This is one of the very first questions I’m asked as a person that regularly contracts bloggers for companies seeking their talent.  My first response to them is usually along the lines of “never enough”.  It varies obviously from contract to contract and from the amount of work involved in each contract.  Many bloggers are merely word puppets putting up post after post of keyword rich posts to make the client happy that they are finally reaching page one of that search engine.  Some are full blown researchers, managers, magicians and poets, and they charge and are paid more for that talent.  I had to make this post today because of something that Mike Arrington wrote in his comment to one of his own postings about a blogger leaving his employ.

#6 - we start all of our writers out at $250k, but of course there is a bonus on top of that. plus stock, health care, 401k and a company car. each writer also gets an administrative assistant. and a cat.

Mike you had me buying into the idea of trying to get a job at TechCrunch right up to the last item.  That was the deal breaker.  Of course, if that was the real salary, I think they would have a line of people a mile long waiting for the chance.  The thing is, that is a salary professional bloggers and bloggers here at Bloggers For Hire will probably not see anytime in the near or for that matter distant future.