Freelance Writing: Freelance Writing Movie Reviews Online

Freelance Writing Online Movie Reviews for Money

If you're a freelance writer who loves the movies, the idea of freelance writing online movie reviews for a living can seem like a dream job. Who wouldn't want to get paid for writing movie reviews and selling them? Aside from the money, you finally have an audience who will hang on your every word while you get to go to movie theaters and watch every film that comes out.

Well if you're hoping to make a full time living freelance writing solely by writing online movie reviews, the bad news is that's probably not going to happen. And by probably, I mean almost definitely. BUT, there are many ways to make really good side money writing movie reviews, and if you have a great writing style, can think outside of the box, and are willing to learn SEO and social & Internet marketing, then there's a good chance that over time you could make an exceptional side income freelance writing movie reviews - and maybe even enough to write full time, even if it's not all simply about cinema.

There are several ways to go about freelance writing online reviews to make money, and in some ways this road is similar to freelance writing video game reviews for money. There are a few main sites to write on that will often times pay for movie reviews, and there is always the option of starting a blog and building up a following, then monetizing that blog once the traffic is right. While there are several options, most will not pay great, and getting even a solid or steady income writing online movie reviews can be difficult, but if this is your freelance writing passion, then it is one that you should pursue.

First, I've found that Constant Content is a good place to sell movie reviews online. This is especially true of reviews of brand new movies that have just been released, movie list articles (like Top 10 Post Apocalyptic Films of All Time) or movies that are in line for an award (like the Oscars), but were smaller and maybe didn't get the press as the larger blockbusters. In my experience if you're doing a review of a movie from opening night, a usage review can easily go for $28 (often times I've found by offering only usage rights I even sell the same review 2-3 times), unique rights for around $39, and I don't believe full rights are usually worth the time as the bids don't seem to go much beyond $44, and at that point you don't even have your name on it.

Once in a while you'll even sell a review years later, as there are always new start up blogs concentrating on movie reviews. As an example, at the end of 2007 I sold usage rights to a movie review of "Trainspotting" for $19, a full 11 years after the movie was released. So this does happen.

Associated Content is another place where you can sell movie reviews, although the up front pay tends to be pretty low, and PPV bonus doesn't last because once a movie has run its course through theaters, there aren't going to be a lot of people looking for it anymore. AC might get you some name recognition and more of a following than selling articles through CC, but still not nearly enough to make any serious type of pocket change.

There are two more main options, which can be (and until you make it big, should be) used if you are going to try to make money freelance writing movie reviews. The first is to create a blog and/or website and monetize it. The hardest part of this is getting a strong readership because online movie blogs and online movie review sites are EXTREMELY competitive. If you're going this route, find some good affiliate programs, but learn about SEO and search engine traffic first to get steady traffic before monetizing the site. Concentrate on Google, and consider Yahoo! traffic a bonus.

Obviously this is easier said than done, but building a readership to a blog in any competitive field takes time, and you have to be willng to be stubborn, persistent, and to do the work (and homework) to get your blog or website ranked as high in the Search Engine Rankings as it needs to be. If you don't know enough about how SEO works, Google "Justin blogging zombie" or "Grizz make money online for beginners." These guys will teach you literally everything you need to know about SEO.

The other part of setting up a killer blog or website is the writing. When you freelance write movie reviews for money, you have a lot of different options as to your writing style, focus, etc. A great writing style is important in this particular niche, because one of your goals should be syndication. That might be one of the best ways to make money writing movie reviews. If you have dozens of sites and dozens of newspapers (or hundreds, even?) that all pay you for your movie reviews on a weekly basis, then suddenly even at only $10 a pop, you can start making some pretty decent money freelance writing reviews.

Writing movie reviews for a little extra pocket change is actually pretty easy - it's turning this gig into a serious money maker that is extremely difficult, and you have to have one hell of a blog/website, a great writing style, and hopefully some serious syndication in order to make more than a restaurant meal's worth.

If you tend to watch a lot of movies and like writing movie reviews, then you mine as well freelance it for some extra cash (and then the movie tickets become tax deductible). There are a few ways to do this, and this article went over the main ways to do this through freelance writing. If you're happy with about $100 a month extra through Constant-Content, then this is fairly easy to do. If not, then be prepared for the long haul if you want any serious success freelance writing movie reviews for money. If this is your writing passion, then it should be one you're willing to fight for.