Although it was not my intention when I started writing a blog for freelance writers and businesses who hire freelance writers, a lot of the new readers here at the ArcticLlama freelance writing business blog come from people searching for advice on where to write online for money. In particular, people search to find out whether or not it is worth it to write for Demand Studios and if Guru.com is worth it, and lately, whether or not writing gigs on Elance.com are worth it.
(I have a review of a how to make money on Elance ebook coming up very soon to update that last one with some more information.)
Of course, I am happy to help out my fellow writers whether professional writers or those just starting up their home based writing business. After all, that WAS my intention when I started up this writing blog. Actually, it was that and to help provide some SEO juice to my freelance writing business website since everyone knows that Google rankings love blogs.
Which brings us to today’s introduction to Examiner.com. Unlike other writing website reviews I have done in the past, I am writing this one prior to using Examiner.com, and even prior to being approved as a writer there. It is written this way because I have never written for Examiner before. However, their relentless barrage of “job postings” is driving me crazy. I figure I should find out who they are and what value Examiner.com provides before I scortch the proverbial earth and make them disapear forever.
Is Writing For Examiner.com Worth It?
I will do my best to be impartial in my review of Examiner.com, but in the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that they are currently on my sh*t list.
Like many writers, I use various freelance writing boards, job websites, and writing gigs newsletters in order to keep my business pipeline full. I get several email subscriptions with listings of writing jobs that are posted on major job boards like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. For a while now, however, these lists have been clogged with writing “jobs” from Examiner.com. I have no problem with any business advertising and marketing their business and products regardless of what they are. I do, however, have a problem when these efforts are not entirely truthful.
Check out my latest Capital One NoHassle Miles Rewards article.
Technically, the “jobs” at Examiner.com fall under the contractor or freelancer category. There is no salary or basic pay rate, and there are no benefit. While this is a perfectly acceptable business arrangement between a freelancer and a company, it is not a job. I don’t like that these multiple postings (and repostings, and re-postings, and…) clutter up job searches and job search results.
Again, I have no problem with Examiner.com aggressively marketing itself and I certainly have no problem with businesses actively seeking to hire quality writers. The issue is the nature of these postings and the company’s refusal to keep in them in the appropriate category (freelance, contract, or temp, but not “jobs”) and, even more problematic, it’s constant posting of multiple entries for what is essentially the same job. All of their job posts are for the same kind of “Examiner” with the same qualifications and responsibilities. The only difference is the topic. Thus, there can be 14 results from Examiner.com that are all the same job. Even worse, they are constantly re-posting those jobs to keep them “new”. This wastes valuable time and resources of freelance writers and other job seekers.
I do my writing job searches these days by entering in the job title keyword and then going into “advanced search” in order to refine the search to not include those that have “examiner.com” in them. However, I resent having these opportunities crowd off actual jobs or contracts with actual pay rates from my job board emails.
However, I have found good money making writing opportunities online and elsewhere that did not fit the traditional definitions of jobs, contracts, or freelancing, so I am going to investigate before passing judgement.
In the meantime, I will be unsubscribing from my job alerts from those websites that do not provide me a way to filter out listings from Examiner.com without also filtering out all contracting, temporary, or freelance listings.
Happy Writing! – By the way, don’t forget to check out my parenting skills for dads website.
I have to say that for me, examiner.com is worth it. I currently have four columns that I write for them and have been writing since the fall of 2009. I make an average of $300 to $700 on most months, with an all-time high of $7,000+ one month when one of my articles went viral.
That said, I work hard for my earnings. I pin and post my evergreen articles often to Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. I take part in conversations online and include links to pertinent articles when people ask for information I’ve written about. My subjects are not typical high-earner categories (homeschooling, attachment parenting and green living) but I am often the top rated examiner in my topics and I’ve built up a good fan base. And frankly, I would not be happy writing about reality TV or most of the other popular topics. I write about what I know, and I like sharing that information!
I have five kids that I homeschool and I also do extensive homesteading work such as gardening, preserving, cooking from scratch and gathering wild edibles. All of that keeps me busy! I live in a rural area where jobs are scarce and I have several health conditions that would make it hard for me to work outside of the home. I know my income does not compare to what I could make in a typical job outside of the home, but I love that I can write when I want and then take 2 weeks off because life is hectic and it’s all up to me. I also love being able to write about the subjects that I’m passionate about — subjects I would write about for free (and do).
I don’t know if links are okay in comments, but here are my columns:
Mankato Homeschooling Examiner: http://tinyurl.com/Homeschooling-Examiner
(editor: How about one link 🙂 People can find the rest if they want. Thanks for your detailed reply. I’m always interested in other people’s experiences. If I could find the time, I might try and duplicate your experience 🙂
If anybody wants to know more about my examiner experience, you can feel free to contact me through my blog. It IS very hard to make money through examiner but it can be done, and it is a good fit for me. I am always happy to share my tips with other new writers. The site needs good writers who are passionate about their topics, and it’s good for all of us to have more of those. 🙂
I am trying to become a freelance writer. I desire to work from home for health reasons. Please offer any advise on the first step I should take in pursuing my dream in writing.
You can read many of the articles here. They have some good advice. I’m working on a book specifically about how to get started freelance writing, step by step. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to keep up to date. I’ll have a mailing list soon this year and that will be another good way to keep up to speed.