20 Sites That Pay You to Write Articles Online: Get Paid to Blog About Anything

Yes, you can make money writing even if you’re not a professional writer.

Whether you have just dropped out from the workforce, are a full-time housewife struggling with the household budget, a student looking for a part-time job, or whatever your situation may be, freelance writing represents legitimate opportunities that you can exploit while you work from home.

And the great news is that the opportunities are plentiful and ever-present. Online businesses are always looking out for freelance writers to create contents for their websites or other online publications. The job could cover a wide range of skill set, from entry-level to experienced workers.

Online businesses are always looking for freelance writers to create contents for their websites or other online publications. The job could cover a wide range of skill set, from entry-level to experienced workers.

The job could cover a wide range of skill set, from entry-level to experienced workers.

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The two factors that determine your compensation will be the quality of your article, and of course, the terms on offer from the hiring party.

For the purpose of this article, I have compiled the different sites and techniques I have used throughout the years to earn extra money on the side writing articles online.

These should work just as nicely for you as they had been for me.

How These Sites Pay

Some sites pay you instantly after they get your submission, and some will pay you based on the performance of your article when it goes live.

Each of these options has its own pros and cons, but they both require effort and commitment on your part.

Let me explain both of these options a little more…

I’ll explain both in more detail.

1. Upfront Payment

The more interesting option for me is the so-called “Upfront Payment.”

This is an arrangement where the website your write for pays you once you submit the article and they accept it.

Since this is a prepayment arrangement, how your written article going to fare in the search engine rankings or how many page views your work is going to help generate would not influence the payment. In short, there is no string attached upon submission of the agreed articles.

2. Performance Payment

The first option for getting paid as a writer is through what’s known as the “Performance Payment.”

As the name suggests, the amount of money you earn from each article varies based on how it performs, or more precisely, how much traffic it gets.

With performance payment which is also known as revenue sharing, earning comes from ads and affiliate links placed throughout the page where the article resides. The total earning is then split (usually 50/50) between the host site and you (the writer).

Get Paid to Write Articles Online

If you are ready to make some money writing articles online, here are some sites you can use to get started.

1. Wow Women on Writing

As the name suggests, Wow Women on Writing is focused on content related to women. There are different payments for various types of articles they accept.

Here is what the site pays for different type of content:

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• How 2 (1,500 – 2,000 Words): $75
• Inspiration (1,500 – 2,000 Words): $75
• Feature Interviews (up to 3,000 Words): $75
• Feature Articles (up to 3,000 Words): $150

2. CollegeHumor

CollegeHumor is one of the biggest humor sites on the web.

If you have a funny article, submit it and they will pay you $35 for a single page article, and $50 for a larger multi-page article.

3. The Daily Heckle

This is a site that focuses on the news and happenings around the world with a little humor.

You have two options:

1. Sign up as a writer for the site and earn $5 to $20 for every article you pitch that gets published.
2. Or, you can write as a freelancer. Every day, they put a list of topics that they need articles for on their famous “The Heckle Workshop” page. Browse the topics and chose the ones you like to write about. Payments varies based on the topic/article.

4. The Daily Tackle

This is the sister site of TheDailyHeckle.

If you are a news junky and can write satirical and spoof news stories that can make people laugh, this site is for you.

They pay between around $8 per article, and if the article manages to receive 25,000 unique page views, you get an extra $25.

5. Love To Know

LTK is another site that pays up front payment for your articles. You can write about topics like Money & Finance, Shopping, Fashion, Beauty, Technology, Home Improvement etc.

You can expect to earn anywhere between $15 to $50 per article.

They pay via PayPal.

6. About.com

About.com is one of the most popular and visited sites in the world with an average monthly visitors of about 55 millions. You can make very good money if you become an About “guide”. But you have to be really good to be approved.

7. Cracked

This is a humor site that pays up to $100 for funny stories. The good thing is you are not limited just to written content, you can create videos, photoshops and infographics.

8. Hubpages

Yet another site that shares advertising revenue. It is highly popular with netizens and you’ll earn money through Adsense and by being an Amazon affiliate. Capitalize on your pet subjects and slowly build up hubs.

The site enjoys huge patronage so it is entirely up to you to drive traffic to your hubs.

9. Bukisa

Bukisa is a lot like Helium, but it’s more focused on how-to style articles. You can write on just about any topic you can imagine. The earning comes from displaying ads alongside your published articles. You are paid via PayPal.

10. Triond

They have a publishing networks with a whole bunch of sites in it. Once your article is approved, it gets published on one of the websites in their network. Money is earned through ads displayed on your article pages. They also pay via PayPal.

11. InfoBarrel

Again, you have total control on the kind of articles you want to submit here. They promote advertising sharing so you need to have an Adsense account in order to receive your split.

There seem to be other ways of monetization of your articles but I am not really that familiar with those arrangements.

The plus side of this site is that the content out from InfoBarrel generally receives good ranking with various search engines, so that is an assurance of decent traffic if you write well.

12. Snipsly

I call this the Mickey Mouse version of InfoBarrel. They share the revenue from advertising with you through Adsense. But over your, the article length can start anywhere from 150 words up. If you are a prolific writer, you are able to submit more works on the same time-frame.

13. Writer Access

Once you are approved, you will be graded with their unique star system by taking a test, which determines how much you get paid per word.

Here is a break down of how much you get paid per 100 words depending on your star level:

• 2 Star – earn $1.61 for 100 words
• 3 Star – earn $2.73 for 100 words
• 4 Star – earn $4.27 for 100 words
• 5 Star – earn $5.46 for 100 words

Once you have earned $10 you can request a payment.

