Write for money online series - Part I - Bukisa
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Bukisa.com I started writing online in 2007 at my personal blog and have not stopped since. I am very fortunate to have been selected to join Wise Bread last year and I have made a steady amount of gas and food money from blogging since then. A lot of my friends have asked me how to earn money online with their writing, and oftentimes they are deterred by the process of setting up and marketing their own blogs. So I decided to research the various websites where people can sell content online and review each of them one by one. Today I am reviewing Bukisa, a relatively new pay for content / ad revenue sharing site.
Website use and feel
The Bukisa website is very clean and content submission is very easy. The workflow makes a lot of sense and the ads on the pages are not overly jarring or distracting. You can add tags to your content or let the system automatically generate tags based on your content. I think that is a great feature because I spend a lot of time manually tagging my articles on pretty much every other site.
Allowable content
Bukisa allows the submission of a variety of content including text articles, presentation slides, videos, and audio. The content has to be in English and be educational and informative in nature. If you are writing an article it has to be at least 250 words and contain no vulgar words. It is actually quite easy to write 250 words if you are writing a how-to article. You can also republish articles you have written elsewhere, but they prefer that you write unique content.
Copyright
The content you write at Bukisa is completely owned by you. Before you publish the system allows you to choose your license type. You can choose Creative Commons or no syndication.
How you earn money
Bukisa has something called a Bukisa index for determining their payouts. Right now the Bukisa index is 3.95, which means you are paid $3.95 for every 1000 unique page views your submissions receive. After running my own blogs for a while I can tell you for a fact this is pretty decent pay for page views. The Bukisa index changes based on how much ad revenue they earn. Sometimes members promote their content extensively and do not earn that much revenue and the whole site has to adjust.
Another thing that is very unique about Bukisa is that they have a revenue sharing program for referrals and the program goes three levels deep. I have not seen this in other pay for content sites. Basically you get 25% of the payment of your direct referrals, 6.25% of the payment of the second level referrals, and 1.5625% of the payment of the third level referrals. This is probably the most interesting thing about the program because referrals can add up.
Bukisa pays by Paypal and the minimum paypout amount is $50 and it is open to everyone that has an active Paypal account.
Conclusion
I really like the website right now and I think it has the potential to be a good passive income source for many content producers. One big reason is the referral system and another reason is that their payment model is pay per view. You do not need to wait for someone to click on an ad in your article to make money, and that makes the revenue stream a bit more predictable. You also have the freedom to write almost anything you want so you are not constrained to one topic. Finally, it is also great because it is not restricted to U.S. residents only.
The only problem I see with this site right now is that it is very new and there is a chance that it would fail completely, but some writers have already reported that they received their earnings so that is encouraging.
If you would like to sign up with my referral link please click here. Otherwise, go ahead to Bukisa.com and try it out.
Tagged: Personal Finance, General Tips, Art and Leisure, bukisa, make money online, Making Extra Cash, selling, work at home, writing
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I have heard about such sites, like Associated Content and Suite 101, but have been nervous to try them because as a professional writer I fear degrading my byline. But maybe that's silly, and then again I could probably write under a pseudonym if these sites can really generate a useful income stream.
Maybe I'll try this one.
I blog at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
Yeah you don't have to post under your full name. I just post under a user name.
This is fantastic! I've been wanting to know more about these, and you're right about people asking all the time about making money online. I'm looking forward to reading your whole article series. Thanks again for putting these together.
As a professional writer, I think sites like these exploit other writers and degrades the quality and value of online content. That being said, if you're looking to promote a service or business, it's cheap advertising.
I'm sorry, but I have to say I was put off by the fact that you offered your referral link after telling us all how we can earn money through referrals. If you're profiting from this, how do I know you're being objective?
Hi Guest. You don't have to sign up through my referral. I make it clear that it is a referral. Additionally, not everyone can be professional writers, so I don't think it hurts for people to have a place to express themselves and also earn a little bit of cash. Finally, Wise Bread is a blog that shares ad revenue in its forums and on the blog itself and I don't think we are degrading online content.
Xin, I think I was unclear about one of my criticisms. When I was talking about advertising, I didn't mean you or Wisebread. I meant that a lot of people who write books and who have businesses will write these free or low-paying articles just to get the word out. It's good advertising for them.
I personally feel that people should write for something of value to them, whether it's money, advertising, education, exposure or the ability to express themselves. Many of these writing websites pay less than minimum wage jobs, so you really have to love what you're doing or find a way to make it worthwhile.
Bukisa was interesting in a campy sort of way, but the business model seems to rely too much on people referring their friends and family, and promoting their own work. In other words, quality writing isn't exactly a priority. Anyone can post anything so long as they promote it a lot so Bukisa gets lots of hits (so they can charge their advertisers more).
I'll write for free (I blog simply for the fun ot if), and I'll write for a good wage, but I won't write for pittance.
You have to admit, it does look a little funny recommending a site that so heavily relies on recommendations as part of it's business. I visited the site, and it seems to be all about referring other people and promoting your work to everyone you know.
That might work... for a little while... But I think people will quickly become sick of their family and friends sending them all their articles. I'm not sure I see Bukisa as a destination website for people looking for information. There are much better sites out there for reading about travel, fashion, etc.
Though I do think these sites might be good for hobby writers because there's no risk of rejection and no editors saying what's good or bad (or is there a review process?)
Xin, I'm really curious to see how your series pans out. I've read about other services that will pay a flat rate of $4 per article, so I'm wondering how the numbers work out among all the services -- or if I might be better of blogging (or working as a waitress!)
Yup, I'll definitely review some more. Bukisa is really really new so there isn't too much data yet. I will review other ones I've been with for a while.
Xin, This is a very helpful series you are working on. Can you offer some PayPal 101. If a person was to blog for these ad sharing websites would they need to open a business pay pal account or could they receive $$ without having to pay a percentage associated with the premier and business plans. If they do pay for the business and/or premier plans I imagine those expenses are deductible. Thanks for any clarity/advice you can offer.
I use my personal account, and there is no fee.
I just got paid this morning from Bukisa and they actually paid me early. I got an email from them that offered payout even though I hadn't quite hit the threshold yet. This site is owned by the same people as the very popular Articlesbase.com site so that was one thing that gave me confidence to try it.
I'm on Bukisa as well, and find it is great for exposure for my other sites, blogs and ebook, as well as pay for the content I publish on Bukisa. Like eHow, I believe the site has a lot of potential down the road.
How do your publicize your other sites, blogs, etc. through Bukisa?
this is a good post, the cpm for this site does not seem to bad as most people are complaining about.. would be a decent way to make money in your spare time
I was hoping that you would go into more detail in explaning the copyright terms. They actually have 3 options but they are confusing.
Thanks four sharing your knowledge about Bukisa. I plan on trying them out after I post 100 articles on Ehow.
Thanks four sharing your knowledge about Bukisa. I plan on trying them out after I post 100 articles on Ehow.
When you sign up under a referral, does that mean that you make 25% less from your own commission? Thanks.
Thank you for this review. I found your assessment a helpful adjunct to checking the Bukisa site itself. Since Associated Content got 'too hard' I've been looking for a decent place to park my pre-loved articles. This could just be the go. Best regards, P. :)