Monday, June 21, 2010

Where to find Freelancing Jobs for Writers

There are lots of online income to be found in online writing. Personally I stick with the AD revenue work as the pay can be more in the long run, but there is also a large advantage to taking on jobs that pay per article completed. These jobs usually pay right after the job is accepted. Pay depends on the experience of the writer. Newbies or beginner writer usually get around $15 per page while an expert can get paid three times. All writers will have to start at the bottom and work their way up to the top. As with finding any online income there is a lot of researching in finding the right writing job for you.

These sites are some great resoucres for find more freelance jobs for writers:

Online Writing Jobs

Allfreelance.com

ifreelance.com

profreelancejob.com

Guru.com

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Readbud

Readbud is an interest and easy site to make money. You simply sign up and then read and rate articles. You make a certain amount per article. I read a few today and made $.05 or more per article. Made $.26 in no time at all, really it was under ten minutes. Not only do I read article that interest me and get useful information, I also get paid. You can select your interest, which is how they decided what article you will get. Then you can choose to read or skip an article.

readbud - get paid to read and rate articles

Readbud is an easy to use site that make payments to paypal. One drawback is you have to wait to get up to $50 before you can get your money, but its easy to earn and adds up quickly. Great for anyone who likes to read and has some spare time.

You can also refer your friends and family and make some extra money as well. So far this is one of the easyiest sites that I have tried. Making Money online is hard work, but this one isn't too bad. You do get paid cents per article, but each article only take a few minutes to read.

Remember if you have a pop up blocker to disable it for the Readbud site. I clicked on open article and wondered where the article went. Then I disabled my pop up blocker and there popped up the next article I click on.

This site was so easy to use and make money I even forward it to my mother. Who started making money right away.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Zazzle VS Cafepress

Are you into Art? If you can draw either by hand or on the computer, then there is some money to be found from your artwork. Taking pictures and/or editing graphics* is a great way to make new art. So, how do you make money with art?

Zazzle.com and Cafepress.com are two good sites to start out with. You can submit your original artwork and place it on products. Then when the product with your artworks sells you make money. You can create your own store and promote your own items for sell.



What are the differences between Zazzle and Cafepress?

I started a search for teacup cat mugs on both site. A teacup cat is a cat that stay kitten size it entire life, very cute.

Here is the link if you wanted to see my results:

http://www.cafepress.com/+teacup-cat+mugs
http://www.zazzle.com/teacup+cat+mugs?cg=103094921279026195


Cafepress had the only one teacup cat which can be found here if you would like to see it as well: http://www.cafepress.com/+malibu_large_mug,70497114


Now just by comparing this two pages here are some good points I see:



Zazzle:

More professional looking art that is very eye catching. (Except the actual teacup cat I found on cafepress.)



Zazzle prices seem to be cheaper starting at $13.95 and going up. Which as a user I know if from the requested profit margin by the artist. While cafepress mugs where all $15 for the small and $18 for the large.





Cafepress:

Prices on cafepress are listed right next to the search picture. There is no need for an extra click like on zazzle to find the prices of items.



Search engine for this site took me right to what I wanted. On zazzle I had to adjust and narrow the search down.



Same pricing didn't change between artist. The mugs were all $15 for the small and $18 for the large.





Reviews from users:



Zazzle:



Diane Cass:

“1. Free stores...as many as you want!!!
2. Quality Products
3. They stand behind their products...even if the 30 day return period is over, they will still offer a refund or exchange if there is something wrong with the product...like if the image fades on a mug after dishwashing it. It's not supposed to do that, so they honor their quality guarantee.
4. Affiliate program. 15% for affiliate sales on your own or other peoples products. 5. Volume Bonus - the more you sell the better you earn! It really ads up.”





Lifeisahighway:

“I love Zazzle. Diane introduced me to it with a post she made last year. :) Thanks, Diane. I made a Cafe Press store, too and I do NOT like it at all. I never made any sales and it was just... not as good.

http://www.zazzle.com/lifeisahighway is my store. I love Zazzle :) !!!”



Dreamsinbloom:

“I first started out with CafePress many years ago.  I still have stuff up on CafePress, but it's still kind of hard to compare the two since I've done so little with CafePress over the past couple years. But my general impression is that I have sold more in the same amount of time with less promotion (practically none) at Zazzle than I did with CafePress. Of course, I also made a lot more products on Zazzle than I did with CafePress (because it's so much easier to do at Zazzle than it is with CafePress) so I'm sure that contributes more to my sales as well.

I love that with Zazzle you can let the customers customize the products you made because that can lead to more sales. I love that with Zazzle you can position the text or images almost anywhere you want to. With CafePress if you wanted to move the image just a little bit more up or down you'd have to add "white space" to the image in your image editing program.

