Freelancing at Home

Paid Surveys Reviews:

Top Paid Surveys -

Pineconeresearch.com: You earn $3 per survey that you complete. The great thing is, if they give you the survey, you are automatically qualified for it. No answering questions for half an hour just to be told you don’t qualify and get nothing. They pay with Paypal on the following business day of completing the survey. You also can get free promotional freebies to test and then another $3 to tell them what you think about the product you just tried for free. Must register through banners and referral links.

Opinionoutpost.com: Range of earnings varies greatly from $2.50 up to $50 or more. The problem with opinion outpost is that you probably won’t qualify for even half the surveys they offer to you, no matter how up-to-date and accurate your profile information is, and you will walk away with nothing if you test out of the survey. In the end, the rewards can outweigh all the times you test out and get nothing, but it can definitely be frustrating. Minimum payout of $15 for a check or $5 for an Amazon gift card. Other donation and payment options have been added recently.

Buzzback: Pays through Paypal with a minimum payout of $15. There are not many surveys available and there are no profiles to complete, so I'm not sure how they decide which surveys to give you. Unless they just give you all of them, which means you will be disqualified from 99% of the surveys they give. Currently in testing.

Surveyhead: Like Opinion Outpost, Survey Head poses the problem of not qualifying for half the surveys you begin to take. Survey Head offers more benefits though since it has only a $50 minimum payout paid through Paypal. *t also offers a $5 signup bonus. The profiles you need to complete for all survey sites (usually for free) are worth $2.35, putting you that much closer to your first payout. Prior to $50 you can get magazine subscription prizes at lower levels.

Top Points Surveys -

zoompanel.com: Point rewards range from 5 for testing out of a survey to 200 for more personal surveys (think periods, yeast infections, etc.). Points can be used to purchase kitchen supplies, magazines, movies, books and much more from the Zoompanel catalog.

Erewards.com: Range of pay varies from 25 cents to $50 (the highest I’ve encountered and qualified for so far). You may be disqualified for surveys they invite you to take, but you never walk away empty handed and I have never taken more than 5 minutes to test out of their surveys. You can turn the erewards money they give you into magazine subscriptions, gift cards and much more. I have been getting Gamestop gift cards. Can only join if you are invited by Gamestop, J. C. Penny or other companies that work with Erewards.

If you’re interested in more ways to earn money freelancing at home you may be interested in these articles:

Freelance Writing at Home

Other Work Online

Vista Print wants to help you get your home business organized for the new year. Whether you need business cards, stamps, a calendar to keep dates or a coffee mug to get you going in the morning, Vista Print wants you to have your first 6 items completely free. Take advantage of this great deal now!

Yes, I know this is not entirely free. You still have to pay shipping and handling, but this is a way better deal than you'll find in any store.

My newest love affair on the internet is WebAnswers.com. One of the questions that is asked at least once a day is ‘how can I earn a living online?’ or some variation thereof. So I thought I would go ahead and list all the places I work at online right now. Sort of as a reference for myself, because I work at so many places it’s easy to forget them all.

I will regularly update this when I add more sites that are similar to the list so bookmark this if you want to keep up-to-date with the workings of the web and my income.

Some sites may be repeated multiple times as they either have multiple ways of earning or I use them in multiple ways. I’m sure you can figure it out as you go and I’ll try to give descriptions of each one on a basic level.

Buckle up, this is going to be a very long ride.

Freelance Writers Wanted:

Revenue share sites -

Infobarrel.com: This site offers minor vetting of articles - the first 10 are looked at by moderators before you are set free into the system to wreak havoc as you please (but please don’t, I kind of like this site) - and a 75% revenue share from Google Adsense. There is also a share of Chitika ad clicks available. For even more earning potential, as if Google and Chitika combined isn’t enough, the Amazon affiliate program is built-in. PR 4.

Bukisa.com: I didn’t used to like this website due to the fact that I was bombarded with referral link after referral link, but that is all in the past and Bukisa no longer even has a referral system. They now offer revenue share from Google Adsense or Chitika - only one or the other, not both. Adsense share is 60%. Nothing says a percentage for Chitika so I assume it’s 100%. That may sound like the better deal, but remember Chitika earnings per click are very, very low. PR 5.

