How to Make Money and Build Your Career as a Writer
Make more money as a writer this year. There are many sites on the Internet that offer to pay you for your writing and some of these live up to their promises but trying a new site is always risky. The suggestions below are tried and tested ways of establishing a base income on which you can built your business as a writer.
Making a bit of extra money from writing is something all authors want to do but finding work as a freelance article writer is not easy. There are lots of pitfalls too and what may seem like a good idea at the time can turn out to be a huge waste of time and energy.
So, how do you find writing work that will pay?
First of all anyone looking for freelance writing work on the internet needs to realise that there are so many other writers doing the same thing all over the world and so, with so many articles available, webmaster and site owners don’t pay very much for your work. Some don’t actually pay for it at all. They give you a monthly payment according to the amount of advertising revenue your article has earned.
So, as well as being a writer, you need to be a marketer and you need to drive as much traffic as you can to your articles. Traffic means money.
I make a decent part-time income by combining income from a number of content sites and blogs on the internet.
Triond is my main source of writing income and as long as I keep marketing my work my income increases each month. The way this works is that all article in the Triond system continue to earn revenue, so, the more you write, the more income you generate. I have been writing on this site under the name of Louie Jerome for more than two years now. I can guarantee that you will get paid in the middle of each and every month (minimum payout 50c).
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Associated Content also provides me with a small monthly income but the problem here is that they will no buy my work outright because I am not a US writer. I have no idea why this is but they only pay non-US writers for the reads their articles attract. This is currently somewhere around $1.50 per thousand. Payment is made on a monthly basis via Paypal. There’s no need to worry about getting paid from people as I have never had a problem.
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Word To The Wise is my own blog and it attracts Adsense revenue (slowly), plus an income from Adgitize which is also quite slow but increasing with the traffic. I don’t run ‘paid to blog’ advertising on my blog. It is relatively easy to find opportunities to do this and you can earn a few dollars per post but it can affect your standing on social networking sites and it can also put readers off coming back to your blog.
Today.com will pay you a dollar a day plus a payment for the reads you get if you set up a blog on their site. You need to write at least 100 words per day and they guarantee that $1 for 30 days, after which they will revise what they pay you. So, it is advantageous to keep the quality high and write more than the minimum. I have not earned enough to be paid by this site, so I can’t vouch for them but it looked to be worth a try.
Getpaidfrom.us is another site where I have posted a blog. It is taking time to build traffic here because the url of the blogs posted here tends to scream ‘advertising’ at the reader and it puts people off. For instance: getpaidfrom.us gives the impression that I am paid to write what they tell me, but that’s not the case. Driving traffic here is difficult because most social network sites and members don’t like blogs where writers are paid to post and this is what the url implies. I haven’t earned enough to be paid by these people but I have spoken to a couple of people who have been paid, so this one looks a safe bet.
I am a member of Bukisa.com and previously posted some articles there but I have removed them. I do not post anything there, now. I don’t know of anyone who has been paid by them but I am informed that contributors are earning good money. Recent problems with plagiarism left a nasty taste in my mouth and I have also been put off by the set up, the rapid growth and the high initial payments being offered here. I may be wrong and if so I will reassess the situation.
There are lots of sites that will pay for contributions and I believe that eHow and similar sites offer an income to US writers. Anyone who is not from US should check this out because I actually started to write on eHow and then discovered that they wouldn’t pay me because I don’t live in US. If you are thinking of writing for a new site, read the terms and conditions carefully.
I earn a good regular monthly income from two other sites which are UK only (just to balance the opportunities discussed here!)
Dooyoo is a UK consumer opinion site which pays 50p which is around $1 for each article and extra for each read. There are also extra payments for outstanding content which are made weekly. Ciao.co.uk is a similar site which pays less but runs writing competitions on a weekly and monthly basis and provides me with a regular income.
