by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: August 24, 2010   Last Updated: May 20, 2011

There are more ways to make money online writing articles than many people would be inclined to believe. It is not just the different ways in which sites will pay writers for writing articles that create this diversity but also the options which writers have for promoting their articles and using written articles as tools to generate income in other ways. This means that in order to maximize income from writing articles online, writers will have to have a broader knowledge of how the Internet works than may at first be apparent.

The first step to making money by writing articles online is to find the right site to which to submit the articles. This choice is likely to depend on issues such as the subject nature of the articles, the length of the intended articles and the audience the writer is hoping to reach with the articles’ content. It is important also, however, that the way or ways in which the sites pay their writers is considered and any exclusions which may apply. There are several prominent article writing sites, for example, which will happily accept writers from outside the USA but either not pay them at all, or pay them at a very reduced rate. This is not always made apparent at the time of publishing an article.  

The simplest way to make money online writing articles is clearly where the writer is paid a fixed fee for producing the article, which is paid on publication. This will be a definitive way for a writer to predict and measure their income and is likely to have greatest appeal to many for this very reason. There are certain sites online, however - of which Helium is one - that will in certain circumstances pay a writer a fee for the production of an article and a subsequent revenue dependant upon certain the article’s performance. Similarly, there are sites which do not pay any form of advance or immediate fee but remuneration relates directly to the performance of the article and the amount of traffic it generates online.

Where a writer’s income on an article depends to any extent on the amount of page views it attracts, it becomes particularly important for the writer to make their article SEO friendly at the time of writing it and to promote it to the best of their ability around the Web. The article will be required to incorporate key words and phrases extremely relevant to its topic and, where it is permissible, the writer should include appropriate outbound links to sites and articles around the Web on the same subject. Every legitimate opportunity should be taken following publication to link to the article from social media, blogs and websites.

It is important for a writer to be aware of the conditions imposed by the site for which they are writing their articles but many articles can be used to generate an indirect form of income by directing traffic to other presences the writer has online. If it is allowed, the writer can use the links they incorporate in their articles to drive traffic to perhaps their relevant blog, where they will generate revenue from that subsequent location. Alternatively, it may be possible for the writer to use their bio or resource page on the article publishing site to obtain traffic and thus income in this fashion.

It is imperative that whenever a writer is looking to make money writing articles online that this bigger picture is given all due attention. By simply writing the articles for a fixed payment, a writer can indeed earn money online; but maximizing article writing earnings online requires a wider school of thought, and consideration of many other contributory factors, if the writer is to achieve the greatest level of success.

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