How I Earned $2,003.68 Writing Online This Month
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By Lisa Kroulik © June 30, 2011
There are less than two hours left in the month of June, and I have just calculated my earnings for the month. Much to my delight, I just squeaked out my goal of hitting at least $2,000. I am just a person who loves to write, does a fairly decent job at it, and decided at age 43 that it was high time for me to do what I love. I am not a professional journalist, and the most experience I have with it is working on a community college newspaper in the late 1980s.
Many people have the dream of being able to do what I am doing, so I will share with you a breakdown of how I earned this money and hopefully provide some tips to those who would like to follow in my path. All of this came about as the result of hard work on my part. I have been searching for nine years to find a legitimate way to earn a full-time living from home, and the only way I have found yet is by actually working for it.
Earnings Breakdown:
Textbroker $1,403.81
eCopywriters $506.08
Writer Access $74.60
Content Authority $13.15
Hub Pages $3.52
Amazon $1.59
Yahoo $1.49
Google Ad Sense “0”
Of these, the first four websites are article writing sites that you must sign up for, submit a writing sample and wait to be assigned a specific quality level. I am not at the highest level on any of these, and I don’t expect that I ever will be. Nonetheless, I can’t complain about making 2K a month from home when I only have a two-year college degree.
The last three website are places where I earned residual income. Since you are on Hub Pages, you are naturally familiar with their ad program where you earn revenue based on the number of times your pages are viewed. My Hubs date back four months, so it is nice to still be earning money on them, even if it is just pennies a day. The same is true for Yahoo, although they do offer assignments for small upfront payments ranging from $3 to $5. The Amazon revenue comes from referring products on Hub Pages.
The Skinny on Working for Freelance Article Websites
I have already discussed Textbroker, eCopywriters and Yahoo in a previous Hub entitled Four Online Writing Sites Where Non-Professionals Can Actually Make Money. However, Writer Access and Content Authority are new to me, so let me give you the lowdown on them.
Writer Access: I was initially given a level three rating at 2.38 cents per word, but have been demoted to a level two at 1.28 cents per word. This doesn’t break my heart. It was rare for there to be assignments available at either level, and when they were, I had to resort to describing shower curtains in flowery language.
Writer Access pays only once per month, and I have not yet gotten a payment from them. Their website says they settle accounts around the fourth of every month and payments are forwarded to PayPal within a few days. The minimum payout is $10.
Content Authority: I probably won’t hang onto this one once I have reached the $25 minimum payout because both pay and assignments are low. All writers start out at a level one, which pays just .007 a word and must write five articles at this level before being promoted to level two, which pay a penny a word. I have never seen more than ten articles available at either level.
Conclusion? Textbroker is the best. As you can see, 75 percent of my income this month came from Textbroker. I believe they are simply the best of the article writing websites out there. At a level four, which is just one step below a professional, there can be as many as 2,000 articles available to write every day across a broad range of categories. It is my humble opinion that they also treat their writers the best.
Never Rest on Your Laurels
As a freelance writer, risk is a big part of the game. I know that Textbroker could be gone tomorrow, so I try to continuously scan the Internet landscape in search of additional opportunities. Options are always nice, but so is the ability to discontinue working for a company if things aren’t working out. I have been rejected by a fair share of writing websites because I am not a professional, so I tend to stick with the ones that are not hung up on credentials.
To Be Successful, You Must Treat This as a Job
This is my full-time job, and I treat it that way. It is what I get up and do every morning, and I stick with it until late in the afternoon. Of course, working from home does come with the advantage of being able to work in spurts and still put in a full day. If I need to go to an appointment in the middle of the day, I do it, but I try to see to it that I am putting in at least seven hours a day.
I personally don’t need to have an office, as a chair and a laptop is good enough for me. However, some people may find that devoting an area in the home strictly to your writing pursuits will help both you and others to take your writing seriously and treat it the same as you would any other job.
The bottom line is that almost anyone can do what I am doing, if you know where to find the work, enjoy what you do and remain disciplined enough to keep working without someone else telling you what needs to be done throughout the course of the day.
12/1/11: I just received an email that Textbroker is opening a UK site. See my comment dated 12/1 for more information.
12/30/11: Here are my earnings for the rest of 2011 after this article was written:
July $2,104.60
August $1,181.10 (One week vacation and a death in the family)
September $1,681.47 (illness)
October $2,390.60
November $2,323.28
December $2,745.00
August & September show the downside of self-employment.
November & December each had a very slow week around Thanksgiving and Christmas or could have been a few hundred dollars higher. I also found ways to be more efficient in my writing starting in October.
Other Writing Articles by Lisa Kroulik:
- Are You Earning $20 an Hour Writing Online? You Should Be!
- Even More Benefits of Textbroker: Team Orders, Weekly Pay and Extended Author Profiles
- Four Online Writing Sites Where Non-Professionals Can Actually Make Money
- Going Where the Gigs Are: Using Job Boards as a Freelance Writer
- I'm a Writer, Not an Editor
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Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Culture Tools):
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The Freelance Writer's Bible: Your Guide to a Profitable Writing Career Within O
Current Bid: $8.18
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Current Bid: $49.00
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I did not have a great experience with textbroker, but I'm glad someone did! :) Good luck.
Nice hub and great info .... voted up and useful
Congratulations on achieving the dream! :-)
I also use content authority, I find it is hit or miss. However when there are good articles I can write its easy work. I have seen ads for ecopywriters, but wasn't sure what to think of them, so glad to see they are ok. Also-Congratulations!!