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Hubpages does not pay you to write but if you publish articles, or Hubs as they call them they will share Adsense revenue with you. You can link this to your existing Adsense account. This adds a little bit of revenue to that earned by my main blog but not enough to make it worthwhile spending a lot of time on it.
This article is not written with the intention of discussing every writing opportunity available on the internet. This is the way I earn my income as a writer and includes my personal experience of the sites that I write for.
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January 1st, 2009 at 7:38 am
This was interesting, I write on getpaidfromus and have been paid, I wish they would change their name though, for the reasons you state. I have just joined Bukisa,I will test it out and see. I too have a blog and have just recently added adsense. Triond and Helium are 2 writing sites I also use.Sadly,Today.com won’t take me on in Cyprus :/. Thanks for sharing with us your insight on how you earn. Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2009 at 8:38 am
Louie,
Thanks for the info…it helps!
January 1st, 2009 at 9:01 am
Great list, Louie! Very inspiring for us to keep on tugging..
January 1st, 2009 at 9:03 am
I also quit Bukisa fairly fast because it just didn’t “smell” right. But, like you, I’ll keep an eye on it. I also have two blogs on today.com and am looking forward to getting my first pay this month.
January 1st, 2009 at 9:39 am
Thank you for the information. I wish all you a prosperous New Year!
January 1st, 2009 at 10:27 am
Great job as usual. You have really been a tremendous help to me this last year. Thank you for being my friend, Louie. I hope you have a terrific New Year!
January 1st, 2009 at 10:48 am
I haven’t been writing on Triond that long..but I like what you have to say here..I’ve been looking for ways to bring in extra money from my writings.
January 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am
This is very helpful. I had no idea there were so many paying sites.
January 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
This excellent informative piece is an great way to share some of the many paying sites out there. I found it very insightful.
Happy New Year
-M
January 1st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Really helpful, thank you… and my best whishes for a wonderful 2009… and a succesful new year of writing!
January 1st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I always enjoy these types of articles. It’s encouraging to hear what others are doing.
I’ve had good experiences with HubPages but it does take time for the momentum to build. Certain Hubs can be good little earners, month after month, depending on the content. The challenge rests in finding which Hubs generate the most income.
I plan on writing more Hubs in future, as time permits. There are tricks to writing good HubPages, which are then pointed to by the search engines.
Your caution about checking country of residence is timely. Some of these opportunities are only open to U.S. residents so it’s important, before writing for any site, to determine if you qualify for payments.
Let’s hope that 2009 is the best year ever for all the hard-working freelancers trying to grow their writing earnings!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for sharing those sites! I think that Triond is the best of all!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Useful information – one or two sites I had not heard of. I am wary of Bukisa – very wary, like I would be of any ‘pyramid’ system where money is concerned!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Louie,
This info is phenomenal. Lots of new ideas here to try out, sorry that you can’t get paid by some of those companies.
-Good Luck!
January 1st, 2009 at 3:20 pm
What a great article mate. Well researched article with invaluable information. Like you I dont live in the US. Great job and keep it up.
Cheers,
Ayoubi
January 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Very interesting tips for any online writer. (And thank you for giving me your welcome to Triond!)
January 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thanks for all the encouraging comments everyone.
#Athlyn: I know what you mean about Hubpages as I have heard this before but the problem is that to make money from them you have to be really savvy about internet marketing. That’s ok if you have the know how but many writers are ‘writers’, not internet marketers and that’s what makes the whole job of driving traffic to articles so difficult. We want to write, not constantly have to spend hours trying to market ourselves.
You are very fortunate if you are a writer at heart and an internet marketer!
My experience is that most writers just want to write and we find it difficult to get to grips with the essentials of marketing as well.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that many writers don’t want to have to do it, but we have no choice if we want to earn from our work.
There are two types of contributor on Triond. There are those who are writers first and foremost and for whom marketing is a necessary evil and there are marketers who write because they know how to market it and make money.