14. Freelance Writing Gigs

This is an all-encompassing website. Here they will dispense advice on readying one to become a competent freelance writer, while posting fresh jobs everyday.

If you are just getting started, this is a great site to get started with.

15. TextBroker

This is yet another fabulous site make money off writing. It doesn’t impose on stringent criteria so newbie writers may like this site better.

The payout ranges from $3-$8 per article. They generally accept articles of shorter length, and in my opinion, this represents an excellent opportunity to boost up your productivity.

The site is not restricted to just individual freelancers, as they are open to both companies and entrepreneurs. Again, you go to the archive and choose to write articles that would be of interest to them.

Payment is done twice monthly through PayPal for work approved by them.

16. iWriter.com

Here writers are divided into 3 main categories (i.e. Standard, Premium, or Elite).

A Standard writer can expect around $2.43 for a 500 words article. Elite writers are the ones that are paid sometimes $25-30 or more for a 500 words article.

17. ProBlogger Job Boards

This is effectively a job board for writers. Here, new jobs are posted almost on daily basis. Stick around here if you find your work volume need to be boosted up.

The topics here could vary a lot. You could be writing blogs on major sporting events or simply do up a review on your experience using a specific product.

18. Craigslist

This may not be your conventional source of paid written work, but there are occasional writing assignments posted here that pay well. I once chance upon a work where I was required to write 10 short articles every week for a stretch of 2 months. The work concerned my experience on article marketing.

My compensation was $100 a week, so you just do the math throughout the 2 months duration. I put 2 hours a week aside for this assignment and I must say it was a pretty generous payout.

Note:

The sites listed below were part of the original article, but they no longer work for the purpose of this article. We keep them here for archival reasons.

19. Yahoo! Voices – Formerly Associated Content (No longer exists)

In all frankness, how the working of the site is going to pan out is yet unclear as Yahoo just recently acquired this site. According to a press release, they said that nothing will get changed. If that is true, the site is still willing to accept articles of all sorts.

Writers can choose from upfront payment, performance payment or anything in between. For upfront payment, the amount they can commit to is usually no more than five dollars. So keep this in mind.

There is also a bonus scheme when you receive payment after every 1000 page views. Naturally if your article is able to generate sustained interest, this could be a nice way to build out your cash pile over time.

Nowadays, I use this site only sparingly, but there is no harm for you to check them out.

20. Squidoo (Merged with HubPages)

Squidoo is one of the biggest revenue sharing sites where you can write about almost any topic. You earn money through Amazon affiliate links, Adsense ads, etc.

One good thing about Squidoo is that getting traffic to your article is much easier since Squidoo lenses (Lens is what they call an article) tend to rank in Google a bit easier than articles from other sites. You are paid via PayPal.

21. Helium (No longer the same company)

Helium is one of the very first sites I ever tried when I was starting out. Not only you can You can earn money in a few ways: incentive payments, exclusive assignments and performance bonuses.

22. Break Studios (No longer exists)

Everyday there is a list of titles that you can choose from to write your articles around. The best thing about this site is that every article earns you $8 regardless of the length. Your article can be as short as 250 words and as long as a 700 words.

You are paid at the end of each month via PayPal for every published article.

23. Demand Studios (No longer exists)

Chances are you are aware of their existence but do you know that the pay out for every article is between $7-$15 (sometimes in excess of $30)?

This is not a place where free-form writing is all the rage. Instead, your work has to conform to certain guidelines. The nice thing about this site is that you simply focus on work that interests you.

If that is not easy enough, they have a library of over 1000 titles so you can take your pick from there. Say you are some sort of DIY guy, you probably can write an article on how to do things, detailing every step and process along the way.

The content from Demand Studios can go to several different sites, so that would maximize your reach. One site you should be familiar with is ehow.com. Payment is made twice-weekly through PayPal, of course for work that has been approved.

24. Blogging.org (No longer the same company)

This is a rather new site where blog owners go to find content for their blog. You can make money here by writing blog posts. Expect anywhere from $1.50 – $20 per article.

25. Vocal

Vocal rewards its users on a per-view basis – the more views your posts receive, the more you are rewarded.

Writers can monitor their posts’ – and their wallets – performance via the Internal Dashboard and cash-out through the secure Stripe payments.

The platform has something for all genres of writers – science fiction, relationships, health and wellness, travel, music, and more.

There’s no flat fee – your posts will accumulate money today, tomorrow, or five years from now.

A Word on Blogging

My favorite means of getting real income as a writer. The control you can exercise here is absolute. It would not turn you into an overnight millionaire, but I suggest you would dedicate some time daily to bring it up to speed over time. Until then, it may still be worth your while to continue to explore other income avenues.

More and more writers have taken to blogging to supplement their income. And the nice thing is that they just focus on topics that are close to their hearts anyway, rather than seeking high and low for fresh and unfamiliar content.

Tip

You will need to expand your marketability in order to earn more. It does not hurt if you pick up a variety of writing styles such as AP, Chicago, and MLA.

At the same time, experiment on other natures of writing content. I say you should try everything from eBooks to business and SEO articles, press releases to interviews, and blogs to product reviews.

Wrapping up

You can, of course, use other freelancing websites like Freelancer.com, eLance, and Odesk to find writing gigs to work on.

Another great place to find clients is webmaster related forums. Most forums have a classified section where you can start a thread offering your services. Webmasters and bloggers are always looking for quality writers on these forums.

Forums like WarriorForum and DigitalPoints are two of the hottest webmaster related forums where I personally know a few writers who make their living by offering their article writing services to forum members.