Strike it Rich as a Web Content Writer
One very easy web based side hustle to get into, that pays almost immediately, is web content writing. If you already blog then you are very familiar with the writing process and probably have some SEO skills too. This is the perfect combination of talents to get started as a web content writer.
I said it’s easy to get started and that’s true, but don’t expect to make big bucks immediately. It takes time to get your name recognized as a writer of quality content. The nice thing is that there are several places you can write to get paid immediately while you are creating your own list of clients. I’ve tried it on a full time basis and it is possible (for me) to make $2000/mo writing for these sites.
Your numbers will of course vary based on how quickly you can research and write. I am not the fastest researcher/writer out there by any means and a 750 word article usually takes me an hour to research and write. Depending on various factors that article is worth $10-15. Not great pay, but if you are living cheaply it can either make a nice supplement to your income or get you through a tough period. For enterprising types it can be a springboard to bigger and better things.
Getting Started as a Paid Web Content Writer
Before you get started you need to make sure that you can write at least at an average level. Spelling mistakes are not acceptable and grammar should be at least adequate. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer prize winning writer or even good enough to get a job at a print publication. If you received A’s and B’s on your high school and/or college compositions, your writing skills are adequate.
You also want to be sure you love writing enough to be able to do it easily day in and day out. If you are thinking of taking this on at a high level you will be writing 5000-10,000 words on a daily basis and trust me, combined with research that is a lot of writing! I generally find that I start to burn out when I get above 6000 words a day, but your mileage may vary.
You should also have at least a passing understanding of writing SEO optimized web content. Most of the articles at the sites I am going to tell you about will require you to write keyword focused titles and articles and may even specify a keyword density (% of the total text that uses the keyword). If you can’t easily fit “small blue widgets” 6 times into a 500 word article you may struggle as a web content writer.
With these three requirements addressed it’s time to take a look at my 4 favorite sites for picking up writing jobs easily.
The Top 4 Web Content Writer Sites
- The Content Authority – This site is personally my favorite and the one I used to write for the most. The instructions are typically clear, the payment is weekly and the staff is easy to work with. A fairly new site it has been growing rapidly and bringing on new clients. That being said, the better jobs (those for tier 3 and 4 writers) are typically in short supply for most of the week. Sunday-Tuesday is very good and the rest of the week much slower for these higher paying writing jobs. The site does allow for direct orders from publishers though and this is where I’ve found the best assignments to be. You can specify your rate per word and the publisher then connects with you directly to write their orders. It will take some time to build up a list of publishers who like your writing, but once you do the work becomes fairly steady. I haven’t been writing here regularly for over 3 months and I still get direct orders most weeks, anywhere from $50-100.
- Text Broker – Text Broker is one of the oldest (the oldest?) site of its kind around. That being said, they are definitely not as easy to work with as The Content Authority. They work around a star system for their writers, 2 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Honestly the 2 star orders aren’t even worth your time and the 3 star orders are just barely worth it, if only to get a body of work in place so you can get promoted to levels 4 and 5. Unfortunately you will find very little work available at the 3 star level, though there is plenty at the 4 and 5 star levels. Perhaps most frustrating is the fact that it takes Text Broker 4-5 weeks to review each of your articles and assign a star rating to them so if you are looking to get promoted it can be a long process.
- iWriter – iWriter is not too bad, with the exception of the fact that you are going to have to write 30 articles for peanuts before you can get to the higher paying content writing jobs. Everyone at iWriter starts as a standard writer and each article is rated by the clients on a scale of 1-5 stars. Standard articles pay a measly $2.43 per 500 words. There are two higher levels, Premium and Elite, which pay $4.05/500 words and $8.10/500 words respectively. Obviously you want to get to the Elite level as quickly as possible. To do so you must have written at least 30 articles and have a star rating of 4.6 or higher. Premium level requires the same 30 articles, but a lower rating of only 4.0 or better. It’s not bad once you get to Elite status as fast writers can make $25 an hour or so, but it is painful to get those initial 30 articles written for peanuts.
- Interact Media – Interact Media is a bit different than the other sites because their clients can offer much higher pay. While the maximum is up to $0.16/word I’ve never seen a job listed for that much. I have however seen jobs listed as high as $0.056/word which is a pretty decent rate. The downside is you do have to watch their job board closely as jobs get snatched up pretty quickly. I’ve only written a few articles for them and the review process seems fair (you are assigned a rating from 2-5 stars – higher ratings give you access to higher paying writing assignments), but it can be lengthy. I’ve waited as long as a week for an article to be reviewed. Because Interact Media only pays every 2 weeks that can delay your payment. Overall though it is a good writing site to have in your list.