With CafePress if you go with their free route you can create many free store's and you can only have one of each kind of product for each store. So basically you end up creating a single store for every new image you make. And then you have to promote several stores instead of just one. Or you can pay to have a store in which you can then have several images on the exact same kind of t-shirt. (I hope I am making sense.) But with Zazzle I can create just one store and have as many images on the exact same product as I want. So you can just promote the one shop, which is easier. You can also have more than one store if you like, which can be good if you are creating products for very different markets that would look wierd in the same shop together.

Anyway, I just am liking Zazzle better. Although there are things I like about CafePress too. And they have some products that Zazzle just doesn't have (and vice versa).

I want to try putting some of my images on both Zazzle and CafePress and see how they do. I've done this only with one image, and surprisingly I've sold 4 on CafePress and none on Zazzle. But it's taken a year's time to sell all four of those.

My main shop at zazzle is http://www.zazzle.com/eclecticdreams*”



Cafepress:
Sorry to report, I don't have any feedback for this section, yet.



Winner:

So overall it looks like Zazzle is more popular with good artist, but can be a bit more pricey as well. Hopefully we hear from some carepress users soon as well.

Here are some great Zazzle stores to check out:
http://www.zazzle.com/dianecass?rf=238461162040006866
http://www.zazzle.com/artdecoprints?rf=238461162040006866
http://www.zazzle.com/languageofflowers?rf=238461162040006866
http://www.zazzle.com/msjunebug
http://www.zazzle.com/eclecticdreams*

Friday, June 11, 2010

Firehow or eHow, which is the better site?

Firehow VS eHow

Firehow is newer, less then a few years old, company with lots of room of good article. eHow has been around over ten years and have lots of article on the same subject but with different titles. eHow is owned by Demand Studios while Firehow is owned by Paul Mclalin.

They both accept "how to" type articles. "How to" is an article with steps showing people how to accomplish something. Through sharing your knowledge on how to do things you can earn money from the ads placed on and in your articles.

Both pay on a secret scale to help prevent cheating the system. In a mix of ad revenue and many other factors you get paid for your articles each month. Personally, as I've said before, I prefer ad revenue over flat fee payouts. Some articles eventually make hundreds of dollar, yet some only make a few dollars, but it is worth the gamble for the big payouts.

Neither of these, unless you are very lucky, is going to get you rich quick. Earning will start off as exciting little pennies, to dollars, and hopefully to hundreds of dollars each month. On eHow there are many members who make $1000 a month club; very lucky writers who have written many articles. Both start off as a lot of work; lots of promoting and writing, but then you can take a brake when the earning starts to get high. Currently I make $100 per month on eHow and I have not written or promoted in a few months. I do have almost 200 article however.

So what makes using Firehow or eHow better then making your own web page?

There is a nice library of articles already set up with other users promoting their articles to get traffic to their articles. The traffic may look around some more and stumble upon your article. Plus these sites are already getting traffic to their home pages, making it more likely to get traffic to your articles. Having friends on these sites also help as friends often help with advise and even promoting articles.

Overall, you will most likely earn more from putting your articles on their sites instead of making your very own. You can still make money off your own site, but it is harder work to get consistent traffic, high ranking into the search engines, and a library large enough to keep everyone interested.

Which site is better?

eHow pays is better then Firehow. eHow is larger and been around longer. With Firehow you have to work hard to do your own promotion to get traffic but they except almost any "how to" article. eHow makes writers publish through Demand Studios, which excepts established writing that can show samples of their work.

Overall

eHow
Pros:
  • Is better only because of the current higher pay.
  • Has a high ranking on the search engines.
  • Requires less promoting time.
  • Has a consistent daily traffic going to their site.
  • Has a forum where you can talk to other writers.
  • Also has flat fee pay for articles for those who don't want to wait.

Cons:
  • You have to be an established freelancer with samples to get approved to write through Demand Studios.
  • Already has a very large library, many titles are already.
  • Have to wait for article to be approved before they are published.

Fire
Pros:
  • Smaller library with more titles that are yet needed to be written.
  • Just starting but growing very fast.
  • Immediate publishing, no waiting to have an article approved.
  • Great place for all writers, including beginners.
  • Are quick to respond to questions or problems.

Cons:
  • Is a smaller and newer company so pay may be lower compared to others sites.
  • Will need to spend some time promoting articles for a good payout.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Send Earnings




 
Send earning is one of those get paid to read emails sites. The truth is you get paid just a little over two cents per email read. Why do I still do it? Because it is so easy. It takes just a few seconds each day to click on the email, see the link and close the page. A few times I have found useful sites as well.

