Write For Money No. 3
Two weeks ago, I added a new blog series to support new and aspiring authors seeking to make money via their writing. This week, we’ll look at how creating web content can put a little money in a writer’s empty pockets.
Contributing to Paid-Content Websites
This may be like a fairy tale come to life for those who weren’t aware of them, but believe it or not, there are many websites that pay a large number of authors to write content.
These websites are often modern versions of encyclopedias that offer overviews, how-tos and step-by-step guides related to a wide variety of subjects. And, my guess is you’ve used some of them without really thinking too much about where their wealth of encyclopedia entries come from.
But they come from you. Or at least from people like you.
There is a little bit of reality check in the paycheck though. These sites don’t pay anywhere close to what an author has traditionally earned by writing an article for a magazine with national circulation. But regardless, they do pay the author for his or her time. And a little better than that, they often offer performance incentives that reward authors whose articles generate a lot of web traffic.
The best way to approach these websites is to identify one or more topics you have expertise in and then read several sample articles to get an idea for what kind of content, format and tone the site prefers. And while a professional degrees might prove you know something on paper, feel free to pitch yourself to write based on work experience or even like experience (no one would argue, for example, that raising 12 kids would give someone the know-how to write on parenting).
Here are a few examples of such sites:
Digital Journal allows authors to write articles and post blogs. The site pays for page views and gives the author a cut of advertising revenue (which also is tied to the number of visitors who come to the page). Often the more articles the author submits, or the more regularly he or she submits them, the more money they make.
Suite 101 lets writers contribute articles or report on news. The articles don’t just get distributed on Suite 101. They are also published on many third-party sites. The articles must be original and the author must promise not to republish the same article elsewhere on the internet for one year after it posts through Suite 101.
The Yahoo! Contributor Network allows writers to publish and distribute articles on any topic. A team of editors reviews all submissions and authors can then earn what is called “revenue-sharing” by either being given specific assignments by the editorial staff or by earning page views. As a bonus, they also accept articles that have been printed elsewhere so you might be able to re-use some content you already created, as long as it’s still current.
See earlier posts in the Write For Money series: Write for Money No. 1 and Write for Money No. 2.