Websites That Pay Writers 2015: These 79 Sites Offer $50 and Up

It’s been a few years since Carol rocked the world of free guest posting and began paying for guest posts.

I’m happy to report that a lot of other sites have followed suit.

That means it’s time to update our annual list of websites that pay writers at least $50 per post or article (and really, should you be writing for less?).

This year’s list is a bit different from past lists, in that we’ve previously linked to other lists to make up our total market count.

This time, we’ve done the legwork, asked around our freelance writer network, and gathered our own intel on every market in our list, right here on the post. This list runs the gamut of topics, from parenting and knitting to business and writing, so there should be something here for everyone.

In some cases, these sites keep it on the Q.T. exactly what they pay. We’re including markets where freelance writers in our network report they pay over $50, in order to bring you the widest variety of paying markets possible.

As always, we appreciate any corrections or additions to our list.

Prepare to pitch

Before you go pitching any of these sites willy nilly, read the guidelines carefully and study the posts they’ve already run. Paying markets are more competitive than posting on free sites.

Make sure you either have a fresh topic or a new way of exploring an issue they’ve covered before. Compiling this year’s list, I spoke with some site owners who used to pay, but got so many junk pitches from people who didn’t even know what the site covered that they quit offering payment — or quit taking guest posts altogether.

Need help learning how to pitch a successful guest post? See this post, and this one.

Here’s the list!

Business, Career, and Finance

1. B. Michelle Pippin pays $50-$150 for business-related articles.
2. Back to College pays $55+ for articles that address the needs of adults going back to school.
3. Brazen (formerly Brazen Careerist) will pay if you pre-arrange it with their editor. They’re looking for posts about higher ed administration, marketing, networking, and recruiting and HR.
4. DailyWorth pays $150 for articles about women and money. They list a blackhole editorial@ email address, but I recently tweeted them about how to submit a pitch, and they suggested hitting up the managing editor, Koa Beck.
5. Doctor of Credit pays $50 for personal finance articles that focus specifically on credit.
6. eCommerce Insiders pays $60-$150 for articles about online retailing.
7. IncomeDiary pays $50-$200 for articles about making money online, including SEO, affiliate sales, and traffic generation.
8. Mirasee (formerly Firepole Marketing) pays $200 for 2,000-word posts on marketing, business productivity, and growth topics.
9. Modern Farmer reportedly pays around $150 for articles.
10. The Work Online blog pays $50 per post.

Essays

11. Cosmopolitan.com pays $100 for essays about college. They’re also using this essay submission as a way to find writers to give assignments to.
12. Essig Magazine offers $100 for essays about a personal experience.
13. The Establishment pays $125 and up for reported stories and essays.
14. Eureka Street is an Australian site that pays $200 for analysis or commentary on politics, religion, popular culture or current events in Australia and the world. They also pay $50 for poetry, which seems to be a rarity these days.
15. Everyday Feminism pays $75 per post, but they are not always in the market for contributors. Sign up for their newsletter or check back often to see when they need a writer.
16. Guideposts pays $250 for faith-based essays.
17. LightHouse pays $100 for uplifting essays by blind or visually impaired writers.
18. Narratively pays $100+ for essays on specific topics. Check their guidelines for a list of current needs.
19. The New York Times Modern Love column reportedly pays as much as $300 for essays on any topic that could be classified as modern love.
20. The Washington Post’s PostEverything section reportedly pays $250 for essays on politics or culture.
21. The Toast pays for essays. Negotiate your rate as part of the pitching process.
22. xoJane pays $50 for essays about crazy things that happened to you, beauty or fashion trends you’ve tried, and other women-focused topics.

Family and Parenting

23. A Fine Parent solicits articles on a rotating topic. Check out the topic, then pitch your idea on the theme. Each accepted article earns $100.
24. Adoptive Families covers the adoption process from every perspective. You’ll need to negotiate your pay rate.
25. Babble pays $100-$150 for posts on parenting, entertainment, pregnancy, beauty, style, food, and travel.
26. Lies about Parenting is a site that tells the truth about raising kids. They pay $50 per post.
27. The Motherlode (the New York Times’ parenting blog) pays $100. Pitch the editor.
28. Scary Mommy pays $100 for original parenting posts.

