Pros and Cons of Writing for Online Writing Websites

Writing articles for online content writing websites can be a good way to bring in passive income over the life of the websites. Good writers with some SEO knowledge and of course writing skills can produce quality content that can earn them money. Examples of big writing websites include Associated Content, Helium, Bukisa, and eHow.

Writing for money on these websites comes with pros and cons that can affect revenue, article traffic, and the writer's experience with these websites.

The pros of writing articles on writing websites:

Established platform for writers' work-

Many article submission websites have thousands of pages of content along with thousands of ads across their website. Imagine a small niche website with 20-30 articles competing for Google search result rankings with a website that might have hundreds of articles on that same topic. Plus many content hosting websites have staff that work to maximize SEO and linking for content on the website. You aren't on your own when you put your work on a large content site.

Allows time to focus on writing-

If you aren't busy buying domains, building websites, and finding ways to write or buy content for niche websites than you can spend time doing what writers do best: write. This means you can focus on crafting well written articles that have good SEO value and valuable content for readers. You can even spend time writing a series of niche topic articles on the writing website without having to buy domains and promote hoping for search rankings.

Post articles on multiple sites-

The duplicate content debate aside, most writing submission sites allow writers to hold non-exclusive rights to the articles. This means an article posted on one website can be posted on another website that allows non-exclusive content. It is always good to check to make sure a site doesn't want first publishing rights or full rights before spreading an article to multiple sites.

Support from other writers-

Freelance writing can be a lonely way to make a living. But many writing websites have growing online communities where writers can connect to share writing tips, SEO tips, and topic ideas.

Portfolio building-

By placing large amounts of your writing on one or two content websites with your penname attached, you are spreading your brand across the internet. For some writers this can lead to being "found" by potential clients for higher paying writing gigs or lead to having great writing samples to showcase to writing websites such as Constant Content or Demand Studios.

The cons of writing articles on article submission websites:

Less revenue goes directly to the writer-

In exchange for offering you a massive platform for your articles, content websites take a nice cut of the revenue that your articles might generate. Affiliate marketing programs and ad programs such as Google Adsense and Amazon Affiliates take a small cut before giving the article submission website their piece of the pie. The writers get a small piece of the site's cut. This might range from a set amount per thousand page views or may range based on the content and ads aligned with the content. Niche website writers when they hit a good niche can place ads on their websites and potentially make a lot more because there isn't a third party website dipping in for their share.

Lost in a sea of content -

Having one article on one page out of billions of pages on the internet can leave a writer's article submission nowhere to be found where it matters in search results. While big writing websites tend to get results in the top 10 search results, not all articles for given topics make it there. Competition from other websites and other articles on the same website can make getting articles seen a challenge. Which means promoting one's work using social networking may be needed in addition to good SEO writing.

Nothing is permanent -

While many article submission websites tout that you can earn residual income for life as long as you maintain an active account per their terms; we've all seen the internet bubble burst before. Sites can fall apart and go under and with it any content you've put on there. This is why having content spread across sites and other streams of income is important because no matter how well that one website might be paying, it could be gone next month.