Online Writing Income

With so many companies offering affiliate programs, I find Amazon to be one that is a no brainier to add to the freelance writing income arsenal. After all, who hasn’t heard of Amazon?

Pros

The benefit of becoming an Amazon affiliate is that no matter what you write about, Amazon has a product to compliment the article. If you write for sites that allow you to add affiliate links, it’s a quick and easy way to make a couple of extra bucks.

Cons

The commissions aren’t very high unless you get tons of traffic and lots of sales. The commissions are graded on a sliding scale. The more products you sell the higher the commission.

Bottom line, this past Christmas season when so many retailers were groaning about poor sales numbers and lack of profits, Amazon had one of its best holiday seasons ever. It pays to stick with a winning team.

Sign up is easy. All you have to is sign up, write a few articles, place your links and forget about it. Amazon does the rest. All you have to do is watch your commissions grow.

If you are a freelance writer and have any sort of presence in the blog-o-sphere, right after setting up your blog (as mentioned in an earlier post), trot over to the Google AdSense websites and open an AdSense account.

Personally, I’ve found that Google AdSense works better on websites than they do blogs. That might have a lot to do with my blog topics. If you have a blog that talks about the latest gadgets, insurance topics or health and fitness machines, AdSense may work out well for you.

Blogs that talk about writing or writing opportunities don’t seem to do as well with AdSense. The good thing about being a freelance writer in this day and age is that you can have more than one blog. If you have the time and the inclination, you can manage several blogs on the most lucrative topics and watch Google AdSense work for you.

Keep in mind that Google AdSense isn’t the only game in town when it comes to earning money through your blog. In later posts I’ll share some other ways I’ve managed to earn a few shekels over the past year or two.

It’s a New Year and time for new resolutions…or maybe not.

It all depends on how well you did with your last years’ resolutions. If you haven’t achieved your last year’s resolutions, why make new ones?

Here’s my theory:

A new year’s resolution is not completed until December 31st of the year. If you vow to quit smoking and quit by the 3rd of January only to pick it back up by February 2nd, then you didn’t quit. However, if you slowly reduce your cigarette intake over the year until you are down to zero by December, then guess what. Success!

Writing is the same thing. Making unreasonable goals at the beginning of the year only to find that it is unattainable and unachievable does nothing but discourages you. Why not make small monthly goals. Make a vow to improve your writing by 10% each month, or increase your article count by 10% each month or increase your query letters by 10% each month. If 10% is to aggressive a goal, vow to increase it by 5% or 2% or 1%, just make sure to make improvements.

I’ve been around the block a few times and realize that the year includes the months of February through December. Therefore, there is no need for me to make my life as uncomfortable as possible in January only to regret falling off the wagon in February, March and so on. Take it slow, measure your success and you’ll be able to cross off your resolutions this year in favor of new and improved resolutions for next year.

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!

In an earlier post, I suggested that it is wise for a freelance writer to have a blog. I still agree with that concept, but which will bring in more money? A blog or a website?

Well, there are quite a few things to consider.

Website Creation

Not everyone has what it takes to create a website. It takes some HTML knowledge, or knowledge of software that can create websites, a web host, SEO knowledge and a host of other things. You need a domain name, site host, etc., etc. All of that takes time, effort and some money.

Blog Creation

You can create a blog in 10 minutes or less depending on your blog-hosting site. After all, I have this blog here on the Today.com domain and it took just a couple of minutes. I don’t need to have intricate HTML knowledge or look for software to create my site. So, when it comes to ease of use and setup, a blog wins hands down.

Cha Ching Factor

Here’s where the hard work pays off. It’s been my experience that websites generate more money than blogs do. Wait…before you post comments about all of the successful blogs that are earning money hands over fist, stop to see how long they’ve been around and how large their following.

Just for grins, I started a website. It started earning money within the first few days and the earnings were starting to grow. Then I decided I didn’t want to spend the time coding, formatting and doing all of the stuff that needed to be done with a website so I converted it into a blog.

