The world of Orble
Getting paid work as an inexperienced writer is tough going. I’ve been told by many older and wiser journalists that I need to prepare myself for some years of 2 minute noodles, no social life, and a keen eye for “Summer Sale!!!” signs. Or I can live with my parents.
So searching through the web, I stumbled across an ad which promised to pay (as in, like, money!) for film reviews. Thinking that it was too good to be true, but also feeling somewhat curious, I continued reading. I reckon a film reviewer is one of the bestest jobs in the world. Think about it, you watch movies, and instead of having a debate over how good or bad it was with your friends which sometimes ends in a punch on (“Ledger was WAY better than Nicholson!”), you simply write it down and get paid for it!
Or so it seemed.
Of course, nothing is life is that straight forward, and upon reading the fine print, it turns out I had to win some sort of blogging competition before I get paid.
Nonetheless I checked out the website which was involved and I’ve stumbled across an absolute gold mine for bloggers, something I was totally clueless to before.
The website in question was Orble (www.orble.com), which is a blog site from Australia that has blogs on pretty much anything. Literally.
From the main page there are links to eighteen general topics, ranging from sports to travel to politics. Within in each of these topics lie a variety of sub-topics, depending on which topic you’re looking at, e.g. in “Sports” there are subtopics of each individual sport, in “Films” there are subtopics of various genres, etc. Going into these subtopics shows that some have over 200 blogs. So this is a fairly big site. Indeed, Orble themselves believe that over 100,000 people visit the site every day.
Orble is unique in that it rewards successful bloggers with their own domain. Fellow users get to vote on the success of your blog, and popular bloggers are then given a domain to which they get paid. To qualify for a domain, users simply have to write four posts on their Orble blog about a specific topic. Once that is done, they automatically go into consideration, and successful blogs are then paid 50% of the advertising revenue which their domain generates.
Several of the most popular domains as listed by Orble include:
· “20/20 Filmsight” – a blog on (surprisingly) films
· “Celebrity Obsession” – “A place where we can indulge our obsession with all things celebrity”
· “My Apologetics” – a satirical site about current events and especially politics
All in all, there are easily over 100 domains, all of which can be accessed here. This massive community works to benefit each other, as the links from other Orble domains helps with search engine rankings, therefore improving their popularity and hopefully drawing more advertisement money.
Upon further investigation, this seems to be quite a hot ticket for bloggers around the world. A quick Google search led me to many forums of people interested in blogging for Orble, and judging by the number of exterior domains they support, writing for Orble looks like a legitimate way to make a few bucks.
Orble pulls no punches as to what they want, and what the user should produce. While it welcomes random posts about the nothings of life (like this blog…), in their frequently asked questions section, they also specifically inform users how to become successful bloggers, and more importantly, how to make money off blogging for them.
For newcomers to the world of blogging, Orble also has a detailed “Blogging Tips” section which covers a wide variety of topics, from the simple to the technical. They also have a “Blog Adviser” section that informs users of the aspects of a successful blog, and how to improve the number of audience.
To boot, Orble has also organised a “Orble Mentoring Program”, where experienced bloggers helps out and answers questions of newcomers.
This is definitely a content based website, as aesthetically it looks pretty basic. It’s got a simple layout, the colours are a bit bland, and the first thing you notice is the amount of links going all over the place. The whole homepage is full of links and it looks a bit clustered at times.
Individual blogs (not the domains) again have a fairly simple design, one main section down the middle for the user’s information, and side bars which link to other blogs and domains, with the usual change of colours, fonts and background on offer.
The domains gives the user a bit more freedom, and judging by the several I looked at, is structured for more technical blog users (I haven’t qualified for a domain so I can’t give you the nitty gritty…).
All in all, I was just blown away by the magnitude of this site, and how I was totally oblivious to it. Although, that being said, one negative is that due to the massive number of blogs, bloggers actually face fierce competition to be recognised. Orble themselves advise that a blog usually only becomes successful around one year into its existence, and warns users not to give up too early.
Despite this, it is a great way to get your name out there, amongst likeminded peers, on a platform which has a massive audience.
