Money Making Ideas – Five Ways to Make Extra Money Online

With today’s tough economy, many stay at home moms or those recently unemployed are looking for ways to make a little extra money. The internet holds the promise of allowing almost anyone to make money online while working from the comfort of his or her home. After all, who wouldn't like to make some extra cash from the comfort of their own living room?

Unfortunately, the “work from home” industry seems filled with countless dubious schemes and “get rich quick” swindles. The lure of “easy money” just seems to bring out the worst in humanity. Frankly, many of these programs are nothing more than out and out scams, designed to fleece those that often can least afford to lose any more.

There are numerous legitimate work-from-home opportunities, but finding a interesting well paying program can take quite an effort. Filling out online surveys, data entry and even answering customer service calls are all examples of the type of online work one can expect to find. These are often low-paying and tedious, but do offer the potential to bring in a little spending money.

One of the most popular and potentially rewarding categories of work at home type jobs consists of writing articles or other content for use on the internet. Several respected sites pay for quality, well-written content. The only requirements are the ability to write interesting original pieces and a reasonable commend of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Below is a list of five legitimate writing programs. Each commands the respect of the internet community and offers a real chance to earn a substantial income. Three of the programs pay you up front for work you create. This is a one-time payment, but you are paid immediately once your work is accepted. The other two provide a publishing platform for your content, with the potential to earn residual income over time through affiliate programs.

The five programs are:

• Textbroker
• The Content Authority
• WiseGEEK
• Squidoo
• HubPages
  

All of these programs are looking for quality content, primarily to attract readers to their respective websites or provide content to customers. A familiarity with keywords, internet marketing and search engine optimization is helpful but not required.

Textbroker is a paid-to-write site that offers authors up-front payment for their work. Anyone can sign up to write for them, but you must be a US Citizen in order to be paid.

You must complete an initial writing assignment in order to be accepted as an author. Based on the quality of the initial submission, new authors receive a rating level ranging from 2-stars (legible) to 5-starts (professional quality.) Most new authors qualify as 3-star authors.

Customers submit orders that contain a list of keywords, minimum and maximum article length and any other important information as to desired style or audience. Topic range from Finance and Business to Technology and Home Improvement.

Potential writing assignments also receive a rating, ranging from 2 – 5 starts. As an author, you can only accept assignments at or below your current star rating level (if you are at the 4-star level, you can accept 2, 3 and 4-star assignments, but cannot access 5-star assignments)

Pay is based on the number of words and the rating of each article. A 3-start assignment requesting an article of 500 words (about one single-spaced page on a word processing program) would pay the author $5.00 (500 words X 3-start rate - .01/word.) You may only accept one assignment at a time.

Once the assignment is completed, it is submitted to the Textbroker site to await approval from the customer. Once approved, funds are transferred to the author’s account. Payment is made via PayPal twice a month, if the payout threshold of $10.00 is reached.

Textbroker is one of the best known “content mills” going and has a rather large client base. At any given time there may be anywhere from 500 to 2000 assignments waiting to be filled. Although the writing at times can become tedious, it does offer anyone who can write to specifications a chance at significant earnings working from home. Writing five 400 articles a day would bring in $140 / 7 day week for a 3-star writer. That would increase to $196 for a 4-star author.

The Content Authority is another paid-to-write site and is very similar in concept to Textbroker.  Customers submit detailed requests for articles written to their specifications. Authors accept articles and submit the completed assignment through The Content Authority site. Authors only have eight hours to complete any given assignment. Funds are added to the author’s account once the customer accepts the work. Payouts are made on a weekly basis via PayPal. Only US authors can participate.

Prospective authors must pass an initial assessment before accepted as a writer. Similar to Textbroker, authors are assigned and writers tier based on the quality of the initial assessment. Beginning authors generally begin at tier 1 or 2. Once an author completes five assignments, The Content Authority automatically reviews the quality of the authors work. Based on the outcome of this review, the author’s tier level may change.

The Content Authority from time to time also has rewrite assignments available. These pay less than regular article assignments, but usually do not take very long to complete, as they usually do not require any additional research on the part of the author.

The amount of articles available to write at any given time is quite variable, and generally, there are fewer articles to write than usually available with Textbroker. For anyone looking to earn additional income online, The Content Authority is a legitimate work from home opportunity. Payments are made on-time and the editorial staff is easy to work with. 

