Make money online by writing about your interests
With
the explosion of blogs and e-newsletters, the demand for unique, theme-based
content online has skyrocketed. Fresh writing is the only way to keep traffic
flowing, and subscriptions growing.
- What does this mean for blog/webmasters? STRESS
- What does that mean for you? PROFIT potential.
If there are subjects that you can consistently write about without losing your mind, you have most of what it takes to make money online as a writer. Start by searching Google for websites, blogs, ezines and newsletters related to your interests. Offer your "writing services", provide a link to a free sample, and be sure to emphasize the "personal" nature of your service. It's important to impress upon the blogmaster/webmaster/newsletter that you'll provide UNIQUE content that is interesting to readers and search-engine-worthy.
Alternatively, you might consider writing a variety of articles revolving around a single topic, set a price for each article, and then contact relevant websites (offer to sell them exclusive rights). One or two paragraphs from each article might be provided as a sample of your work.
Make money by reviewing websites, products, and services
Once you've got a blog established with a good traffic flow, you'll find advertisers willing to pay you to review their websites, products, and/or services.
The demand for such services is strong, which explains the abundance of sites that assist with brokering deals. Here are some to start with, in alphabetical order:
- BloggerWave.com
- Blogitive.com
- Blogvertise.com
- LoudLaunch.com
- PayPerPost.com
- ReviewMe.com
- SharedReviews.com
- Smorty.com
- Sponsored Reviews
Websites that pay you to write for them
Many websites generate their revenue by displaying ads. But ads do require content -- and some websites get that content by paying other people to produce it. Here are a handful of site that will pay you to write on various topics. Typically they pay an advertising revenue percentage when you write on any random topic, or a fixed rate for topics that they're actively seeking.
- Academia Research - they're looking for writers of terms papers, reports, etc.
- Associated Content (recommended) - Allows you to write on just about any topic, and pays you a percentage of advertising revenue. Obviously, it will help to write about in demand, niche, or high PPC topics.
- eHow.com - (recommended) I'm sure you've seen it. You write how-to articles and get paid a percentage of advertising revenue.
- eWealth.com
- Examiner.com - Visit the site and click on "Write for us". They seem to be paying for writing on current events / topics.
- Freelance Home Writers - This is a marketplace for buying and selling blog/web content, articles, newsletters, etc.
- Google Knol - A Google service for sharing any type of knowledge. They don't pay you, but they do allow you to enter your Adsense code.
- Helium.com (recommended) - A marketplace for selling your writing.
- Hub Pages - Write about just about any topic and get paid royalties.
- Scribd - Allows you to sell your content via their popular, search engine indexed website.
- Software Judge - (currently offline) - Pays you to give truthful reviews of software applications.
- Squidoo - Pays royalties for "overviews" on just about anything.
- Suite 101 - Write on topics in 20 different categories.
- Text Broker - Pays per word, with a rate based on article quality.
- Triond - Accepts written articles, pictures, audio, and video. Pays 50% revenue share.
- Yuwie.com - It's a "get paid to socialize" site; basically social media that pays some amount of money per 1000 page views. The ads are annoying, but that's how you're making money.
For some additional opportunities to make money online as a writer, here are some sites that maintain lists of blogging jobs:
If you have good writing skills, and a subject that you're passionate about, I also suggest seeking projects/contracts from magazines and other publications. Browse the inventory of Magazines.com or Amazon.com/magazines to see what's available in your area of expertise. Contact the publishers directly.
Participate in revenue-sharing forums
There
are many online forums that allow you to display your own Google Adsense code
in your posts, thereby enabling you to make money online by posting messages
to their sites. You may wonder "why not just post to my own website/forum/blog?".
The simple answer is because these forums already have good traffic waiting
for you.
A good example of a typical revenue sharing forum is MyLot.com. It seems that the standard Adsense display rate is 50% (e.g. they show your ads half the time, and their own ads half the time).
I found this post that lists a bunch of revenue-sharing forums. To find sites focused on your interests, I might suggest doing a Google search for forums like this: "forum + your interest + revenue share".
Make money online as an About.com guide
Check out this list of topics for which About.com is currently seeking guides. If any of them interest you, read up on the application process here.
Compensation isn't bad either: a guaranteed minimum $675 per month. That's pretty good, considering that most of the guides do the work only as a side job.