Passive Income From Your Dorm – Your Guide to Online Entrepreneurship

I started writing for Examiner.com in November 2011. I’ve only written a couple of articles and have gotten about 1500 views. Articles for Examiner.com only have to be about 250 words so they are very quick to write. I write about college topics in my area so I am considered a local examiner. Depending on what topic you have been selected to write for, you can also write national articles.

I’m not exactly clear on what I am getting paid. I get so many emails each week about suggestions for what to write and how certain topics may be eligible for more money. They have a forum for my region where I can get even more suggestions. For example, if I write 2 articles per week that are approved as local articles, I get $5.00 plus my regular earnings generated from ads. However, you don’t get a confirmation when you’ve been approved for the $5.00. When you look up your earnings, you only see what you’re earning from the ads. So I was surprised when I got an email stating that I had a Paypal payment from them for $14.89!

November Examiner Earnings

Most of what I’ve read online is that you won’t earn anything from Examiner and it’s only good for building traffic to your personal website or portfolio. However, I wrote 10 articles in November that were a minimum of 250 words. One of them was a recipe and most of the others were about charity events in my local city. I wrote articles that were time sensitive for my city. They will likely come up in search engines in November 2012. For November, my ad earnings were $7.88. Although I haven’t written anything this month, I have earned $0.57 from ad revenue on these articles. Because my total November payment is $14.89, my assumption is that I received 2 $5.00 bonuses for writing local content and then a fee was subtracted for issuing the payment. However, it doesn’t state that they subtract a processing fee for payments. I got some kind of incentive pay. Anyway, I was happy because I wasn’t expecting to meet the $10 minimum payout this month!

Examiner just announced that they have a partnership with CBS Local Digital Media. This means that select stories written by Examiner.com contributors will be featured on CBS websites. So things such as “Best of” guides and “Top Spots” lists will be popular feature items.

Over the next few weeks I plan to apply for additional local positions to increase my earnings. If you are interested in becoming an Examiner.com contributor, please leave a comment or contact me directly. They have a email referral program and by using my referral code, I earn $50. :)