I loved it. I am a Textbroker "fan" as well. Others seem to lag or linger with payments and/ or assignments worth the work. I also like a site called daily-content but it doesn't have assignments you offer your work at a particular price that you set.
Thanks for sharing this Nybride710. I just signed up for ecopywriters and submitted a sample of my work. I just hope they let me in. :)
After that I'll post my experience in a week or when I get my project.
Great hub
Nice work and great tips! I have just recently sign up to HP Ad and to me, it seems better than Google Adsense. I shall try out the top four that you've recommended!
Great hub and a useful one, too. I have to bookmark this in case I need this in the future. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing and congrats on hitting the target. I'll take a look at textbroker and see if I can do anything there too.
Ah, shame I just saw that textbroker is only for US residents :(
Congratulations for this exciting achievement. Getting paid for your hard work is really motivating!
Just logged on to see 12 comments on this Hub posted last night. Thanks everyone and good luck in your own adventures.
I hadn't heard of many of these sites before. I'll have to try Textbroker. Congratulations on your success.
Wow NY - that's excellent! Thanks for posting - I'm not ready to do all that but I'm working on it. I'm glad to finally hear a success story:) great hub!
Seems like Hubpages just doesn't pay much. Fortunately, I'm not on here for the money. :)
Me neither. This is an outlet for fun!
Thanks for sharing your insights. I will definitely have to read more of your hubs!
Great hub! I'm in awe that you made that through Textbroker in one month. I recently signed up for it and have enjoyed it so far. I'm planning to stick with it. This has definitely encouraged me! I will look into a few of the other sites you are currently using as well. Thanks for the info. :)
Thanks for textbroker.com. I signed up, did my article. They started me at 4 stars and I've already submitted my first project. I can see how you could make that. You have to write a lot, but if you put the time in, SEO writing isn't difficult. I do it for clients. Only, the pay isn't that great. When I expand my marketing business, I'll look you up to write for me and pay you more. :)
Very nice hub! Thanks for sharing your success and congrats! You are doing a great job.
Congratulations!!! It is good to see someone earning money and still being home. There is hope out there!
Congratulations, at least somebody is making money...(:)
Barbergirl28, I would have loved for this option to be available when my girls were younger. I was forever trying to strike that balance.
Congratulations for this exciting achievement.
Nice hub, Lisa, and congratulations. I also write for Textbroker, but they pay so little per article. How many articles did you write on Textbroker to make all that money?
Bruce
With the right combination of work, I can make up to $25 an hour at TB. I probably write 10-15 a day on average.
I see the average payout is like $3 per article, so at 10 to $15 per day on average, are you making $30 to $45 per day? Or are you getting paid more per article?
I actually average about $100 a day between all sites. I've never kept track of the average per article pay out, though. I'm at L4 at TB. For me, the key is sticking with topics I know and can crank out quickly without a lot of research.
Yes, I do the same on TB. Like you, I stay with the topics I know best and can write about blindfolded. I am at L3, but they have a problem receiving my W9 by fax, so I told them to resolve the issue before I start writing again. I am making decent money on Hubpages though ;)
Congrats on doing so well with something you enjoy. I know it is hard work but it so worth it when you like what you are doing!
That's good about Hub Pages. I've made $11 on Google, $10 on HP ads and $15 on Amazon in four months here. I will get paid from Amazon next month, but it will probably take years for HP or Google.
Great Hub! I'm definitely going to check out these websites!!! I'm happy for your success!!
Excellent job! Keep up the hard work. Your success in inspiring. I always hear all this buzz about google adsense and it so cool to see the positive results you have achieved that don't include adsense.
very good welcome to my hub
This one is really good. Thanks
Thank you for your hub. This tells me that Hubpages is not a good website anymore for income. If you have a high score and a few dozen hubs.
Congratulations on your monthly earnings that's an excellent number. This a great hub filled with very good information. I'm going to try Textbroker today.
Thank you for providing insights into these sites. The first four on your list are new to me. Great hub!
I am so happy for you. Good for you, you have done so well .. it is an inspiration! The thing I like the most is that you are earning money without Adsense .. that is so great. I sure hope I can be half as successful as you have been!
An informative hub. Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing. Very informative and honest!!
Thank you for the information. It's very useful to have an "insdier's" opinion on the various sites. I plan to look at Textbroker and eCopywriters today. I write for Demand Media Studios. Have you tried them? Most articles are $15.00, although some of the simpler ones can go for $7.50. Voted up!
Informative and useful. I'm glad some people succeed at this. Thanks for the hope ;)
I think I did apply at Demand Studios and they declined me.
Thank you for your honest disclosures which compel everyone in the writing field to follow your suit. I am not an exception.
Hi, this is great to know, I am always on the lookout for somewhere to earn some decent money, I am not sure how it works but I may just give it a try! thanks nell
Guess I'm going to try textbroker, too. Just we hubpagers will fill up their quotas storming in on them! Thanks for the great article.
Great article for new and experienced freelance writers. I got accepted at Demand Studios probably about half a year back, but still have yet to write anything because the topics are so specific and technical (like topics on how to fix a specific car problem). Is this the same for all of these websites, or can you find something that you like/are knowledgeable about to write on?
Thank you for the helpful tips, it is inspiring that you are able to make your writing dreams a reality.
Great article and good for you! You offer good advice for people looking to do this work, and like you say, you do need to work for it. Well done!
These types of sites have several topics to choose from, and the clients specify what they are looking for with each assignment.
This article is wonderful! Gives me hope in the horrible economy we are experiencing. I go to school full-time so finding a traditional job has been challenging at best. I have already signed up for textbroker.com (as of about 5 mins ago =]) and will be checking out the others soon! Again, thank you! Voted up!
