What are the Best Places to Write Articles Online?

I spend quite a bit of time researching new places to write online. In fact, I have a list of 101 best websites for the freelance writer, published on Squidoo. It seems to be a popular lens.

What I've found from listening to other writers, is that some websites are clearly favorites, but each writer will have their own favorites that just work best for them. So, here are my top 14 places to earn money writing online. They are 14 sites where if you can't make money, you are doing something very wrong. You don't have to know SEO. All you have to do is read the guidelines and publish some unique content according to the guidelines and you will earn. Of course, knowing SEO will help you earn more. Here are the sites:

1. eHow - straight forward how-to guides - anything you want to write - minimum 200 words
2. Suite101 - Factual and professional 3rd person writing - anything you want to write - editor reviewed - minimum 400 words
3. Squidoo - Long pages of anything you want to write - lots of backlink and selling potential
4. Type-A-Mom - Blog about being a mommy
5. Bright Hub - Suggest your own titles to editors - Upfront payment plus revenue sharing - 400 + words
6. Experts123 - Upfront payment ($8.00-12.00) or revenue sharing depending on the article chosen - Select from a list of titles.
7. Seed.com - Select from a list of titles ($20-30) upfront payment
8. Textbroker - Select from a list of titles (.01-.02) per word
9. eCopywriters - Select from a list of titles (average .02) per word
10. eXaminer - Write whatever you want about your expertise in your local geographical area - About 1 cent per view
11. Info Barrel - Earn percent of adsense on articles of your choice. (Not the most lucrative out there, but it is something.)
12. Associated Content - Pays a very small upfront amount ($2.50 - $5.00) per article and then revenue sharing on unique content. Write requested titles or create your own. Editorial process exists.
13. Your personal blog where you can earn 100% adsense if you can generate traffic. :)

Where are you writing and why?

Experts123

I came across a new website for freelance writers called Experts123. They are accepting applications for paid contributors. Writers are said to earn up to $20 per article. I applied and was accepted the next day. Writers receive upfront payment for submitted work and do not retain rights to the work. Most of the articles I found in the queue were offering $8.00-12.00. If you are looking for an upfront payment writing website and you don't mind writing very technical articles, (most are legal, tax, computer etc.) this website may be for you. Here is how to go about applying:

1. Go to the Experts123.com application
2. Read it.
3. Join Experts.123
4. Once you have entered your email address, username and password to join, you will be taken to the application screen.
5. Send a sample file along with links to 3 published articles with your application.
6. Once you have applied, you will be taken to a screen where you can go ahead and complete your profile. Green check marks should appear beside each section of your profile.
7. After you receive the welcome letter (usually the next day) you must log in again and activate your account. You will have to complete your profile now, if you haven't already done it. You will then be able to see all titles that are available. To get to them, go to your profile page, a new tab titled "assignments" will be there after your account is activated.

I wrote my first article for Experts123 on March 28th, 2010. After submitting my first assignment I noticed that you can not accept new assignments while your first article is pending editor approval. I received approval for the article on March 31st, 2010, so it took 3 days. After my initial article was approved, I was able to select new article titles immediately. There was no waiting period while the recently submitted articles were in editor approval.

101 Freelance Writing Websites

Type A Mom

I spent an hour today, writing my first article for Type A Mom. The article publication tool is a little hard to work with. It isn't user-friendly at all. I made it through and clicked "save." The publication tool promptly logged me out of the website.

Frantically, I hit the back button hoping to recover my work. It didn't happen. I got a blank form. I have browsed the site a little and know it requires frequently login if you are idle. I didn't think it would log me out while publishing. Now, I know better.

If you begin writing for Type A Mom, always save your work in a separate document first!

Writing for Bright Hub

I was hired to write for Bright Hub back in November. It has taken me until February to figure out how the site works. It is a confusing place to write and they've been doing some restructuring in addition.

Bright Hub offers $10 per article for writers in community managed channels. Community managed channel means that you have an editor and have to have all titles approved before writing them. In addition to the upfront payment writers are given ad sharing revenue. The website claims it is 60%, but sixty percent of what? It seems to be a very closely guarded secret. Some of my first articles have over 500 page views and I haven't seen a penny from revenue sharing. I've seen other writers claim to be earning $70 a month from previously written articles. I plan to keep writing and see how that works out, but I have other sites, such as eHow and Suite where I can earn a lot more per article. From what I have read, I estimate that most writers earn approximately 10 cents a month in revenue sharing per article at Bright Hub.

For those that want upfront payment, it is a good option. However, in the long run I think you could earn more elsewhere. I earn $1 per month/per article at eHow and 50 cents per month/per article at Suite. Here's the math for a three year period. (Three years isn't unreasonable because all my articles are still earning after 2 years.)

Amount Earned per Article
Bright Hub Editor Managed Channel - $10 + $3.60(10 cents a month X 36 months) = $13.60
eHow - $36 (1 dollar a month X 36 months)
Suite - $18 (50 cents a month X 36 months)

For writers in self-managed channels, there is no editor and no title approval. However, writers earn strictly revenue sharing. As Bright Hub says on it's website, the reason you might want to write for a self-managed channel is because it probably pays better than writing for your own blog.

I currently write for the Google and Green Living editor managed channels. Yesterday, I applied to the Special Ed channel also. The Special Ed channel is editor managed, as well. Once hired for Special Ed, I am planning to write for a self-managed channel (parenting), to compliment and link back to my writing at the special ed channel. So, you can do both and use them to draw traffic to one another.

