Nov 11 2008
Where Will the Money Come From?
If you’re going to earn money by writing online, sooner or later you have to make decisions about where that money is going to come from. That may seem like a “Duh!” statement, but it isn’t. Consider how many blogs and websites depend on Google Adsense for income. How many decisions about where to blog are made primarily on whether you can or can’t have Adsense? If you’re hosting your own site, the question doesn’t come up, but if you’re using a free site, it’s very important. Debate over wordpress.com and Blogspot usually boils down to a choice between features and income.
For a variety of reasons, I decided that I don’t want to have an Adsense account or depend directly on Google for my income. I have no objections to Adsense or to earning money from it, as long as I don’t have to maintain an account of my own. The income from my Today blogs is based partly on Adsense, but the account belongs to today.com. The decision to write for either Hub Pages or Squidoo came down to choosing the one that doesn’t require me to have an Adsense account, and that’s Squidoo.
I can sell my writing to Associated Content or, if I want to have more control over my earnings, list it on Constant Content where it will be available for potential buyers. In neither case is the ultimate source of their money of any concern to me.
Another source of income in the planning stages is ebooks. I’ve been writing for some time on a niche topic of great interest to a specific group of people. I will be expanding some of those articles and blog posts into a series of targeted ebooks that I can sell through lulu.com, and promote on my own site.
I started my online writing the way most people do, figuring out which writing sites would pay best, picking and choosing at random, and then moving on to something that promised to be more profitable. But earning consistently, and being able to build a writing career required that I have a plan. Adsense can be one of your sources of income, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. To make that decision, you need a plan.
3 Responses to “Where Will the Money Come From?”
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I turned my back on Adsense some time ago. However, I might revisit it some time in the future for a couple of sites I might develop. I’ve tried Hubpages, but I want to try Squidoo as it sounds a lot more fun.
I do paid writing, but there are only so many hours I can put in. My ideal situation would be the ‘residual income’ route.
I have plenty of time for writing, but I tend to be a slow writer, and my mental focus isn’t that great, so I’ll never be the kind of writer who can knock off three or four articles every day. That makes the residual income very important for me, and it’s now one of the prime considerations when I decide where to publish. Upfront pay doesn’t have to be terribly high, as here on today.com, if the potential for residuals is good. So, as much of a pain as Associated Content may be, it makes sense for me.
Thanks for the little ego boost on the other post, but there are some very good writers on Triond. I don’t think anybody is necessarily too good for it, at least when they’re starting out, but they shouldn’t let themselves settle for less than they’ve capable of earning.