Xomba.com: Xomba is one of my least profitable Google Adsense revenue sharing sites I’ve used since it only offers a 50% revenue share on your content. This is the lowest I’ve seen anywhere on the web. This site used to be useful for bookmarking purposes, but since it has done away with that potential, I’ll probably be removing it from my freelance writing resume. PR 4.

Seekyt.com: Seekyt is a new freelance writing website that offers 70% revenue share. Like Infobarrel the ability to earn with the Amazon affiliate program is built-in. PR 0.

Blogger.com: Create your own blogs and earn 100% revenue off any ad clicks with any ad programs or affiliate programs you choose to use.

Flat rate sites -

Demand Media: Pay varies based on the type of content you are writing. How to content for eHow.com runs at about $15 per article on average. Tips sheets are $3 and there are lots of price ranges and article types in between. Tips sheets are probably your best bet if you want the money to come in fast and easily. Quality control is stringent and editors seem to be a little nuts sometimes, introducing more errors than they had you fix, so don’t connect your real name to your work here. Pays every two weeks through Paypal.

Break Studios: $8 per article may seem like it’s lower than what Demand Media promises, but the quality control at Break Studios is much lower. The chance of a re-write is very low and in the time it takes me to do one Demand Media article worth $15 I can do two articles for Break Studios. That may only be $1 extra an hour, but I’ll take it! Pays monthly through Paypal.

Associated Content: Associated content has a variety of ways to earn and if you’re looking for some flat-fee payment, they will deliver. Payment is determined after submission and normally ranges from $2 - $15. You can also choose from article titles they want with prices already listed.

Seed.com: Seed is a competitive site for freelance writers. It’s competitive both in the price paid per article and in the fact that only one article of all those submitted will be accepted and paid for. Those who are not accepted and paid for will retain the copyright to their content so you can easily take the article and place it on a revenue sharing website instead. I see this as a good opportunity, but many freelance writers are put off by the competitive nature of the site.

Secret algorithm sites -

Ehow.com: Now defunct. eHow is no longer open to new freelance writers or new content. You must go through Demand Media to write for eHow.

Listmyfive.com: Create short top 5 lists for a share of the revenue based on a variety of factors. This is pretty much a rip-off of the original eHow WCP so it can definitely be comforting to those who were left out in the cold when eHow so rudely slammed the door on our noses. Minimum payout is $10 paid through Paypal the month after you earn the full $10. PR 0.

Examiner.com: Views seem to be the biggest factor in earnings and pay has plummeted from the original ~$1 per 100 views to a whole 62 cents per 100 views on average. This can fluctuate a bit, but doesn’t seem to change up or down very much between freelancers. Local examiners can earn an additional $2 - $4 a week by publishing between 2 and 4 qualifying articles in the same Sunday - Saturday period. Minimum payout is $25 paid through Paypal on the 20th of the month after you earn the full $25. Must post once a month or lose all your accumulated earnings. To help me out, tell them I sent you with the code: 18887. Thank you. PR 3.

Squidoo.com: Squidoo is another site that is based mostly on pay per view but there are other factors that come into play, such as people liking your article, clicking links within your article and e-mailing it, etc. PR 7.

Demand Media: Demand Media, like Associated Content, has a variety of pay options. After experimenting with the eHow WCP, they decided revenue share articles were profitable to both them and the writers. They now use the same - or the employees say it is the same - secret algorithm the original eHow WCP used. PR 8 on eHow.

Pay per view sites -

Associated Content: Content written for Associated Content does not have to be accepted for a flat-fee only as I write about above. It can also earn based on views. This per view payment can vary based on which websites Yahoo! chooses to feature your content though so I can't give definitive numbers. This is in addition to the upfront fee listed above!

And now that we’ve covered all the places I write, you might also be interested in:

Different Ad Programs

Favorite Affiliate Programs

Social Bookmarking

Top Paid Surveys

Other Work Online

After doing my last post about Examiner.com almost being a scam, I have found myself skyrocketed into the top 5 of my local examiners. No, the post had nothing to do with this raise, it just happened to happen. Halloween is what is giving me this raise, as I have a variety of Halloween articles on Examiner, including How to do Punk Zombie Makeup.

What I wanted to talk about was my earnings while I have been in these top 5 examiners within my area. Because what I'm seeing really makes me cringe, not to mention doubt all the people who claim to easily make the $25 payout each month. Oh, I'm sure many national examiners do, but unless my area is unusually low in receiving views from other areas, not as many people who claim to make payout are doing so.

