I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about where freelance writers can work online to actually make money. I’ve been writing for Examiner.com for about a month now and am already very pleased with what I see.
Writing for Examiner.com is fairly easy. You select a topic you feel passionate or informed about and that will make it even easier to create a solid body of content. Individual posts do not have to be very long so I can take one 600 word article I would have published somewhere like Suite101 and turn it into two or three posts for Examiner.
While they do ask you to publish 3 or 4 posts per week, I am able to write all my posts for the week in a single day, save them as drafts, and then it is easy to go and set them to publish every other day. The hardest part for me has been finding photos to go with my articles! *laughing*
What does Examiner.com pay?
OK – that sounds good, Angela. But what does Examiner pay? The exact rate varies according to what they bring in from advertising. They pay strictly based on page views, however, the exact rate isn’t known upfront. I will say, the amount of pay per page view hugely trumps what I am making at Suite101.com right now and after only 1 1/2 months writing there I have already earned my first payout at the $25 minimum.
What Rights Does Examiner.com Keep?
None! That’s the other thing that I love about Examiner.com. I can repost my material to my blog if I ever decide to leave, send a feature article to a print magazine, or compile the pieces into an ebook.
How do I Join Examiner.com?
Visit this Examiner referral page and apply for a topic in your local area that sounds interesting to you! If you decide to give it a try, please use my referral number #2287 when you join. 
See my Alternative Medicine Examiner Column.
P.S. For my Suite101 Friends – I am averaging about $10 for every 1,000 page views, or slightly higher.
Updates!! I’ve just posted a new blog post – Re-examining Examiner to discuss the changes, my findings and feelings after a year, and how I feel about writing with Examiner still.
Hello. I just applied for examiner.com and was wondering how long it usually takes to hear back from them? It’s been a week. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you!
Some applicants have reported a wait of several weeks because of the influx of new writers. You should hear back from them within the month though so hang in there!
Angela <
A post I read not long ago from another forum by a publisher, “self-publishing” is the future”. To learn web writing now and earn continuing income with writing articles is great. This is the future now. There is news everyday of another print newspaper or magazine that has ceased.
Opportunities are coming to many more writers, like the singers Susan Boyle or Jamie Pugh on Britains Got Talent receive – they may never have received. Online entities like Suite101 assists so many more great writers like myself to contribute their expertise and make income every month; we may have never had this chance before (as we may get overlooked my Allena).
A second benefit, it is creating more internal jobs to keep up with the writers they are hiring. 3, readers learn new things. Thank you Suite101.
Wait… Hold the phone… I think I missed something. Doesn’t About.com pay its writer a residual monthly fee? And isn’t Allena a guide at About.com? And don’t they buy all rights to the Guide’s work? So why is she giving all the Suite 101 writers the heat? (I’m not with Suite, but I like this post).
I know a few Guides who said writing at About was a total waste of time, that they put way more into the try-out, building the site, adhering to editorial guidelines and policies, and promoting it then they ever saw in return. I also saw they recently lowered the monthly minimum payment down to $675 for the first 2 years as a Guide. After that it’s $500 a month minimum after that.
However. I still think that’s great money, and I would certainly consider applying if the topic was right and work to promote it to make more. The exposure would be nice a well.
But let’s break this down. With About.com’s required 4 articles a month and 1 to 3 blog posts a week, that’s upward of 16 pieces in a month. If you’re only making the minimum $500 payout, that’s only about $32 an article. Sounds like people here have made similar if not much more than that per article at similar sites.
And yes, I know many Guides probably make more than that and they say the average guide makes something like 1-2k a month.. But the former guide I knew didn’t. She made just above the minimum payout. But my point is…..
Aren’t you essentially “wasting your time”? Let’s be realistic. It’s nearly the same residual income model! I’d love to see you try Suite 101 for a month and post about it on your About page and assess the difference.
Btw, Crystal — When my writing work dried up and I was waiting to hear back on assignments, I used Demand Studios. I made about $400 a week part time and I still do it some to keep up my income. They do make you start with 10 articles at a time and then gradually bump you up. So you can’t just have a run at 100 articles if you have the time to write them.
400 word articles run $15 and I can write 2 to 2.5 in an hour averaging about $30 or more an hour. I get paid weekly by paypal and have never had an issue. I also don’t get many revisions, and when I do it usually takes 5 or 10 minutes for me to fix.
I personally don’t care that they buy all rights. I just don’t care about selling all rights to articles on ‘how to pick out a snowboard’ or ‘how to do a duck dive on a surfboard’. I have no desire to resell that. However, I do care about using my own name. I prefer to use a pen name. And because of the specific writing jobs and positions I apply for, I don’t include working for Demand Studios on my resume.
Demand recently started a new queue of articles where you get paid $5 upfront per article and then earn residuals. I haven’t tried that yet.
I’d say give it a shot if you need the money. But if it feels tedious or requires too much research, then try something else instead.
This article has encouraged me to apply for an examiner position.
Question–on the application it asks for your insider info on “your selected city,” but if you are applying for a national position, how do you respond?
I would just mark on it “National” instead of entering a local city then. I do know, however, that they really want to fill in the local area spots.
Thanks, Angela. The local spot is already taken, but the national spot is open. Are the national slots significantly more difficult to break into?
Hi,
Very interesting discussion! I was wondering if Suite 101 and Examiner take on writers not located in the US (and not US citizens)?
Thanks
Suite101 accepts writers from outside the United States, however right now Examiner does not.
Angela
If you’ve found a gig you love, pay attention to the way you feel. Ignore the negativity. (Allena, you’re throwing away resumes? Well, I wouldn’t work for anyone who can’t bother to use spell check. First impressions, honey.)
I’m a full-time freelance writer and an author and editor. In other words, I’ve been around the block a couple hundred times. Examiner recently hired me, and I love writing for them. (Picked up by Suite 101 around the same time, but left because Examiner is more fun for me and they pay better.) I get my money from many writing sources, and Examiner is one of them.
hey guys, i read through this, (its all interesting) but i still have a question. i started writing for examiner.com, its been almost a month, i love writing for it because i write about what i really love and its so much fun, but so far, i haven’t been paid. i wanted to know (without emailing them directly lol) when should i expect to be paid and how much? i will appreciate any help.
Examiner has a $10 or $25 minimum payment threshhold, I forget exactly which it is. They will pay you on the 20th of one month for the revenue you earned the month before IF you’ve reached the minimum. So if you earn $9 the first month you will not get paid – say in May. Then in June you reach $28. So the 20th of July you’ll be paid for the revenue you earned before that.
Suite101 pays usually around the 6th or 7th for what you earned the month before. Each site works a little bit differently with the timing on stuff.
Angela <
I write personal essays, much like Erma Bombeck did- would these be of interest to Examiner? or do they have to be ‘How to’ oriented? I am an at-home mom and was considering filling out an application.