Hello, readers! I've sorely neglected this blog for the past six months because I was just burned out on the whole writing online "scene," so to speak. I needed time to focus on writing, experimenting and learning before I had anything more of value to contribute. Now that I've been several months away, I have much more to report. Here's a look at how I've been doing with various residual income-based writing sites.
Ehow Has Proven It's Worth
I'm most excited to share my eHow earnings over the past six months. Because I haven't been able to increase my earnings there by submitting more articles, I have a very clear picture of just how much money my previous articles have generated. I've earned more money per article on eHow than I'm paid per article anywhere else - including Demand Studios.
Ehow Earnings to Date:
2008 - $5.73
2009 - $2,064.82
2010 - $3,817.81
Total - $5888.36
I have 216 articles. This means (on average) I've earned $27.26 per article. This amount will only increase over time. So, take that naysayers! I only wish I could add to my income on the site, but those days are over. I'll just have to be content with my monthly payments, which feel like free money to me. :)
Bukisa: A Surprising Source of Income
I've been very busy at home lately, so I decided to contribute more articles to Bukisa because I can write them quickly in between projects. I know the site gets a bad reputation, but I've found it to be very lucrative for the time I've invested. The tiered referral program is especially nice (feel free to join as my referral if you want). Plus, I can write on topics that I enjoy but don't make much money on the pay-per-ad-click sites, such as cooking, gardening and beauty. My green bean casserole from scratch recipe, for instance, received several hundred views the first day. That may not seem like much, but it adds up across several articles.
I have 49 articles on the site. Some of them were written when I had only the vaguest notion of SEO, and others were written within the last 30 days. Here's a breakdown of my meager Bukisa income so far:
$500.08 - Earned from my content
$216.56 - Earned from my network connections
$716.64 - Total
This breaks down to about $14.63 per article, a little less than I'd earn from a standard Demand Studios article. I plan to increase this even more by submitting more articles. The trick with Bukisa is to choose keywords that have almost NO competition. Because you're being paid by page view and not ad click, these keywords are much easier to find. The most frequently targeted keywords are those that have a high cost per click. When you don't have to worry about the CPC, however, a whole new world of keywords opens up.
HubPages Revenue Update
I must admit, I had very low expectations of HubPages when I first began creating Hubs. I still have very few published Hubs, and they've earned some money - just not as much as I would have expected. It took a while for some of them to rank well in the search engines, but I've tried harder to get backlinks to my hubs than I've tried with articles published on other sites. I'm not convinced it's paid off, however. Here's a breakdown of my HubPages earnings so far:
$59.88 - Earnings in 2009
$229.72 - Earnings in 2010
$289.60 - Total Earnings
I have 36 Hubs, so this breaks down to about $8.04 per Hub. This may sound a little low, but keep in mind that this is only the Adsense portion of the income my Hubs generate. I also make money through Amazon sales. My hub "The Best Small Coffee Maker" seems to generate the most Amazon sales, as do others that focus on commercial topics. I don't make much, but it's enough to boost my total to around $10.00 per Hub. This isn't the best, but the amount increases with time. Right now, however, I earn far more money on Bukisa and eHow than on HubPages.
Infobarrel Revenue to Date
My Infobarrel earnings have been much lower than I would have expected - lower even than HubPages. To be fair, however, some of the articles were written long ago when I didn't know as much about SEO and other were written to gain backlinks to other articles without SEO in mind. Also, I make some money from Amazon sales and Chitika ads through these articles, plus a few cents from the not-so-generous referral program. Still, I'd say my earnings here are too low to justify focusing on Infobarrel above all others. I will continue to add articles there periodically, though. There was a time when my eHow earnings looked similar, and look how much I've earned from them so far.
$47.44 - Earnings in 2009
$141.72 - Earnings in 2010
$189.16 - Total Earnings
I have 36 published articles on Infobarrel, which works out to about $5.25 per article. Again, this isn't great, but I don't feel I've put enough work into Infobarrel to make a fair judgment of the possibilities. For the time being, the site is only a backup source of income (and backlinks) and not something I'll rely upon heavily. Strangely, my best article on Infobarrel is "Large Houseplants and Indoor Trees," which also generates monthly Amazon sales.
Other Residual Income
I'm still earning a bit of Adsense revenue from this blog and a few other niche blogs I haven't worked on in ages. Also, my Suite 101 income has remained constant. I've currently earned $881.74 in total from the site. I've published 66 articles, so this breaks down to around $13.40 per article. It's not bad, especially considering I usually write on topics that don't make much in ad clicks, such as gardening and herbs.
In conclusion, I think I'm going to try and bolster my Bukisa income over the coming months. It's easy, fast and I quite enjoy writing without worrying about high paying keywords. Plus, I've been more successful there than at other sites. I know many people have had huge success with HubPages and Infobarrel, too. The point is, I think, to find what works best for you and stick with it until you've built up an income you're happy with. Good luck and happy writing!
14 comments:
Welcome back! I was quite gutted when I thought you'd stopped writing, but what writer stops writing, right?
