Quite likely, yes. In the blogoverse, you can start small as a little known poster, but if you get enough attention and eyes/views, you can become a ‘contributor’, in which case you will receive a small sum based on the number of views/clicks your articles attract.
This is part of why many people pimp their blogs/articles on FR, to get the views/clicks/moneyz.
From the sounds of things, she was fairly ‘successful’. She probably could have continued the lie and made decent money at it.
Decent being a relative term, that is...
Some of us object to all bloggers posts. I only click through to the blogs when they have posted the entire article, it interests or entertains me and I want to see what else they have to offer. I don't click the excerpted pimped blogs. I don't object to someone else taking initiative to earn a few bucks, unless they are trying to force it on me.