Usually it takes me two months to make $25 with 51 articles.

Now that I'm in the top 5, I'm on target to make about $30 for October. Yes, I have made payout, so it's at least something to celebrate. However, check out my earnings page.

Yes, a whopping 252 views for one day and only making $1.63. This is from a few days ago when I first got onto the top 5 in Pittsburgh list, but the views have only gone higher while the money has stagnated. As of today, I got 435 views and only $2.30 in earnings.

As if that weren't enough to make you sad, I want to point out that since I'm in spot 4 - spot 3 now - that means I am earning more money than everyone from spot 5 down. Since I, in spot 4, am just slightly over payout, that implies that most people in the Pittsburgh area are not regularly making payout.

I've blacked out the title of the article, because that's not really anyone's business but my own, and sorry for the gray marks over the stats; I had it highlighted when I did a screen shot and it came out with the highlighting intact. Oops. Either way, here it is. Views, comments, star rating and earnings. Clearly we make more than a penny a click or a penny per view or whatever it is people are currently theorizing we make.

This article earned 28 cents on its third day of existence. A friend told me he clicked an ad - after some serious probing and questions of 'how did you find this nifty website' and answers of 'one of the links on your article' - and so I watched to see if anything ever showed as significant earnings on the article. Two days after he clicked something, 28 cents appeared, which is within norms of an ad click on this particular keyword phrase. The article was still displaying only one view.

Over the next few weeks, the article has only accumulated a handful of views and only 2 more cents.

No matter how you slice it though, there is no Earthly way this article was earning a penny per click - which would require the amount earned to be a good deal less than the views. Instead, I have 11 cents more in Listmyfive earnings than the number of views on this article.

Listmyfive has remained silent about earnings, but I suspect they will continue to do so, and I only imagine them breaking silence to say, 'please see our FAQ which lays out our payment algorithm' which is the most annoying non-answer ever. If they wanted the algorithm to be transparent they would have made it that way to start with.

Edit: LM5 staff updated information available shortly after I made this post. My theory about Listmyfive earnings was confirmed.

Payments - why do I see a penny here and a penny there? We have explained this a couple of times before, but let me make it a bit more clear. We pay a percentage of the clicks that google adsense reports to us. If they don't report a click, they must have deemed it a fraudulent click. Some clicks are a penny, but most legitimate clicks are much more than that. We don't only pay on clicks though. We use many other variables, it is not a trivial algorithm, it is well thought out, and benefits those that benefit LM5 the most. If you see a penny here and penny there, you were most likely paid from the algorithm and not an ad click. The algorithm can pay much more than a penny here and there as well. Also, the views you see, are not used in the algorithm, they are views for your convenience, to see traffic increases through your online efforts. As you all know, we are a new site, and the amount of traffic we receive from search engines is still relatively low, but it is definitely increasing steadily. With time, as many of you have mentioned and deduced already, search engine traffic will increase dramatically. We need strong solid users initially to make that a future reality. We feel we have a great core of users, and we are very grateful for them.

Okay, Examiner.com is not really a scam and probably won’t ever be an out-and-out scam because they still pay, but over the year I’ve been writing for them, my earnings per view have dwindled. In the beginning, Examiner.com paid almost a penny per view. Then they recalibrated the payout to include some other factors, but it still came out to close to a penny. Now, a year later, I’m down to half a penny per view, if I’m lucky.

Sites can recalibrate their pay all they want, but while Examiner.com is paying less and less per view than ever, they are adding more and more ads than ever. There is a pop-up when you go to login to the site, a Clicksor ad, I believe, and even a bottom banner pop-up when you are trying to publish an article. I should be compensated for being bombarded with ads while trying to work for this site, not earning less than ever before.

On top of that, Examiner.com holds its writers hostage to this pathetic pay. After a year, I have gained a rather large library of articles - not the 300+ that some have, but extensive to me - and the option to leave and just keep earning residual money no longer exists as it did when I joined. Examiner.com now demands that writers post once a month to remain active or Examiner.com doesn’t have to pay you anymore. And if you choose to quit and no longer post, Examiner keeps the articles you have published and the money for those articles rather than paying it to the author.

