that measure is taken, that funding for things like classroom supplies will become available.

May 18, 2016 at 6:12 am

@support The increased earnings are greatly appreciated. Thank you 🙂

May 18, 2016 at 6:02 am

@kaka135 Yes, it’s part of Buffer. The analytics for free use aren’t anything great, but there are good options if you upgrade to the paid service. I might eventually do that in order to have a larger buffer size, as I find the service very helpful. It would be great to really be able to load up the buffer with content!

May 18, 2016 at 3:53 am

@slayer08 I love how you describe waking up to the smell of roasting coffee beans in the rural villages during your student days! You have a knack for painting a picture with your words; it made me wish you’d written more about it!

May 18, 2016 at 3:32 am

@melissa1024 I think the biggest mistake most writers make with personal blogs is that they aren’t focused at all. They write a little of this, a little of that. There are no keywords, the title gives no hints as to what the post is about, and no matter the length of the post it meanders through too many disparate topics.

That sort of content has no SEO value, and frankly the only people who want to read it are the writer’s friends or family. It’s what gives social writing sites a bad name, and it’s far too prevalent on the sites that do allow personal posts.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t write a fun, passionate, interesting post that is focused and has SEO value! It just means that most bloggers need to learn the skill of creating that type of post 😉

May 17, 2016 at 1:35 pm

@kaka135 I’d love to hear what your friends say! Teachers in  Canada earn a decent living once they are established, but it can take years for them to gain full-time employment. In the United States, teacher pay is often low.

Many stores in the US, and a few in Canada, offer teacher discounts for office and art supplies, printing, and that sort of thing. But it’s still frightfully expensive to equip the classroom. Even some furniture and storage units the teachers have in their classrooms can be provided by the teacher because the school does’t give them enough.

May 17, 2016 at 11:55 am

@nakitakona13 you make a good point that sometimes the methods people use are too extreme. The post must not violate any part of the TOS, which on almost every site means no personal attacks or spreading misinformation. I have known people to try this sort of tactic on social writing sites, but they usually end up in hot water for it. On your own blog it might work, but it would likely get your AdSense shut down…

May 17, 2016 at 11:01 am

We have two grocery stores that offer loyalty cards, and hubby has a third one for the convenience store where he works. He gets points for signing up clients, as well as for shopping in the store.

We regularly cash in our store points, usually for around $20 or $25 store credit.

We have a few other such cards, but don’t do a lot of shopping at those other stores.

May 17, 2016 at 10:49 am

Those of us who have recently joined the site are still classified as newbies, and are not allowed to edit. If you need to fix a published blog post, or if something has been saved as a draft and you need to edit or delete, the best thing to do is to ask @support or @admin for their help 😀

May 17, 2016 at 10:40 am

My in-laws are sadly no longer with us. They died within months of one another, roughly four years ago now. I loved them dearly, and considered them my friends. My father-in-law was an old hippy with a mane of red hair, and a beard and personality to match. He was one of the sweetest and most loving men you could ever meet, but he loved to cultivate the image of a gruff old troll whom people ought to fear.

My mother-in-law was the type to quietly size things up, and only speak when she had something important to say. She was a “grande dame,” who had endured a great deal of hardship and illness in her life but whose grace was unfailing, right to the end of her life.

Yes, we did need our space as @4cryingoutloud does with her inlaws. But they were kindred spirits, and I gladly spent many days just sitting and drinking coffee with my MIL, or plotting chaos with my FIL. They left a very big hole in my life when they died…

May 17, 2016 at 10:25 am

I agree that ending with a call to action is a good way to get people to comment. you may also find the call to action can be used to get readers doing something else, like sharing the post on social media or signing up for LiteracyBase!

@grecy095 Yes, food articles are a good choice for many of us. I remember reading somewhere that articles about chocolate or chicken were most popular, and it’s true that if you do research into hashtags around recipes, meals, etc. the #chicken hashtag is one of the few specific ones that comes up in the results!

I like a food article that talks about a new way to prepare a common food, or about a food the audience may not know. I also like to give the history of the food or to explore its nutritional content. @peachpurple does a great job with articles like this, and  her photos are absolutely stunning!

Controversy is another way to get people commenting. Writing about something that has gotten people upset, or for which there are very polarized factions, can mean a lot of great commenting.

Humour is also a way to get people talking, as are strongly evocative visuals – a very pretty picture, or one that disgusts people. These are likely to get comments because of the emotions associated with them.

@swalia I am really pleased that you mentioned passion when you said people shouldn’t write in an area that is not their field of expertise. Because passion may not be a substitute for the authority or depth of knowledge of an expert, but often personal experience and enthusiasm will be appreciated by the reader 🙂

May 17, 2016 at 9:59 am

Most writing sites prefer for a post to be written around a single topic, and to contain keywords. If you write an informative post that meets these criteria, great! But it’s also great if you can write a personal post that does the same thing.

Write on! 😀

May 17, 2016 at 6:07 am

@support Thanks so much for the update! As @kaka135 says, it is much better to hear from the staff than for everyone to wonder what might be happening.

Is it safe to continue submitting posts right now, or is it best to wait until after the upgrade is complete? Also, as some of the subjects people write about are time-sensitive. So it would be really great if we had a rough idea what kind of delay we might experience, if submitting new posts now.

Thanks so much!