May 2, 2012

Who Makes The Most Money Writing Online?




There was a time, many moons a go, when most writers were gray haired men in ratty tweed jackets pecking away on a typewriter. Sorry girls but most women were at home being wives and mothers, nothing wrong with stay at home moms but that was how it was.

Now days, it seems that everyone is writing: teenagers, grandmas and office workers bored with their duties. Everyone has something to say and want people to read it.

There is so much competition that many have resorted to methods a bit unconventional and even unethical to get their work noticed.

So who gets the most notice these days? Women with sexy avatars. That’s right, doesn’t matter if they are good writers or know what they are even talking about, they get the most attention.

I have read some really bad stuff that is misspelled, grammar errors abound and no common sense to the article but they have a huge audience.

In the old days most people that read were intellectuals with money to buy books. The poor didn’t have enough funds and many couldn’t even read. Move forward several decades and now most people in America are literate, at least at a third grade level and books, newspapers and the Internet are all free with the help of our local libraries.

The majority of people aren’t interested in intelligent conversation and they don’t even care if the facts are accurate. I’m going to give you American statistics because that’s where I live. These will vary in other countries.

Most Internet users, about 70% depending on whose findings you read, are male and around the age of 36 give or take.

Some of the statistics I’ve read say most have had some college and are upper income but I think that is inaccurate. From the people I talk to, I think less people have gone to college and most fall into the lower income bracket, here’s why. All you have to have these days is a smart phone to access the Internet. Some of these websites are assuming people have a computer and pay for service, I don’t think that is true but I digress.

Back to my point, young men are easily influenced by pretty women, especially if they give them half a minutes worth of attention, some women have figured this out using it to their advantage.

Are you ready for this? The people making the most money from online blogging and article writing are (or at least want you to think they are) young attractive women. Some market savvy women use it to their advantage.

I know women who have an avatar of a girl in a bikini or sexy clothing, their writing is atrocious and yet they get many comments, views and their income is much higher then many of their peers simply due to their picture and a bit of flirting in the comments. It works, they know it and they are cashing in at the bank.

Here’s the kicker, most of those avatars are not the writer’s own picture. They borrow them from stock photos or some other source knowing they’ll get more readers then if they use their own image because many of them are middle age women who look nothing like the pin ups they are portraying.

I even know a couple men (Don’t worry guys, I won’t blow your cover) who use a female pseudonym and avatar so they can make it in the writing world.

Sure there are still intelligent people out there that want to read articles written by people who know what they are talking about and can give them good information but for the mediocre journalist it’s not so easy to get noticed.

So, should we all use cleavage shots as our profile pictures and flirt to get attention? Of course not. I know a couple young women writers who didn’t even use revealing photos but were stalked and traumatized by strange men who became enamored with them. We can’t be too careful these days.

Write well written, informative articles and you’ll get an audience, it might not be huge and you probably won’t get rich but at least you know you did it on your own merits and not by false means.