A blog is so much easier to maintain, but I’ve got to tell you, the earnings plummeted immediately. I found that Google AdSense and my other advertising worked better when the site was a website and not a blog. I have the exact same content, but just in a different format. Go figure.

One Person’s Experience

I enjoy the blogging format because it’s much easier to write content. It’s less formal and doesn’t take as much time to put together a post as it does an article. In my opinion, websites have more of an authoritative quality, where as blogs seem to share the wisdom and experiences of the blogger on a more personal conversational level.

And The Purpose Is????

What I’m trying to say is that as a freelance writer you should have a web presence to showcase your writing abilities. If you have the time and inclination, I also recommend that you spend a little of your spare time creating a website. You may find that it is more financially rewarding in the long run.

Wishing all of you a very
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah and
Happy Kwanzaa

If you’re serious about becoming an online freelance writer, you’re going to have to spread your love around. What I mean is that you cannot afford to place all of your eggs into one freelance writing basket. You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth repeating it. Find several freelancing income streams.

In the short time lifespan of this blog I’ve mentioned a few online writing resources. They all vary in the way in which they compensate their writers. Some compensate writers based on page views, others on ad clicks while others pay up front for each article or post. No matter which one you prefer, I would suggest that you add one or two of each to your basket. Variety is the spice of life, so keep your writing opportunities spicy.

I’ll continue to share writing opportunities as I come across them, or remember them (at my age, I tend to forget things unless I write them down). In the meanwhile, get out there and spread your freelance writing love (or love of freelance writing).

It must be near the holidays, my posts are getting cornier and cornier. Bear with me. I’ll pull myself back together for the New Year.

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).

If you have a blog and are looking to earn a couple of bucks for your posts, check out SponsoredReveiws.com. Similar to Pay Per Post, they pay you to blog about particular topics and/or products.

The pay scale for SponsoredReviews is a bit higher than other pay to blog sites that I’ve come across and they always seem to have a lot of blogging assignments to choose from. Once you agree to blog about a particular topic, you must use the keywords and/or links provided by the advertiser.

Word of Caution:

The downside is once you agree to complete a blogging assignment, write the post as soon as possible. Don’t do what I did. On one occasion, I waited a few days before writing the post. I wrote the blog post well within the time allotted, but, after submitting the post for approval, I was turned down because the advertiser had changed their keyword and link requirements.

I was shocked and surprised. I thought I was hallucinating. I contacted SponsoredReviews to complain about the switcheroo, but they advised that the advertisers are allowed to change their requirements. They also advised that it’s important to write the posts as soon as possible (even though they give you 7 days to write the post).

As a result, I did not get paid for that particular post. To avoid such a problem, learn from my mistake. Once you accept the assignment, write it immediately and submit the link for approval. Send it to them before they get a chance to change the requirements.

In all fairness, I have received payment from SponsoredReviews in the past, but after that switcheroo scenario, I’ve stayed away.

A day or so ago, I mentioned that if you are a freelance writer, you should have your own blog. I also promised that I would share a few ways to earn money with your blog. Well, one of the ways is to get paid to make posts. Companies like Pay Per Post are willing to pay bloggers to write about products and/or services and make blog posts.

There are pros and cons to such do so, however.

Pros: You get to earn money with your blog. How much you earn depends on things like your blog’s ranking, popularity and advertiser subject (It is possible to earn money with a blog with 0 or no page rank. I’ve done it).

Cons: You may sacrifice your blog’s authenticity. Depending on the subject matter of your blog, a random post written for an advertiser may appear disingenuous, but like I said, it all depends on the subject matter of your blog.

Additionally, purportedly, your Google page rank may suffer as I’ve heard that Google doesn’t like paid posting. I’m not an expert on this so I cannot say for sure.

My Suggestion

Develop a blog you won’t mind writing advertisements for. I tried this experiment some time ago with a blog hosted on Blogger.com. Just for grins I took on a few Pay Per Post advertisers and earned a few dollars just to make sure it was doable, and it is.

So, if you’re inclined to make a couple of dollars for paid posts, give Pay Per Post a try.