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Monday, January 19, 2009

Revenue Sharing Sites: eHow, Bukisa, and InfoBarrel

Revenue-sharing content sites are a great way for writers, stay at home moms, hobbyists, college students, retirees, eBay sellers or anyone interested, to make money online. Writing talent -- or at least the ability to string together coherent sentences and present a topic in a logical step-by-step manner -- comes in handy, as does a little web savvy and knowledge of keyword optimization. But it's not a difficult process, and is one of the most legitimate ways to make money online and build residual income streams.



I write niche content sites and maintain a few blogs through Wordpress and Blogger, but revenue from eHow is still a large portion of my monthly income. Writing for eHow has been a great experience for me ... publishing a new article there is as easy as it gets, the site's page rank ensures my articles do well with the search engines, and the amount of monthly traffic can't be beat, an the revenue sharing model seems fair to its contributors. All of these aspects together make content writing on eHow quite profitable, allowing me -- and so many eHow writers -- to create a residual income stream that keeps generating income month after month and yes, year after year.


While eHow is the best paying revenue-sharing content site I've tried thus far, there are a couple others that are quite promising in regards future earnings as the sites grow. They also have some excellent features that aren't available at eHow yet, including the ability to link to other sites and articles within the body of your piece, and a freestyle template that lets you get away from the how-to format.


With an eye toward residual income and promoting my other work, I've been contributing to Bukisa, and wrote about my Bukisa earnings last month. I am nearing the $50 payout, and will let readers know when that occurs and how timely the payment from Bukisa is made. Bukisa pays based on page views, so the best strategy for Bukisa is to concentrate on high-traffic keyword titles that receive many searches, and not worry about the cost of related ads. User questions and inquiries to the the site receive prompt reply.


InfoBarrel is a promising new content-based community. I have two articles online and ideas for many more (of course). After emailing a few times with Kevin, one of the site's founders, I am satisfied enough to write for the site and hope for long-term success. Once you have written 10 articles and been a member for at least 14 days, your articles will be published right away instead of being held for approval. They pay 75% of the Adsense revenue your articles generate.

Other revenue-sharing content sites I've tried include:

  • HubPages: Wrote my first Hubs about the same time I wrote my first eHow artcles. One is on a similar topic, but has earned far less than, one of my high-earning eHows. Have had some decent earnings here, but eHow is more profitable for me.
  • Associated Content: Have only written a couple AC articles. There pay is so little, I'd rather post my work almost anywhere else.
  • Xomba: Good way to promote my other content, short blurbs there have earned a few dollars each over time, not bad for length of pieces, but really only use as way to get links.
  • BrightHub: Was better in the beginning but now the article suggestion, permission and writing cycle is too complicated and annoying. You have to apply and be accepted to be a writer for the site.
What revenue-sharing content sites do you write for online? Have you tried any of the above-mentioned, or places like Squidoo, Suite 101, Helium? I'd love to hear your comments!

15 comments:

mommierose said...

I also write for eHow and Bukisa. I like them both alright. I've written more at eHow, and Bukisa is still Beta, so it's hard for me to compare. I also write a couple blogs. I did Helium for a while, but I didn't like the way the site was laid out. I hear they've changed things since I stopped writing there, so I may have to go back to it if I can get the time.

Anonymous said...

If I were more entrepreneurial, I'd *build* one of these sites. The real money, of course, comes from getting other people to create content for you. ;)

That said, I like Squidoo because you can embed affiliate links. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm working on building my own sites this year, but I also write at eHow, Helium, AC, Bukisa and more. Ehow is by far the most profitable for me, however I have had success at Suite 101 as well. Helium has improved a ton since the beginning!

Anonymous said...

My main source of writing income is Suite101.com. While there is some article overlap, there isn't nearly as much, which makes it less competitive to rise to the top. While you can write for any topic, each area has an editor assigned to it. They will ask for changes or corrections, and I enjoy the professionalism that Suite brings.

You do have to apply to be accepted and adhere to their style guides. I've seen a handful of people come and go because they get frustrated with being flagged for not staying within guidelines. Others don't like it because they can only link to two outside links (i.e. affiliate links) per article.

That said, I like the perks of writing with Suite101. You get an extra 10% of revenue when you hit 50 articles. You can earn more if you are a featured writer, as well. Additionally, I get promotional products for review every month. Not from Suite, but from companies who have seen my work and want me to write about them.

I am glad you posted about Info Barrel. I have heard positive things about them, but it is good to hear it from someone who has online writing chops. :)

jbechtold said...

I write for ehow and have 2 blogs but you gave me more to look into it does not hurt to have a few gigs at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Great post! I just signed up for eHow the other day. And now I'm looking into signing up for other writing companies. Bukisa is one I'm probably going to look into first, and then the others.

Lindsay, I agree with you about bulding a site for content writers! That does seem to be the way to go! Perhaps someday! :)

Anonymous said...

Nice list Id forgotten about buksia and xomba and didn't know about infobarrel - I need to start keeping a list of these places. Unfortunately ehow doesnt pay non-us writers otherwise Id try it

Julie McElroy said...

Thanks for this comparison. I may have to look into InfoBarrel since I already write for eHow and Bukisa. I like that they look at your article before publishing to make sure they are up to par. I also write for Suite 101 although I have been neglecting them. I'd be curious about Suite 101 writers.

Anonymous said...

I write for Hubpages, Squidoo, Triond, Bukisa, Xomba and my blogs. I've written more at Hubpages, Squidoo and Triond. I earn more from these three sites. Nice article. More power to your blog!

futuRich said...

Nice info and thanks for your reviews. Helps me decide where to focus my energies :)
-Rich

Bukisa Tips said...

Nice info here thanks!

Roisin Murphy said...

I've been writing for helium for about a month and a half, and with just 13 articles on there have gone over their cashing out point. Sounds like small change to ye I'm sure, but this is my first foray into earning from writing so I'm delighted! Wouldn't like to be relying on it for a living though.

I was accepted to Suite 101 over the weekend, but having had a look around I don't think I'll use it. I don't like the fact that they have exclusive rights over my content for one year, and their payment system isn't transparent at all. Maybe I should give it a go before I drop it though. The guidance provided on SEO makes it a bit more tempting, and will hopefully help improve my article hits elsewhere.

After reading all the recommendations for eHow I tried to sign up, but was dismayed to discover that I can only earn from articles if I reside in the US. Perhaps it's time to move country, as Associated Content has similar barriers to earnings.

Free Paid Surveys said...

I guess that there is a very interesting factor of infobarrel which is the feature that lets you share 90% of the adsense & ebay profit once you win their scheduled prize !

cTKt said...

I enjoy and do well with ehow the best. I've tried many of the others mentioned but still find ehow the best in my opinion. I'm trying to get my own info site going better at http:/www.bloggerdaddy.ca but can't seem to get the traffic I really need. I guess I still have much to learn. Again thanks for this site!

Maxwell Payne said...

After a stint with Demand Studios with upfront only payments I'm back on the revenue sharing grind which I think is better in the long run.

Bukisa I made decent money on when they did page view payments with the Index. Now that they use Adsense my earnings have dropped. I still make some money on Helium and AC as well as Demand's short lived Rev Share program.

I recently started on Info Barrel and made about a dollar since my first article went live 3 days ago so not a bad start. I'm looking forward to really building up Info Barrel and seeing what happens as I could use the extra money in a few months.