 
Do they real pay? Yes. My Total Current Earnings: $18.85
When the account reaches $30.00 I request another check. It does take a very long time to reach $30.00 with reading emails at around two cents each.

 
There are 3 other great ways to make money with send earnings:
  1. Take Surveys - I have been making about fifty cents per survey.
  2. Shop Online - Get money back from online shopping
  3. Play Games - Given some free money, you can play games to win more.
By no means is this a fast way or will it ever amount to your yearly income, but every penny counts. Send Earning also pays you for a percentage of your referrals. (Be careful of referring people without trying it)
Although Send Earnings is not the most money to be made online it is one of the easiest. Absolutely no skills required and doesn't take much time at all.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Few More Writing sites

Today I'm checking out some more online sites. It is getting to the busy season with summer coming up, so many of these sites will be save for the winter before trying.

GroundReport: is about news. They are look for reports. The best reports end up on their front page. If you are really good at news report you could become part of the GroundReport' Contributor to get immediate publication. If your a big into local events and/or what going around, this may be a good site for you. Pay is monthly to paypal.

Academia-Research: "dedicated to professional research and writing" This site pays twice a month on the 10th and 25th to "ACH, GBP Bacs, PayPal, E-gold, Wire Transfer, or Remote Cheque." The site gives you a test essay as part of the application. They give you a few days to complete the essay, if you pass you'll be allowed to write for them. After approved you get to choose jobs or tasks to complete. Pay is received as long as the assignments are professional without errora and comply with the directions; the do give an option to fix tasks as well.


vdwriters: A site that pay you to write resumes. Many people stuggle with writing their own resume so they pay people to write the resume for them. They pay once a month through "e-gold, paypal and wire transfer electronic systems".

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Affiliates

So far I talked a lot about online writing, but that is only one way to make real online money. With affiliates you can make money by selling. This is a great way to recommend product and get commission when someone clicks and buys from that link. This can be done on a blog or website and can be often done 100% free, no upfront costs at all.

The hardest part of working with affiliates is:

#1 Getting Traffic - Can't make any money without buyers

#2 Providing Quality product at best price - buyer won't buy unless it is a good deal

#3 Detailed information - each product is going to need good information or feedback to help attract buyers.

Give it a try, after all there is nothing to loose except a little time. If you don't make anything, you learn OR it could become your 2nd job income.

Many sites like Walmart or Amazon also have affiliate programs. Often found on the bottom of the page. Amazon is easy to get into, while Walmart is for professionals with high traffic sites.

There are many many affiliate programs, but I have not tried them.. just not enough time in the day to try them all; Yet. I do know a lot of fellow freelancers who also make additional money with affiliates. Bloggers often will add in affiliate links when talking about a certain product that goes with their blog or blog post.However I find a lot of information about affiliate programs on Affiliate Scout.

Affiliate Programs

What to write about

One of the most common problems that writers face is what to write about. To make good money, a writer would not want to spend a whole day researching one article and only get paid $15 for the article. It would
just not be worth the time. However if that research is on ad revenue sharing it could end up make over $100 for the day's worth of work, now that would be worth it.

Flat fees are nice because you know how much you will get paid for the article, while ad revenue is a bit of a gamble. You don't know how long it will take to get traffic or how long the traffic will last, plus you have to wait for the money.

All of this is very important when a writer is stuck and searching on what to write on. A writer could learn a new topic or write about current events; but a writer needs to be careful about the time spent to write an article and determine if the time spent was worth the pay. Of course this is looking at writing from a business stand point, not as a hobby. People who write as a hobby do it for pure enjoyment and the money is a nice bonus. Learning more is alway beneficial.

With all of this in mind what to write about is still the hardest part of writing. Looking back at some of your previous writing my help to spark an idea. Writing sites like Helium allow you to write on titles that are already preexisting. This can be a great help to find a title you can write on, simply search the web site until you find the right title.

Another great resource is reading. By reading you can improve your writing skills and possible strike an idea. Again with Helium you can read and rate articles. The more article you rate the more stars you get, starts equals out to better payouts. (Send me an email if you would like a referral link sent for Helium. I only get so many a year, but I still have some.)



Remember every writer gets stuck with writer block. This could be a sign that it is time for a break or short vacation. Sometime if you spend a week focused on "how to" articles, you just need to change your focus
over to another type of writing like short stories of poetry. This should help you overcome your writer's block.

Just a walk in the woods can help ideas to start popping in, so take along a small note book and pen. This way you'll be ready and not forget any ideas. There is nothing worse then having a good idea and forgetting
what the idea is.

If writer block still continues, you may need to step out of your comfort zone and write about a already created title. It may be more difficult to write, and you may need to do some research, but it may help to get the idea and creativity flowing again.