Freelancers who make money and build passive income with writing provide themselves with a financial safety net for those times when writing opportunities dry up. The amount of money that a writer can make using this method varies, but it is well worth the investment of time, effort and energy.
How to Make Money and Build Passive Income with Writing
Passive income is money an article or articles you have written generates in the weeks, months and years after you wrote it. Freelancers have two options for selling articles. The first is the most common, which involves selling the content for a flat fee. The flat fee covers the associated rights from all rights to electronic to print. The contract between the buyer and the writer stipulates what the buyer is purchasing. Once the article is sold, the writer makes only the income from the initial purchase.
The second option for selling articles involves writing the article for a website or sites, retaining all rights, but only making the income the article generates from pay-per-click to page views. While the initial return of the first option is high, the second option allows writers to build up their passive income. Some articles generate more initial interest than others and some articles may be seasonal in nature. The websites offer payment when money in the account reaches a certain dollar amount.
The passive nature of the income means that writers can make money off their previous work, but until they build up a high number of articles in this category, they won't make much.
Passive Income Markets
Multiple passive income markets are available for writers to explore. Some offer higher returns than others and some require certain levels of participation. The key to building passive income with writing is writing a lot of articles, using strong searchible keywords and having patience.
Ehow
Ehow is a website that offers answers to how to's. Writers register with the site and either start writing their own articles or answering the articles that have been requested. Ehow generates income through page views and pays out when the account reaches 10 dollars or more. Ehow articles should be written with action verbs in the steps and address how to complete a task, build a project or accomplish something. For example:
- How to Watch the Presidential Inauguration with Kids
- How to Use Free Decorating Ideas for Kids Rooms
- How to Make a Stuffed Animal Net
Each of these articles provides the basic steps towards completing a task or project. Based on a points system, writers can become Enthusiasts or Authorities. Authorities will get more page views and prominence in featuring their articles. You can also choose up to five articles to be featured regularly with any article you publish. By cycling through those five regularly, you can increase your page views and potential income. Ehow pays via Paypal and requires a Paypal account for writers who sign up for the compensation program.
Helium
Helium is moderately different from other websites. As a writer, you not only submit articles in various category areas, you can take sides in debates, enter contests and compete for article sales in the Marketplace. Marketplace offers direct sale potential, but your articles that do not sell have a chance of making money as well. Writers need to be rated higher stars to participate in the Premier Titles with the Marketplace and you earn writing stars by maintaining a high ranking percentage in your article categories. As a writer at Helium, you will also be required to rate articles in order to provide rankings for other writers. Helium takes some time and patience to get used to, but can generate a decent amount of passive income over time.
Bukisa
Relatively new in the scheme of things, Bukisa is similar to eHow, but it does not require writers to submit their articles in the form of How Tos. You can post articles to Bukisa that you also post to other revenue sharing sites and you can earn money off them. If friends sign up at your invitation, they can join your network and you earn money when they earn money too.
Patience is the key to generating passive income in relatively decent amounts. The more articles you write for revenue sharing, the more potential income you can generate. It is possible for a writer to generate $500 a month or more in passive income, but this is after a diligent investment in time and articles.
