How to Write Movie Reviews online and make money doing it
If you are a talented writer and have some familiarity with TV Shows and Movies, then you will definitely love the topic posted here! Or could it be useful if you are a movie buff who spends their weekend nights watching comedies, documentaries, sci-fi movies, etc.? Or maybe because you love watching movies, rating them and recommending them to your friends?
Whatever you enjoy watching, you might be interested to know that you can earn some extra cash by doing your hobby. Writing movie reviews can be a really fun and simple way to make some money especially if you are a movie buff.
But we’re here to show you the tip of the iceberg. We’ll start by showing you how to write a decent movie review. Then we’ll explain all the ways you can start writing movie reviews while making some money.
Learn how to write movie reviews online
When it comes to writing and publishing online, movie reviews couldn’t be simpler. There are some general tips that you will probably want to follow, which we will cover below. But as long as you use the approach of a friend who advises another for each review, this approach should perform just fine.
It’s a good idea to start with a brief plot summary, before outlining what is and isn’t good about the movie. Keep everything vague to avoid spoiling the story and try to build a strong case for why this movie is worth watching.
Since you’re writing for the web, enter the names of any of the key cast and crew members involved in the production to help your review appear in search results. Just be sure to include those names and addresses as organically as possible.
Relate everything with a summary of your ideas and recommendations for the reader. You could say the movie is “great for action fans” or “not worth watching for anyone who doesn’t enjoy the genre.” You should add anything that lets the reader know whether or not you think this type of film is particularly good for them.
Finally, give the movie a rating based on the system the website or publisher uses. This could be through stars, letters, numbers, or something else.
Now, let’s head over to explaining how you can become a movie reviewer online and earn some money.
1. Writing movie reviews for intellectual property royalties
One of the easiest ways to make some money with online movie reviews is to submit to websites that pay for the rights to your content. The money you get depends on how many people read your review. It may come from subscription fees or advertising revenue.
You may also hear these websites referred to as revenue sharing or pay-per-view sites.
There are a bunch of different sites where you can submit movie reviews and earn revenue. They seem to change all the time, but the most popular options now include:
- Medium
- HubPages
- InfoBarrel
- CulturedVultures
All you have to do is sign up and start posting your reviews. HubPages also has a category for movie reviews that you can post to.
We want to highlight Cultured Vultures, a site that specializes in content like movie reviews. Cultured Vultures built and structured the site with amateur writers in mind and strives to pay as much as possible for all of its content, offering around $2.50 per 200 views within the first week of publication.
Once your review is online, other people can read or comment on it and you must receive royalty payments for the traffic you receive. You won’t make a fortune because it’s hard to get noticed on such sites, but it’s way better than writing for free.
Moreover, revenue sharing sites are a great place to start building your portfolio. This is especially important if you want to go self-employed later on.
2. Reviewing films as a freelance writer
Most people don’t expect to make a living from the profit sharing sites above. But it is possible to make a full time income if you figure out how to become a freelance writer online. When you’ve created a stream of high-quality reviews, all you need to do is start responding to communications across the web.
Do a quick Google search for “write movie reviews for us” to bring up the latest websites looking for a freelance movie reviewer. Of course, these results are bound to change all the time, but we found the following sites looking to hire writers:
- ScreenRant
- Taste of cinema
- Cinema Escapist
There are plenty of other useful Google searches you can try too, for example, “find writers to review movies” or “write paid movie reviews”. Any of these examples will likely lead to various writing opportunities. You can also set up Google Alerts with these keywords.
Another approach is to visit websites and blogs dedicated to movies to see if they are hiring writers. Even if there is no explicit advertisement, it is worth your time by sending an email to inquire. Tell the website owner of your presence, then keep coming back to the website to see if things change in the future.
Finally, don’t neglect the plethora of job boards and project sites dedicated to helping freelancers find work. We’re talking websites like Upwork and Fiverr or job boards like ProBlogger.
These websites run the gamut on topics, but there are clients looking to hire film reviewers. Of course you can always write to yourself instead.
3. Invest in your website
There is nothing stopping you from creating a new website to host your movie reviews and then make money from it through monetization schemes. This approach has proven to be an effective way for many people to make a living across a range of different topics.
Although this does not mean that it is easy.
In fact, going down this path requires a lot of other skills besides your ability to write, especially marketing and research. It is not always easy to learn how to make money with a movie blog.
You can build a website for little cost on platforms like WordPress or Squarespace. Once you’re up and running, find a way to get visitors to your site through ads, word of mouth, or search engine optimization.
Converting visitors into customers is one of the most popular ways to generate revenue from your audience. This is a popular tactic with any type of review because you can use an Amazon affiliate link to encourage your readers to buy the product you’re writing about. All you have to do is sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program and associate your reviews with words like get the movie on Blu-Ray, DVD, or digital download of that movie.
Another great way to get paid for the movie reviews you write is to use Google Adsense on your website. These tools work with Google’s huge network of advertisers to deliver the most relevant ads to your readers. You can block ads you don’t like, choose where they appear, and choose the types of ads that work best for your website.
If you don’t want to go down the advertising route, you can always set up a Patreon account and ask your readers to support you directly. Many writers feel more comfortable with this type of monetization.
Consider creating a YouTube channel instead
Getting paid to write movie reviews is an exciting way to make a living. But remember, written reviews are only a small part of the market, with hundreds of thousands of people watching YouTube movie reviews instead.
So consider creating your own YouTube channel to share video movie reviews. You can do this in addition to those reviews that you write. YouTube is a great way to build your personal brand, earn some extra cash, and find an audience that is passionate about your business.