Unfortunately for me, where my bank balance is concerned, I belong to the first group.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Thanks Louie. I have some of those too.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Good article, Louie. I have heard of most of the sites you mentioned. I am in Canada and over time, found a few sites that will let me write but won’t pay me. Your advice about reading their terms and conditions can save many writers time and disappointment.
Thanks for sharing.
January 1st, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Thanks for sharing this very infomative piece of information.Love the article!
January 1st, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Thanks for the tips
Inna
January 1st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I enjoyed this article. Thank you for posting it. I also plan to check out your blog. I know it is probably good, just from reading this article.
http://favorite01estore.com
January 1st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Great article – thanks for the information.
January 1st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Jammalakallaah! Hope you can see also my articles!
Foremost: Vivacious Writing!
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
Thanks for the information in your article. I am also going to try Bukisa, and i’ve heard they pay well. Seems hard to generate much trafic on any of these sites. Sometimes fustrating.
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 am
Wow, I so agree, I do 3x more promoting than writing and it really isn’t paying off. Luckily things have started rolling a bit for me lately, (Thanks Lauren for the Blog add) And I am becoming recognized by name. That truly helps.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:15 am
Thanks for the article. Sometimes, I write because it is my hobby. It is not my primary source of income. For me, it is better if I have a job with the fixed salary.
When I was in college, I became a voluntary writer of Tinig.com. After graduation, I became the voluntary contributor of Tsinoy.com. Even though I am not paid by these organizations, I am still happy because I had attained my self-fulfillment to become a contributor.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:37 am
Thanks for sharing the info. I never knew those sites before.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 am
Thanks for sharing!
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:11 am
Well writen. I will have to come back here again and look over all the links more thuroly, as I am a writer that is just new to putting articles online to make money. Thank you for the links!
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 am
thaanks for the info…lots were new to me….
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 am
Excellent Information. I am currently using bukisa and don’t like their style at all.
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:18 am
Good and informative article. But if we’re honest with ourselves, writing online articles isn’t going to make you much cash no matter how many you write. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all the years of writing it’s this – unless your written material is published by traditional means [paper] your bank account will forever remain slim, and in many cases with no payment at all. Treat online publishing as a fun pastime and don’t expect any financial rewards, and that way you’ll not be disappointed.
And let’s not forget one important aspect – writers write only because they enjoy writing.
Wishing all of you the best for 2009.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:47 am
#33 Bick Parker, I have to disagree with your premise here. I say that if you expect nothing, that’s exactly what you will get! LOL
I have worked very hard as a writer for many years and I now earn over 50% of my inclome from internet writing. It can be done if you are prepared to put the work in. Yes, if you are looking to make thousands, quickly, you will be disappointed but you can earn a reasonable part-time income if you are prepared to put the effort in.
I say that we should all expect to earn at least some money for our efforts.
My glass is always half full, and never half empty, and a positive approach will work wonders when it comes to lifting the spirit of all the writers out there!
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hi Louie,
Great review of the various writing sites. I learnt some new sites from this article. I also write a blog at Today.com and had wanted to write for Bukisa but have refrained.
Writers like us need to learn some techniques to market our writing. I’m hoping to be able to do this in 2009 and increase my earnings. Stay positive!
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Excellent advice, thanks. I am a member of Bukisa and have submitted quite a few articles there and I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed that it’s not a con.But I am willing to bet people were wary about triond when it first started
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
A great way to start the writing year. Your article has enouraged a lot of comments, which is always good for the community as a whole.
I haven’t signed up with Buskia, but I’ve had dozens of invitations so far. I think I’ll wait and see…
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Very helpful! thanks!!! Nice blog!
