13 Websites That Pay You To Write Essays and Articles
Creative professionals are often looking for new means of earning money from their work. With the many online publishing platforms and freelance marketplaces accepting articles, so much work is available. If you are a budding or a seasoned writer looking to make money out of your writing passion, many reliable websites are looking for writers. In this piece, we take you through some of the best websites that pay you to write essays and articles. Here, we describe the jobs available on these sites and share some tips to help you get started.
1. Listverse
From the name, Listverse mainly specializes in listicles. This means that freelancers are expected to submit articles in list format. The website has been around for years and is still recruiting unique pitches, and any submission focused on rare finds, uncommon knowledge, and offbeat news. Stay away from listicles focusing on gaming, self-help, individual stores, and sports since the chances of getting published are rare. Listverse accepts submissions from Australia, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, the US, NZ, and the US.
Word limit: 1500-2000 words
Payment: $100 per submission processed via PayPal
2. Vibrant Life
This is a health and wellness-related site accepting submissions focused on healthy living, nutrition, mental health, stress prevention, and spirituality, to name a few. Articles here have a gender-neutral vibe attracting both male and female readers according to demographics. To make your submissions successful, avoid the hard-to-understand terminologies to ensure that readers comprehend and enjoy the articles.
Word limit: 450-1000 words
Payment: varies based on the topic, but the common rate is $100 to $300 for every submission
3. Transitions Abroad
This site focuses on travel and accepts submissions fitting their specific criteria. Given that the site is not your common travel blog, your article must follow a certain style for it to be published. To understand better, refer to their previously published articles and their submission guidelines. If you can write in a journalistic style, your submissions will likely be successful. Topics here include studying abroad, volunteering abroad, and working abroad.
Word limit: 1250 to 3000+ words
Payment: $75 to $150 for every post based on the topic and article length. Payment is processed via PayPal or as a check.
4. Focus on the Family
This website is based on Christian ethics and advocates for proper behavior, parenting, culture, ethics, and faith. Currently, the website has several topics that writers can explore, but you must ensure that your articles are well-written. New topics include gratitude, parent-kid time, candy, and kids. Every topic has an in-depth submission guideline where you explain the topic, number of words written, payment and format.
Word limit: 1200 to 1500 words
Payment: $0.25 per word
5. Money Pantry
This popular finance blog covers money-related topics and means to earn and save money. Consider making your submission if you are thorough in money-saving tips, retirement preparation, and paying off debt topics. Ensure that the ideas and strategies offered in your article are unique and can be implemented easily. Before pitching, make a quick survey on the site to see whether a certain topic has been written about. This is because the site accepts content that has not been published previously.
Word limit: Unspecified
Payment: $30 to $150 for every submission. Sent through PayPal once the post goes live.
6. Chicken Soup for the Soul
You might have heard about a book series by the title above. If so, you stand a chance to have your work featured in some upcoming editions. All that is required of you is to write a heartwarming but funny story in first-person. The challenging part of it is that you could wait for months, if not years, until your write-up gets published. If you have some anecdote that could be converted into a story, you are encouraged to make your submission.
Word Limit: 1200 words or less
Payment: $200 per submission
7. What Culture
This is a UK-based magazine known for offering entertainment coverage, opinions, and news to the millions of people that visit every month. Here, you can submit drafts that are related to television, film, gaming, music, and so much more. The team at What Culture publishes almost 700 articles every week, which means that the chances of your submission being accepted are high. Even though they are mainly based on listicles, they still accept news pieces, galleries, and video submissions.
Word limit: 1500 words
Payment: $25 to $500 for every submission processed via PayPal
8. Clarkesworld Magazine
This is an American-based magazine specializing in fantasy and fiction. The magazine publishes interviews, short stories, articles, and audio fiction. They are open for non-fiction, art, and short story submissions. Before submitting, ensure you have a well-written story suitable for audio and on-screen reading.
Word limit: 1000 to 22000 words
Payment: 10¢ for every word
9. Cracked
If you already fell in love with Listverse, Cracked is here to crack you up in the listicle world. Since 2007, the site has been known to serve funny and fresh content. It is also known for publishing articles from new writers. To maximize your submission acceptance rate, ensure to present your article in listicle form. The good thing about the site is that writers can write about anything, including movies, science, sex, technology, and even history. Just make your article funny and creative.
Word limit: Unspecified
Payment: $50 to $200 for every submission
10. Barefoot writer
This is a freelance website that is in search of articles with interesting but practical topics. The topics could be anything that we encounter in our daily life. For instance, you can play a part in their series of monthly motivators, thinking like a writer, and productivity secrets. Provided that your content follows their guide and style, you can be sure to get published.
Word limit: 700 to 1000 words
Payment: $100 to $300 per submission
11. Income Diary
This website made its debut in 2009 and has continued attracting so many visitors annually. They focus on topics such as driving traffic, making money online, and using social media. Currently, they are looking for SEO experts to create in-depth blog posts about keyword research tools like Semrush and Ahref. They also have so many how-to articles published.
Word limit: 1500 words minimum
Payment: $200
12. A Fine Parent
This website is looking for parents to contribute pieces that are tailored toward helping other parents. The pieces should be inspirational and helpful at the same time. The topics should range from parenting tips, struggles, experiences, and so much more.
Word limit: 1000 words minimum
Payment: $100 per submission via PayPal or check.
13. Sun Magazine
This is a magazine that covers topics such as culture, nature, and personal stories. They accept submissions from freelance writers in the form of essays, interviews, fiction stories, and poetry pieces. To be accepted for publication by this magazine, it is important to ensure that your story has an appropriate tone.
Word limit: Unspecified
Conclusion
We hope we have helped you discover some websites worth pitching. Our team performed thorough background checks on each of the listed websites to ascertain their reliability. You shouldn’t give up when your submissions are turned down, or you get no feedback from editors. The secret is to keep pitching and writing. Eventually, things will happen in your favor. Again, we only listed a few websites that pay freelancers to write. There are so many others out there that could be worth placing a pitch on. All the best!