How I Earned Over $3,000 Per Month Writing Online Last Month
In October 2013, I earned $3,232.23 from my online writing activities. Since each website pays on a different schedule, I’m still waiting on some of that money. In the paragraphs below, I am going to discuss the three main ways I earn money writing online. The percentages are not exact, but close enough to get the picture.
Content Writing – 70 Percent of My October Earnings
Although the percentage of my income that comes from content writing has dropped from about 95 to 70 percent, it is still higher than I would like it to be. I would prefer to earn more of my monthly income from my own writing. That is definitely an ongoing process. The only content website I have worked for in over a year is Textbroker. I have tried numerous others throughout my freelance career and abandoned them for lack of work, low pay, unrealistic expectations and other reasons. I know that some people don’t have too high of an opinion of Textbroker, but I will never be one of those people. I earned $2,264.02 from them in October and a cumulative total of about $55,000 since I started writing for them in March 2011.
If I were looking at the rates for open orders as an experienced online content writer, I would turn up my nose too. However, I don’t ever write those articles anymore. While Textbroker’s business in open orders has all but shriveled up over the past two and a half years, the team order concept is taking off. I earn between $20 and $40 per hour writing for three major teams. I also have a steady direct order client and earn around $30 per hour writing his articles. I have earned a high of $60 per hour in the past. That being said, I went through a terrible drought with Textbroker this summer and thought my days of being a freelance writer were over. This is what caused me to focus harder on developing passive income.
eBook and Paperback Sales – 25 Percent of My October Income
In March of 2013, I decided to compile several of my popular articles on emotional abuse into a book. Because of this, I have deleted a lot of the original articles that I still held the rights to. I knew from the number of page views these articles received after one and two years that there was a definite demand for this type of information. I released my book Emotional Assault: Recognizing an Abusive Partner’s Bag of Tricks in paperback on May 29 and Kindle on June 22. Sales were a little slow to take off, but I did quite well in October. My total was $822.10, which included $775.11 for the Kindle download and the remainder for the paperback.
Since my book is only 72 pages, the paperback version is priced at $7.99 and the Kindle version at $3.99. I average $2.60 in royalties for every sale. That means I rely on sales volume more than price to make any money. I am happy that I decided to do this because now I know that I will always have at least some income every month even if I don’t work at all. Amazon, which published the electronic version, pays 60 days behind and Create Space, publisher of the paperback, pays 30 days behind. It took until October 2013 for it to reach the point of receiving a significant payout every month.
Passive Writing Pursuits – 5 Percent of my October Income
I regularly earn $100 per month at Bubblews. This site pays .01 for every view, like, dislike or comment and the articles only have to be 400 characters long. I have been there since October 2012. I find that I don’t have the patience or desire to write longer articles anymore, so Bubblews is a good outlet for me. It’s kind of like having a blog. I can still write and get my thoughts out without having to spend hours researching an article that may earn me pennies. Bubblews allows you to cash out once your balance hits $25. I usually meet my goal of cashing out weekly.
I do write longer articles for Yahoo Contributor Network and Hub Pages. The payouts for these sites vary depending on my activity in a month. So, there you have it. I primarily earn money from Textbroker, Amazon, Create Space, Hub Pages, Bubblews and Yahoo Contributor Network. It’s pretty sweet when it adds up to more than $3,000 a month.
