Earning from writing history online
By CJC
Many people are turning to writing as a way to supplement their income. Unfortunately, many of the sites that offer online publishing are scams, offering low rates of pay and taking the authors copyright. This is a problem faced by hundreds of writers everyday. Research and writing is a skill that requires time and experience. As a historian I have tried numerous sites; some offering bespoke essays, some offering advertising revenue from traffic being driven to article/s and some offering the tools of self-promotion. Yet all seemed to have failed. Undoubtedly, if you are prepared to create an article with a text rich in key words and oozing SEO techniques you may receive some revenue. However, this can and will dilute the content of your work. There is so much misinformation on the internet caused by the misuse of key words in historical articles and by the process of spinning an article with the same (not necessarily correct) historical information. Unfortunately, I have met one individual who prided themselves on deliberately misleading history students by posting inaccurate information. What is particularly concerning is the fact that he is a history teacher.
Due to these problems, a new site was created, called www.history-on-the-web.com. This site was established to help the user and the author. It covers all historical topics and aims to earn revenue for the authors without diluting their work. Furthermore, they retain full copyright of their articles and essays enabling them to publish elsewhere.
How much can you earn?
To assess this let us compare the publication of a book with the publication of a series of articles.
Book Publishing:
1. You write a 10,000 word book.
2. This amounts to aprox. 40 pages and takes you 40 days full time.
3. The probability of publication is low.
4. If it is accepted the publisher will take out all the costs of printing, distribution and marketing. Finally you are paid 15% royalties.
5. If you sell 10,000 copies of your book and earn a royalty of 50p for each book you could earn 5,000.
Publishing Online:
1. You write 10,000 words divided into 5 articles/essays.
2. This amounts to 4 pages each article/essay and takes you 4 days full time each article/essay. (This is important because when you have completed one you can submit it and earn while the others are being written.)
3. The probability of publication is high.
4. If it is accepted history-on-the-web.com will pay you 50% royalties.
5. If you sell 10,000 copies of your 2000 word articles and earn a royalty of 7.50 each, you could earn 75,000.
So, in summary if you submitted twenty 2000 word articles/essays and you sold 10% of those articles a month, you could earn 180 and retain your copyright to publish elsewhere.
To further promote the authors work, history-on-the-web.com requests that all authors submit a profile, and to submit an article which promotes and drives traffic to their work. This additional article not only promotes and markets their work but also earns extra money for the authors through advertising: thus paying them for marketing their own publications.
http://www.history-on-the-web.com
