How to Make Money Online Writing From Home

So many people want to know how to make money online — in fact, Google notes that more than 246,000 people type “how to make money” into their search engine each month, with the specific term “how to make money online” garnering around 50,000 searches itself each month.

Here’s how I make money online writing from home…

You’ll see a lot of scams out there with people touting how folks can make fast money online, but many of them aren’t true.


And you may see some pretty middle-of-the-road, hard-to-tell-if-it’s-a-scam gurus out there who try to convince you that they’ve found the latest online pot of gold and if you just buy their $97 ebook, you can do it too. Some of those are scams, some aren’t.


I’ve been online since 2005, when I began my first PaulaMooney.Blogspot.com Blogger blog, and I didn’t even know people were making money online. All these years later, I’m still learning and growing and figuring out the shifting landscape that is the “make money online” genre and field in order to be able to earn an income writing from home.


In 2010, I made over $50k online from the following sources — and in 2011, my online writing and blogging income dropped to $26.75k (the Google Panda and other things came along) but I’m trying out new methods in 2012, like writing Kindle books and other things, to keep that writing income going up and up and up and up.

Here are the places that actually make me money online:

#1 – Examiner.com

I began writing for Examiner.com in September/October of 2009, and those first short months, I brought in $12,217.90 in 2009 from Examiner alone. I remember back then if you just breathed on an article, you could get over 150,000 views like that — like my article about Joe Wilson screaming “You lie!” at President Obama did one night.


In 2010, I pulled down a whopping $31,184.82 from Examiner (also known as Clarity Digital Group, LLC) — and I began writing not online my original Cleveland Pop Culture column, but eventually added a Christian TV column, a Christian Music column and an Internet Deals column as well.


This was a good thing, because the Christian TV column ended up making a lot of money when I wrote about various scandals that happened in 2010.


By 2011, however, the Google algorithm (their formula for ranking specific articles that appear in their search index and Google News) changed big time with something called the “Google Panda” update — an update that sent some online webmasters out of business.


Thank GOD I was able to still make an income with Examiner in 2011 — which dropped to $12,554.36 in 2011.


I realize that many people may not know how people even make money by writing online for other websites or their own — so let me just explain that places like Examiner.com pay their writers a varying amount based on how many pageviews or hits their articles receive. It varies, but let’s say they pay around $7 per 1,000 pageviews. If I get 10,000 pageviews across my articles one day, that means about $70 for me that day.


They pay their writers via their PayPal account — and I get the money on a monthly basis, since I usually always make more than whatever their minimum payout is. Apply to write for Examiner.com and learn all the rules.

#2 – Google Adsense

Google Adsense is an easy program that gives people with blogs/websites a specific code to put on their websites that will automatically display ads like you see on PaulaNealMooney.com below (either links or display ads that look like photos or videos) that Google tries to match up with the topic at hand.


Even if you start a free Blogger.com blog, you can load up Adsense ads on your blog once you get approved by Google.


There’s a boatload of information out there on how to try and increase your Google Adsense income, so read up on everything you can find for free — without having to spend a boatload of money to see if it’s something you’d like to pursue.


In 2009, I made $14,612.25 from Google Adsense ads on all my various websites (I think I have about 30 right now) — and in 2010, Google Adsense paid me $9,270.01 across all my websites.


In 2011, my Adsense income was $6,770.99 — so I think I need to take a look back and see what I did differently. Oh yes, I remember that I removed the “get rich quick” scam ads and adult sites and stuff from showing on my Google Ads, so this could account for the difference. But I’m learning how to create websites with better paying training school ads, so stay tuned to see how that works for me.

#3 – Selling Amazon Products

In 2009, I made $10,648.51 through the Amazon Associates program, which is where Amazon gives bloggers and writers special links to put in their articles or on their blogs that can make them money if a customer buys a product through our links.


These are called “affiliate links” or “referral links” — and for example, when people buy jeans through my Amazon links on this page about blue jeans, Amazon gives me a percentage of each sale, because I brought them a new sale.


The payout amount varies based on what type of product and how many you’ve sold, etc., but apply if you have a blog (you can even apply with a free Blogger.com or WordPress.com blog that has some content on it, if you live in one of the states that are allowed) and learn more info.


In 2010, I made $6,446.39 from Amazon.com, by referring products like clothes, electronics, songs, etc. to consumers through my writings online.


In 2011, I made $4,669.16 from referring Amazon products to people (see a printscreen of part of my 2011 earnings) — and these downward trending numbers are showing me a few things: The economy did change the buying habits of folks, but also perhaps that more people got wise to making money online using some of these methods, and that it will really help me to change my focus to ways that lots of people don’t know about yet on how to make more money online.

#4 – Yahoo! Contributor’s Network — Formerly Associated Content

I began writing for Associated Content back in 2006, and they were my first experience with writing online for money.

In 2009, I made $1,611.58 writing for them, and admittedly, I don’t write for them very often at all.

In 2010, the newly-named and owned Yahoo! Contributor Network paid me $1,556.51 through my PayPal account for my cut of the advertising revenue on all the pageviews I received for the articles still online for year.

In 2011, I made $929.46 from them. The Google Panda update affected their pageviews as well — although there are ways that writers have been getting visibility by applying for some of their “First Person” positions. I applied I got rejected for the entertainment field, I believe, but I do want to try again for the financial position.

Continue reading “How I Make Money Online Writing from Home — Part 2“