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Very informative and helpful. Well done
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
This article is very good. Now I know of some more sites where I can get paid to write. Thanks for sharing.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Nice article, keep up the good work.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Very helpful info Louie. Thanks for sharing.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Some new ones here that I havent heard of. Thanks Louie. Sorry its been so long. Have a good one.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Good Information
Thanks
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
Thank you for sharing your information. It is a little bit overwhelming when you just begin to write. Your information has been invaluable. One question though, how do you determine which articles to submit to which site? I assume that you can’t submit the same article to multiple sites. A prosperous new year to you!
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 am
Great article as usual Louie. I too am a member of Bukisa, sort of. I’ve got about a dozen articles there and am just waiting to see what happens. I am definitely wary of the site and how it is set up. I know about the scope of the plagiarism that site has experienced and how it is partly caused by the way they are set up. The material that is published there does not have to be original like it does here on Triond.
Triond is also my favorite and top $ producing site. I’ve recently received an opportunity to be a contributor for an environmentally friendly website called greenupgrader.com and am exciting to start writing for them next week. It’s been a crazy busy holiday season with not much writing going on at all.
Happy New Year and keep up all the great work Louie.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
This was great info I write for some sites you listed but i must mention that there are two sites that need mentioning…if I may.
http://typeamom.net
http://foodiemama.com
These two sites also share adsense revenue and are great for moms and dads to write and share stories advice and recipes..check them out and add me as a friend Im homemom
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Nice article!
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Thanks for the insight. This was an interesting article. For me, I have tried a few sites. I did a lot of Squidoo, a bit of Triond, and a few other things and find that if you do a little of everything then one thing can balance the others out and the sites can feed traffic into each other.
I also posted a link to your article on my writer forum at “http://www.writerforums.thebentleys.ca/content/louie-jerome-posted-interesting-article-called-how-make-money-and-build-your-career-writer”
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Excellent article! Associated Content and Triond are my top picks because I’ve made more on these sites than anywhere else. Today has been good to me as well. Thank you for writing this article!
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Thanks for the encouragement everyone.
#Mark Bentley: Thanks for the link. Much appreciated.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:41 am
This is excellent advice for someone like me who needs to earn more money but somehow never have time to figure out how to do it. Thanks!
January 4th, 2009 at 3:44 am
good info.
January 4th, 2009 at 7:07 am
really interesting article, I am always interested in reading articles that relate to advice for people trying to earn a little money by writing online. I am really sad to see that the issue of plagerism has come up again. That makes me feel uuugh and insecure.
Thanx Geri
January 4th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Hi Louie,
Thanks for your honest sharing. I’m very sure many will benefit from your insights and info. I’ve had the same experience as you do since I’m not a US resident either.
I enjoyed visiting your blog esp that of Churchill. I’ve written an article on him and the the “Iron Lady” Thatcher. I also maintain 4 or 5 blogs depending on my interest.
Email me via Triond if you want me to plug this article of yours in my “Life Tiny Tips” Blog. Link will go straight to Triond.
Tel
January 4th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Very good article, very helpful. I didn’t know about Today.com but am going to try it.
January 4th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Thank you for sharing. Happy New Year!
January 4th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Good article.. I tried hard but couldnt manage more earnings from writing sites.. I write for Triond, Bukisa and Helium.. Very inactive though as of now.. but I make earnings from several other sites.. paid to post, surverys, files upload, voting, paid to click and so on and on..
January 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Very helpful information. I will definitely look into them. Thank you and God bless.
January 7th, 2009 at 5:08 am
This is a very good, informative article. Thank you.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
good article very informative. It is always nice to hear from the experienced. I will keep on trucking. Thank you
January 9th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Thanks for the information. Right now I am only on Triond, I haven’t tried any other sites yet. I am however working on my blog using your advice, thanks. It is hard to work and work as a writer too.
January 10th, 2009 at 5:24 am
MMM that’s so lovely. You really did a careful job. Five Stars for you!
January 13th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Thank you very much
January 25th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
WOW! Thanks for this one! This is filled with substance; that’s a wonderful discovery in a world of words!!
MUCH GRATITUDE!