Besides Associated Content, there are many other legitimate online writing sites to which you can apply and from which you can start earning money. Some online writing sites accept only U.S. residents, while others take international writers as well. It is imperative that you study an online writing site’s page view payment plan, as well as any ad revenue sharing, before deciding to invest your time and efforts with the site. A site’s Alexa ranking is also critical, because the Alexa ranking indicates how popular a site is in relation to other web sites. In essence, the lower a site’s Alexa ranking number is, the more heavily visited (popular) the site is. For example, Yahoo! has an Alexa ranking of 1, and Google has an Alexa rank of 4; both sites are extremely popular and heavily visited. Associated Content has an Alexa ranking of 551, by the way.
The following is a list of 5 online writing sites which pay a respectable passive income, occasional up-front income, and have decent Alexa ranks to boot:
1. Bukisa.com
Bukisa carries an Alexa rank of 5,249 and is not limited to U.S. residents. Writers earn money via the “Bukisa Index”, which is a daily report on total ad sharing revenue. For example, if the Bukisa Index is 5, your articles earn $5.00 per 1,000 unique visitors. Bukisa does not disclose how it calculates this ad sharing index number. If you would like to know more about Bukisa, please be sure to read this article from Barbie Crafts.
2. Factoidz.com
Factoidz has an Alexa rank of 23,708 and is also not limited to U.S. residents. Its popularity has been growing steadily ever since mid-2009, and writers do not seem to have too many complaints about the site. Factoidz is known to be quite stringent about its article review and editing, which befits a fact-gathering and publishing site. The site operates via a 50% ad revenue sharing model, with writers earning from $1-$5 per 1,000 views, and moderators earning from $4-$8 per 1,000 views.
3. Helium.com
People who have read my past article on Helium know that I am not the biggest fan of this online writing site. However, there is a dedicated and rather vociferous group of individuals who swear by it. Helium’s Alexa rank is quite good, standing at 1,765. International writers are welcome, and content in almost any category can be submitted. Helium’s revenue sharing model is rather confusing, relying on a star-based article rating system wherein Helium users rate articles written by others, and are themselves rated on their own ratings.
4. Hubpages.com
Hubpages sports an impressive Alexa rank of 230 and a steadily growing community of both U.S.-based and international writers. The site operates via a 60% ad revenue sharing model, which is better than many other online writing sites. Writers are paid whenever visitors click on and read their articles. I have a profile on Hubpages and still earn quite well on page views for the few articles I’ve published there.
5. Squidoo.com
Squidoo offers money-making opportunities for all of its writers regardless of residency. It also boasts an impressive Alexa rank of 235. The site maintains a 50% ad revenue sharing model and rates articles via a star-based ranking system, wherein more popular articles are assigned more stars. One of the unexpected benefits of publishing to Squidoo is that you can create and add widget-like features to your article, including a widget to the Amazon store, eBay, Netflix, and CafePress. For affiliate marketers, this is a tremendous business boon, since it essentially amounts to free advertising.
