Four Online Writing Sites Where Non-Professionals Can Actually Make Money

By Lisa Kroulik © April 23, 2011

I entered the world of online writing two months ago through Hub Pages, and it wasn't long before I began wondering how I could make a living at this. The seed had been planted and the desire wasn't going away, so I devoted one week to searching out and writing for sites where I could earn enough money to make it my job. I found four such sites and am happy to share the results of my one-week experiment with you.

These sites are primarily copy writing for clients requesting specific content. It's the kind of writing you do to pay the bills and not necessarily to express yourself. However, writing is writing in my book and any day that I can stay home and get paid to do what I love is a good day for me. I will present my reviews in the order that I began working for the websites.

London Brokers

To begin writing for London Brokers, you just need to sign up and confirm that you are a native English speaker. This is an absolute requirement and they will close any account that does not comply with it. Once you have confirmed your account, you may go to the Bulletin Board to look for articles that you may be interested in writing. You will find the title, payment and due date listed alongside the article topic.

London Brokers makes payment through PayPal or other online payment websites every Friday as long as your balance is at least $10. I have received one payment from them of $20.96.

The vast majority of article requests on London Brokers require you to write the same article three different ways. They refer to this as UAW. In addition, every client will request certain keywords to be used at certain points in the article, usually within the first sentence.

The pay at London Brokers is lower than any other site I have written for and I have found writing UAW articles to be extremely time-consuming. Once I discovered that it took me 2.5 hours to make $6.00, I quickly moved on to other sites.

One year later 4/23/12: I have not written anything else for this website.

Textbroker

The sign-up process on Textbroker is a bit more stringent than London Brokers. After you fill out the required forms, you will be asked to submit a short writing sample based on a question of their choosing. The question I answered involved describing my ideal vacation spot. Your writing sample is then evaluated and you are assigned a rating from 2 to 4, which determines the number and quality of assignments available to you. I was initially rated at a 3, but moved to a 4 within one week. A rating of 5 is generally reserved for professional journalists and requires passing a proofreading test.

Article requests are divided by category and rating. Each client will list instructions. After you have submitted the article, the client has the option of accepting it immediately or requesting revisions. Of the 95 articles I have submitted to Textbroker, only three have come back requesting revision because I did not fully understand the directions the first time.

Payment rates at level 3 are around one cent per word and at level 4 that moved up to about 1.5 cents per word. You can request a payment from Textbroker once your account has a minimum balance of $10.00. They pay via PayPal only around the 5^th and 20^th of each month. My first payment from them was for $358.38 and was received in a very timely manner. I am very impressed with Textbroker so far and will continue to make them the primary place I write online.

One year later 4/23/12: Textbroker is still the primary place I write online. They have made a number of upgrades, which I detail in my "Even More Benefits of Textbroker" listed below. From 3/28/11 to 4/23/12, I have completed 4,888 articles and earned over $23,000.

Yahoo! Contributor Network

YCN has a lot to offer creative people of all stripes. You can submit articles, audio, images, slide shows and video and earn revenue based on the number of page views your content receives in any give month. YCN includes Associated Content and Yahoo! News, Sports, Finance, Local, TV, Movies and other partner sites. The articles that I have written for Associated Content and Yahoo! Sports already have close to 4,000 page views in the three weeks that I have been a member.

No writing test is required to sign up for YCN, although all content goes through an approval process before it is published. You may submit an article of your choosing or select one from the Assignment Desk, which sometimes involves receiving an upfront payment as well as performance pay. I have written six articles from the Assignment Desk that have received upfront payment ranging from $3 to $4, all of which I received via PayPal within one day of the article being published. Performance payments are made on the second Wednesday of each month.

One year later 4/23/12: I have not written for YCN since June 2011. I see very few upfront pay articles there anymore.

eCopywriters

This is a new site that I have only written one article for, but it looks interesting so I am including it in this list. The sign-up process is similar to Textbroker in that you submit a writing sample based on a question they choose and are then assigned a quality level which determines pay and type of assignments available. My initial quality rating is a 2 and that also goes up to 5.

The pay rates at eCopywriters are the best that I have seen. Even starting at a level 2, I am making two cents per word, as opposed to Textbroker where it is approximately 1.5 cents per word at level 4. The rates go as high as five cents per word at level 5. There is a level 6 and 7, but I am assuming these are for professional journalists. The type of writing involved seems to be heavy in writing to specific keywords which can make it more challenging. Their FAQ section states it takes approximately three to four weeks of consistent writing to move up a level.

eCopywriters pays on the 1^st and 15^th of every month via PayPal. I have only earned $6.40 there so far and have not received a payment yet.

One year later 4/23/12: I have completed 399 articles in 13 months with eCopywriters and earned approximately $2,500.

One thing to keep in mind when writing online content is that you are considered an independent contractor and will be responsible for filing your own taxes. Each company will send you a form 1099 if your earnings in a year are over $600. If you plan to do this as your line of work, you will also need to make arrangements with the IRS to make estimated quarterly payments for social security taxes.