10 Great Ways to Make Money Writing Online | Reviewing the Best Writing Sites

Reasons to Write Online

• To get their opinions or writing seen by a wider audience
• Because they love to write
• As a hobby
• To build a portfolio of writing work
• As a step up on the writing ladder
• To make money
• A combination of the above

Pros and Cons

• You can write about any topic, without restraint in terms of word count, house style etc
• You can add modules to your work, thus enhancing its aesthetic appeal and adding variety
• You can add profitable modules, and choose to control the content yourself, thus directing your readers to products that are relevant to what they are reading about
• Squidoo has a wonderful close-knit community which strives to help newbies and experienced Squids alike!
• Modules also allow your lenses to be interactive, for example through voting polls and guestbooks
• Squidoo is easy to learn and use. Modules are self-explanatory and have full instructions as soon as you start editing them
• You can add links, RSS feeds and blogs from other sites quickly and easily
• You can edit and update your lens as often as you want. This is, in fact, encouraged and will impact positively on your ranking!
• You can remove a lens at any time, or even sell it to another lensmaster!

• Lens rank, i.e. the position of your lenses in the Squidoo charts, doesn't just depend on traffic or the quality of your lens. It takes all sorts of factors into account, such as your own interactivity on the site. You need to spend time building yourself within the community to earn money or climb the charts, but that is the same with most sites.
• Squidoo is not just take take take. You need to put in a great deal too. Lenses considered spammy or too sales-pitch focused will not be taken kindly. You need to add decent content to your lens too.
• Remember to spend time reading other people's lenses too. Rate their lenses, leave feedback, and join some fan clubs. Not only do you get enjoyment out of reading all those cool lenses, but you get yourself known too. This can be time consuming, but totally worth it!
• There is nowhere to view the latest published lenses, so you need to do some internal promotion to get your newest lenses off to a running start

Pros and Cons

• This site is great if you want to develop professionally as a writer, as only professional and quality writers who write relevant, focused content will be accepted - a real boost to your portfolio!
• You get feedback from your topic editor where appropriate, and you can also email them for advice.
• Suite101 has excellent Google presence. Most of my articles on there come up top or on the first page of results in Google searches.
• Daily traffic is high
• You can add up to 2 external hyperlinks per article and 3 internal, allowing you to promote your other articles on suite101 or on other websites
• You can climb the suite101 ladder by becoming a Feature Writer, providing you with a higher commission rate, and perks such as party invites or products to review
• You can improve your range by learning to write tightly focused, topic-specific articles to a set house style
• There are monthly competitions which usually include up to 3 prizes of $101 each. These include writing articles on a themed topic or submitting at least 5 articles within the given month.
• If you write an excellent article, your topic editor can award you an Editor's Choice Award, which stays on your article forever. This gives you promotion on the home page. Readers can also recommend your article, which also puts you on the home page. In both cases, you are visible until five more articles have been recommended or awarded
• The latest articles are displayed on the home page, so people can find your new articles easily
• You retain the copyright to your articles. Suite101 have exclusive rights for one year after the initial publication. After this time, you can post the same article elsewhere if you wish, providing you state suite101 as the original publisher.
• You can edit your article after it is published. You can edit all of it for a certain length of time; after that, you can only edit a small percentage of it, but this is handy if you want to add a new hyperlink.

• You can't start writing straight away - you have to apply
• You are limited to 400-800 words per article
• You cannot EVER write in the 1st person. 3rd person is preferred, but 2nd person (i.e. "You can find these products at...") is allowed in many of the topics, particularly if the piece is a how-to. The site is, however, introducing blogs for writers soon (currently only available to Feature Writers).
• Once accepted as a writer, you need to spend time reading the site's guidelines and handbook, and learn to write your articles in their required house style
• You have no control over which adverts are placed on your pages
• You have to submit at least 10 articles every 3 months, otherwise you will lose your membership

Pros and Cons

• Less restrictive in terms of word count, house style etc. You can write in the 1st person
• You can submit audio, video and slideshows as well as written articles
• You can submit creative writing, including short stories and poetry
• There are 'Calls for Content' to give you ideas. Sometimes there are competitions where you can win bonus revenue or get promoted on the home page
• Commission is based on traffic rather than ad clicks. You automatically earn $1.50 per 1000 page views. This amount increases the higher your rating gets. The minimum payout is $1.50.
• You can choose whether to grant exclusive rights to AC or not, depending on whether you want to post the same piece elsewhere. Naturally, you will earn less commission on pieces which are not exclusive to AC.

• As with most writing sites, AC is American-based, and much of the most popular content revolves around American trends or shows, which can be totally alien to British writers like me!
• AC doesn't seem to get as much traffic as suite101 or Squidoo, or generate high page ranking on Google. However, that may just be my experience so far with only a small amount of articles. Others are doing very well with AC!
• Some of the content from other Producers is, to be honest, sometimes poor. However, you can either view this as a negative, or as a positive because it makes your content look better!
• If you claim a Call for Content and then fail to produce it or cancel it, you will have limited access to Calls for Content in the future
• Non-US residents are not able to apply for upfront payments
• You are supposed to be able to embed hyperlinks but they don't work, you get a report back saying 'links broken'. I emailed AC querying this but never got a reply, so gave up. Annoyingly, they place their own hyperlinks into random words, which initially was really annoying as many of them are utterly meaningless! However, they seem to have toned this down to only include significant words, thankfully
• You can't edit an article once published, although you can while it is in the approval stage, so make sure you proofread your article to double check for errors

