Online Writing Income

When it comes to writing online, its best to develop a rhythm. Find a few sites for which you can get paid to write, and set the number of articles you want to place on each site each day, week or month and then develop your writing rhythm.

The good thing about writing for more than one place is that you can change your rhythm as your feelings change. Some sites are easier to write for because you’re allowed to use your natural writing voice, while others are a bit more difficult.

It’s been my experience that writing for sites where I have to write in the third person is more labor intensive than a site where I can write in the first or second person. Taking this into consideration, I develop my rhythm accordingly.

I write the fun, easy to write stuff as a warm up, the more difficult to write articles as the workout and then I bring it all home with more delightful first person writing. My natural tendency is to forgo the more difficult writing, but if I force myself to take on the challenge. After all, I’m still learning and growing as a writer. What better way to develop writing muscles than by doing a bit of resistance writing (sorry, took you from the dance floor to the gym weight room).

Developing an online freelance writing rhythm has helped my income to steadily grow. I switch up the rhythm every once in a while, but I still keep writing to the beat. Do yourself a favor and develop a writing rhythm.

Ground Report.com, founded in 2006, is a website that pays for the latest news, both local and abroad. Not limited to US only writers, Ground Report accepts international writers and pays monthly via PayPal. The Founder & CEO Rachel Sterne is a former reporter for the UN and developed this site in an attempt to “democratize the media.”

What’s Acceptable and Not Acceptable

As with most websites, they want original, non-affiliate laden news items. They don’t accept articles that sell products or sounds like a commercial. The news must be true, original and accurate. Engaging eyewitness accounts are especially desired. They do not accept porn, obscene or hate filled articles (commendable).

Licensing

You keep the rights to all of your work and can remove it from the Ground Report website whenever you want. However, if it’s earning money, why take it off.

Earnings

It appears that they pay based on page views. The more views your news item gets, the more you’ll earn so it pays to promote your news items.

If you’re a freelance writer looking for online gigs you must put the Online Writing Jobs.com database in your job search basket.

My First Gig

When I first decided I wanted to earn money online, I got my first writing gig through them. Granted, back then I was eager to write 300 word articles for a whopping $5, but the gig paid weekly and I could write as many articles as I wanted.

I knew then it was a low paying gig, but I had no confidence as a writer so I took it. It was nice to see the money deposited into my PayPal account weekly. They liked me and gave me a raise so I started earning $6 per article.

Graduation Time

Shortly thereafter, I realized that there were many more opportunities available on the internet, so I went back to the Online Writing Jobs.com database and I managed to land a writing gig for a print magazine. I earned $520 for my second gig (1,200 word article).

That was all I needed to build my confidence as a writer. If someone was willing to pay me (yes, me), $520 to write an article, I guess I had enough writing juice to make a living on this stuff.

Give it a Try

So, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned professional, check out the Online Writing Jobs database. You never know what you’ll find. It helped me; I hope it does the same for you.

I’m on the mailing list for a few forums. I don’t usually have the time to visit the forums, but from time to time I receive emails of the latest goings on on.

Well, here’s an opportunity that ended up in my inbox as a result of one of the forums. The name of the site is Universal Class. If you know how to write instructional courses, you can earn anywhere from .04 to .06 per word. According to the website, if you can take complicated subjects and explain them in an easy to understand, clear and logical manner, they want you.

If this sounds like something you can do or are willing to do, give them a whirl. What do you have to lose?

P.S. - If you do give it a try, come back and share your experience with us.

In my daily wanderings around the internet I came across a site that might be of interest to freelance writers. The name of the site is The Write Jobs.

What is particularly of interest is the Jobs listing page. I’m not quite sure how often they update their database, but they do list quite a few writing jobs. Some require that you live in a specific area, some are telecommuting and others are truly internet friendly writing positions that can be done from anywhere.

I cannot vouch for all of the positions, but I’ve personally written for Demand Studios and do currently write for eHow (both are listed in their database as needing freelance writers).

The listing isn’t extensive (34 jobs), but who knows, you might find something that works for you. Good luck!

The title wasn’t too cool, but its holiday time and I’m feeling very festive (get it, Suite…sweet?).

If you’re a serious freelance writer and are looking for another writing gig, check out Suite 101.com. They’ve been around for over 12 years and they have a growing reader base. The reason I mention serious freelance writers, is because Suite takes their articles seriously.

Here’s the story with Suite 101

In order to become a Contributing Writer for Suite 101 you have to apply. Your application includes a resume along with several writing samples. If they approve your application, you must sign and return your contract before you can begin writing.

