034 · Selling Your Documents Online

This idea could allow those who have studied or who have acquired a sufficiently high level of expertise in a particular field to earn money. How do you do this? By selling documents that you have or will write, and whose content could be useful to others. What kind of documents? How much can you expect to earn? Let’s take a look.

If you have written or are currently writing material on a subject that you know or are researching, and that is likely to be of interest to others, you should know that you could make a profit.

Indeed, there are all sorts of reasons why anyone (individual or professional, student or teacher, etc.) might need access to well-researched and comprehensive information. Buying these documents is, therefore, often a way to save time and money since soliciting the expertise of specialists to launch a study on a specific subject often involves high costs, and doing it yourself requires spending a variable amount of time.

What types of documents could you sell?

First of all, the research topics are quite broad and have almost no limits. They range from mathematics to philosophy, economics, law, history, literature, art, geopolitics, science and pseudoscience, marketing, tourism, management, sports, etc. As I said, if what you have written is even slightly interesting, then it has value.

As for the types of documents, there is also a wide choice. But here is a small list of the most common ones.

  • Notes
  • Coursework
  • Homework
  • Presentations
  • Essays
  • Dissertations
  • Book reports
  • Resume templates
  • Cover letters
  • As well as any other research, study, audit, reflection, tutorial, report, analysis, and methodology document

And the more popular the topic, the more likely you are to sell multiple copies. This doesn’t mean that less popular topics are worthless, but don’t expect to be able to afford that private jet or space trip you’ve been dreaming of with them (or any of the others, actually, but we’ll see that below).

Finally, note that the documents must be sent in a standard file format such as doc, docx, pdf, odt, txt or rtf. There are others, and they differ according to each site, but for the sake of simplicity, I advise you to use one of those I just mentioned.

Where and how to sell my documents?

To sell your documents, you will need to go through a platform dedicated to this. There are several of them, and the one that suits you best will depend on several factors such as the language in which the document(s) was (were) written but also sometimes the country where you live.

Here is a list of the best known and most interesting sites:

First of all, read the terms of use carefully, and once you have chosen the platform that suits you, all you have to do is register and send your documents via the form provided for this purpose. Payments are usually made by PayPal or bank transfer once a certain amount is reached (e.g. $10).

You should also know that most sites will give you a commission on each sale while you’ll only receive a single payment on some others. Each site has its own rules and specificities, so again, it’s up to you.

Finally, avoid submitting the same document on different sites because if they see during the verification that it is already offered on another platform, they may simply refuse it.

Some useful tips to achieve success!

  • 1Avoid plagiarism: In the beginning, some “smart guys” tried to submit documents that were partly, or sometimes even entirely, copied/pasted from other documents offered by the platform or even elsewhere. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for the owners of the stolen content), most sites have bots (a kind of artificial intelligence) whose mission is to scan all newly submitted documents and compare them with those already in the database and on the Web. As soon as they spot a suspicion of fraud (one or more paragraphs that are identical or have too many similarities), an administrator is immediately notified and conducts a more thorough check. Needless to say, you will be banned from the site forever if this happens to you and will even be tarred and feathered (yes, like in the Luck Luke comic strip).

    No, joking aside, please respect intellectual property and only submit material that you have written, or even had written by others, but for which you own all rights. This also applies to courses written by your professors unless you write a summary yourself or have received their permission, of course.

  • 2Choose one or more popular topics: You can imagine that talking about “marmots hibernating in the Siberian steppes” or “the impact of an epidemic on the behavior of online store users” will not have the same success. I have chosen a rather extreme example here, so that you understand my point, but the difference between an “attractive” or “unattractive” subject is often much more subtle than that. Some sites allow you to classify the documents they propose by popularity. This is a very good way to see what works best.

  • 3Propose relevant content: First of all, I advise you to write on topics that you know well. And if you decide to write about a subject that is outside your area of expertise, make sure that the information you give is accurate, and above all, try to provide elements that will be really useful to readers. And to do this, you will certainly have to spend a lot of time reading what has already been written on the subject, bringing in your own thoughts, and being able to synthesize all of this in a seamless and coherent way.

  • 4Take care of the form: Take special care with spelling and grammar, separate your texts into paragraphs, add headings and subheadings, bulleted lists, etc. Aerate your texts to make them more enjoyable to read!

How much money can I earn?

As I have already implied above, don’t expect to make big projects with the money you will earn from the sale of your documents. The value of each of them usually varies between $2 and $10, sometimes more. This price varies according to different criteria such as the quality of the writing, the popularity of the subject, the style, the spelling, and the number of pages, and will, therefore, be set by one of the evaluators of the site.

Some very prolific people, who regularly write and submit new articles of very high quality and popularity, manage to earn quite substantial amounts of money each month. But in most cases, you should be earning an extra income, depending on the criteria mentioned above.

On the other hand, as soon as your document is sent and accepted, you will be paid each time someone buys it (except for single-payment sites as I explained above). Knowing that some documents have been sold several hundred times, this can guarantee you a passive income for a very long time, until the content is obsolete and no longer interests anyone.

Conclusion

This is an activity that will be perfect for those who like to write or have already accumulated any kind of valuable material over the past few years. But if you want to increase your earnings, the best thing to do is to regularly send new documents of good writing quality, containing relevant information, and whose subject can potentially interest the largest number of people. And keep in mind that the clearer and more useful your documents are, the more they will be appreciated and, therefore, downloaded.

This obviously requires a lot of work, especially in the beginning, but in return you will benefit from a regular passive income. It probably won’t make you an annuitant, but getting a sum of money that falls like that on a regular basis is not unpleasant, right?

EcoTips

Environmental and climate change issues are more than ever at the heart of the concerns of this 21st century, which is why I am proposing a few ideas that will enable you to limit the negative impact that the implementation of this idea could have.

These solutions that I suggest are sometimes largely insufficient to compensate for these negative impacts, such as carbon offsetting. Unfortunately, there is not always an ideal and 100% efficient solution, far from it. And if you have others, please do not hesitate to share them in the comments below.

If you don’t already have one, opt for a laptop rather than a desktop model, which consumes more energy. And there’s no need to choose the top of the range, which also consumes more energy. An entry-level model is already more than enough (it’s only for writing text, after all).

Pros

  • Long-term passive income
  • Work at home, in the warmth of the house, or while traveling
  • No pressure, you work at your own pace

Cons

  • Variable income
  • Requires a lot of work and research time, especially at the beginning (unless the documents are already written)
Disclaimer, please read this

Legal and administrative aspects of the ideas you'll find on Sweekr are rarely discussed because they vary greatly depending on the country you live in. I would advise you to check with your local adminitration before starting any business. Keep in mind that if you make money, the state will ask for "its share" in order to guarantee the proper functioning of schools, hospitals and other public services. Therefore, you will probably have to acquire a micro-entrepreneur status, or any other similar.

Please also note that there are currently NO affiliate links on Sweekr! This means that NO commission is charged when you make a purchase from any of the sites recommended here. Some links are optimized for performance testing only, and each recommendation reflects the opinions or evaluations of the writer of this article. And be sure you'll be notified if (and when) this situation ever changes.

This article could be completed or improved with your help. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any question, a relevant remark, a feedback, additional information or spotted any error.Go to comments

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