Increasing Your Client List
While these are my favorites, they may not necessarily be yours. There are a multitude of other sites you can use to find paid writing jobs and web writing clients. In general patience is a key with these sites though. You may have to wade through dozens of crappy offers and you might even find yourself writing articles for $1 a piece just to get on the publishers radar and have a chance at higher paying jobs. Here is a list of other sites where you can find work for web content writers:
- Freelancer.com
- oDesk
- Yahoo Content Network
- AOL Seed
- Helium
- Warrior Forums
- Fiverr
Striking Out on Your Own
While writing for the content mill type sites listed above can provide a steady stream of income, it is never going to be as profitable as writing for your own clients. It is possible to build up a client list through direct orders on each of the 4 sites I discussed and that works well for some. If you want to be the master of your own destiny however you need to strike out on your own as a true freelance writer.
Freelance writing presents challenges all its own from creating your own web presence to marketing to attracting and retaining clients. You’ll also have to deal with bookkeeping, receivables and deadbeat clients so it isn’t all fun and games working from home as some would have you believe. The full freelancing experience is definitely beyond the scope of this article, but I will write more in the future for those who might be interested in taking their writing in this direction. In the meantime you can check out Freelance Folder and Freelance Switch for more in depth information geared towards freelance wring as a career.
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I’ve been thinking about freelance writing as a way to develop my skills for my own audience. It’s good to know that you can make a decent buck with it so I’ll have to check out those sites.
Is there a wide variety of topics you can choose from? I wouldn’t want to write nothing but finance-related articles since I need to save those for my own blog
There’s a very wide range of topics on each of the sites I listed. If someone is creating websites about it you will find a need for content. In fact, personal finance is a very small part of the articles requested.
Very interesting! I’ve been thinking about this.
I hope it helped you get better acquainted with the sites that will let you write for money. Good luck Michelle.
This month I got a steady gig off the problogger job boards. That is a popular site also. I’m doing a combo editing and writing 1 article a week. I’ve been wanting to get some other gigs, thanks for the sites.
Problogger job boards are a good source of work, nice that you got some steady work off them. Sometimes its a toss up whether good pay or steady assignments are more valuable.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit too… one of these days I’m going to check into it a bit but I think I’m going to focus on building up SAFTM for now and may try and build up private clients or product as a next step. Good stuff.
I think with your situation (job, family, etc) you are better off working on SAFTM. Although a product in conjunction with the site could be very nice.
Yeah, I have a few ideas for simple products that may sell one or two copies… we’ll see. You’re right though – way too many balls in the air to add too much.
There is no way I can be a freelance writer. I am a very slow writer and it takes at least 2 hours to put together a blog post. I’ll have to find a different way to make money online.
I think you already have Joe
I’m with you RB40, if anything I’d be on the other side of the fence, paying to have some articles written. In fact during the summer when my work gets very busy, I may need to do this in order to keep things lively on my blog. We’ll see, I always have my commute time to work, which is nice since I know I need to go to work and I’ll want to go home eventually.
Well then if you’ll be buying content you can check out the same sites just as a publisher rather than a writer.
I didn’t know of any of the above sites. A few years ago I was looking into getting paid for writing and only knew of Craigslist and Associated Content. The pay structure of the sites you outlined above crush the two I mentioned big time. If I had more free time, I would definitely be interested in looking into writing more, but right now, it’s not in the cards.
While the pay still isn’t that great, you are right that they crush most other “get paid to write” sites. I stopped writing for them because I am focusing more on the long term rewards of publishing my own content, but for someone who needs a source of immediate cash flow they can be a good way to accomplish that.
Just like Bill Gates said over 10 years ago “Content is King” and will continue to be so.
Blog writing services are a rapidly growing niche. Anyone who is willing to invest into their own blog writing company should not procrastinate.
I believe it is the perfect time.
The only problem I see is that many of the services out there provide content that is not of the best quality. Of course you get what you pay for and if you are only willing to pay $0.01/word or even worse $1 per article then you deserve the mashed up crap that you get back.
If I was to start a content provider service I think I would focus more on the high end clients who understand the importance of quality content. Google is beginning to figure out how to sift the chaff from the wheat and will only get better at that.
Wow! If I ever decide to freelance, I will definitely check these sites out. However, between full time job and blogging, there is no way I can do it. but I love the idea of building your own client list and freelancing from home. However, I know it is a rough and unsteady path.
It can be quite rocky, but very rewarding if you can make it work.