Lifestyle and General Interest

29. The Atlantic’s online health section reportedly pays $200.
30. BBC Britain doesn’t publish their pay rate, but I’ve seen reports of $350-$1,000 for various BBC sites. Pitch stories with a British slant for an international audience. Download their guidelines as a Word document.
31. Bitch Magazine’s website pays for pop culture features. Pay is variable, so negotiate to get your desired rate.
32. BlogHer pays $50 per post on a variety of lifestyle and Internet topics. This site is part of the SheKnows family of sites, which also includes StyleCaster, DrinksMixer, and DailyMakeover.
33. Cultures and Cuisines pays $200 per article.
34. The Daily Beast reportedly pays $250 and up. Their submission guidelines have a black-hole editorial@ email address, so you’ll want to do a little digging to find the right person to pitch.
35. Dame reportedly pays $200 for essays. They do accept reported features and other article types, and pay rates may vary for those.
36. Dorkly pays $75 for long features on Batman, Marvel, Pokemon, and other potentially dorky topics.
37. END/PAIN is a new site launching in 2016, and they are paying $250.
38. Expatics serves U.S. expatriates. This is another site where you’ll need to negotiate pay before you write your article.
39. Fund Your Life Overseas pays $75 for articles about business ideas that provide enough income for U.S. ex-pats.
40. Gawker Media reportedly pays $250 for reported features and essays on its family of sites, which includes Deadspin, Jezebel, and more. They prefer to see fully written stories. They shuttered a number of their sites yesterday, so take care with pitching to ensure you hit the right site.
41. getAbstract reportedly pays $300 for longer (2,000-4,000 word) book summaries.
42. Gothamist pays $50-$150 for reported pieces about New York.
43. HowlRound pays $50 for blog posts about the theater — management and marketing, play production and writing, and so on.
44. The International Wine Accessories blog pays $50 and up for articles.
45. Pay at The Daily Dot’s online magazine The Kernel varies, so be prepared to negotiate. I saw a report of $350 for a 1,000-2,000 word option piece.
46. Knitty pays $75-$100 for articles about knitting.
47. Listverse pays $100 for long (1,500 word) lists on various topics.
48. The Mix, a network of contributors to Hearst online publications (including Country Living, Bazaar, Esquire, Popular Mechanics, and more) pays $50-$100 for articles.
49. New York Observer pays $100 on posts about politics and culture for “sophisticated readership of metropolitan professionals.”
50. OZY does pay freelancers, but rates vary.
51. Paste pays $50+ for submissions in many different areas.
52. Penny Hoarder shares money-saving ideas. You’ll need to negotiate pay with the editors during the pitching process.
53. Playboy.com pays up to $350, depending on the topic.
54. Pretty Designs covers fashion and beauty. You’ll need to negotiate per-post pay.
55. PsychCentral covers mental health. They don’t list a pay rate on their site, and they didn’t respond to my query about pay, but a reader on last year’s list reported they are a paying market.
56. Refinery29 reportedly pays $75 and up for slideshows, articles, and essays on various topics. They also post their needs for specific columns on their guidelines page.
57. Salon pays $100-$200 for essays and reported features, even very long ones.
58. Saveur starts at $150 for “amazing stories about food and travel.”
59. The Salt (NPR’s food blog) reportedly pays $200+.
60. Smithsonian Magazine Online reportedly pays established freelancers up to $600 for reported articles.
61. The Tablet pays for articles on Jewish news, ideas, and culture. Pay varies, so be prepared to negotiate. I saw a report of $1,000 for a heavily reported 2,000+ word feature.
62. TwoPlusTwo Magazine pays $200 for original posts about poker. They post articles for six months, after which time the rights revert to the writer, so you can sell reprint rights or post it on your own blog.
63. Upworthy pays $150-$200 for 500-word posts.
64. Vice‘s pay rate varies, so you will need to negotiate if you’d like to write about food, technology, music, fashion, and other lifestyle topics.

Tech

65. A List Apart covers web design. They pay $200 per article.
66. Compose pays $200 and $200 in Compose database credits for articles about databases.
67. The Graphic Design School blog pays $100-$200 for articles and tutorials about Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and open source design tools.
68. Indeni pays $50-$200 for posts that cover Check Point firewalls, F5 load balancers or Palo Alto Networks firewalls.
69. Linode pays $250 for articles about Linux, Socket.io, NoSQL databases, game servers, Open Change, and Web RTC.
70. SlickWP pays $100 for posts about WordPress and the Genesis Theme framework.
71. Tuts+ pays $100 and up for tutorials on various technologies, including Web design and Flash. Tuts once ran a network of 16 different blogs, including Freelance Switch, but it’s all together on a single site now that encompasses design, gaming, photography, writing, and more.
72. WordCandy pays 6 cents a word for ghostwritten pieces about WordPress — these will appear on some of the larger WordPress blogs, such as wpmudev.
73. WPHub pays $100-$200 for posts on web design trends, coding best practices, and other WordPress-related topics.

Writing

74. Funds for Writers pays $50 for original articles for the newsletter that cover ways to make money writing. (If you don’t subscribe to their newsletter, it’s worth signing up while you’re there reading the guidelines.)
75. Make a Living Writing. That’s right, this-here blog pays — and as of this post, we’re raising our rates to $75 a post. We’re also paying $100 for longer assigned posts on specific topics (see that guidelines link for a list).
76. Read. Learn. Write. Pays $100 for original essays about reading and writing.
77. WOW! Women on Writing pays $50-$150.
78. The Write Life pays for some posts — you’ll need to negotiate your rate.
79. Writer’s Weekly pays $60 for writing-related features.

Have you written for any of these markets? Found others that pay well? Tell us in the comments below.

Jennifer Roland is a freelance education, healthcare, and technology writer — and the guest-blog editor here at Make a Living Writing. Her latest book, 10 Takes: Pacific Northwest Writers, was recently published by Gladeye Press.

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