Get Paid for Website Article Writing

SunnySusie

I was looking to purchase some articles for a website I was working on and noticed that it is easy to do the opposite - ie get paid to write these articles (possibly for me lol!).

I haven't tried the site yet but thought it might be of interest to anyone looking to make a few quid from writing a few hundred words from time to time.

http://www.textbroker.com/en/author-information.php

Let us know if you try it and how it goes! I'll report back on my buying trial if I go through with it.


Edit: oops think it is only open to US authors. Soz.

glowgirl_2

Most are only open, or will only pay US writers try the ones below who do pay UK based writers -hth

http://www.wikinut.com/

and

http://hubpages.com/

rao_2

You can try going to the Services/Job boards of Website Designer/Developers and Affiliate Marketing forums. Affiliate Marketing is all about writing good content on websites to attract readers and advertise inbetween (like TV ads between programs that provide popular content). So many Affiliate Marketers outsource their content writing to freelance writers so that they can focus on building websites/promoting them. You could also try Affiliate Marketing yourself to make money from content, either with a blog or website. Digitalpoint and Sitepoint are two forums I hear have active job boards but the link above has various other forums you can put forward your writing skills on.

If I was more of a writer I would definitely try out Affiliate Marketing but I am more into design/art etc. I considered hiring a writer too at that point so thats why I think it could be a good place to go if you're the opposite (aren't interested in website building/promoting, but are interested in the writing).

http://www.constant-content.com/ and http://www.associatedcontent.com/ (possibly not as UK friendly as CC) are two sites that can give upfront payments or article-rights sales as opposed to just pay-per-view. I've also heard that the popular About.com accepts applications (more involved than the other two I think). But the standard of the writing on the article has to be higher. I think they may also have job boards on them with people requesting work.

Some more lower standard sites but therefore lower paying are places like eHow.com and loads of other pay-per-view article sites. There's also the popular myLot (paid posting) and so on.
Also recently heard of triond.com, infobarrel.com and BrightHub.com. Not sure how well their traffic is though if they are new/lesser known.

Some people also make money just from blogging using things like payperpost (plus other 'paid to advertise on your blog' sites) and Adsense but you will need to promote the blog to get the traffic to make it profitable.

sanctuary

I was going to start a thread about this, because I make £100 per week on the side (minimum) as a freelance web writer, ghostwriter and editor.

My recommendations are:

Constant Content
Demand Studios
Elance

I've also secured (lucrative) web clients by soliciting them directly.

If you are an experienced writer, I'd be happy to answer any questions. I've been doing this for a while now and know the ropes!

GavB79

Sanctuary, where does the bulk of your supplementary income come from? I see that Constant Content pays around $30 for an article, of which they take ~$10. It seems optimistic to sell 10-15 articles a week, especially if you sell with full rights so can only sell once.
For an informative, well-written researched article I would want more than a one-off £15.

loucroft

I'm with Sanctuary, I've been doing this for 6 years and will answer questions too. I need to say one thing -

Website articles: any savvy writer will only sell once at a good price because an article that is duplicated across the net will harm the popularity of the websites it appears on. Major companies can deal with this (ie repeating news bulletins etc)

There are companies out there that 'spin' articles - basically its the same article but rewritten, it usually lacks charisma and ends up a basic copy. Writers are paid cheaply, the company makes the money but the end user gets something that isn't necessarily written to interest a site visitor.

Personally I think it's important to realise that research and writing takes time, but can be well paid. These companies are worth approaching for anyone looking to get started, and there are freelancer sites out there where you can tender for a project ( bid to win = complete project, get paid ) but the competition is rife so sell yourself well and you will get word of mouth recommendations.

Ask away, Sanctuary I'd love to chat so hopefully see more of you here!

L

sanctuary

@GavB79: most of my online writing income comes from two clients who I secured after reading about "offline marketing". I made a list of local businesses, looked at their websites, and came up with a proposal for how I could get improve their search-engine results by providing content. I basically blog for them twice a week, and they pay me by Direct Debit!

Constant Content is good because, as Loucroft said, the freelance sites are very competitive. With CC, you write what you want to write about. Obviously, you need to choose your niche carefully and write with authority if you want to make a sale. But if you can write authority articles (technical and medical are especially desirable), you can charge a fair bit.

Demand has strict guidelines (not for the 'grammatically challenged'!), but if they accept you as a writer it is steady and decent money.

The freelance sites (I like Elance the best) are a jungle, but you can build up your reputation quickly if you are prepared to work hard.

It's all about positioning. Get yourself a website (free is fine) and put up some samples. You might want to start off by offering an "introductory offer" for your services, but be aware that you are competing with "writers" from all over the world - some of whom can barely speak English and will charge $5.00 for 500 (badly written) words. This is the market you must avoid at all costs. You get what you pay for, and you will want to position yourself as a quality writer if you want to be paid accordingly.

Hi there, Loucroft! So nice to see another writer here. :-)

GavB79

I have several websites for adsense revenue, and find myself writing many articles for SEO purposes. I suspect I could write as a service to others, but I'm not sure which would pay better in the long run. With adsense, one article can generate many visits and clicks and a recurring income.

loucroft

GavB79 it really depends on the income you want, if you can work less and earn slightly less but a good recurring income then great.

The way I see it is that us writers work hard, research hard and provide good work for people that appreciate it. It helps their websites and is interesting to visitors to those sites.

Take on board what Sanctuary mentioned re freelance sites, I like Elance, GAF and PPH - I return to the middle one when I am nearing the end of a project so that I can bid low, I'm in competition with lots of low paid Indian based writers but their work is very poor and not bidding to compete with their prices makes me stand out - I charge my own prices and sell myself well, and differently depending on the job.

I stand out because my pitch is high quality, I provide lots of work samples and basically some people only want people in UK / US / AUS. Be aware on taking jobs on for sites whose main focus is a different country to UK - things are different, eg insurance cover means something else in the US, real estate is a minefield and accounting, well who wants to write about that anyway [ kidding ]. Things are spelt differently in alternative english speaking countries and the humour is different - not only in spelling!!

Yes, make money doing cheap articles but I've been there many years ago and prefer unique content that is written only by me or by people I have built up a trust and confidence with.

GavB79

^ Your website links do not work

loucroft

Mine? yes works, just tried it. Just the one link.