Which are the best online writing sites to join? Which online writing sites will make me the most money? When it comes to making money writing online, these are the questions many people will ask.

How Much Money can I make Writing Online?

Even if I was trying to make money writing online fulltime, instead of just in my spare time, the earnings would not come overnight. It’s really a lot of hard work, trying to make money writing online. One generally sees a gradual increase in income over time, the longer one keeps at it.

What are the Basics Needed to Make Money Writing Online?

If you don’t have a Google Adsense account, then, at least, you need a PayPal account. In South Africa, your PayPal account usually needs to be linked with an online account with FNB.

Another basic that is needed is a huge one; a very important basic: this basic requirement is the determination and passion to work hard and not give up, for a long time.

Which Online Writing Sites are Good?

This is a tough one to try and explain. It’s not the writing site that is good or bad that matters – it’s how much effort you put in. It’s very hard work, lots of hard work, long hours and effort to see any rewards, but what’s nice about making money writing online is that, depending on which methods you’re using to make this money, like Google Adsense, or page view earnings, you’re creating a passive income. Money that keeps coming in for work you already did.

You can generally make more per article, more quickly, by selling your articles directly, like on a site like Constant Content (you must have a PayPal account to receive payments) or by writing articles for clients.

It’s just that once an article is sold with full rights, that’s it, you can’t make any more money from that article.

If you’re earning tiny amounts of ongoing passive income from your articles online, this sometimes adds up to more than you would have sold those articles for, once, with full rights, even if it takes a long time. You can also continue earning from those articles long into the future too.

I do both. I sell articles directly (or write for clients) as well as earn passive income from articles that are on my own sites.

One place I can think of where you don’t necessarily need a PayPal account or an Adsense account is Upwork. Upwork is a freelance job site, and there are many new writing jobs available every single day. But even on Upwork, putting in only a little bit of effort will get you nowhere.

You could get a totally free Blogger blog – this is a blog that has a domain name URL that ends in .blogspot.com for eg my makemoneyuseinternet.blogspot.com site (an old site I no longer bother to add content to). Even if you put Google Adsense ads on your Blogger blog, you won’t make money, or will be very lucky if you do, if you just write a few blog posts and forget about them. There’s much much more to the business of making money writing online than just writing – in particular, marketing your articles or site.

The Business of Making Money Writing Online

Link to your articles from other sites, a lot, and keep doing it.

Do some keyword research so that you can write about topics that many people want to know more about.

Comment on other people’s blog posts, show interest in their topics, and thereby gain interest in your own articles, not only from the blog owner, but also from other people visiting that person’s blog who see your comments.

Write and add fresh articles to your blog (or online writing sites) quite often.

Pay attention to at least fairly good grammar and spelling rules, and make your articles interesting.

Steps I Suggest You Try

Get a free Blogger blog.

Write and add blog posts to your blog, often.

Learn a little basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – look for articles online to learn from for free, or see our basic SEO tips.

Link to your articles there often and from many other online places, and also link between some of the posts on your blog – link to topic-related posts.

Advertise on this Blogger blog that you also take on writing assignments, and that people can contact you for a quote, or even advertise your price right there – so much money for so many words, but also mention “subject to change” (depending on how much research is needed before you can write the article).

Build up a healthy following on several social sites, be active there, comment nicely (more than just 5 to 10 words) on other people’s posts.

Once your Blogger blog is getting at least 50 visitors a day, apply for a Google Adsense account.

Once your Adsense application is accepted, add Adsense ads on your Blogger blog.

Keep writing and posting new blog posts, of at least 300 words in length each.

Also get a PayPal account, linking it to your online FNB account (in South Africa).

In between it all, try your hand out at some freelance work on Upwork, and perhaps join a few online writing sites.

Later…

Later, consider getting another blog, like a self-hosted WordPress blog – where you have to pay for hosting and domain registration, but you get a unique domain name as this is somewhat more professional and more unique than having one of very many domains that all end in .blogspot.com

Don’t give up on your old Blogger blog once you have your very own unique domain name new blog – link the two sites together from time to time, within your articles, or in the sidebar of your pages, or both.

Remember to link to your new site from other sites too, and not just from your Blogger blog.

Lots of reading, lots of learning, lots of very hard work and long hours, but it can pay off if you put in the effort.

© Copyright Terry Flanigan 2019