Writing for profit online (useful sites)

October 11, 2007 – 12:40 pm

Writing for profit online isn’t the easiest of things to do in most people’s opinion, but there are ways of doing a bit of writing and earning a little for it, but not necessarily in the way you might think.

There are a growing number of sites online who are looking to get their members involved in the site and are willing to pay them for doing so. Some of these are sites where people review products that they’ve bought or used, others are where you answer other members questions and get paid to do that. Then there is the option of writing for yourself and creating a blog and getting paid by people who advertise on it. Although you’re not strictly earning money from the writing itself, it is a form of earning, and the people who come to the site are there to read what you’ve written.

Ciao and Dooyoo are two sites that pay members to write consumer reviews. You don’t get paid a fixed amount to review an item, but when other people read the reviews you’ve written, you get a small amount – usually a penny or two. Ciao also awards prizes once a month for well written reviews at their discretion. Ciao pays by BACS direct to your bank account, and Dooyoo pays you in dooyoo miles which you can then exchange for gift vouchers.

Askandearn and Mylot are two sites that pay their members to ask and answer each others questions. Mylot doesn’t give a lot away in terms of how they work out how much you get, but it seems to work out to a maximum of 1 cent per question or answer, and sometimes less. Askandearn is somewhat more transparent about how it pays, offering 10cents per question or answer, with a minimum of 50 characters per post, but it does seem to be a bit more discerning and so you have to be a little more careful how you ask and answer questions for them to be seen as valid and reasonable. Both these two sites offer payment for referring members to them, and also offer you a percentage of what your referrals earn, so if you want to earn more, you can get your friends involved too.

Blogging or having your own website is another way to earn money from writing online. It’s a little bit more complicated than signing up to a site like those above, as you have to first have an idea for what your site or blog is going to be about, then create some content for it, and encourage others to come and visit your site. Once you’ve got your blog or site up and running though, there are a number of sites you can apply to for advertising that can then make you money. Basically the way this works is that people come to your site to read and enjoy it, but while they’re there, they see the adverts which is why some advertisers are willing to pay you to put adverts on your site. Mostly we’re not talking a lot of money, but something like £5 or a £5 voucher a month isn’t bad just to have an advert or two on your site. Don’t forget though that with something like this, you’ll need to keep updating your website or blog regularly and make sure you’re drawing traffic into it or your advertisers aren’t going to want to keep advertising there for long.

Another option are sites like Helium – where you pick a subject from their range of articles that they’re looking for, write the article, and then they publish it online. They place adverts on the page along with your article and if lots of people view your article and the adverts then they share the revenue they get from it with you. It’s a bit hit and miss, but it’s not a bad way to start and there’s no prejudice if you’re a first time writer or have written lots before. It’s all about quality and how many people read it.

by Vialdana