5 Websites That Pay Writers

1. POPSUGAR Voices

What They Look For:

POPSUGAR aims to celebrate diverse stories with an encouraging, upbeat tone. The editors love stories pertaining to body image, parenting, fitness, shopping guides, pop culture theories, relationships, and more. You can find additional information and examples of those stories on the website.

Guidelines:

Submission guidelines and more information are on the website as well.

Next Steps:

You can submit a story through this website. You should hear back with an acceptance or rejection within 30 days. If they accept your story, they’ll likely also add you to a dashboard where you can pitch additional stories and accept prompts from editors.

Rate:

$50–100 per article (after your first article is published) within 30 days after publication.

2. Bitch Media

What They Look For:

Currently, Bitch is looking for pitches about timely pop culture and political pieces. For example, see this Twitter thread from the senior editor.

Guidelines:

Bitch has a thorough set of guidelines for various kinds of submissions.

Next Steps:

You can email your pitch to the senior editor, Rachel, at [email protected]. If you don’t hear back in a week, feel free to check-in via email. You can also pitch through Submittable.

Rate:

$150–175 for digital stories, usually within 2–3 days of publication.

3. SELF Magazine

What They Look For:

SELF’s categories are health, fitness, food, beauty, love, and lifestyle. The editors are looking for stories pertaining to personal or public health and wellness. Currently, they’re focusing mostly on service journalism, which is actionable, but they also take product roundups, cultural criticisms, the occasional feature, and service stories based on personal experience (but not personal essays). For more information and examples, see the article on pitching.

Guidelines:

For guidelines and more information, see that same article.

Next Steps:

The pitching article contains the editors’ emails, what kinds of pitches they each take, and what to include in your pitch. Make sure your pitch entails each element listed!

Rate:

$300 an article is the current base rate for stories with minimal to no reporting, but reported stories start at $400 and features start at $800.

4. BuzzFeed READER

What They Look For:

BuzzFeed READER takes personal essays on almost any topic (family, food, religion, sex, disability, hormones, body image, drugs, travel, race, and more) and timely cultural criticisms. If your article doesn’t fit one of these categories, they may still take it — see examples of what they’ve taken on the submission article.

Guidelines:

Guidelines, word count details, and more information are also in that article.

Next Steps:

Pitch your idea to [email protected]. If you’re pitching a personal essay, they suggest sending your first draft instead of a pitch. If they’re interested, they’ll get back to you within two weeks.

Rate:

The website says they pay competitive rates. Who Pays Writers says the average for BuzzFeed is $0.22 a word.

5. VOX

What They Look For:

For their First Person section, VOX is looking for diverse writers, even those who may need support with writing. They’re looking for personal pieces and have had the most success with ones focused on parenting, relationships, money, identity, mental health, and workplace issues.

Vox is looking for other content as well, such as The Goods (a money series), The Highlight (features), Future Perfect (meat coverage), Science (as well as its intersection with politics and the economy), and more.

Guidelines:

You can find guidelines, examples of accepted stories, and more on the website.

Next Steps:

Send your pitch or draft to the email listed along with the section you’re pitching, listed on the website. If you send a pitch, include what you want to write about, personal experience or qualifiers, and the basic points you want to make.

Rate:

The website says they’ll discuss payment specifics upon the acceptance of your draft or pitch. One writer on Who Pays Writers reported getting paid $0.33 a word.

I encourage you to push yourself to pitch these publications or others and to try to not get too down if they reject or ignore your pitch. It happens to everyone, and your time is coming!