Demand Studios, Bukisa, HubPages, Squidoo, and Infobarrel are all sources of residual income for me -- several more eggs in the proverbial basket, if you will. In addition to their income, articles I've written on these sites provide backlinks, site or blog traffic and/or brand recognition in several niches.
Out of this handful of revenue-sharing content sites, some do better than others for page ranks and traffic and thus earnings.
Here's how they stacked up in March 2011:
Demand Media Studios revenue-share: $114.58 with 21 eHow articles
Bukisa: $29.39 with 17 articles
HubPages: $29.59 with 6 articles
InfoBarrel: $3.81 with 6 articles
Total ...... $177.37 with 50 articles, for an average of $3.55/per article.
With many hundred articles on the right sites, you can still make a viable residual income through revenue-sharing programs. A thousand articles with that average would give you $3,547 per month. You can actually do much better than that; some of these articles were written when I was just starting out and didn't know much about what niches perform well. By specializing in one or two areas which you know well and whose audience you understand, you will see a higher level of success than the random collection of articles here represents.
While I am currently working almost exclusively on my niche websites, I do still recommend some rev-share writing for those new to online writing and marketing. Writing content articles is a great way to experiment with several or dozens of niche topics. You can figure out what you enjoy researching and writing about, what you want to specialize in and what topics are most profitable. For me, eHow was very well-paid market research and has certainly contributed to the successes I'm seeing in creating my own niche sites and blogs.
That being said, don't wait too long to branch out to your own properties. Once you've identified a good niche topic, done keyword research and learned the basics of site creation and promotion, start a site of your own and monetize it with ads and affiliate links. Revenue-sharing sites are great, but having your own online properties is even better. For web hosting, site design and other recommended resources, see my Tools and Training page.
What revenue-sharing content sites have you earned well with? Do you still write for them?
14 comments:
You're right; eHow was the best site to write for. I've only written 4 rev-share eHow/Demand Studios articles, and they are slowly earning a little. I write for Associated Content, Suite 101, Examiner, and Squidoo though the income there is much lower. Have written for FireHow, ListMyFive, and Seekyt too. Getting ready to launch a niche site or two. Your experience is such an inspiration!
Hi Maria,
Thanks for sharing your stats! Earning over $100 for only 21 articles on Demand Studios is a pretty awesome feat. While I miss eHow's writer compensation program, I must agree that Demand Studios can turn out pretty profitable if you are willing to put the time and effort into making it happen.
I currently have only 5 rev share articles up on Demand Studios (though, I've written tons of flat-fee ones in the past), and I earned $25.32 for those 5 articles last month, which is about $5 per article published. Every article is earning something except for one - the first one that I wrote for rev share. And there's one particular article that earned the bulk of the income last month.
This statistic alone tells me that I should maybe be focusing more of my efforts on revenue share.
However, for now, I'm going to continue focusing on my own sites, since they have the most potential to grow. It's also refreshing to write without having to worry about rewrites all the time. I can tell you from first-hand experience how discouraging those can be!
Keep up the awesome work, Maria!
Christina
Peg, I think you've tried a few more rev-share sites than I have! Enjoy writing your niche sites; I am sure your experience with the various content sites has given you insight into some good niches.
Christina, thanks for your comment! I actually logged in to DMS this afternoon and realized I'd posted my March totals too soon and missed an update. My total with them for March was actually $124.43; I'll update the post when I have a moment. So yes, DMS can be nicely profitable.
Best of luck on your niche sites; I think focused niches and quality content are the way to go.
Thanks for sharing. It's great you earn so much for only 21 articles at DMS-EHow - I have 20 articles there right now and only made a quarter of what you did for March. Hopefully it will grow like the old EHow continues to do for me. I may also have to re-examine Bukisa - looks like it has good income potential too. :)
Deanna, keep adding articles at DMS and with a few hot ones your average per article will rise. Are you creating your own titles or choosing ones they have listed as rev share? My best-earning ones are titles I wrote.
Hi Maria! I'm impressed with your earnings through the DS rev share program. I haven't written any because I have such a hard time finding topics that haven't already been done to death on eHow.
I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to give it a go (because you can't beat the money you make on eHow), but when I went to do keyword research, I realized every topic I tried had already been done - in most cases, dozens of times with slightly reworded titles. This gave me pause because of eHow's recent removal of similar titles. I'm afraid if I begin writing on the topics of my choosing, the articles may be removed. So, I started searching through the rev share titles available to claim through DS and I couldn't find much.
Do you typically create your own titles or claim from the pool? Have you had any problems with your articles being removed from the site?
Willow, I did a few of the DS-listed titles for rev share, and they do okay, but the majority are self-created titles, one of which earns exceptionally well.
Like you I'm concerned about future sweeps and have been careful to make sure my article title and content are unique before publishing.
DMS adds so many thousand titles to eHow every month, I know there are plenty of micro-niches just waiting to be found!
These are some very good earnings. It is good to see a diverse range of writing sites mentioned - I have concentrated on Hubpages for too long as it appeared to be the best but I have been hit by the Google algorithm changes whereas other sites haven't...
Your DS earnings are very impressive. I have 16 Rev Share articles at DS and earned $56.50 last month. I haven't written anything for them in a while because it's hard to find titles.
I sure miss the old eHow days before the WCP ended.
Have they gotten rid of the writer compensation program at eHow yet? Are they planning to do so in the near future?
Bristolboy, thanks! Definitely diversify; it's to your advantage long-term.
CM, thank you -- and me too, I miss the days we could add articles easily and quickly.
Anon, the program was discontinued to new articles last year but members' article continue to earn residuals there every month. I didn't include my eHow.com WCP earnings here because this is about current opportunities.
I am just starting out and writing articles scares me. I've been using free PLR to get articles on my blog for the time being. I think I am going to start though! Thanks for the great post! I am going to bookmark your blog so I can read some more!
Nice article, nice to see that you made some money with hubpages :)
Good job!
I've always enjoyed revshare as a writer, so now I'm experimenting with it from the other side of the coin. I've set up a 50-50 adsense revshare on my site that allows people to have half of the ads on their member profile use their adsense publisher id, and the other half use mine. Same thing for writers who contribute articles. I may raise this later and give them a higher percentage, but for now I'm keeping it to round numbers. I haven't even advertised it anywhere yet and am already getting a trickle of interest, so I'm kind of excited to see how it goes.
Post a Comment