Journal logo

How To Make Money Writing On The Internet

5 ways to make extra money putting out written content

By Matthew DonnellonPublished 4 years ago 6 min read
Like
Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

Writing is great.

It's fun. You get to write all kind of words. Make up stories. Characters can come to life and to you they might be as real as anyone else.

You can write books. Short stories. Articles of any sort.

You can type till your hands are sore and your words leave people weeping.

But that's not what you came for is it?

No, this is not about writing for pleasure or for fun or to ease the demons in your mind.

You're here for the secret.

You want to know how to turn words into cash.

Well many not cash but the digital currency of your choosing. This article is about making money from the Internet.

So let's get to the good stuff.

Alright let's just get the obvious one out of the way.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Yes, yes, I know this one is so obvious that it really doesn't need mentioning.

However, I will tell you that it is far easier than you think it is.

I kept hearing about people putting out poetry collections and short story collections.

So I decided to try it.

And it was easy. A few hours goofing around on Canva and I had a cover. I had a document already with all the stories I was thinking about using.

It was a simple matter of uploading both the cover and the document. Amazon then scans it too makes sure it's at least readable. Then after a bit it uploads and the book goes live.

I found it easy and straight forward. I had waited a long time to do it thinking it would be an annoying process, but that couldn't be further than the truth. And it made some money. Now, you can do far more work promoting it and putting effort into getting people to download it, but I did next to nothing and was still pretty happy with the results.

Now, I will say this goes for the Kindle only version. If you want the book to have a paperback version it takes far more work.

It took hours to get the format right and I still messed it up, twice. So pay more attention to that.

Hubpages

Hubpages is a website where you write an article and then you make money off the views. It's like many other platforms. You write an article and pick an image to use.

It's fairly easy to use and you can be set up in minutes.

There are a couple different ways of making money. It uses both Google Ads and Amazon Affiliates.

However.

I don't particularly like Hubpages. I'm sure it works for many people, but it's not for me. I'm not the biggest fan of the website. I wrote a couple articles for it and then mostly abandoned the whole thing.

Also, from what I've read it isn't the most lucrative thing in the world. I'm sure it's one of those things that if you put the time in would yield results, but I think the website just looks old, and I think there are better options.

Quora Partner Program

The Quora Parter Program is an interesting way to make some money.

I've been a Quora reader for years. I've always liked the website. Then, one day I got an email saying that I was admitted to the new Quora Partner Program. After some investigation to make sure it was legitimate, I enrolled.

It's probably the easiest way to make money I've come across. You get paid to ask questions.

The idea is they wanted a way to incentivize questions. People have been answering questions for years, but they was no reason to ask questions out of curiosity.

The idea is to ask a question that can garner a lot of views from the answers it receives. Quora then makes money of the advertising and you receive a portion of the money.

Now, it is the easiest way to make money, but like anything else that means you make the least amount.

Quora earnings fall more toward "extra money." Most questions make a few cents to a few dollars. I think the most I earned was thirty dollars for a question about Harry Potter.

Now, you can earn more if you ask questions about topics that garner more views, like Politics, Sex, and Money, but those aren't things I write about.

So, I just ask a few question here and there, because it's kind of fun to get paid to ask questions about Star Wars.

Vocal.media

I have written for Vocal for years. I like the website a lot.

It's fairly simple to operate and you can write about anything you want as long as it fits into one of their many verticals. The sections cover nearly every topic so unless you have a particularly eclectic article it will find a home.

I think it's a fun place to write about movies and television. I stick mostly to the geekier side of things, but the website works well and the people that work there are nice and always helpful.

I've asked a number of questions and the response was always timely and friendly.

It is another site that pays per view. You can make 3 dollars per 1,000 views or you can make 6 dollars per 1,000 views if you are a member.

Members can also get paid out at 20 dollars and not 35.

Now, it's not hard if you write about popular topics to garner some views, and to make a decent amount per article is nice.

Another fun thing is that since you get paid per view then when an article really takes off you get paid for it.

For instance, last month I wrote a quick article about a possible third season of The Punisher.

For whatever reason it took off and made a nice little chunk of change.

Not bad for a half hour's work.

Now, this isn't the typical result but you can get a pretty steady stream of views if you put the time in.

Medium Partner Program

I've been writing for Medium for years.

The platform is great for new writers because you can get a lot of eyes on your work without having to promote it yourself since it has a built in ecosystem of readers.

However, if you want to write for Medium it can be more of a time investment than any other platform. To be successful at all on Medium you need to post at least once a day.

And, I was pretty lucky that I got a decent audience early on, but it can take a while to develop a following there.

But at the same time, if you manage to pull a viral story then the pay can be large.

So

There you have it.

Four ways to make money writing on the Internet.

how to
Like

About the Creator

Matthew Donnellon

Twitter: m_donnellon

Instagram: msdonnellonwrites

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.