Pros and Cons

• Great for those of you who are competitive - aim to write the best article possible to rise above all the others!
• Good practice for writing commissioned pieces as you are writing content specifically for a set title
• You can publish creative writing as well as non-fiction
• You can pitch for freelance work on the Marketplace
• Constant writer contests available to enter, plus a $1 bonus if you write for an empty title!
• The more competitive the title you write for (i.e. ones with lots of articles already submitted), the more your rating and potential earnings rise

• Time consuming in terms of rating. In order to do well on the site, you have to spend time reviewing a large amount of other people's articles to boost your star rating
• You need to write for a variety of topics otherwise you will be limited to which articles you can rate - believe me, when you have only written one article the selection of articles to rate soon gets VERY boring!!
• Not so good for grammar and spelling perfectionists (like me!). The titles are inconsistent and often in lower case or misspelled, or just plain clunky, which can be irritating if you want to write for it!
• While there are plenty of excellent writers on Helium, a lot of the content on there is utter rubbish, in my opinion! This is good in terms of your own articles doing well, but not so good when you are spending time reviewing content. It gets disheartening, to say the least
• Not a good earner unless you are prepared to write a LOT of content. If you don't submit new articles every week, your rating will slip and impact your earnings
• The site seems to be buggy. For example, you are able to embed hyperlinks into the article, but something seems to go wrong. Some of my words have ended up with an extra letter on the end and a broken link, which makes my writing look sloppy. Annoying!!!
• You can't edit an article once it's published. If there is a major typo or correction needed, you have to email Helium with the exact line number, page number etc and ask them to correct it for you. I tried this with my hyperlinks that went wrong but they still ended up incorrect!

Pros and Cons

• Quick and easy to write for
• You can add lots of photos
• If you are in the USA, earnings are based on quality rather than click revenue
• You can submit video as well as articles

• Those outside the USA cannot earn money from eHow
• Limited to 'How To' style only

Pros and Cons

• You can write about all sorts of topics and design your page with capsules
• You have some control over what is advertised on your hub
• You can earn additional revenue from other people's hubs
• Successful and new hubs get promoted

• You have to sign up to individual affiliate programs yourself in order to earn from writing on HubPages

Pros and Cons

• The biggest guaranteed earner by far
• You get to write about an entire topic
• You are creating a mini website that is linked together, rather than individual articles scattered across topics
• As an about.com Guide you are recognised as an expert in your field
• You can write as a Guide for as long as you desire

• You have to apply to be a Guide or Contributing Writer and are limited to the topics available at any given time
• You can suggest a topic which isn't already on the site, but this does not guarantee that you will get the job - you need to keep checking to see if they have added it to the list and apply along with everyone else
• As a Guide you will need to dedicate a lot of time each week to producing and updating your site - on average 25-30 hours per week
• You can only write about things relating to your topic
• If you apply and are successful in making it through to training, you are not guaranteed the job, and you don't get paid for anything you write during the training period.

Pros and Cons

• If you enjoy listening to music, this is the PERFECT site for you - get paid for reviewing previously unheard tracks!
• You are guaranteed a minimum of 10p per track
• Finally, a British site that pays for writing! :o) Slicethepie is open to Scouts from all over the world as well
• You get to hear lots of new music and experience the opportunity of investing in new bands
• Good at predicting whether a new band will do well? Fancy yourself as an A&R person? You will love this site

• You can't specify genres in the Scout rooms, so you will have to endure music styles you might not like!
• You will need to write a constructive review, so will need to review music styles that are not to your taste with an unbiased view
• You have to invest your first £5 in earnings (but can keep everything after that)

Pros and Cons

• You can earn additional revenue from your writing and don't have to share the commission with the host site
• You have full control over what ads are placed in your work, and can pick relevant, popular products
• Learning more about the companies and products available to promote can inspire ideas for profitable articles
• You can turn previously unprofitable articles into profitable ones

• It is time consuming to research the different programs available and apply to them (but worth the effort!)
• It is also time consuming to work through which companies and products to promote where, and spend time creating the links within your pages. However, get it right, and you will reap the rewards
• You need to be good at recognising which are profitable products to promote and which are not, based on whether people are likely to click and buy, and whether the commission rate is worth it. Again, get it right and you will be glad you invested the time and effort
• Some affiliate programs will start charging you if you fail to make any commissions. Don't join accounts unless you intend to use them effectively and make sure you read the small print.

Pros and Cons

• Quick and easy to write
• Guaranteed earnings on certain sites, providing you write relevant and quality reviews
• Makes a great supplement to article writing
• Helps increase your product knowledge

• Limited to reviews of products you have bought and used
• Some sites only allow you to earn a certain amount
• Not a big earner, but an acceptable supplement to other writing

A Few Final Tips on Writing for the Web

• Writing regularly will keep your web presence fresh and up to date
• Get into a writing routine. Allocating yourself a certain amount of hours per week for research, writing and promotion/linking will keep you on schedule
• Write about what you know, but also explore things you don't know, and wish you did. You'll learn so much!
• Don't focus on making lots of money. Write because you want to - the rest will hopefully follow
• Write a mixture of work. Write some profitable articles that will bring home the bacon, to support the ones that are less profitable, but about the subjects you love
• Network within your writing site! Get to know other writers and contribute to the community.