Reviewing Writing Sites

Writing Site Reviews: Blogmutt

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Writing Site Reviews: Blogmutt

Most of you know I am always looking for new writing sites to experiment with. While I have some private clients, the work load varies from month to month.  Oftentimes, I sign up on writing sites and “watch” long before I write anything there and this new site was no exception. Meet Blogmutt. What is Blogmutt? The service is a platform for blog owners to purchase content at a fixed price for a specific number of posts per month. For writers, you can write as much as you want and are paid $8 per post. The good news about this…

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Writing Site Updates: Media Piston

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Writing Site Updates: Media Piston

One of my most “popular” writing site reviews was the one I did on Media Piston. Admittedly I was fairly new to the site when I wrote it and to be honest, I’ve had sufficient amounts of work that I really have not spent much time on the site.  I was aware that as an oDesk contractor, I could sign into Media Piston with my oDesk login but never did it that way because this change seemed to occur after I signed up. After a couple of weeks, I discovered that oDesk users were confused about Media Piston as you…

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Why write for Helium?

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Regardless of what writing sites that a writer uses, they typically set their own goals. Not all goals are financial in nature. Goals may change in response to changes that are outside a writer’s control, but they are seldom abandoned unless things are impossible. The motivation for writing at Helium will vary from writer to writer but generally will fall into broad categories. Diversity in writing Because so many paying sites have restrictions on the type of content that can be written, Helium draws writers who wish to expand their knowledge base. While writers may find that certain categories pay…

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Writing Site Review Update: Squidoo

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Writing Site Review Update: Squidoo

Generally I enjoy Squidoo but I’ve noticed some disturbing things that have caused me to pull back my submissions to the site. In fact, I have removed all of my lenses from the site. Earlier this year I had pursued putting a lot of my work up there as a way of highlighting topics that I felt were well done, provided solid information, etc.  However, I quickly discovered I was really wasting time with no hope of recovering much at all from the time I invested.  In January, I had only three lenses left in my “reserve” area because I…

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Writing Site Updates: Examiner

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Writing Site Updates: Examiner

Well, this will be my last Examiner blog post since I won’t be writing at Examiner anymore (remember yesterday’s post?)  So I got this email yesterday from Examiner that said: “We wanted to send you a quick reminder that you haven’t published an article yet in March and you can earn double for any articles published this month! You still have time to publish multiple articles and increase your earnings potential.  If you haven’t already heard, we’ve just announced the new Examiner Experience. Get ready for some awesome new tools and insights to help you succeed!  Why wait? Publish now…

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Make Pennies and Disclose EVERYTHING – NOT

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Make Pennies and Disclose EVERYTHING – NOT

I complain about website users who fail to read the terms of service of websites where they elect to write. I have been a member (and in some cases still a member) of sites where the changing terms of service are very challenging. However, when a website posts their Terms of Service and their Privacy Policy and it remains the same for two years and they VIOLATE them then Houston, we have a problem. One of the websites that I contribute to is Examiner.  I don’t contribute much as my “beat” is Boston Philanthropy.  I have not been a member…

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Writing Site Reviews: Media Piston

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Information search

I recently found a site called Media Piston where they encourage writers to sign up and earn money for submitting articles. This site is similar in some ways to Textbroker and offers writers “one of” assignments at a fairly low rate of pay. However, there is no minimum amount of writing that you can do and you are paid on a weekly basis for assignments that are accepted by editors and by the client. My experience on Media Piston I only signed up on Media Piston recently. The process was relatively painless, you sign up with your email address and…

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Make Money Online: Helium

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Make Money Online: Helium

I’ll probably take a ration of crap for this post but so be it! Like it or not, Helium is an option for making money online. However, it’s not all sunshine and roses and if you think you’re going to make hundreds of dollars a month, then you need a reality check. Chances are that unless you have a couple of thousand articles, you’ll make less than a hundred dollars and the fewer articles you have, the less you are going to make. If you are going to write for Helium, you need to have a long-term goal in mind…

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HubPages Tips: Overcoming the 3 link barrier

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HubPages Tips: Overcoming the 3 link barrier

I have mentioned before about writing for HubPages both on this blog and on the noscamworkathome blog as a way to provide for long-term residual income. I do like Hub Pages but it can be somewhat restricting when it comes to including links in your hubs.  Each Hub is only allowed three links to one website (unlike for example Wikinut or Squidoo) which makes promoting your other work a bit challenging if you are designing hubs around a theme (strongly recommended).  It is also important to understand what HubPages counts as links: Links to articles, links to images and RSS…

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Writing Site Reviews: HubPages

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Writing Site Reviews: HubPages

I have had a HubPages account for years. Four to be exact.  At one time I had more than 100 published hubs. After going back and looking at some of them, they were pretty pathetic to be honest with you. I transferred a bunch of the “old” garbage back to the clients they were intended for and maintained only my own content. I went ahead and updated most of them and I even created a few new ones. With the new HubPages advertising program, I was not too sure how this would work out. But I have to admit to…

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Writing Site Reviews: SkyWord

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Writing Site Reviews: SkyWord

SkyWord provides an interesting option for freelance writers offering the best of two worlds: First writers can earn up front payments and second they can earn revenue share.  I am going to discuss the “Bounty” program since this is the only one that I am participating in at the moment. Signing up with SkyWord Like most other writing sites, SkyWord will ask you to register with a user name, password and provide your PayPal email address.Unlike many of the sites today however, SkyWord will not request that you provide a writing sample (yet)! The registration form is straightforward and does…

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Working smarter not harder: Crowd Cloud

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Working smarter not harder: Crowd Cloud

Writing sites often make serious demands on writers time but they can also provide a steady source of income if they are used in a manner that is sensible. In our last section, we discussed Textbroker and explained why it works for a writer who is looking for quick and easy assignments to fill in larger gaps of time. However, what happens when you have only short periods of time available to you? Some writers can benefit from using Crowd Cloud.  Before you get too excited about this, I want to point out that Crowd Cloud is a site for…

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Working smarter not harder: Why Textbroker works

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Working smarter not harder: Why Textbroker works

Nearly anyone who writes online is looking for additional ways to make money. Writers know that time is money and that every minute they have to waste finding a new client, exploring new writing sites or any other task that does not involve writing means they are losing out on receiving payment for that time. However, there are some things that can help fill in time if writers would simply take the time to explore them.  Many writers turn down assignments because they do not pay enough, or because they feel they are beneath them.  In reality, this isn’t very…

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Writing Site Review Update 2: Bright Hub

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Ouch – very painful. As if it were not bad enough that every site seems to be offering less revenue share, demanding higher quality (which I’m all for!) and cutting back on available assignments, writers at Bright Hub have another problem.  I was thrilled at the beginning of November to finally get “Senior Writer” status at BH which helped since only Senior Writers were able to accept claims in November. It was assumed by most of us that this would continue at least through December. If only! Not so much! Effective immediately (12/01/11) the writer and editor roles at Bright…

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Writing Site Reviews: Textbroker

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Writing Site Reviews: Textbroker

Just over a month ago, I signed up at Textbroker and I have to admit it’s a simple to use site, they pay promptly and they are good about responding to messages. So here’s the low down on Textbroker. Signing up: The sign up process is fairly simple, you set up an account using your email and picking a password. You will also have to submit a writing sample for Textbroker to rate. Make sure that the sample is an original piece of work and that if you are using a technical piece that it’s properly sourced. Otherwise, you could…

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