Also, thank you for your reviews and write ups; they save me the trouble of signing up for sites that eventually turn out to be scams (and point me to those that aren't)!
Glad you're back.
I've linked to you in a couple of articles/posts and was hoping you were just taking a break.
From what I've read you sound pretty real about writing and probably even share the same views as me when it comes to online writing.
Anyway, I wanted to know what your take was on Examiner.com. They don't pay much but truthfully, I don't promote those articles like other stuff I write.
I will say that I've made some unique contacts, not to mention discounts at places like Target (10% or more). I'm not forcing but it's just rare to find another writer with a pragmatic view on web writing for money
This is encouraging.I joined Bukisa in July and have earned only $5 from 60 referrals.I now use Bukisa to promote my sites,otherwise I dont expect much from there.You seem to be good at SEO.
@angelayorke - I don't think I'll ever stop writing. It pays the bills after all. :) I just might stop writing about writing from time to time. I'm glad you've found the blog helpful and I hope to add more content in the future. Thanks for stopping by!
@JSwindell - I have written for Examiner and I wasn't unhappy with my income, but I was only there a short time. I really don't like their minimum contribution requirement, because I tend to write in phases. I may feel like writing for Bukisa this month and Suite 101 next month. I never know what I might want to do, but I don't like the pressure of knowing that I HAVE to contribute to a site on a regular basis. That was a big turn-off for me with Examiner. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to really say if it's worth it. I know some people do very well there and others hate it. I just know it wasn't for me, but not because of the pay rate.
I'd say if you have the time to make the minimum contributions, you might as well give it a go for a few months and then analyze your earnings before deciding if you want to stick with it. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help! :)
@Derrick - I know what you mean. I didn't expect much from Bukisa when I first started there, either. But, my earnings have really taken off now that I try and find keywords that are easy to rank for. I also have about 165 referrals, but only a handful of them actually write regularly. (Come on referrals, submit some articles! :))
Welcome back, Willow and really glad to see your residual income has grown beautifully:-) Thanks for sharing your experience with Bukisa.. Have not had much luck with it and stopped writing there a long time ago.. Let me revisit the site and see how it goes..
@3:09p
I haven't exactly kept up my end of the bargain on the 2-3 posts/week promise. It started off as 2x/wk, then once and today its been a little more than a month since my last post. I was just curious because some people slam it and some do the opposite.
Glad to see you back! Though I am a lurker, I still enjoy your posts very much!
Your information on Buskia is really interesting. I have account there and was wondering if it would be worth it to post more articles there. Now I see that it just may be!
Glad I came across your blog. We were discussing in the WAHM forum about how Bukisa is changing their rules now. They have joined the many others who are going to be linking up with Adsense and paying 60% of the shares.
This will all come into affect by Jan.31st. They have stopped recording visits and giving you your pennies. There are no stats to look at anymore on that page. You will need to set up your analytics with you adsense now if you want to keep track of how many people go to your articles.
You will need to change your strategy again, I am afraid. I have been on there for 6 weeks and have made a total of $2.56 from 81 articles. Most I know have no seo but I wasn't gearing towards that either. Now I guess I should look into it more.
Guess we will see how things pan out from here.
Hi, Melanie. Yes, i just received the email about Bukisa yesterday. It's really a shame, and just when I was bragging about my earnings, too! I will probably NOT focus on the site anymore, as there are other better ways to make money via Adsense. The only thing Bukisa had going for them was their pay-per-page-view revenue share model. Now that it's gone, I'm not sure the site will be worth my time anymore.
Let us know where you go Willow, because we trust your advice. ;)
Oh Hi Willow! Nice to 'see' you. I was just updating my own blog for the first time in months.(My year end results are up in case you are curious.)
Glad you are well!
M
Welcome back, Willow!
I recently posted on my blog about increasing eHow earnings even though we can't write new articles. Nov. and Dec. 2010 have been my best months with eHow to date, so that's encouraging to me.
About Bukisa, I was disappointed to see the change -- especially since for me my network earnings were much more than those form my own content.
I think a well-done niche site of one;s own can be very lucrative ... but rev-share sites still have potential, of course.
I also regret not posting more articles on eHow while I could - blast it! How was I supposed to know though? For the first year, I saw very little income. Just as yours are, my earnings are going up per month on the 100+ articles I do have!
I have articles under the name Marlaine Marie Floyd on Gather but have yet to earn anything - considering I only have 9 posts - shrugs............ I am "allowed" to write what I want and when I want to on there though.
I will keep checking things out. Thanks for all the great info!
I just wanted to say your blog has been an invaluable resource! I have been writing full-time from home for about 8 months now, and I am always looking for ways to improve my work and increase my earnings. I currently write the most for Textbroker and Internet Brands with some Content Authority and occasional Niner Niner and Shvoong.com thrown in. I am starting to try my hand at residual sites, though the process has been somewhat slower so far. Your blog is one of my main go-to sites for tips and new writing opportunities; thank you!
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