If you have a large number of articles it feels really bad and stupid to just leave all that behind and any potential money it’s earning. You might as well just flush all your time and money down the toilet at that point.

Examiner.com is going the way of eHow as far as bugs and glitches go, too. Not only do we get a severe pay cut, about 40%, but we have to deal with broken publishing tools, poorly laid out pages with Examiner 2.0 and broken earning reports.

Examiner may never go the way of the dodo like eHow did due to the need for writers to actually run their ‘news reports’ that are very rarely news, but at this rate, people might be jumping ship pretty fast.

If you have only a few articles, or haven’t started for Examiner.com yet, then run. Turn tail and run as fast as you can to another site that plays more fair with its writers. Yes, you may leave behind a few articles, but it’s better to get out now rather than be saddled with Examiner.com when they lower their pay even more.

Go get the Cherry Picker Software beta for absolutely free. This is a program that analyzes keywords, much like Google Adwords tools, analyzes the top 10 Google competition for that keyword, kinda like you'd have to do by hand if you weren't using some software, and more.

I, personally, downloaded this then uninstalled it, but that's because I have a far more comprehensive program that I paid actual money for - and let me tell you, Market Samurai is worth every shiny penny I spent on it. But I'm not here to talk about Market Samurai, let's talk about Cherry Picker.

First off, it's a huge joke to suggest that this software is anywhere close to worth $10,000. If that's what Ryan Deiss, the creator of Cherry Picker, paid for something similar then, boy, you got had! Market Samurai is more comprehensive and costs just $149. In its infancy - when it had abilities similar to what Cherry Picker currently has - it was around $34 if I remember correctly.

As far as I can tell, this Cherry Picker program is basically a rip off of another free software called WebCEO that is an equally good program, older and as far as I can tell, more accurate.

Cherry Picker currently only analyzes the United States Google competition rather than the worldwide competition. While this might be useful if that's all you want to rank in, who wants to give up worldwide niches when they could easily get into one? Also, Market Samurai analyzes worldwide, US and anywhere else you want if you just specify what you're looking for.

Cherry Picker also has some inaccurate information. I did some comparisons for keywords I rank highly in and was told I had a 0 page rank on a page, when I know that page has a PR4. It also claimed some of these have no backlinks when they have at least 20 that I set out into the Internet on my own, not to mention any others that may have cropped up.

All in all, Cherry Picker is an okay little program for being a beta. As long as Ryan Deiss updates it and gets it working based on the complaints he's now receiving it will probably become something that rivals WebCEO - but only wishes it could grow up to be Market Samurai.

If you have the money, I'd recommend buying Market Samurai for its accuracy alone, nevermind all the dozens and dozens of extra features Cherry Picker will probably never offer.

If you don't want to spend money, I totally understand, as I waited until just this year to purchase Market Samurai. Previous to that I was using WebCEO and good old fashioned leg work and that's what I would recommend over Cherry Picker. The program is older, seems more comprehensive and already has all the bugs and kinks worked out.

If you just must have Cherry Picker then good luck and I hope the beta version gets ironed out fast. Really, I think my biggest aversion to it this whole 'it's worth $10,000 and I'm such a nice guy I'll give it for free' when many companies give away similar tools and tools with way more capabilities are sold for very cheap.

I really wish people wouldn't use such dirty marketing tactics.

Ever since I started working for Examiner.com they have been doing update after update after update on their publishing tool in attempts to make it more user friendly. The updates have successfully made some things easier to use - like posting at all - but has also made some things an absolute nightmare to do - posting multiple pictures or strategically positioned pictures.
Well, Examiner.com has up and decided to change the entire publishing tool and is going to Examiner.com2.0. The official release date for this is unknown, but Examiner does keep sending e-mails that writers need to back up their work if they have any articles that are in unpublished mode.

Furthermore, the e-mails have stated that any articles that were done using the current publishing tool(s) - there are two - will not be able to be updated ever again. The articles will migrate with you to 2.0 but they will remain as they are forever. This sucks a bunch considering how many articles can be repeatedly updated with the publication of a few more articles.

The solution if you want to continue to be able to write with that article? Back up the article, unpublish it and then publish it when 2.0 is finally released; obviously wait to unpublish the article until the actual date for update is set.

