WeekendNotes - Make Money Writing Articles

Online content writers are all looking for ways to earn decent money writing online, including me. I've been investigating many other venues out there for some time now.

I recently discovered WeekendNotes. This is an Australian website that publishes articles about fun activities and things to do on the weekend (though they can also be any time). This includes everything from attending films, concerts, museum exhibitions, hiking trails, or just reading a book, or checking out a new local cafe.

Don't let their location set you back. They look for writers from cities and towns all over the world.

One of the things that initially impressed me was that they have a seriously long list of awards that they give out to writers to encourage them to write more articles to get them through the initial difficult phase where earnings are low due to limited CPM. More on this below. Very important, to me at least, is that they pay via PayPal when your account reaches $50.00. If you live in Australia, you also have the option of bank transfer.

Their award list is amazing. Basically, you receive an award of $5.00 for every 10 articles you write that are accepted for publication within a given month (to-date, every one I've written has been published).

Don't go just by my screenshot; there are many more awards given than you see here.

They are very generous with awards and often give Newbie awards for good articles to inspire new writers.

The Editor's Choice Awards range from $5.00 to $20.00 for truly exceptional articles.

The Scout Award is for everyone that you recruit who also writes 10 articles, and pays $10.00 (up to a max. of $30.00 per scout).

Every month there are two contests that you can enter to win additional cash (1 entry per contest), but your entry also counts toward your monthly count of articles. Your article must meet a 9/10 at least to enter (this is not quite as difficult as it sounds).

They also highly reward writers who can obtain a link to their WeekendNotes article on the webpage of the event/company they are writing about ($10.00 bonus upfront, and if the link is up for six months, another $10.00)

They really love to give out awards. There is even an award for the person winning the most awards in any given month! These award cash amounts are in addition to money you make via CPM !

In the sign up page screenshot to the right, WNs asks that you write a paragraph about what you did on the weekend to get an idea of your writing skills. You should also use the email address to sign up that is linked to your PayPal account.

After the easy sign up, comes a bit of a challenge. The way this site works is a little different from most content sites I've seen and is not as intuitive. Here are some tips for finding your way around. When you sign up, you choose your closest largest city, but it doesn't mean you can only write about your area. You can write about anywhere if you've actually been there yourself, and if that location is on WeekendNotes' list of cities (you can also request a new city be added to the list).

1. When you click 'New Article', a screen pops up. The first thing to look at is the top where it mentions "Your Town". If your article is about an event or activity in your town, then just leave this. If you are writing a book review, or about an activity elsewhere, you can click on this to change it. For book/film reviews you can use "Everywhere". If you forget to do it at this stage, you will need to ask the editors to change it for you.
2. When loading images you can upload them as usual from your computer, but they will appear as html code within your open draft article. If you want to check the way your article currently appears (without publishing it), click on 'submit' at the bottom and you will see how your article currently appears, but this does not publish your article.
3. When you are ready to publish your article, you must click on the "Notify Editor" button on the top left of your screen. Once one of the editors has checked out your article for quality, they will publish it and you will get an email notifying you. Once your article is published, if you want to make changes you will have to ask the editors to unlock it for you. This is quite different from HubPages for example, where you can edit your own articles any time, and takes a little getting used to, but I have had no issues myself with this and the editors are very easy to get along with.

A significant perk is that you're allowed to include your website url in your 'signature' line above your articles. This is free promotion for you as a writer, and may lead to being offered more work as well as adding to your resume.

Even after you're earning more money with CPM, the awards system continues to function and adds to your earnings.

If you write an article about a local concern, for example, and they like your article enough to post a link to it from their website, WeekendNotes pays $10.00 bonus upfront, and if the link is viable for six months, another $10.00.

Because WeekendNotes is an Australian concern, some of their perks go to locals and include free invites to film and theatre openings, restaurants, and fun local activities in Sydney, Brisbane, etc. Some of these are straight gifts, with no expectations of having to write an article about them.

Here's a list of topics Weekendsnotes accepts for writing about:

• Playgrounds
• Picnic Spots
• Restaurants
• Cafes
• Pubs
• Clubs
• Bars
• Walks
• Beaches
• National Parks
• Museums
• Art Galleries
• Amusement Parks
• Tourist Attractions
• Sports Grounds
• Sporting Facilities
• Markets
• Wineries
• Film/Book Reviews

If there is something you think should be listed, the editors encourage you to contact them to see if they will add it to the list.

WeekendNotes earn their income via advertisements placed throughout your articles. Writers are paid a share of advertising revenue.

How Do the Writers Make Money?

According to their website, writers are paid "in proportion to the number of readers who read your articles, and their length and quality. The average pay is about $8.00 per article, per year. However, it is common to make upwards of $40 for a popular article." So, as everywhere, it really helps if you promote your articles via social media, and build up a large stock of quality articles.

WeekendNotes encourages writers to leave comments on other articles, and pay a small amount for these.

And as mentioned above, while a writer is building up a stock of articles that will earn more from CPM, their generous awards system helps you reach payouts to keep you motivated.

Pay close attention to all the prompts for inputting keywords as you load your photos as they are very keen on SEO and gaining traffic to the site.

Once you reach your $50.00 minimum payout, you must request payment by clicking on "Request Payment" on the Writer Page. WNs pays in US$, AUS$, and GBP. All writers are liable for managing their own taxes and are considered independent contractors.

As stated above, this website is different from other content writing sites in how you access the platform and prepare your articles. You will have both a Writer Page, and a Profile Page (this is visible to the public).

The Writer Page is a page only you see and shows your unpublished articles, the link for write a "New Article", as well as links to the current contests, and links to other currently published articles. At the top right is a link to the Writer's Group. Be sure to investigate this thoroughly.

At the Writer's Group page you will see links to all the things you want to know about writing at WeekendNotes such as Adding Links, Monthly Scoreboards, etc. (I still have a huge learning curve!)

As well, remember to keep in mind to write evergreen articles. While WNs encourages articles about upcoming one-time events, I like to focus on activities that go on all the time. Or at least, write about events from a unique angle that will make the article interesting even after the event is over. For example, I wrote about the PanAm Games recently but rather than just an article about the games, I wrote about 7 odd facts related to the games that would remain interesting long after the games are over.

I also love that writing articles about activities in my locale doesn't require a huge amount of internet research. WNs in fact encourages shorter articles, minimum 600 characters to maximum 4500. They of course encourage lots of original photos.

I'm very excited about WeekendNotes and I'll tell you why. I've been with them about six weeks and I'm going to hit my first $50.00 pay out soon (in the next 10 days hopefully!). I've never seen this with any other content site.

*UPDATE September 16, 2015 Okay, it took me three months to reach my first $50.00 payout, but that's mostly because I was too busy to write up the articles that would get me there. I'm now at 29 articles. While nearly all my payout is from awards, it's very gratifying to hit that payout in three months' time. So, the next goal is to hit 120 articles, and understand what brings in better traffic to increase the CPM.

If I understand correctly, once a writer hits approximately 120 articles, CPM click money starts to make a bigger difference than receiving award money, though it's hard to know at this point if this holds true for locations outside of Australia. There are many other factors involved, and things change (i.e. if your city site/articles start to get a lot of internet traffic and a lot of links), but I'll try to update this article as I go along and learn more.

In early 2015 WeekendNotes hit 2 million page views per month, so, go check it out!