Best 3 ways to make money writing online

As experienced turkers know, the size of payments for writing tasks on Amazon MTurk vary considerably.  I have done well with certain writing tasks in the past, but recently I’ve struggled to find ones that are worth the effort.  I am not sure whether payments are gradually decreasing in value, or whether I am just getting more fussy.  Anyway, there is never any harm in exploring alternatives.

My 3 favorite make money writing sites are HubPages, Wizzley and Squidoo.  I will give you a general advantages and disadvantages of writing on these sites, compared to writing on MTurk, and then give you a brief overview of each site.

Advantages of online writing and earning platforms

Potential earnings are generally bigger on writing platforms than on a site like MTurk, at least in the long term.

The income from these sites is “passive”, which means that in theory at least, you keep earning even when you aren’t working and can get paid multiple times for the same piece of writing.

Online communities can keep you up to date with online earning opportunities and help you to develop the necessary skills.

Disadvantages of online writing and earning platforms

It can take months before you begin to earn even relatively small amounts, and a year or more before you see a decent return for your efforts - even then, the earnings certainly aren’t guaranteed.

You need to be fluent with English and have some skill at writing - especially with writing one page articles.

“Passive” income makes it sound like you don’t need to do much, but the real truth is that these sort of sites require a level of continual commitment if you want to succeed.

You will often need to set up accounts with external advertising/affiliate sites in order to earn money (for example Google Adsense and Amazon).  Although free, it can take time and effort and sometimes it isn’t straightforward, especially for people in Asian countries, where the rules are sometimes stricter.

HubPages

Hubpages is the one of the biggest writing platforms.  Users write one page articles called “hubs” and earn through HubPages own advertising scheme, plus Google Adsense, Amazon, eBay etc.  All the advertisers and affiliates are optional apart from Google Adsense which you have to be a member of, if you want to earn money.  HubPages articles generally rank well in Google, but Hubpages take a 40% share of your earnings.

Read more about Hubpages

Visit the HubPages website (using my referral link)

Squidoo

Squidoo is HubPages’ main rival.  It’s set up slightly differently and has its own unique appearance, but the underlying principle is very similar.  One advantage of Squidoo is that you don’t have to set up your own Adsense or affiliate account.  Squidoo pool all the money that’s made, take a 50% cut, then share the rest out to the writers according to how highly their articles (known as “lenses” within Squidoo) are ranked.

Read more about Squidoo

Visit the Squidoo website (using my referral link)

Wizzley

Wizzley is the new kid on the block.  Set up by experienced Squidooers, it is similar to HubPages and Squidoo, in that you write one page articles and earn from the adverts and affiliate advertising.  They take between a 50 and 60 percent cut of your earnings, depending on how many articles you’ve posted there.  Each article posted is checked by a real person (as a pose to a bot) to make sure that it comes up to the required quality standard.  The jury is out on Wizzley as far as earnings go, but I am enjoying my time there, so far.

Read more about Wizzley

Visit the Wizzley website (using my referral link)


UPDATE (February 2014)

I would no longer recommend Wizzley as a good earner.  Income from Hubpages and Squidoo is lower than it used to be, but still worth it. 

If you just want a quick and easy place to earn, I would recommend: Bubblews.  

HubPages: Make money writing online

Hubpages is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to make money writing online in my experience.  Unlike many other writing online opportunities, you are free to write about any topic you choose and there are minimal restrictions in terms of style, length, and tone.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Well, yes it is, but you will have to have good English language skills, write engaging material, cover topics that people are looking for online, and be prepared to promote yourself, if you want to do well on Hubpages.

The money doesn’t come to you quickly either.  It can take months before you really begin to see the fruits of your efforts on HubPages.  But the big earners on HubPages can make hundreds of dollars each month.  (I only make a fraction of that, but still find it worthwhile).

Friendly community and helpful staff

Of course, there will probably be some people who disagree with me, but my experiences have on the whole being very positive at HubPages.  The community there is generally friendly and there are people who will go out of their way to help you sometimes.  The staff are good at engaging with the HubPage users, known as ‘hubbers’ and the company has a good record when it comes to innovation and problem solving.

Where does the money you earn come from?

Revenue is raised through online advertising with HubPages taking a 40% cut and you getting 60% of the revenue generated by your hubs.  Originally, Google Adsense was the main advertising company used, but in recent times, HubPages have introduced their own advertising system, known as ‘Hub Ads’.  You can also make money by selling Amazon and Ebay products on HubPages.

Is it really that easy to make money with HubPages?

Well, yes and no.  Of course, you can sign up with HubPages and just write about the topics that interest you and you will make some money, but probably only 20 cents a day.  The people who make serious amounts of money with HubPages (dollars rather than cents) choose their topics and titles of their hubs very carefully, spend time researching and writing their hubs, and they do everything they can to promote their hubs and also to get them to appear high up in search engine results.  They do this using a collection of techniques known as SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO can influence every aspect of their writing, from picking the topic and title of your hub, to the keywords that they include in their work.

So what does SEO involve?

In short, the most important elements of SEO as far as hubs are concerned, are probably picking hubs that are likely to engage the online community, using keywords effectively in your titles and text, and getting backlinks for your hub.

So how do I sign up?

You can sign up to Hubpages here.  It is free to join.  (My advice is don't join if you want to earn money quickly!  Don't join if your English skills aren't very good!  Do join if you enjoy writing and want to make some extra money and don't mind if your earnings are low for the first few months!)