Great advice! thanks. Gives me hope that I can use my writing as more than a hobby
Wow. Thats awesome. So at the end, the main important thing is hard-work and nothing beyond that. Good to know. Voted up.
Great info. I'm checking out textbroker right away.
Textbroker is a little slow right now. I've been registered since March, and this is the slowest I've seen in. I was told that late July and August typically are slower times there.
Wow, I never realized you could earn this kind of money.
Thanks for this article. I had never heard of several of the freelance sites you give info about. This is one of, if not the best article I have read yet about the how-to's of earning money online without it being about SEO's and blogs. Great job on it. God bless and continued success as you move forward.
Congratulations, with so many scams that make people just loose money ( as I have done,lol! ) it's was very refreshing to read this.
Great hub I got so excited I went straight to textbroker to sign up..... Then I saw that it is only for USA :( I am from South Africa so I cant join ... bummer as I feel I would do so well with their system.. Informative hub
Great flowing hub that is inspiring to all. I write online and have wrote for many websites. The main source of income was for a certain writing site that has not had any work for a month! So I'm in abit of a rut. But I won't give up!
Thank you so much for sharing this information. I've written quite a few articles on how to overcome depression but never for pay. I'll give textbrokers a try.
Once again thanks for an outstanding hub.
Kindest regards,
Dave Kanofsky
Congratulations Lisa! I'm inspired by your achievement. And thanks for sharing your knowledge.
My writing sample was accepted by textbrokers.com overnight,, the morning after I sent it in. You have to write a sample article between 125-250 words long on one of 5 topics, your pick. They said it would take a week but only overnight. Now I just faxed in my W-9. Taxes will probably be bad because I am an invididual/sole proprietor, but oh well. Do not know yet how I was rated or how much I'll be paid per word, but hope to be writing in a few days.........it would be great to get paid by the word.
Well, I just logged in, and I see my rating is 4 stars. The explanation is that a good writer is 3 stars, an excellent writer is 4 stars, and a professional writer is 5. The rate per word is very low. Not gonna tell you what it is so you're not discouraged, but it does say that you are evaluated after your first 5 articles, and then your rate can go up if you're good. That's where I'm shootin'' for. It says: "Write content" in a little box, just sitting there, smiling at me, so here I go............wish me luck!
I'm a level 4 so I know it is only 1.4 cents. However, when I put a full-time effort into it, I still make more than I did at an office job. When things are really flowing, it can be close to $25 an hour. It's been slim pickings there and other places lately so I am always looking to be a part of as many sites as possible.
Thanks for sharing your success!! Great job!
Really good and helpfull hub, NICE!
Great article, there's always so much to learn from those around us, and we can never get enough loot even if we love what we do.
Very generous of you to share this information. Textbroker sounds like a great opportunity.
thanks
It's great to hear that people are becoming successful through Hubpages and other venues that allow them to work strictly from home. Therefore, I was delighted to hear your story. I agree with you that you have to work hard in order to be successful. The more I write on Hubpages, the more I have to treat my time here as if I'm working for a business. Thanks for sharing your insight and continue your great work! I voted this up and useful.
Nice work! Try to write more for hubpages and you will soon have a huge residual income! You seem to be a very good writer
Great hub, I'm new to the freelance writing world. I will look into these sites. Keep up the writing.
Thanks, Tina
nice hub lots of good advice, think I will look in to some of these, Thanks
I too am a fan of Textbroker and agree that they are probably the best content mill site out there. I've been with them for a few months and have never had an issue.
I haven't tried any of the others that you mention here but will go check them out. Thanks for the information and congratulations on reaching your goal!
There are hardly any assignments on textbroker right now it seems like, is it usually like this?
I too have noticed that there hasn't been a lot of assignments for level 2 and 3 over the past week. Level 4 was slim picking earlier in the week but seems to have picked up. I hear it always slows down this time of year but who knows for sure. I can say that when work is available there, it goes REALLY quick.
article earning just work for some people,by the congrat on your earnigs
So helpful to a stay at home mom like myself looking to supplement our income. Thank u!
I thoroughly enjoyed your informative article. I learned a few more things about writing and making money. Thanks a lot, Arthur
Awesome! I'm glad someone is actually making a living from writing on line. If you can write that much, you should have no problem getting past 1000 hubs, and start making more in passive income.
Congrats! Those are some good numbers.
I'd be curious to see whether you start seeing a better return on your Hubs soon... looks like you're quite committed.
Congrat. You've just make me think that something is still out there.
That's great! Your my inspiration. :)
Wonderful article, I am glad you are doing so well. I will check out textbroker. I liked the fact that you did say that this is work and you have to be willing to put the time in to make the money. Great hub.
Wow, this hub is just the information I needed. Thank you for sharing how you earned your income! I want to someday earn a living strictly by writing. I know I have a lot to learn but I am more than willing to sharpen my skills in order to love what I do & make a living while doing it. :)
How interesting it is Google Adsense=£0
Great hub, and congrats on your earnings. I'm new to both HubPages and Textbroker, but I find both to be worthwhile endeavors. While I've only just broken the $1 mark on HubPages (after about four weeks of writing, and utilizing TraffUp to drive traffic), I've already broken the $20 mark with Textbroker at a level three. I agree they have a good supply of articles, though at a level 3 there are days when nothing is available.
Good advice....great hub....thanks!
Thanks...some great information here!
Thank you for the insight. How long did it take you to get to that point? I'd love to write and work from home.
Wow great earnings....good luck and keep it up...
