I’ve talked before about making money from writing reviews. So how do you get paid to write?
Some of the ways of doing it are not very lucrative, and there are a few scams. But here’s one I’ve just discovered that I think is very exciting. I want to tell you all about it straightaway.
It’s a way you can get your name ‘up in lights’ on the Internet right around the world. The company who’ll be buying your reviews can be trusted 100%. And, unlike some cash-for-reviews methods I think you could make some decent money from it too.
Let me explain. You’ll have heard of the popular Yahoo! Search search engine. Maybe you use it. Well, the Yahoo! Contributor Network (or YCN) is a system that allows you to submit your own reviews, news, articles and other material to Yahoo! If they use it on their network of websites you get paid for it.
You only need very modest writing skills. And in fact you can make extra money from other things you might have written by submitting them to YCN as well.
Get paid to write…
To get started, register with the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Details here (https://contributor.yahoo.com/signup.html).
Take a little time to fill in your contributor profile. This gives information about your interests, any experience or areas of expertise. It will help them offer you the most relevant assignments based on your interests and qualifications.
How it all works…
Once you have registered you can start submitting reviews right away. You can choose to review anything you like… more tips on this coming up… and just send them through on spec. in the hope they will be published.
Also, you can claim, as it is known, assignments for things they specifically need from their Assignment Desk. This is much the same as taking on paid writing assignments.
All content you submit to the Yahoo! Contributor Network may be published on one or more of the following Yahoo! sites: Associated Content from Yahoo!, omg! from Yahoo!, Shine from Yahoo!, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! TV. (Eventually, this list will be expanded to include other Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! sites already have over 600 million monthly online visitors worldwide.)
As a new contributor, most of your submissions will be published on Associated Content from Yahoo! – this is the Yahoo! official digital library. As you provide more content and build up your reputation you’ll receive more opportunities to publish on other Yahoo! websites.
How do you make money with Yahoo
You can earn money in three ways:
* Performance Payments: These earn you a commission based on the amount of traffic your content receives on Yahoo! (As it says, they’re performance based so the more and more widely read things you write the more you make.)
* Up-front Payments: Certain types of content can be considered for an up-front Payment in addition to Performance Payments.
* Assignments: Many of the assignments you claim from the Assignment Desk come with a guaranteed, up-front payment. If your submission meets all the requirements, you’ll earn that amount as soon as it has been accepted. (You can sometimes also get Performance Payments on top if the piece gets published on one of the websites where these are offered.)
So what can you write about?
Actually, you can write about whatever you like for YCN. But I think reviews are one of the best things. Nowadays, people are hungry for reviews so there’s a good chance of attracting plenty of traffic. They don’t need to be long either.
You can write any reviews you like, but reviews of TV programmes, films, console games and music are some of the easiest and most popular things to write. Most of your time working on this project will be spent watching TV or listening to music – it’s hardly work – then just writing up what you really think of them. Or how about reviewing electronics, like mobile phones, cameras and laptops?
Bear in mind that Yahoo! operates worldwide not just in the UK so covering programmes and music that is available worldwide (particularly in the USA) is likely to be most successful.
You can also submit photos, videos and audio clips and get paid for them in the same way if you want to.
I have to admit, I only found out about the Yahoo! Contributor Network fairly recently. So I haven’t actually been able to test drive it myself as yet but I will be soon. So please do give it a try and let me know how you get on with it. I’ll be very interested to hear.