How to make money online reading books

Or rather… reviewing them! That “tiny insignificant detail” (if you know which guilty pleasure movie it’s from, you’re my crowd) is what the clickabaity videos don’t mention. You know which ones I’m talking about. TikTok, Pinterest, Youtube shorts, you name it. The “get rich quickly and with zero money” type of videos. Have you seen titles like “How to easily make money online reading books”? Just register for free on OnlineBookClub.com and read away! Only the tiny insignificant detail is that you have to review the books you read.

In this post I am going to talk about OnlineBookClub, which many creators claim pays you for reading books. They say you can earn up to 60 bucks for reading a book, which you also get for free.

Ok, let’s dive in, shall we?

This post is based on the experiences of the author. Any earnings reported are of the author and do not guarantee the same results for you. Any financial decisions you make are your own responsibility. Read disclaimers for more information.

I loved the idea!

Me: Wow, really? Are you kidding me? They pay you for reading books? Awesome! Let’s do that for additional income!

My inner voice: Woah, woah, just wait a minute! Why don’t we make sure it’s actually legit?

No, not really. My inner voice did not say that. But I can’t really regret it. It was a fun adventure. I like writing, so scribing a review or two didn’t seem like such a hustle. Until I read the guidelines for their review team…

You didn’t think it’ll be all pink and fluffy, did you? But let’s get into details in a moment.

Now, to be honest, I did make some money on OnlineBookClub.com. And they did transfer every cent into my PayPal account. So the website as such is legit, at least from my experience.

The “problem” is that it’s not $60 per book right away. I suppose you might get to that level, but it’s only through hard work and really sticking to the guidelines. Also, a lot of it depends on how actively you promote your own review as well as other reviews on social media, as you get points for that too.

OnlineBookClub’s review team works in tiers. When you begin your journey with them, you’ll only get a free book and have to review that. Only if you pass that review, will you be able to choose from more titles, some of them paid. Still, it’s not 60 bucks yet. The most I got paid for a review still being a tier one reviewer was $15. My total earnings were $25. I only wrote 8 reviews, so it’s basically 3 dollars per book on average.

How it works

As I’ve already mentioned, OnlineBookClub uses a tier system in their review team part of the website. After the last review I posted back in November 2019, I was up to 40 points (out of 100) and on tier one. I haven’t participated in social media sharing, which really boosts your score. Also, posting on forums, especially book of the month forums, ups your points. You are also awarded for comments under your reviews, so if you have a following or a lot of friends who support you, you’re gold there. There is also the Editorial Analysis Score, which basically is about how good your reviews are in comparison to other review team members. What is Editorial Analysis Score you might ask?

It’s the percentage you get from a reviewer who reviewed your review. Yes, you may read that again.

In order to uphold standards, every review is read and graded, it may be published or not. So you really must provide quality in order to level up. My most highly qualified review received 94%.

What’s important is that you don’t have to review the book as great, you can be totally honest. But try to pick a genre of your general liking and criticize it for its strong and weak points.

The better you write and the more you participate, the higher your score will be.

Make sure to follow the guidelines

This is crucial. You now know how it works. Let me introduce you briefly to the guidelines. I say briefly, because the guidelines are everything but that. So make sure you read them before even picking out a book.

Review team has to follow very specific rules during the whole process. You should also check for any updates of the requirements, as not obeying may cost you score.

There are requirements for reading the book, as well as writing the review. For instance:

• keep notes of profanity (first instance)
• keep notes on sexual and religious content
• keep notes on errors, including page number and full sentence
• stick to the deadlines and update the status
• keep to the required wordcount
• include all the information required in the review.

There are more, and each one detailed as to what you should and shouldn’t do. As you can see, it really is not that easy. So anyone claiming that OnlineBookClub is an easy way to make quick buck has not done any research and has surely not tried it.

The website itself does state that you can earn between$5-60, or sometimes even more. At the same time, they do ephasize that only the top-tier reviewers get the chance to pick book with the highest payout.

So if you really like reading and writing, and know how to produce high quality content, you might actually make some money. I don’t think you’d be able to quit your 9-5 though. And if you have little kids, you will most probably struggle to find the time.

I think OnlineBookClub is a great website. I have enjoyed writing the reviews very much, as I have found some really good books. My last review was actually a non-paid one, which I chose over paid ones. I just really wanted to get the book for free because it was a sequel to another book I had already reviewed.

However, it is not passive income. You have be active on the forums and social media, as well as spend time reading every single book you choose and writing high quality reviews. This is not as yielding as a prosperous Etsy shop with digital products. But if you like books, it can be very fulfilling.

If you want to give it a shot, you can register here for free of course (no affiliation). Remember that any decision you make is your own.

Comment

Have you tried any other ways of making money online? Or maybe you have experience with OnlineBookClub? Share in the comments for all of us to benefit from your knowledge. If you have any suggestions for more content on making money online, drop a comment as well. Maybe you’ve seen a video that made you curious, but you’d like some honest opinion. Let me know!

In case you haven’t read my previous post about making money online by “typing names”, you can check it out here.