Maybe Webnuggetz would be a good fit for you. We are an Online Writers Community. You get to keep 100% of ALL of your income. AdSense and Affiliate sales are all yours. We are easy to find on google so I won't spam the link here!
Great story, thanks for sharing your details.
Thanks for sharing Lisa, good leads are few and far between these days.
Thanks for sharing what you earned.
I will give Webnuggetz a try. The others are quite slow right now, so I know I won't earn as much in July as I did in June.
This is so good for me but it is also a hard work
Can't believe I have never heard of textboker. Hope it accepts Uk writers.Well done on your writing success.Voted up and interesting Wish there was a category very intersting
Very informative hub to earn money.I heard it for the first time.Is it really true?
I should have mentioned TB only accepts US writers. Sorry about that.
Congratulations! Your hub inspires me, and today I wrote my first articles for textbroker.
Oh well, I don't think I would have scored a level 3 in any case.Just noticed I spelt interesting and textbroker incorrectly.
This was very informative considering I just started with HubPages tonight! Definitely going to check out the other sites you mentioned! And, congrats on making your goal!!!
Awesome hub, kudos! Thank you, I'll give text broker a look.
Wow, that's amazing! I hope to follow in your footsteps soon!
good job. thanks for info.
awesome article. always looking for good freelance gigs.
Wow you have made a good sum of money from working home and you have given good ideas on your hub.
congrats!! keep living the dream. Was interesting to me to see how the money broke down. Thanks for sharing.
Just got approved by Textbroker - disappointed that my writing only ranked 3 stars, but going to work on getting 4 soon! Now to start writing and making the $$!
I started at 3 stars. It only took a week or two to get raised to 4 and that is probably where I am going to stay. I tried the grammar test for level 5 and got only 50 percent right.
I'm very inspired by your success and am going to give Textbroker a go in the morning. (The only reason I don't right now is because I'm falling asleep! lol) I did a little research into it, after reading your article, and it all seems to check out...which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I've been piddling around with affiliation for too long and getting too little payout for it. I think that not only will I feel good about the work I put into this, but based your (and other reviewers) experiences, I should be fairly compensated as well. Thanks for the great hub!
Hello NYbride710,
I found your post very detailed and helpful. Thank you!
Respectfully,
Sapphireid
Very informative and helpful hub.Tips are also very useful.Thanks for sharing here.
Wow, that's amazing.I hadn't heard of many of these sites before.Thank you so much for sharing this information.
thanx for info
good job how wonderful Lisa!! I too will check out these sites!!
I am very impressed with your earnings, great job!
Thanks for sharing, very informative.
Hi Bride! I just noticed in the comments that you said TB only accepts American writers. Darn! Regardless, this is very inspiring.
I just recently made the decision to write full-time, too, and am really excited. It's been about two weeks since I made the decision to make it full-time, and I am really working hard to get established.
Your success and hard work are encouraging! Thanks again for sharing!
Great information and great read also.
Really informative hub. I was really in need of such information. Thanks for sharing.. You deserve an awesome and vote...keep it up and thanks again...:)
Just finished my first assignment - not quite as easy as I thought, but got it done! Checked the other categories today and not much available that I can write about - will check again later though.
Great hub, Lisa. Congratulations on your success!
I signed up with Textbroker last year, at Level 4, and they're now my largest single source of income. But my monthly income is nowhere near your level. I could earn a lot more money if I could just manage to research and write a little faster! Of course, it's always thrilling to find Direct Orders in my message box, especially with the promise of more.
Again, thank you for sharing about your success. I'm encouraged and inspired. God's blessings on your future writing endeavors!
Annette, I tend to stick to the topics I can churn out quickly without much research. I figure this is my job and I have to do the more meaningful writing for myself. TB is about 75% of my income. I hope they never go away!
Thank you for writing this hub. It gives encouragement to us newbies who dream of making a living doing what we love. I've just gotten started so I'm glad to see that it is possible. And I'll check out Textbroker. I haven't seen much on there so I'm glad to know that this is just a slow time.
Great congratulations Lisa! I'm also inspired by your achievement.Thanks for sharing your knowledge here.
Great hub! It really is awesome to be paid for doing what you love isn't it? I also recommend checking out Elance - there are some great clients on there, and that's where I find most of my work :-) If an employer likes your work they will hire you repeatedly. Thanks for the read, voted up and useful!
how much exactly did u write for each, ma'ma?
i reallly eant to follow in your footsteps.
(:*-Lialli
I enjoyed reading this hub and will check out some of these sites. I'm not a writer but I will try anything to make some money from home.
Great advice, nybride710. The important point I took the heart is to make money online from multiple sources. I also agree we all must continue looking for more opportunities. Who knows when one source of revenue dies. Thanks for the great hub.
I was accepted on eCpywriters but sadly I learned later that only U.S. residents are accepted to write for them. How come they approved me? Do you know of other sites that accepts writers from any country?
Absolutely useful hub. Writing is the best means in earning money online to me.
You must really be smashing out those articles. I've managed to make about $80 in a day using Content Authority and a few other websites in the past, it gets tough for me to keep at it though.
The problem with making money through advertising on hubpages is that people dont understand you actually have to understand how to perform SEO to make any money at all. You have to choose a good set of keywords or phrases, make a relevant hub, and then build external and internal links for it through guest posts and links placed on other domains. I have a few hubs on how to do this if you want to check them out.
You are awesome :) Keep up with your work .. Thanks for the information.
Awesome! Congratulations - thanks for sharing your tips and success!
Great article. Keep up the good work.
Thank you. After really questioning if I had made the right decision over the summer, I'm happy to say that I did and I'm back to earning a respectable living working from home.
