Getting Paid to Write.
Most of the writers who frequent these pages will be aware of the passion in writing the regular columnists hold with their path in being a writer. For most of us we write because we must; it’s a compelling need to share and explore ideas, characters, scenes and settings. Even the most supportive partner though, comes to the point where they tire of being a Patron of the Arts and ask the question which strikes dread into the heart of even the most hardened writer – “When will you get an actual paid job writing?”
As much as I would love to earn a living (errrmm… earn anything) with my writing; I was doubtful there were many avenues open to a ‘normal’ writer such as myself. Upon some research though, I have dug up these opportunities, which I thought I might share with readers.
Blogging or Article Writing
There are a number of large sites out there who purport to pay you to blog – or submit articles to their site – and you then gain a small payment ( note the ‘SMALL’… because it is… very). Many of these sites use a variant of “pay per click through” – where with every logged visitor who then clicks through on an advertisement displayed near your entry, your account will be credited a few cents. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to quickly work out that the traffic required to make any sort of money this way is enormous and fairly unlikely to occur quickly. However, in saying all of this – if your outcome is to maintain a profile outside of your own website and to have links back to you, then this may be an avenue you’d like to pursue.
A few sites who pay this way are:
Foodie Mama – pays mothers who love to cook to share recipes and tips with Adsense.
Article Income – covers a broad spectrum of interests
Constant-content as the name suggests – articles of interest and good content.
howhub.com – write articles on… how to…..(whatever your interest or specialty knowledge may lay) earning are 50% of the Adshare revenue (apparently higher than the click through method) You need to be mindful of keywords to attract your traffic.
ehow.com similar to the above site. They pay you through paypal.
Publish Associated Content has a few options for payment – one is $3 per article – the other a revenue sharing deal of around $1.50 per 1000 views.
About Families pays $3 per article ( 300 – 500 words)
Submission rules for these sites are usually strict, with little leeway for formating; so make sure to read all the guidelines, or your submissions will be rejected
Book Reviews
There are sites which look to pay writers to submit book reviews – again many appear to do the revenue share/ AdSense deal.
Review Party.com – Book and DVD reviews, where you are paid through a revenue share deal.
Freelance Writing
It sounds terribly intimidating, however there are a lot of jobs out there who are looking for normal writers who can produce a set of keyword rich articles fast and inexpensively. Once you have signed up, you search for roles which sound of interest to you and you then either contact the hirer – or you put your bid in for how much you will do the job for. Most of the sites also allow you to advertise your skills at the price level you are willing to work for.
Some freelance sites to try are:
Elance.com
Guru.com
Real Money for writing
Being paid real money for your work appeared to be fairly scarce, however these two opportunities looked promising and I’d love to hear from anyone who submits or is successful with these.
Antigonish Review – Published fine poetry and prose by emerging — and established — writers. Pays $50 per book review and a varying amount for short stories, poetry and essays
Writers Magazine – A resource for writers. Rates for articles range from $40 to $80 for book reviews to $100 to $300 for columns and $300 to $500 for features.
Everyone has their own passions and thoughts about what we call life and as writers we generally use these thoughts in our fictional pieces. Why not turn it about a little and earn some money with these same ideas and work? Again, you need to decide you’re your outcomes are if deciding to submit to sites which revenue share with Adsense as, to be honest, the actual monetary rewards are unlikely to be able to buy you a cup of coffee after a few months. However, find a niche you wish to write about, promote it through your social networking and you may be surprised with the results. The most valuable thing about being published outside of your own site, is the opportunity to showcase your work to a wider audience.
Piggy Bank Image via Wikipedia
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Write Anything 
I reckon we could cash in both our adsense accounts, order a latte and share!
I’m fed up hearing certain site owners extoll the necessity for patience in getting the page views to rack up the $s in adsense. My Type A Mom articles three weeks ago had 34,000 hits on them. And there was just short of $2.00 in my adsense account – granted it is American dollars so it will be a little more in my currency. I’m not sure how “patient” or “how many bloody hits” one needs to have to make it even vaguely profitable for a cheap morning tea. The cynic in me thinks the lure of adsense and money is just a cheap snake oil selling screen for site owners to get writers to create content to grow their sites and drive the traffic. To me it is the slave labour of the writing variety.
I got the “so does any of this work you do paid?” from my mother in law earlier on in the week. And I was embarrassed in some ways to say no – given the long hours I often put in at the keyboard. I then went on to explain about the fact the average Australian writer makes $10,000 a year – that’s all the $s at the top 5% averaged across the other 95%. Last year I sold a short story so I was actually ahead on this year. I’m hoping at the end of the year though – it might change.
In the current economic crisis any freelance jobs have all but dried up. I will have my first ever by-line in an Australian newspaper tomorrow and while I could have negotiated perhaps a year ago for some kind of a payment – it is pointless. Just getting the exposure at this point is enough and the contacts. Part of me thinks it is a sell out … the other part of me thinks you have to start someone … and the other part wishes there was something better.
I just keep holding on to Paul’s comment that the view from the top will be worth it when we get there.
Great information. Thank you for sharing. I didn’t find it worth the time to write for the inexpensive guys there was so much shadiness going on. Quality of writing quick took a skill I guess I didn’t have. And then so many when I did do the articles disappeared and didn’t pay.
I’ve been wanting to apply to a known online magazine that I know pays pennies. I think for me its more the practice writing rather than payment. I already write for free on my TS blog, so if I get $2.00 I would thrilled. It’s sad I’m so cheap!
Good luck to you all!!
I reckon I’m pretty lucky that I have a supportive partner that understands the writing game and why I’m not earning out of it. Although, also doing a soul-destroying job to fund myself might factor into it.
Jodi has some interesting points about Adsense. It’s a bit of a rip off and Google are laughing at us I think because they’re making a nice cut out of all of us putting ads on our sites.