The Odyssey presents an interesting opportunity to students. It can be an excellent way for a variety of students from a variety of walks of life to gain experience writing and getting comfortable with words. However, at a small school, it is not easy to make money writing for Odyssey.

We are paid based on how many views our articles get. We begin getting paid once we reach 15,000 views in a month. At a school like Minnesota where there are 60,000 students and where you are publishing 4 articles a month that means you only need to reach 6.25% of the campus population with any given article. At a small school like mine with 2,500 students, you instead must reach 150% of your campus population with every article. I am not going to say it is impossible. I have had one article that has been read by more people than attend my school. But even then I have also had articles read by less than 30 people. If your goal is to make money from Odyssey you should not create content for Odyssey.

That is not to say that Odyssey doesn't have benefits. It can be a useful way to build up a portfolio, it can be a useful way to get practice writing. However, it is not a great way to make money, nor is it advertised as such. If you write because you have a passion for it. If you are looking for an outlet for your creativity or a platform for your writing then Odyssey can be an excellent choice. It provides an easily accessible way for people who are not overly comfortable with running their own website to get their voice to the people.