Congratulation woman. Cheers!
Great job with the work! I'm singing up for textbroker right now. I am somewhat curious about your lack of earnings here despite your large number of hubs. Do you do any kind of SEO here or just pick topics you're interested in?
Unfortunately, I cannot use Textbrokers, as I live in Canada. Can you still make those sort of earning by posting on Hubpages? By the way, very interesting Hub! People always want to know what they could potentially be making. It is a great motivator!
I just write about things I am interested in for Hub Pages. I don't really see it as a way to make money. In 7 months, I've earned $20 from their ad program and about $18 from Google Ad Sense, but with the payouts being so high, I don't know if I will ever actually see any money.
Thanks, Lisa. I think the main reason you are making the money is that you love your work, you treat writing as your regular job, and you are self-disciplined. Those are the qualities that would make a person successful in any job or profession. You are a good example for us beginners. Thanks again.
Ironically, I'm not all that successful in mainstream jobs. Thanks for the feedback.
Hey..textbroker is only for US citizen. Good for you!
I think it is great you have earned that much in a month! I would love to make money with writing, only I do not have the time yet to put in that much work to even try if it is possible for me. It's a pity Textbroker is only for US citizens, but maybe I will Google around a bit to find other services that are available for people from other countries.
Great hub on your experiences with being an online writer.
Congratulations!! and thanks for great info.
I am delighted to read about your experience. Personally I never had much success on any of these sites except for Hubpages. That's why I enjoy writing here so much.
Hi, you wrote this in June, it is now October, have you earned that much since with any of the other writing sources you mentioned?
Good hub! I too work for Textbroker but have never come close to $1,000 much less the amount you have earned there. I also work for Bright Hub (an educational, science and technology site) so I have spent my time divided in between a few sites. That could be the reason I haven't actually made great money through TB...I have myself spread out. I have recently brought my work sites to a level of three sites. Bright Hub, Textbroker and HubPages and so far, it's okay. I'm not making anywhere near what you are making though. I'm a level four at TB, a good writer at BH and here, well, just getting started although it doesn't seem like the money is pouring in here either.
Good hub, voted it up! I'll share it as well. Great job.
Good show.....great achievement.....it give people like me great inspiration.....thanks.
Thanks for the great article--as a freelance writer myself (though one starting in fits and spurts) and these websites and honest reviews of them was fantastic. Useful and interesting!
Congratulations on all your hard work and thanks for sharing this valuable piece of information.
I earned $2,100 in July. August and September were down because I took a week-long vacation, my stepfather died and I just went through a period of feeling unmotivated. I'm back in full-swing and hope to beat July's total this month.
Aw, I'm so sorry for your loss, and for your mother too! :( The dear Irene hurricane took her toll here! But I did sign up to TB (not the others) and with everything going on I slip one in here and there. Nothing to the magnitude you're doing. Maybe it'll help you through the rough time.
I'm glad they're no pressure cos I'm in/out with TB because I'll never understand their rating system! The client loves, TB don't, so who do you please? I just go for pleasing the client. I'm also working on my own website so if it works, I can put the ZAP where I want it and everyone will be happy lol :) Hope thing look up for you.
Wow, that is incredible. I am astonished at your success!
Nice
Does TextBroker only accept the USA citizens? I checked on the website, it requires the writers to fill W-9. I'm not US Citizen.
Excellent progress. It's just as you say. Writing online is work and it takes discipline like any other gig. Thanks for sharing about your experience.
Being paid for the quality of your writing sounds like a great way to break past certain thresholds.
I'm scraping in about $700 on Squidoo (similar to HP), another $50 with Amazon sales, and quickly bumped up to $3/mo on HP, but it's a challenge: the top-earning sites are overlaid with too many ads and a rather cutesy interface which doesn't complement professional writing very well. I will definitely investigate Textbroker. Thank you for the tips.
My one caveat: I am wary of sites that assign topics for you to write on. It can be done professionally, but some "content farms" simply seek out searches which they hope will be popular, then assign writers to produce content tailored to those searches. It's a slippery slope from "writing competently on things I know, which I hope will also earn traffic" to "generating filler content designed to attract traffic." The latter can result in poor value for the visitor, and Google is doing its best to deprecate such sites from its search results.
However, if you're making that kind of earnings, Textbroker clearly has not been hit too badly by Google's recent changes.
At any rate, thank you for sharing your recommendations. Some of us semi-pros are trying to treat this as a job, but our earnings are that of a part-time job.
My October earnings will be near $2,300. As for TB, the clients request articles for things they need written. A lot of it is to improve their search engine ratings and some is for website pages. For example, I just created all the pages for a website for a dentist opening a new practice.
I tried Squidoo for a few days but must not have given it enough of a chance. $700 a month is good there, isn't it?
It is good for Squidoo. Only a minority of members are pulling in $500+. It helps to have professional writing skills plus a basic knowledge of SEO. That, or you need to be a WAHM with an uncanny knack for figuring out what kinds of toys, recipes, and products billions of other stay-at-home parents are looking for. (Not my niche, and I couldn't write for it if my life depended on it, but many members seem to find success that way.)
What you describe for Textbroker is many notches above the "content farm" sites I had in mind. Writing to spec, freelance writing, tech writing: those are all tried and true ways of earning an income with writing skills, and none are easy. Also, I see that you're not simply uploading articles to a massive user generated content site; you're working as a contractor for different customers and being paid at time of writing. That is a different model from the UGC process that many of us have fallen into, for good and ill.
