Four Easy Ways to Make Money Online by Selling & Writing Your Own Content

Jul 18th, 2007 by Leonid Shalimov | Scroll down for comments

There are so many opportunities for people to make money online, it just takes time to research and filter the reliable programs from the scams. If you do a lot of writing, regardless of the topic, then you could be making a little extra cash on the side by writing for content websites online. Writing is what drives the web - without any content it would be a stale never changing place.

It’s no surprise that high quality content is in high demand. You don’t need to be a freelance newspaper writer to do one of these programs. I’m trying to aim them at the common blogger or writer that enjoys doing so in his or her spare time. Let’s get to the meat of some of these programs.

Helium is a place where publishers and writers connect. Writers get to put up their work and have it accessed by high priority publishers and editors. It’s a great way to get your name out there. Here is an excerpt from Helium’s website:

Whether you care about pop culture or politics, Helium is the place to write on the web. No one will edit your opinion. Helium is a free market, where articles on the same topic compete for the top spot. Join the quest to build the best user-created reference there is.

How does the program work?

Well you have to register as a member of the Helium network, which is free. The payments they make are through PayPal. They currently do not have any other way of paying their members. What they do is basically share their advertising revenue with the writers. Here is a quote from their website:

Think of Helium as a co-op. We devote a significant percentage of our revenue to our writers. Helium offers a fair and trusted marketplace for its members and pays for articles based on the value of their contribution. The value of each article is determined by three market drivers: How good is the article? Quality matters! Higher-ranked articles will earn more money than lower-ranked articles. How many readers are interested in the article’s topic? Some subjects will draw more total views than others. How much will advertisers pay to advertise on the subject? Each subject attracts a different set of advertisers who pay a different amount to be associated with a subject. For example, subjects in the area of personal finance will draw a higher ad rate than subjects like chess.

Verdict: Helium is fairly new but they seem to have their stuff down, I’ve also seen them advertising like hell in recent months so I would recommend giving them a try first.

Epinions is a website where products are reviewed by members who eventually get rewarded so to speak for good reviews. You can review anything from cars, toys, appliances and electronics.

Each review earns you a Royalty credit which can then be redeemed for prizes and cash. Here is a snippet of the Epinions company information page.

As with any healthy marketplace, Epinions is demand-driven. This means that through monetary and non-monetary incentives, we encourage our users to create the content that people really need.

Verdict: Reputable company and well-known website. If you want to make some extra pocket change, go sign up.

WiseOrb is another website (like Helium) that pays writers to write articles, essays and reviews. WiseOrb pays royalties to its well published and well deserved writers. You have to remember that if you’re doing one of these programs you need to have exceptional content. From their website:

If approved by our editors, Wise Orb will publish your article on this site, and pay you according to how popular the article is. It’s fun, it’s easy, and you can write about whatever you like, as long as the article adheres to our terms and conditions.

They don’t say exactly how much they pay but it depends on the popularity of the article, which is pretty obscure. They base popularity on number of visits the article attracts and how useful the article is to them. The default cash payout is $100, which is pretty high. Their payments are processed through PayPal only.

Verdict: Sloppy website, vague terms, don’t rely on these guys to give you the best deal for your writing.

Scoopt is not a content re-selling website, instead, they pay you for your photos. I decided to add this in because it’s in the same category and seems like a good opportunity. So how does it work?

First, you need to register as a user (which is free). Then you carry your camera all over the place and take photo’s that are interesting and newsworthy. Scoopt then tries to sell your photos for you to newspapers and publishers. You get 40% commission. Seems like a decent amount of change. Here’s a snippet from their site about the type of photos they want:

Photos we want.
The best, most valuable photos are those that capture a completely unexpected but sensational event, especially if the professional media are either not present or looking the other way. From a global disaster to a happening in your local town or a chance encounter with a celebrity… so long as a picture has interest, it has value.

Verdict: Payout is good, site is well-done, and snapping pictures seems easy enough ;)! Try it and let us know your experience.

Leonid Shalimov posted this article under Paid-To Websites on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 11:38 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. View Technorati Linkbacks.