Each section has an editor, and your first article must be reviewed and approved by an editor before it appears on the site. Your subsequent articles can post to the site prior to editor review, but the editor will still review them. If the editor finds that your article needs a few revisions, you’ll be notified. If your article is a disaster (by disaster I mean you write an article contrary to Suite 101’s terms and conditions), your article will be disabled until it is fixed.

The Up Side to Write for Suite

Suite forces writers to produce quality work. Some online content sites are more concerned about making money than producing quality; Suite is not like that, they want quality first.

Based in Canada, Suite 101 accepts international writers. They pay once a month via PayPal once your accumulated balance exceeds $10. For more info on Suite, visit their site.

I’ve been writing for them for a little over a year and have enjoyed my time with them. I recently took the plunge and became a Suite 101 Feature Writer. I was on the fence for a bit as to whether or not to commit to becoming a Feature Writer. I guess money talks so I decided to do it. Feature Writers get an additional bonus that Contributing Writers don’t get. I’m ashamed to admit, but my decision to become a Feature Writer was based on getting additional cash (shame on me).

I felt it necessary to add Associated Content to my list of freelance writing sites. While I personally haven’t done well with them The fact that I’ve only written one or maybe two articles since I joined last year might have something to do with it.

Don’t let my inactivity deter you. There are writers who are earning money consistently with Associated Content. By joining the community, writers have the ability to be paid up front for original work or earn a residual income based on page views and article popularity.

Associated Content also has these things called “Calls for Content.” I’ll have to defer the Calls for Content explanation to the Associated Content site itself . My goal here is to make you aware of the opportunity, but unfortunately, I can’t give you too much first hand experience or knowledge.

Personally, I found the site rather confusing, that’s why I never really did much with them, but don’t let my confusion stop you. There is money to be made at Associated Content.

Another site where freelance writers, programmers and graphic artists can make money is oDesk. At oDesk, you get to bid on open jobs.

oDesk takes their website seriously and they don’t let just anyone bid on jobs. More than just signing up for an oDesk account, you must take the oDesk readiness test. The readiness test is an open book test that checks to see if you understand how oDesk works and what’s expected of you.

After downloading the oDesk team software and passing the readiness test, you’re ready to begin bidding on jobs. You can even set your oDesk notifications so that you receive daily emails of newly available jobs that fit your criteria. You can also follow oDesk on Twitter.

Earning Potential

How much you earn is a function of how many jobs you complete and your reputation. The more oDesk jobs you complete and the larger your resume becomes, the more you can get paid for assignments.

While bidding sites are not my forte, there are some folks who earn quite a bit of money with oDesk. Why not give them a look see to see if it works for you. If not, don’t fret, there are so many other legitimate opportunities on the internet.

Stay tuned…

If you’re a freelance writer and haven’t heard of eHow as yet, you should check them out as soon as you’re done reading this post. eHow is a site that gives step-by-step instructions on how to do everything.

If you have areas of expertise, you are welcome to join the eHow community and contribute. Even better than sharing information, you can get paid to write. eHow offers a Writers Compensation Program. You need to be over 18 years old, an American citizen and have a valid PayPal account.

International Writers

Although the Writers Compensation Program is only open to US citizens, international writers can still benefit from eHow. eHow currently enjoys a Google page rank of 7. That means that they have lots of Google juice. In other words, an article written on eHow stands a much better chance of being read than one written on a site with a page rank of 1 or 2.

Even if you can’t enjoy the benefits of the Writers Compensation Program, you are allowed to insert links related to your How to article. Whether you link back to your own website or to a particular affiliate product that is related to the article’s topic, you can still make eHow work for you.

Sign Up

There… now that you’re done reading this post, go and visit eHow’s sign up page.

Happy writing and happy earning!

No matter how many freelance writing opportunities you partake of, there is always room for one more. Add Bukisa to your arsenal.

Right off the bat, one of Bukisa’s attractive features is that its not limited to US freelance writers only. International writers can apply.

Minimum Writing Requirements

Bukisa is a content site that uses freelance writers to populate the contents of the site. There are no minimum or maximum article requirements. The articles must be original and at least 250 words in length. Beyond that, you are free to write about whatever topic tickles your fancy.

Payment Info

Writers earn money based on page views. The more your articles are viewed, the more you earn. Added to that, Bukisa has a referral program. You earn income off of your referral’s page views. Better than that, you earn off of their referrals too. Oh, wait, it doesn’t end there, you also earn based on your referral’s referral’s referrals. Got that?

Yep, you make money up to three levels deep in referrals. Not too shabby.

Bukisa pays it’s writers via PayPal once your account balance has reached $50. It might take a little longer for a payout, but when it does arrive, it’s large enough to be able to put gas in your car.

If you haven’t added Bukisa to your freelance writing arsenal, I suggest you do so now.