Yesterday I published my first Hubpage, mistakingly thinking I'd start earning money soon. Today I was let down to learn I have "insufficient content" for AdSense, so no hubpage income after all. Now, after reading your article, I am renewed in my commitment to earning an income through writing. Now I have a nice list of sites to try. I can't thank you enough for the encouragement.
No problem. Best of luck. It is so nice to earn money doing what I love.
Hi, I wanted to post a follow-up comment to all the people who have posted to this Hub, which talks about my earnings in June. In July, I made $2,104.60, less in August in September due to a vacation and a death in the family, $2,324.70 for October and I'm on pace to make over $2,500 in November, which is my next big goal.
I would attribute it to writing faster by sticking to topics I know, getting used to clients and knowing what they are looking for, more varied opportunities at my top two sites, Textbroker and eCopywriters, and just pushing myself really hard to make it all work.
Just wanted to offer some encouragement to others trying to make a living writing online. I welcome your tips as well.
I don't know how you do so good on textbroker. The most I have made there in one month was close to $70. Of course I work 6 days a week full time and do not get a lot of time for writing. Great hub.
I really liked the look of Textbrokers, unfortunately they won't accept me because I don't live in the US :(
Thanks for this great hub! (Thumbs up, awesome and useful). It's great that you have shared this information for other would-be internet writers, and I'm sure that this hub will be a popular one.
I would love to find some other good writing sites, but this is proving a bit more tricky as I'm not in the US.
At the moment I am happy to write here at HubPages, but will also keep an eye out for some other good sites which welcome non-US citizens!
nybride (Lisa) $1,400 buck with textbrokers I nearly fall off my chair when I read that. I use to work a little bit with textbrokers, I made a few dollars, but holy cow you must have really been making that computer sing cranking out those articles. Thanks for sharing I need to set my goals a little higher. I am amazed to have read this, thank you so much for sharing! Voted up!
I'm glad I stumbled upon your hub. I heard about textbrokers but have yet to join. Now, after reading this, I think I will. Congrats on your achievements.
Thanks for posting. Great info and very much appreciated.
I write for textbroker, but you have been able to crank an amazing number of articles. Apparently I am not as quick!
Great figures! Question now is whether there are any such sites like text broker that accepts non US citizens? Great hub by the way...
Very interesting article. Sadly I am not in the States and I see that is a requirement for textbroker. But what you have written is so encouraging that I will have a look around to find a site that does take those of us not in the US.
Not only is this a great hub, but the comments are informative and a good read too. Thanks for the info and I will be checking out your other hubs.
Thanks for the info, I think I will check it out. Nice to work from home.
Great hub! I totally agree with your opinion of TextBroker. I love it!
Wow! Thanks for sharing and congratulations! I will be checking out text broker for sure!
Um, don't be discouraged if you check and see NOTHING right now. It has been dead since Thanksgiving and the worst I have seen it since I started 7 months ago. I think this is fairly normal though, so hopefully things will be back to normal soon.
I just registered with Textbroker based on this Hub. Thank you for sharing your success!
Please see my comment to the poster above you. It's SUPER SLOW right now, worst I have ever seen. This is not typical so keep checking back if you don't see anything.
Good news for people outside of the US interested in Textbroker. They are opening a UK site and Textbroker.co.uk will accept authors from Australia, Canada, Britain and other English-speaking countries outside of the US. The UK site is unable to take US writers due to currency differences.
The low title availability at TB may not be only due to the holidays. I know many writers who joined TB recently when better-paying gigs dried up. It's crucial to diversify. In the ongoing wake from the Panda slap, content farms and other major online publishers have made drastic cutbacks.
Today I heard Bright Hub is sending out its last rev share payments on Dec. 15 -- all of those writers just lost what was a major gig for many of them. On all the writing boards I visit, scads of people are desperate to find gigs -- even extremely low-paying ones. The ratio of available titles to available writers has shifted significantly at each site I've checked. The more income streams the better.
I think the low availability was a combination of the holiday and the site maintenance at the same time. It's already back up around previous levels.
Gail - I think so, too. I normally have no problem earning at least $100 a day there. After nothing Th, F, the weekend and Monday, I'm getting back to that level. Thank goodness.
Hike Guy - Thanks for your insight. It sounds like you have been at this longer than I have. I found Hub Pages in February and Textbroker and several similar sites in April. I agree that diversity is good. I just don't like the other places as much. With TB being so dead, I was forced to branch out a bit though.
Wow, finally a very useful hub! Thanks for all the shared information. So far I've only been writing for hubpages. Very enjoyable but let's face it, there's no money in it. My experiences with google and Amazon were similar to yours. I will definitely check out the mentioned websites. Like all other freelance writers I love to write but there's nothing wrong with earning some extra income.
Great job. Your hub is very useful.
Thanks for this hub, it is so useful and helpful. I am going to sign up for some of these sites - someone else mentioned Textbroker recently too. Voting up and useful :)
I have come to learn that the sites mentioned are for US based writers only. As a UK citizen I shall have to look else where :(
...actually, there is a UK version - happy now!
Hi, they just announced the UK site about a week ago. I'm so excited for the UK writers. I think it's better to have clients who needs UK research and writing to have their own site.
Great news, thanks! I will have a look.
Great earnings..Great inspiration for newbies
Wow, that's a long-cherished wish for me. Of course, who doesn't want to be a millionaire here?
FAR from being a millionaire, but that sure would be nice. :)
Excellent article- I found your suggestions to be very beneficial and wish you further success!
2K a month is great! Good job!
