One of my dreams is to write for a living someday. I know there’s a world of difference between what I do and what real writers do, but it’s still cool to dream. I chose to become an engineer because it was the safe route… pretty good living… job market good… and I figured if I still had the writing bug when I was ready for retirement, that’s what I’d do to keep from dying an early death of boredom.
Well, today I’m a paid writer… well, if you count $5.13 for seven articles as being “paid” (and I actually can’t collect any money until I have accumulated $25… so maybe in a year or two).
A couple of weeks ago, I joined this website that pays you for writing short articles for them. It’s made up of a collection of writers and writer wanna-bees who rate each others’ work. When you want to rate articles, the site randomly shows you two articles within the same subject matter side-by-side, and you rate which is better. Based on the ratings you get, your article gets a ranking. You can earn money in a few different ways:
One way is by writing a bunch of articles, and if people happen to read them (from search engines or just browsing the site), you get money for each “hit” on your article. The higher your article is ranked, the more people read it. I guess they make money through banner advertisers this way. I put up several articles a week ago and earned… are you ready?… 13 cents!
Overwhelming, isn’t it?
Another way you can earn money is to submit articles for certain publishers that the website gets solicitations from to write for their e-zine or magazine. Then from all the entries they get, they choose one, publish it, and pay you (and the website) for it… publishers like…
- Yachting.com… who will pay $15 for an acceptable article on “A guide to cutting edge yachting gear” (all my yachting gear is pretty dated)
- TechTarget… who will actually pay $100 for an review of “Accubid, construction estimating software” (I use a different software program to estimate my construction projects)
- Sci-Edge… who will pay between $40-$80 for a 500 word article on “A guide to the cannibal movie genre” (I don’t think I could limit myself to 500 words on this)
The last way is to enter one of their writing contests, which I did this week. They give you subjects to write about and then you can submit your articles to be judged by other writers on the site. The flavor of most of the articles they want are of the “How-to” or “advice column” types, so it’s a little different than just blogging. I wrote four articles in the “Personal Finance” category. The subjects are pretty vanilla, so only read this if you are really bored (even though I think I get 1/100 of a penny for each time these are read).
- How to save for retirement when you are short on cash
- Figuring out your investment style
- How talking about debt helps find solutions
- Tips for financial planning in your twenties
That last one is actually just a cut-and-paste from this blog. I figure I might as well get paid for my ranting somehow.
Well, after subjecting my from-the-heart financial advice columns to the writing community’s slings and arrows through the rating process, I finally got my result after a week.
Out of 312 other entries, I got 5th place and won five bucks. Not bad for my first time out.
But, again, I’m not quitting my day job…
oh, I almost forgot… one last way of making money is by inviting other writers to join… when they start making money, I can get a 25% bonus of what they make… so if someone invited me, I could have made them… $1.28 this week. So if you’re interested, contact me. We can become rich together. You can write an article on one of this week’s contest subjects like… “Action figure collecting: How to clean your action figures.”
hah. i want to be an engineer, and also think i have some decent writing talent too. so for me, it’s basically a list of priorities of what i’m going to do as an engineer, and when i’ve accomplished those, i’m going to be a writer, then i’m going to be a pastor, etc etc. ah the ideals of a big dreamer.
Well, you have to start somewhere! :0)
Now only if there’s a way to really exploit xanga and all of your subscribers! Then we can really make you rich…probably put you in the double digits faster than you can spit out financial advice. Hey, I noticed on the big window view that you can receive charity donations..only if you quit your day job. You engineers are far from being charity cases.
I can see it now: “Jerry Knotter and the Magician’s Rock” written by Nathan Kim.The next seven-part revolution is coming, folks!
$5.13! Don’t blow it all in one place. I have my day job, and I’m writing a novel on the side. But I’m always interested in writing random things on the side to distract myself. Msg me with more details on this new money making scheme please! 🙂
Watch Out, Ernest Hemingway!
That’s pretty cool though. If I had the extra time, I would do it. You should put a permanent link on your site. I wish they would do something like that for Xanga.
If you write something on there and they pay you the 2 cents, who gets the copyright?
drive2fiji, actually, I think the charity column in that is if you want to donate your earnings to charity, which I think is a good option. I wonder if they let you choose the charity… oh, and since putting this entry up, I saw a jump in my earnings. I think it’s because people are clicking on those links above. I think my total is up to $5.88 now. I wonder if I have to declare this on my taxes… I guess not if I donate it all to charity.
dropsofjupiterihh, the website says that you will always own your work and get the credit if you get published. In fact, they have very strict rules about plagiarism, so I guess it’s something important to them.
Really loved your blog piece on manly hugs – what a wonderful, dry sense of humor you have! Refreshing to read. No time at present to explore the website you reference here, but I did scan your article on saving for retirement when you’re short on cash and it was a good read: clearly stated, great points made and an appealing topic for the majority of folks I’d say, regardless of age. At 53 I am still trying to figure out how to accomplish the saving thing on little money…
would be interested in writing for money ……. ? even pennies? more later
wow… who would’ve known that it pays to be verbose? now if only i had the talent and patience to write good engrish.
oh, and btw, i hit the refresh button a couple times on each article you listed above… so you’ll be earning like 5/100 of a penny now, you baller you.
Hmm. Writing eh? Sounds interesting, seeing as no one wants to freaking hire me in my own field! Maybe 15-22 cents is a start, no? Gotta start somewhere. I was born to write…
Cleaning action figures? Not really my thing, but when they have an article on barbie and ken let me know.
Got your e-mail. Thxs. I’ll take a look at it when I get a chance. Today’s been hectic.
Haha! I’m sorry for laughing. I want to be a professional writer too. But NOT like that. I want to write books! I thought journalism-y stuff would tide me over, in fact I kind of enjoy it, but… then I decided that it wouldn’t cut it. And I dropped mass communication as my second major (the first being English) and decided on education. Better to read other people’s work. And $5.13 for 7 articles is like… 1/7 of minimum wage – IF (if, if, IF) you write short and somewhat half-hearted articles, and if they don’t require any research.