So what's that mean? It means you'll lose your search engine ranking, any backlinks you may have formed, any aging the article has done - as most online writers will tell you, good articles age like wine, not milk.

So you'll have to start from scratch. So... does that article need to be continuously updated or can you abandon that article to leave it as it is and just make something new with the same information once 2.0 is released?

I have a few articles that list a variety of body piercing types, such as this article about curved barbell body piercing jewelry that I used to update everytime I added a new article about a specific body piercing type listed. Rather than losing all the aging it has done, as it was published almost a year ago, I'm just going to let it fall to the wayside. It will continue to bring in whatever it brings in and I'll make a new article to update if I feel I need it.

There aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I’m assigned to do plus my work. There’s a big misconception that floats around people who work at home, especially as freelance writers. This misconception is that we sit at home all day doing nothing - or worse, that ‘writing isn’t hard, quit whining that you’re tired”. Of course, this comes from people who don’t understand what it is to try and keep up with 3 or more blogs, 2 or more article submission sites and not to mention how long it can take just to research the keywords you need and possibly researching the information you need to write about. And let’s not even think about the time taken to do advertising… why should we think about it when no one else seems to think we do it?

I have 8 blogs that need attended to daily or every other day. I have articles that are half finished that could bring in money if I ever found time to finish them. I have various sites I have to check to be sure all is well, nothing is deleted, nothing reverted to draft, no scathing letters from editors. I am attempting to write stories and even throwing around various ideas for a novel - because I actually need to feel like I‘m using that useless English degree I just got.

I can say that just the blogs alone probably takes 8 hours out of my day. Everything else on top of that takes more time and of course, there’s always overflow that gets thrown onto the next day and eventually the overflow just becomes too much to handle and nothing is really getting finished.

But the general consensus from all those I live with or near is that I don’t do anything all day; I guess they think I sit in my computer area eating bon bons and watching pornography. Everyday I get eyestrain and think how nice it would be to look away from the screen and maybe go lay down for a while. Maybe even read a book that’s not on an LCD screen. And the longer I think about that, the more tired my body becomes because research, research, research is taxing mentally if not physically.

Why do those who work in cubicles get to complain how tired they are after work, but those of us who have the luxury of doing a similar job from home are told to stop whining and do housework before, in the middle of or -rarely- after we’re done working?

My father - whom I’m living with for a few months until I collect enough money to get to Hawaii - comes home from work complaining he’s tired. He and I have worked the same amount of time. He tells me I could at least have dinner ready when he gets home, that I could at least clean the house while he’s at work, that I could have looked up this or that or the other for him online while he was gone.

Oh, I’m sorry. So I’m supposed to work 8 hours a day, exercise at least 1 hour a day, cook food that takes prep-time (I don’t even cook this for myself most days), clean the house and everything else so that you can come home from working 8 hours and sleep? How is this fair? Just because I don’t have to drive to my job does not mean I’m doing less than you.

So listen up people, freelance writers and other work from home types are probably doing just as much, if not more than you! Stop making jokes about our cushy jobs and how easy we have it.

I have been kind enough to offer free shipping when I use Listia.com for small items like body jewelry. Items that can be put in a normal envelope and mailed with a normal stamp. I paid extra for these to not be machined, because the machine could break or shove the item out of the package.

Well, guess what I just got an e-mail saying today? The buyer said the side of the package was ripped open, that the small plastic bag the item was in was ripped open and that the body jewelry was missing.

I don't even think being machined can rip a small piece of body jewelry through both an envelope and a plastic bag, and if it did why did I pay extra money to have it not machined?

I've had this same problem when I shipping for Amazon.com. Heaven forbid I need to ship anything but a book. The item will be squished, crushed, run through what must be a very, very tiny machine as if there is nothing bulky in it, and the item - a bottle of body wash - was somehow pushed through not only the padded envelope but through two layers of bubble wrap!

Something's up at the post office. But they don't care as long as you didn't buy the insanely expensive insurance. Oh, and if you think insurance will protect you, think again. I got a box of books sent media mail once. Received the box and it suddenly weighed about half what it had when I shipped it. I opened it and not only were half my books missing but I had other people's mail inside my box! I had insurance on these books, but when I went to the post office to get my money, they told me there was no proof there were anymore books in the box than when I shipped it.

How exactly do you provide proof of that? Other than weight, of course, which they didn't care to look at.