Here are my earnings for the rest of 2011 after this article was written:
July $2,104.60
August $1,181.10 (One week vacation and a death in the family)
September $1,681.47 (illness)
October $2,390.60
November $2,323.28
December $2,745.00
August & September show the downside of self-employment.
November & December each had a very slow week around Thanksgiving and Christmas or could have been a few hundred dollars higher. I also found ways to be more efficient in my writing starting in October.
This is good information. I appreciate your sharing great insight into freelance on the internet. Blessings.
Wow what a great article and great story an income without having someone on your back telling you what to, to me is always better. What a great experience keep up the great work great article.
Hi there,
Good, informative hub, I also work on textbroker, but I find I can only write so much about things that don't mean that much to me. Textbroker is fair, prompt with their payments and offer excellent constructive criticism. Congratulations on your earnings, and I am glad you found something you love to do:)
Thanks for your helpful article. I am 56 yrs old & came to the same decision, I want to do what I love. I had all the other jobs that I tho't I had to do (to earn a living). Any help I can get to make myself successful as a freelancer is much appreciated.
This is really great information and very helpful. Thanks for sharing and congrats on achieving your dreams.
Hey! I followed-up on some of the sites you listed and now I'm writing for $$ on Textbroker & awaiting reply on Writer Access. Thanks.
No problem!
Very nice article. Having the guts definetely pays off. As a freelancer you only have to avoid one thing: Fear.
:-)
update nybride710 - sold 1st Textbroker article; writing for WriterAccess ... the legacy moves forward .. NO FEAR HERE!
I wish i could perfect my writing skills and make such an amount online. Praying:( Thanks for sharing this.
I was just referred here from a link on another hub and I am SO glad. I really want to start earning money writing as I am thinking of leaving my current job to spend more time with my husband, but I still need an income, and portable to boot because he travels a lot and I want to go with him. It's my dream to follow him as he travels as a consultant, write in hotels rooms when he's busy at meetings, and explore the world with him at night when all of our daytime work is done. Thanks so much for including your stats. You have given me hope! I'm off to Textbroker's now!!!
Good luck! The freedom of this lifestyle is just awesome. I wrote my first article for Textbroker on 3/28/11 and quit my job on 4/27/11. I make at least $500 a month more staying home and writing.
wow, that's fantastic. I want to do that!!! Congratulations. You're my hero!!!
I have learn a lot from you, with this tip is awesome http://adsensetip4all.blogspot.com
I've been writing for Textbroker since I read your hub (thanks again!) May I ask what your rating is?
Level 4. I have regular team order clients that pay more, though.
Yes, I reviewed your comments & found that out. I'm level 3, so there's fewer options, but I take as many as I can bid for. I applied for 3 teams, but haven't gotten a response so far. I'll apply to more teams in hopes of getting 1 or more. I accept that I have much to learn & I'm glad I've been selected to write.
Thanks for your continued help.
I never knew about textbroker until now! I cannot wait to inquire about this further! Thanks!
You're welcome. I get bored there sometimes, but I haven't found anything better in the year that I have been doing this.
Wow, you must be writing a ton of articles on Textbroker to make that kind of money there! I am at level 5 with Textbroker and would still struggle to make $1400/month there, although for a while I was making about $900/month with a repeat client. Thanks also for reviewing the other writing sites like Writer Access and Content Authority. I have an account with Writer Access right now but have not done much with it after getting paid about $3 for my first 300 word article. When private clients are paying me $0.05-$0.10/word for articles, it's hard to go back to a penny a word. Thanks again for the info!
I'd love to know how to get private clients! The most I've made is 3.5 per word with a team order client at TB. I've been able to make over 2K a month with TB since this article was written, but I work there nearly full-time.
Textbroker consistently has assignments & quite a variety of assignments, especially above level 3. I appliedto WriterAccess, it's been 2, 3 weeks waiting for approval of my profile. Best of luck to all.
I didn't care for Writer Access. They henpecked the heck out of the assignments I turned in, and there is very rarely any work available.
That's impressive. I haven't heard of many of these sites. Will need to check them out. Thanks for sharing this info.
Finally got approved with Writer Access. No assignments yet. Also approved with Content Authority; they don't have many assignments. I wrote my first article right away (a rewrite); I'm ticked-off thought. Somehow time was showing on the clock, but as soon as I submitted, system indicated I had timed-out. Bad first experience. I'm learning, writing and getting paid to learn. Thanks so much for opening these doors for me through your fine informational article.
Great hub. Thanks for sharing. I've never heard of Texbroker but will be checking them out now that they have opened a U.K. site. I am currently hubbing on how to write and sell fiction to women's magazines because this what I mainly do but am also interested in writing non-fiction articles as have done this too in the past but in the old days of traditional print format. :)
Wow! Thanks for sharing valuable information regarding writing opportunities. Best to you!
Girl,you have a great hub!Congrats for doing so well.
And what a number of comments!
You go!
I'll come back to read morel.
LOL. Thanks. It is #2 in popularity out of 84 Hubs. I guess people like making money!
Hello Lisa, You obviously know how to plan your writing and then carry out that plan. It's really good to have endorsements of some of the writing sites out there because it is a task to find them and they turn out to be less than you expect. Great article. Thank you so much.
Thanks. I have been looking at quite a few others lately in an effort to diversify, but so far have been disappointed in them.
It was through this hub that i signed up for textbroker uk. Although the site is relatively new, there is hope that there will be many jobs in the future. Thank you for letting us know what brings you money online. Voted up, useful and shared.
Good luck with the UK site. I'd be interested in hearing more about how it develops. I have been able to steadily increase my online income every month. April 2012 was my best yet at $2,863.22.
