Making money from Creative writing.

Hazleuth

Hello all,

I am a first time thread starter and generally it's my first time accepting that I need to do something to sort out my finances.

I've tried lots of money making schemes over the last few years and most I've either ended up failing on or worse losing money. I have resolved to focus on less risky ventures and whilst I try to do the usual Swagbucking, surveys and cashback stuff I want to know what other options are available to earn money, not necessarily instantly.

Now I am currently in the process of writing and novel and novella to self publish on kindle. In the mean time I was wondering if anyone know of any good sites to monetise creative writing or similar content writing. I used to use helium when it was around and keep looking for similar websites. I've looked at hubpages squidoo and elance and unfortunately they seem to be stagnant, at least in my eyes.

I am happy to even do proof reading or similar in an effort to bring in a little extra. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Flyonthewall

Two important things:
1. You should write because you enjoy writing, not to make money from it.

If you write because you enjoy it you'll write much better and you'll stand more chance of making the money than if you're writing purely in the hope of getting money.

2. Never pay to join a site.

Hubpages is far from stagnant, but to make money you really need to advertise your pages and knowledge of SEO can be helpful. Squidoo is long gone now, sadly, all pages from there went over to hubpages (for those who wished to save their content). Hubpages is a decent site but even if you write great content, have keywords, advertise and do everything right there's no guarantee you'll get much from it and it takes time.

You're highly unlikely to be able to put up a page and have £10 by the end of the day or even the end of the week, possibly not even a few months time. However, a year or two years from then you may find you are getting that £10 a week from that page or you may find one week you get £10 and the next you struggle to get 50p.

You could set up your own blog. Again, it takes time and advertising though and there's no guarantee you'll get anything/much from it.

Ciao may be a good option for you. It's a review site and it's free to join. You can write about pretty much anything you can think of. Products, places, shops, websites. How much you get depends on how much you write and what you write about. Different products have different payment levels and people rate the reviews. For example, you may review a pub with a level 3 payment rating so you get 2p for each person who rates your review. You may then review a book which has a level 2 payment rating so you would get 1p for each person who rates the review on that. While that may sound low it does add up. You won't be rich, it's not a job, but it's a nice little extra.

My tips for that site would be that you don't need to write really long reviews if you don't want but do add as much detail as possible. Read other highly rated reviews before writing your own to see what is expected. Also, don't write loads of reviews and post them all the same day. It is just seen as spam and people won't read them all so you'll get less ratings. You can post more than one, just don't go over the top.

Another option is the freelance websites but competition is high and you may find that even if you manage to get a job that it's not worth your time for the amount you are gaining. You may be able to get more in the future it's whether you feel it's worth it.

If you look through this board you'll see more information on Ciao, blogging and the Freelance sites.

None of the options above should be seen as a way to get rich and certainly not get rich quick. If it were possible everyone would be doing it. None should be seen as a guaranteed way to sort out your finances either. I mean, they may help a little, but there's no way of knowing how long sites will be around or whether you'll get the views that get the money or that you'll get the freelance jobs. You shouldn't heavily rely on them.

While not part of your question, is there anything you could do to help resolve your finance problems that you're not currently doing? This site is full of helpful tips. For example, reducing what you are spending rather than just increasing what you're gaining.

Hazleuth

Flyonthewall thanks for your very well considered reply. I appreciate the effort you put into the reply.

I do write for my own enjoyment but I wanted to explore options to help with my current financial situation. I clearly do not expect to profit in large amounts however, as I like writing shorter stories and from my research some novellas of around 10,000 to 20,000 words can make a small monthly profit (like £10 etc) I was considering placing them on Amazon when I finished writing them.

I used to enjoy helium as they used to have creative writing competitions and even earning 1p everytime someone read my stories was a nice feeling.

To be honest this thread is the start of myself getting a grip on my finances and hopefully I'll be heading over to the debt diaries soon when I get a chance to write a diary up on there as my debts have gone beyond 50% of my income at the moment. (Iva's etc are out of the question due to my job).

I need to make a list of all of the small things I can do to get a little extra and work from that. Like using swagbucks etc. I've trawled through the forums and found similar boost income lists but they always seem to miss some things that I already do or miss out something that I would do but do not know about. (Ie when I found out about topcashback bingo cashbacking).

Hope this makes some sense!

Flyonthewall

Hazleuth wrote: »

Flyonthewall thanks for your very well considered reply. I appreciate the effort you put into the reply.

I do write for my own enjoyment but I wanted to explore options to help with my current financial situation. I clearly do not expect to profit in large amounts however, as I like writing shorter stories and from my research some novellas of around 10,000 to 20,000 words can make a small monthly profit (like £10 etc) I was considering placing them on Amazon when I finished writing them.

Sounds good. If you enjoy writing and have written it anyway it makes sense to self publish it and see what you can make. What I would say is that there is a lot of competition, self publishing is something anyone can do and you may find that those who have had some success are more likely to write about it than those who haven't made anything and decided it's not for them.

I'm not trying to put you off - far from it, I think it's great you enjoy writing and that you are researching what you can do with that and putting thought in it. Just don't be dissapointed if a story doesn't do as well as you expect because it can take time and some stories may do better than others. No doubt you've read some tips while researching so I won't go into all that, but don't give up and make sure you share links to your stories and tell people you know about them.

