I’ve received a few questions about blogging for pay that, let’s face it, I’m just not qualified to answer. So today I’ve brought in an expert, who in addition to being a fabulous and wonderful person, is also a huge inspiration to me in terms of what she has been able to do with her blogs. I’m posting a short Q&A I did with her recently and she discusses how to get started in blogging and where the money is.

First, her bio:

Jane Boursaw has been a freelance writer for 25 years, and a blogger for 5 years. She’s the co-lead blogger for two TV blogs: AOL’s TVSquad.com and CliqueClack.com/tv. Her movie blog is FilmGecko.com, which is part of the b5media blogging network. She’s also blogged for People.com and SoapNet.com, and teaches an online blogging class at http://www.blogging-for-passion-and-profit.com/. Next class starts Sept. 7, 2009 (class size is limited, so sign up early!). Her articles have appeared in Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal, Fitness, USA Weekend, Christian Science Monitor, AARP, iVillage.com and many other print and online publications. Her celebrity profiles have appeared inAmerican Eagle Latitudes, Emmy Magazine, Valley Lifemagazine and others. She also writes a family movie column, Reel Life With Jane. Home base is www.ReelLifeWithJane.com.

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How important a part should blogging play in a writer’s business plan today?

Blogs are really where it’s at right now. I still write some feature stories for consumer print magazines, but that portion of my income has dropped off in the past few years, mainly because magazines — the ones that are still around — are using more in-house writers and assigning less. It’s easier to get a blogging gig on a magazine’s Web site than a feature story in their print magazine.

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How does one get started?

It’s easy to start a blog with one of the free programs, such as Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com or WordPress.com. You sign up, create a blog, write a post, and suddenly, you’re a blogger! Of course, you can get more options with a program like WordPress.org, but there are plenty of really easy blogging programs out there.

If your goal is to get a job blogging for a magazine or Web site, I recommend starting your own blog first to get a feel for it, learn the ins and outs of blogging, and get in the groove of blogging, either on a daily basis or a few times a week. Once you’ve done that, then you can start looking for jobs on the writers’ and bloggers’ job boards.

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For journalists new to the medium, what are the things to remember?

Blogging is different from print journalism, in that you write a blog post, hit “publish,” and you’re done. For most consumer magazines, getting a story published is a lengthy process of querying, getting the assignment, doing several interviews, submitting the story, waiting weeks or months for edits to come back, revising the story, re-submitting it, waiting more weeks and months until it finally makes it into the magazine, and somewhere in there, hopefully you’ll be paid, either on acceptance or publication. Blogging is fast and more seat-of-your-pants type writing. You also have to be able to write something, let it go, and move on to the next thing. There’s not as much time to ruminate over things. But because of that, I think blogging is more in tune with how people really think. Our brains work fast, and that’s how blogging is, too. A blog is definitely a great place to let your personality shine through.

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Can blogging supplement a writer’s income? Can it completely replace it?

Blogging can definitely supplement a writer’s income, and even replace it, if that’s what you want. For me, the key is having a lot of different blogs I write for, in addition to other revenue streams, such as my blogging class, my syndicated family movie column, and a few feature stories and celeb profiles for print and online publications here and there. Anyone who’s been writing for a while knows you can’t have all your eggs in one basket, because you never know if that basket will implode. So it’s good to diversify and keep a lot of things going, so you’re not panicky if one goes belly up.

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How much can someone expect to earn, on average, in a month from blogging?

It really varies, depending on the publication and payment system, and whether you’re blogging for someone else or monetizing your own blog. I know writers who do very well, earning several thousand dollars a month from blogging income. A friend earns $1200/month blogging three times a week for a consumer magazine. Some blogs pay per post, anywhere from $5 to $300, but even the pay-per-click blogs, which often get a bad rap, can be moneymakers if you have a good topic, market the heck out of it, brings lots of readers in, and keep them coming back for more.

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Is it better to blog for a particular company, or start your own?

Again, it just depends on your business model and goals. If your goal is to make money blogging - with no other goals in mind - then blogging for a company (or several companies) might be the way to go. If you’re looking to build a book platform or build your expertise in a certain niche, then your own blog might be the way to go. But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Jen Singer has built a successful platform for her books by blogging at both her own site, www.MommaSaid.net, as well as for Good Housekeeping’s “Good Grief! A Tale of Two Tweens” blog. Her new book is “MommaSaid.net Presents: Stop Second Guessing Yourself — The Toddler Years” (HCI April 2009). Says Jen, “I probably wouldn’t have gotten the GH gig if I hadn’t already blogged for years at MommaSaid. I used it to prove to my editor I could sustain a well written blog for long periods of time.”

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How did you get started in blogging? How long have you been doing it?

I’ve been a freelance writer for 25+ years, but got into blogging about five years ago, when it was starting to be the “in” thing. I’m an entertainment writer, and because blogging seemed to be the growing trend, I started my own TV and movie blogs to get a feel for the process and show editors I could write fast with a lot of personality. After I’d been doing it a while, I started looking for blogging jobs and pointing editors back to my own blogs. Basically, I was saying, “See, I can do this! How about if I do it for you?” Those early blogs of my own were an important stepping stone to the work I do now. During the past few years, I’ve blogged for People.com, SoapNet.com, and I’m now the co-lead blogger on AOL’s TV Squad and CliqueClack.com/tv. And my movie blog is FilmGecko.com.

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Anything else you’d like to add?

Any writer would benefit from adding blogging to their mix of work. Not only are blogs a way for publications to offer up-to-the-minute info on anything, they also offer writers a way to get their thoughts published within minutes. Whether you’re promoting a book, writing about something that’s important to you, or blogging for pay, blogs are definitely the trend right now, and I don’t think they’re going to go away anytime soon.

And because a writer has never blogged before doesn’t mean they can’t learn how to do it. As a rule, freelance writers are usually able to roll with the punches and keep re-inventing themselves to produce whatever editors and publications need. And with the user-friendly blogging platforms, you don’t need to know a lot of html to blog. It’s just a matter of learning the basics and continuing to build your blogging expertise from there. Like everything, it’s a learning process.

In my blogging class, I teach basics such as finding a good niche, using offline editors, using tags and categories, where to find great images and videos, using SEO tools to best maximize your blog, building a fun community for your readers, how to find good blogging jobs, how to monetize your blog, how to use social media sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg to spread the word about your blog, and a lot more.

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Sign up for Jane’s class here: http://www.blogging-for-passion-and-profit.com/