Great to hear a good non-professional can get paid for writing here and there! Keep it up!
A great title for your hub. No problem generating traffic to this topic! Thanks for sharing your on-line experiences. I couldn't put this one down and read every word for fear of missing something. :-) So glad you're here on HP.
Thanks for the information! I know it is a sensitive topic to discuss around here, but it is great help to other writers to see how much to expect to make from where.
Great info!
I love money, LOL, so I have no problem discussing it.
Thanks for sharing this information hub. It just came at the right moment when i needed something to do to earn a living. I think am trying TB
Thank you for sharing. Your transparency helps the rest of us put things into perspective in how we are going about our business. Like you, I treat writing as a regular full time job. It makes a difference.
I'm set to make 3K this month. I am so blasted excited. 90 percent of that is from TB. Adding team order is the best thing they ever did. I can make 2-3 times as much as on open orders without having to be a perfect level 5.
These are all for US residents right? Any others?
Textbroker has a UK site and one in France that I know of.
Thanks for sharing this, it is very helpful!
Helpful to hear what it is like writing full time and how much can be made, where.
That's not bad at all I have been with textbroker for a few months, but haven't really done anything, I am going to have to get serious. I could live off of that kind of money, my worry is that I write to slow. I tend to be a perfectionist, and find that I write, delete, write, and delete way too much. I am going to give it a try after reading this though. Congratulations on making a real income from writing, and great job on this Hub.
This is great. Congratulations and thank you so much for sharing with us your experiences. Your hub is also a great source of encouragement for us....I know I am encouraged.
Voted up, useful and interesting. Thank you again.
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, and for sharing this hub, jainismus. My high since writing this article is $2,863 last month and it looks like I will easily surpass that this month, May 2012. Who would have thought I could make 1K more per month exactly a year later? Not me!
Wow Lisa, you are doing GREAT! I am so happy for you. My last day at my current job is June 15th...maybe after that I can follow in your footsteps? Trailing behind you of course...you are a master at earning from writing online, oh great one!!! :0)
LOL. I needed that after the bruising my ego took today - see "I'm a Writer, Not an Editor" for details! Good luck in you next adventure. You will love not being constrained to a J-O-B.
Great hub. It's the first time I hear about some of these sites, such as content authority. I wrote for Yahoo when they were AssociatedContent. Made a nice amount of money through their referral program. I like to wtite, but prefer adsense revenue sharing sites and my own blogs because I continue to earn money months after the article was written. Residual income is especially helpful when life's unavoidable events like illness occur. I also don't like to put all my income revenue in one basket. Google is fickle and you never know how their updates can effect your sites. Voted up!
I agree with you, and desperately wish I could make more off my own writing. Care to share any tips?
I wrote a hub about a get paid to blog company I use. Like it because I get paid for the post and it stays on my blog. With enough backlinks it generates traffic and income through blog's adsense, sales, etc. I build Squidoo and hubpages that highlight products. This generates income from affiliate networks, amazon and ebay. I wrote some hubs on that too. I get sick a lot and I have a very large family. I have to find ways to earn even when I'm sleeping or away from my computer. Check out my hubs and feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Keep me posted on your progress. ;)
Okay, thanks. Patience is not my strong suit. I need to realize I won't have money coming in immediately while building this up. It took me 15 months on Hub Pages to get to where I get a pay out every month.
Actually, if you have a blog and use the companies I recommend you will have upfront payments. I get monthly payouts for these companies. Check out my hub ob Blogsvertise. I am going to write a few more hubs on some other companies I use. These are payments I can count on while building my hubs, lenses and adsense sites. Like I daid before, since you're posting them on your own blog they will contribute to your residual income. Hope I explained that well. Let me know if you need help.
i love your hub! this is very helpful, especially for those who are new to online writing like me! I wish I can earn as much as you do.
Very useful and helpful advice for newbies like me!
Wow! I will have to go back to Textbroker--they went through a dry spell regarding assignments--and so I stopped checking in--Very nice and thank you for sharing!
I just made my first ten bucks on textbroker in the last few hours, not impressive but hey it's a start.
When I first started, I made about $2 an hour. A few days ago, I made close to $40 an hour that day. It only gets better as you get more efficient.
Very cool opportunities here. Voted up!
Okay, thanks. Patience is not my strong suit WELCOME to my hub
I am rather new to HP and just heard about TextBroker from this Hub and signed up. I'm a decent writer, not professional by any means, but my grammar and punctuation is pretty good and when in doubt, there's always online dictionaries! I have been out of work since being laid off from a full time job in November 2008 and have had a few bad things happen in my life since then. Now my life has gotten back on track, the only problem is, I have applied to THOUSANDS of jobs over the last 3.5 years and am STILL unemployed! I'm 28, most of my friends are in the prime time of their careers, and here I am unemployed! Luckily my husband has a good job but the fact remains that I need my own money! I look forward to reading more of your Hubs about this area as it sounds profitable and like some real money can be made. :)
Happy to say that I just surpassed 3,000 for May and there's still a week left in the month. I had some good opportunities this month that aren't there every month, but its still more than I would have thought I could make a year ago.
Wow I would be happy to be making $3000 in a month! Can you give a breakdown of how much you earned per site?
Thanks so much for this realistic view of writing online. I hadn't heard about textbroker until I read your article; I will look in to it.
Thanks again!
great article nicely put together. thank you for sharing some important information and points.
Another fantastic way to make residual income in CT now is with Ambit Energy. But I will also certainly try some of your tips for making money on hubpages
Florida Guy 11 months ago
Wow! Great earnings! I wish I could have that big earnings too!