Freelance Writing

Associated Content 

Associated Content is a freelance writing site that pays you up-front for your submitted articles, and then also pays you for the page views that your articles generate later on. You can write on anything you want to with Associated Content, and you get the satisfaction of seeing your articles online. 

Based on what you write and how in demand the topic is, Associated Content will pay you from $3-$14 per article. And, based on just how many page views you’ve already generated with your articles, you will get paid a certain PPM (payment per mille). It adds up quickly, especially as you write more and more articles and optimize your articles for keywords. 

One of Associated Content’s benefits is its community forum, where you can meet other writers and brainstorm about writing topics. Also, you can add these authors to your favorites, follow their content, and make comments on it. Generally, once you follow someone’s content, he or she will return the favor. This is great because this will increase your page views.

I’ve been with Associated Content since early 2007. Although the site doesn’t pay as much as it used to, I am still happy making my typical $5/article. I get about 600-700 page views per day on my 250+ articles. I’ve even won a $100 award with the site for my restaurant reviews.

If you are interested in writing for Associated Content, click here. If you would like to check out my own content, click here. 

Constant Content 

Constant Content is a third party freelance writing site that matches up writers to clients. It pays significantly more money than any of the other writing sites reviewed thus far. The site works in this way: a client submits a writing request, you write the article and submit it to Constant Content for review, Constant Content approves the article (hopefully), and then you submit it to the client for review. The client will either accept your article, at which point you get paid, or not accept it, at which point you may keep your article on Constant Content’s web site for other clients to peruse and purchase. 

Constant Content suggests certain prices for submitted articles, and the site keeps a third of your earnings in exchange for finding clients and posting your content. For this site, you can usually command at least 5 cents per word- or more. That means that a typical 500 word article will make at least $25. Of course, Constant Content will take a third of that amount as commission, so you’re better off charging a few more bucks if you want to see that $25. 

I’ve sold articles via Constant Content, both through direct client request and by just posting articles to the site. Lately, though, I’ve grown disillusioned with Constant Content’s clients. It seems that, as of late, the clients have become much too picky about which content they will accept and pay for. Because oftentimes the content that is requested is very specific (for example, a mortgage trend newsletter for the month of April), it’s often difficult to find another buyer for the content. After having had too many articles submitted and not purchased, I’ve eased off of Constant Content. However, if you wish to give it a look, click here. For access to my own author page on Constant Content, click here. 

Examiner

Examiner is a location- and topic-specific online freelance writing site. What this means is that, when you apply to Examiner, a specific location and topic of review must be chosen. Typical locations are big cities like Chicago, New Orleans, etc. Topics can include such subjects as parenting, interior design, restaurants, etc.

Once you’ve chosen your location and topic, Examiner will have you submit a writing sample and self-description. You’ll also undergo a background check. At that point, assuming you passed, you’ll be given the title of ___ (insert city) ___  (insert topic) Examiner.

Examiner does not pay you per article submitted; however, it does pay you a very generous amount of one cent per page view. This beats every online writing site I’ve reviewed so far. It also means that, if you submit popular articles to Examiner, you will see your monthly earnings increase exponentially.

To get a feel of what is possible with Examiner.com, click on the following Examiner’s profile and articles. Incidentally, this fellow Examiner provided an in-depth review of Examiner.com here. My own profile and single article contribution are listed here.

Helium 

Helium is a pretty good freelance writing site for beginner writers. You submit articles to Helium, have other readers rate them, and make money based on the popularity of your content. I started out with Helium back when I was just getting introduced to writing for profit, and some of my ancient articles are still there. While I never did make that much money with Helium (due to moving on to sites like Associated Content and Constant Content), I’ve talked with many people who contribute to Helium religiously, and make a nice monthly profit too. If you would like to investigate Helium for yourself, click here.

HubPages

HubPages is another freelance writing site that pays you money on your submitted articles (called Hubs). You can write on whatever you like, then submit the content and see it instantly published. Where does the money part come into play? When your fans or other readers go to your Hubs and then click on the affiliate ads. So, if you write popular content that is keyword and search engine optimized, you can make quite a lot of money. 

There isn’t much to publishing on HubPages, and you reserve the right to publish your content elsewhere. Also, HubPages helps you out tremendously with monetizing your site and traffic tracking. Not only do you know how many page views a certain article has generated, but even from where most of your traffic is coming.

I’ve been writing random articles to HubPages for almost a year now. While HubPages does not get my “first rate” articles like Associated Content, it does get good quality content. I also make sure to optimize my articles for keywords and big search engines like Google, since it’s only by driving traffic to my Hubs that I’ll ever make any money. 

If you are interested in checking out HubPages for yourself, click here. If you’d like to take a peek at my own work, click here. 

Squidoo

Squidoo is a publishing platform and community much like HubPages and Helium, except that instead of a “hub” or page you create a “lens”. Either way, what you are creating is a post dedicated to the subject matter of your choice. You earn money from your lens when people go read it and then click on the included ads and affiliate links. I published a few lenses with Squidoo back in the early days of my writing career, and found the site very user-friendly. For more information, click here.
 
Textbroker
 
Textbroker is a third party freelance writing site that matches up freelance authors to clients. Initially, you submit an application and a writing sample to Textbroker, then wait on approval. Once approved, you are assigned an author rating of 2-4 stars. The more stars you have, the more you are paid per word, with the range going from 0.7 to 1.4 cents per word. There is even a 5 star author rating (which pays a nice 5 cents per word), but that must be earned on Textbroker through repeated submission of 4 or 5 star rated work.
 
Once you obtain your rating, you are all set to compose texts based on client instructions (called Open Orders). After submission of an article to a client, the client has the option to accept your work immediately (at which point you receive payment), to reject it, or to ask for revision. The client may also send you a Direct Order, which is a request for an article that is shown to you alone. You will make a little more money on a Direct Order versus an Open Order.
 
After the client has accepted your article, Textbroker comes around in a few days and judges your writing as 2-5 stars. Depending on your writing quality over time, your author rank may get upgraded, or even downgraded, by Textbroker.
 
Since joining Textbroker, I have made almost $400 writing articles through Open Orders and Direct orders. I’ve also been upgraded to 5 star author status. I have yet to find any Open Orders for 5 star authors, however. It’s a little disconcerting, especially because some of the articles that I’ve written for Textbroker have been judged by the site as being of 5 star quality. If you are interested in joining this site click here.
 
 

Additional resources:

 
If you are still unsure about freelance writing and how to earn money through it, be sure to look into David Goldstein’s eBook entitled "25 Ways To Write For Money". David has been a professional freelance writer for a number of years, and is offering his eBook to folks who are also considering freelance writing. There are more ways than one when it comes to earning money by writing- you can do ghostwriting, technical writing, copywriting, blogging, and much more. David also focuses on the importance of generating residual income with your writing- otherwise, how will you ever take a paid vacation? If the thought of making a living from writing appeals to you, click here.
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