Getting Paid for Creating Backlinks

Do you like to surf the internet? I know I do. Several years ago, I stumbled upon the Squidoo website. Like all web surfers, I was accustom to creating bookmarks for the webpages I found online that I liked. However, my internet bookmarks were often overflowing and pages got lost in folders never to be seen again. Squidoo solves that problem, because now when I find a page I like, I link to it in a lens.

Recently, I was surfing for ways to reuse paper online. I gathered my favorite ideas in a Squidoo lens: "Ways to Reuse Paper." Now my links are published online, in one webpage, and when I want to revisit the ideas, I simply pull up my Squidoo account. In addition to linking to my favorite ideas, I often use Squidoo lenses to link to my own articles to help get the word out about them. Squidoo actually pays users who develop these lenses. To learn more about publishing on Squidoo, see "How to Earn Money Writing for Squidoo."

Keyword Tools

If you are not earning from online writing, you may want to take a look at keyword tools such as Google's. A good keyword tool can help you find the phrases that people are typing into the search engines (Yahoo and Google) to find articles. This is helpful to know, because you can write spectacular articles that are never found if you are not using the correct keyword phrases.

Using a Keyword Tool

Begin by having your own idea for an article. Type into the keyword tool a few words you are planning to use to title your article. Two words is best. After you search for phrases, you will get a list of commonly searched for terms. Choose a term, or phrase, that most accurately relates to your article. Try to find one that has low to medium ad competition. I have good luck with the ones that return a high GSV and "not enough data" in the LSV.

Cautions:

A few words of caution about using a keyword tool. You can spend a lot of time researching, but if you don't write anything, you won't earn any money. Try to get what you need and not over analyze. Then, get started writing.

Also, if you want to earn a reputation as a great writer, you will stick to what you know. Don't try to write articles about things that you aren't experienced with simply because it has a high keyword phrase associated with it.

1099s

Squidoo and eHow send out 1099s to all contractors that have earned over $600 in the year. I haven't reached the $600/year threshold for Suite101, but I have read that as a non-US company, they don't mail out the 1099 and you are responsible for reporting earnings over $600 to the IRS yourself.

Do You Know Where to Publish Online?

After a few years of publishing web content, I've gathered a collection of places that I like to publish online. When I have an idea for an article, I take a little time to imagine the overall look of the completed article. Some questions I ask myself when deciding where to publish are:

1. Does it require detailed photos? (Squidoo)
2. Is it a how-to? (eHow)
3. Is it a scholarly article that requires credibility? (Suite101)
4. Is it news? (eXaminer)
5. Is it a review? (Epinions)

It is important to consider the layout of the published work on a site before publishing there. I bet you have a few places where you like to publish online that work better for certain article categories. If I were to write a tutorial on how to crochet something, for example, I would consider putting it two places: eHow or Squidoo. If I felt that I could clearly explain the article without large photos, I would put it on eHow, because I earn more there. But, if I felt the article needed large clear photos, I would put it on Squidoo. Squidoo also allows videos to be easily embedded in the content.

I also do a little keyword research. If I have an article topic that I really want to write, but the keyword phrases are low paying, then I target a website, such as Associated Content or Bukisa, where you are paid by view rather than a percentage of Adsense. Low paying keyword phrases and ads do not matter so much on a website where you are paid by view.

Whenever you begin to publish at a new website, there is a time investment in learning the website publishing tool, article requirements and writing requirements. Because this can be time consuming, I suggest picking a few sites that you like and sticking with them rather than constantly shopping around for new websites to publish online.

You can learn more about where to publish online by visiting 101 Best Websites for the Freelance Writer

Work at Home Income Goal

This March is my 2 year anniversary of building up residual income working from home. I started writing for residuals in March of 2008. I am excited to say that this is the first month I have reached my goal of earning as much working from home part-time as I do working at my regular job part-time. This month I earned $1077 working from home.

I didn't get much writing done this month, but despite that fact I continued to earn on the articles I've published in the past at eHow, Suite101, Squidoo, Life123, and on my personal blogs. This month I spent a week grading high school aptitude tests for ETS. That is the great thing about residual income from writing, when you are busy earning money in other ways, your articles are still earning money. :)

For more information on how you can earn money working from home, scroll down the right side bar for a list on this blog.

Work at Home To Do List - March 1, 2010

ETS and Cahsee
The spring scoring session for ETS started a week ago. I was so happy yesterday when I called my scoring leader to tell her that I'd completed calibration and she said there were no papers left to grade! Whooot! They were all beginning to look alike and I was behind on my writing deadlines, so I am grateful that this CAHSEE session is complete.

BrightHub
Since I wasn't grading, I had some free time to get my writing assignment done for BrightHub. Knocked that out. BrightHub is actually fun to write for if you don't mind writing requested titles. If I can choose my topic, I find I write much faster, but if it is a requested topic I always put it off until I know it is due, sort of like a school paper. That is the drawback of BrightHub in my mind, the fact that you must write their titles.

Product Reviews
Today, I have some product reviews I've been meaning to do on the back burner. Writing product reviews is an interesting assignment. The PROS are they give you free products, all you have to do is review them. Your written review earns money in the future just like any article would. The CONS are that sometimes it is difficult to stay objective. You must because you owe it to your readers, but it feels a little ungrateful to say "Oh, this product is a piece of junk," when you got it for free. After I get these reviews completed, I don't think I will offer to do it again, unless of course it is for a product that I REALLY want.

Type A Mom

TypeAMom.net is a place for moms to network and read more about parenting. They are currently hiring mommy bloggers. On Sunday, I got an acceptance letter from them. It has been a while since I applied, because honestly I had forgotten about it. The great thing about TypeAMom is that they currently pay 100% of adsense profits, so you won't have to share your adsense earnings at all, but you still get the increased traffic from blogging for a popular website.

TypeAMom.net