There's no limit as to how much you could make from selling them on Amazon. Some people have done amazingly well by self publishing their work. I'm sure there are other places you could publish them too that may be worth looking into.

I used to enjoy helium as they used to have creative writing competitions and even earning 1p everytime someone read my stories was a nice feeling.

Yeah. Sadly there doesn't really seem to be many sites that offer that now. Problem is that some sites offer more than they are actually gaining meaing they last so long and then fail. Others are around a few years, make big changes and go downhill. Most take more work than just writing and waiting for views and that can mean it's not worth it for some people.

At some point others may pop up, but you can never be sure how well they'll do. It's worth keeping an eye out though.

To be honest this thread is the start of myself getting a grip on my finances and hopefully I'll be heading over to the debt diaries soon when I get a chance to write a diary up on there as my debts have gone beyond 50% of my income at the moment. (Iva's etc are out of the question due to my job).

I see. That's good then as a diary will help you.

I need to make a list of all of the small things I can do to get a little extra and work from that. Like using swagbucks etc. I've trawled through the forums and found similar boost income lists but they always seem to miss some things that I already do or miss out something that I would do but do not know about. (Ie when I found out about topcashback bingo cashbacking).

Remember that cashback is never guaranteed. Well worth using TCB when you are buying something anyway, but not always buying just in the hope of cashback.

I assume bingo cashbacking is signing up to bingo sites through TCB so you profit from the cashback? If so I don't know how much you've already read up on it, but as I say cashback is not guaranteed. Bingo sites also have various terms and conditions and they can vary - a lot. Even if you win on the site you may not be able to cash out unless you spend more and there's no guarantee you'll win more and reach the cashout minimum, resulting in no profit or even a loss.

You need to look up the terms and conditions on Topcashback and the terms and conditions of the bingo site and look up any cashout limits or requirements. An offer of £30 cashback for signing up to a bingo site and spending £20 may seem like an easy £10 profit but it's not always the case.

Spending money to make money via cashback sites is always a risk. Some may be worth the risk, others might not be. It worked out great for me once with a bingo offer, but I've yet to find another bingo offer I'd take that risk on.

Jenwales_2

I'm surprised you don't know about writing competitions if you are serious about writing. You can pay about £6.00 per story and win a cash prize. Not all contests offer cash prizes and the contests with the biggest prize are probably going to have a lot of good quality stories.
I've always wanted to be a writer and I'm trying to gain some success with short stories before I attempt a novel. I need the money but that is not my main focus and I would never publish a book myself unless I knew it was worth it.

I won a competition last year and this has given me the confidence to enter more. I'd love to make money from writing. My job doesn't always give me enough overtime and I'm trying to save now to own my own house.

Maybe you should focus on how you can get money normaly ways e.g. jobs or just focus on cutting bac your debts. I know a few people in the same situation and we have all realised that there is no way to get money quickly. You can only spend wisely

Flyonthewall

Jenwales wrote: »

I'm surprised you don't know about writing competitions if you are serious about writing. You can pay about £6.00 per story and win a cash prize. Not all contests offer cash prizes and the contests with the biggest prize are probably going to have a lot of good quality stories.
I've always wanted to be a writer and I'm trying to gain some success with short stories before I attempt a novel. I need the money but that is not my main focus and I would never publish a book myself unless I knew it was worth it.

I won a competition last year and this has given me the confidence to enter more. I'd love to make money from writing. My job doesn't always give me enough overtime and I'm trying to save now to own my own house.

Maybe you should focus on how you can get money normaly ways e.g. jobs or just focus on cutting bac your debts. I know a few people in the same situation and we have all realised that there is no way to get money quickly. You can only spend wisely

Paying £6 (or any amount for that matter) could seriously add up and there's a lot of entries and no guarantee you'll win and even if you do it may not be cash. Not exactly what the OP is looking for right now.

If OP can find free to enter writing competitions it might be worth it but not paid ones (and if ever you do enter a paid one make sure it's legit!).

It's also well worth fully reading the terms and conditions. Some competitions may claim copyright of your work!

Hazleuth

Jenwales I appreciate the repose. I am aware of changes to lifestyle etc and curtailing debt, however I have reach the point where the usual advice (I avidly follow tips from MSE) has only got me so far. I've tried get money quick schemes in past and they all fail. I was hoping to find a site similar to what helium used to be where I can post my stories and earn a tiny revenue from them.

To be honest I am in the process of writing a new novella series which I hope to publish on Amazon kindle eventually. I am no stranger to the topic of you write because you like writing not for the money. I understand this but it is nice to know options to earn a little from it.

surveyqueenuk

Off the top of my head, have a look at Postloop (paid forum posting - pays via PayPal, lightning fast), offering forum and blog comments through sites like Fiverr and sites like Constant Content.

moneysavingscouser

Good thread, I love writing and will check out some of the sites mentioned.

I did publish a website years ago, mostly my content, but it was never about earning cash.

I know people who self published small runs of books, its hard work or used to be before ebooks and the various means of publishing and earning from them.

irishgirl81

Thanks for all the advice on here, I am currently writing a novel after publishing three books for the kindle, they were just dipping my toe in the water and not anything serious, but this one is my first fictional work and it is a little scary!