WiseGEEK is another paid-to-write site, but of a somewhat different nature than Textbroker or The Content Authority. Instead of accepting orders from customers, WiseGEEK itself is the customer. WiseGEEK publishes all of the articles on its own site.

The application process is much more extensive than the other two paid-to-write sites. Potential authors first submit an initial article for review. If acceptable, then editors invite the author to submit three additional articles.  These articles must adhere to WiseGEEK’s style guide and live up to the companies rather ridged editorial standards.

If those articles are acceptable, the author is again invited to submit a second set of three articles, and the process repeats. If those pass review, WiseGEEK will request a final set of three additional articles. If the final set of articles passes, the author becomes a full time author. A combined ten articles must pass before an author is allowed to write full time for WiseGEEK. Fortunately, authors are paid for each article during the evaluation process. An editor provides feedback at every step and the entire process can take upwards of two to three weeks.

Unlike the other two paid-to-write sites, which pay per word, WiseGEEK pays a set rate for each article. This ranges from $10 - $14 per article, with each article requiring a minimum of 400 words. This translates into a rate of approximately between $.025 and $.035 per word.

WiseGEEK requires authors to commit to writing five articles a week or twenty articles a month. Articles are reviewed in batches of five, and payment is made via PayPal once articles once a batch is accepted. WiseGEEK is one of the better writing sites, and can certainly be a very lucrative endeavor for anyone wanting to earn some spare money writing online.

Squidoo is another excellent site for those looking to earn extra income online. Unlike Textbroker, The Content Authority and WiseGEEK, this is not a paid-to-write site. Instread, Squidoo is a publishing site that allows authors to publish any number of “lenses” ( Squidoo’s name for stand-alone web pages)  on just about any topic imaginable.  

Authors earn money based on the popularity of the Lenses, and through several affiliate programs. Squidoo does not pay up-front for content, but authors are able to earn residual income from their work as long as their content remains online.

Authors use a web-based interface (Lens Workshop) to add content and format their Lenses.  Each lens consists of a series of small building blocks called modules. A large number of available modules allow authors to add videos, photos, polls, surveys as well as text to their lenses.

There are also modules for Amazon, eBay and several other affiliate programs. One advantage of using the build in modules is that you do not need to join each affiliate module (which can be a difficult process for eBay.)  Any earnings from the modules are split 50/50 between Squidoo and the author.

Google AdSense ads and ads from other ad networks appear on each lens. Squidoo aggregates all ad earning from all lenses and pays authors a percentage of the total based on the amount of traffic their lens generates. The most popular lenses receive a larger amount of the total. Each lens typically earns from $.15 to upwards of more than $20.00 / mo. The amount varies from month to month based on overall Squidoo earnings. The author does not have to have an AdSense account in order to participate.

For those willing to wait for their earnings, Squidoo offers an excellent platform to earn income from home. Payments are made monthly through PayPal, once earnings reach a predetermined level. This level is set by the author and can be as low as $5.00.

HubPages is another option for those wishing to earn some additional money working from home. Similar to Squdoo, HubPages allows authors (called Hubbers) to write Hubs (HubPages version of Lenses) on a wide variety of topics.

Like Lenses, Hubs are build using an online interface and by adding various capsules (HubPages version of modules.) There are far fewer capsules to choose from when compared to the number of available modules in Squidoo. Hubbers can add text, photos, videos as well as Amazon and eBay product.

Unlike Squidoo, HubPages requires authors to create an account with each affiliate program (Amazon, eBay and Kontera) they wish to feature on their Hubs. This can prove difficult in the case of eBay, as they require  anyone wishing to join their program to have an established website.

HubPages, like Squidoo, shows Google AdSense ads on each of their Hubs. Again, authors are required to apply for an AdSense account in order to earn income from the program. This can present problems for those who are just starting out, as Google requires an established web presence before accepting new users into their program.

Without going into too much detail, authors receive approximately 60% of the income their Hubs generate, while HubPages takes the remaining 40% as compensation for providing the publishing platform and hosting the completed Hubs. Hubbers can also earn money for referring new users that sign up and go on to create content on HubPages.

For anyone looking for a legitimate means of earning money online, HubPages is one of the best options there is. In addition to providing a means to earning a decent income, HubPages also boasts a supportive community of fellow users, who are more than willing to help with any questions a new user might have.