No you don’t. The money is appalling because the competition from writers in India and China is way too intense.
The only way you can make money as an article ghost writer is to find an article writer who is willing to pay you $10 for an article that takes you one hour to write. Indian writers typically work for $1 per hour at freelancing sites.
As in every other area of life, you get what you pay for. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Monkeys cannot write English and neither can most Indian writers.
American and British writers can command premium rates for articles they write because their articles are written in perfect American or British idiom. These articles need no editing and are ready to go live as soon as they are delivered.
Article ghost writers are paid on delivery of an acceptable article by an ‘author’ who has an account with one of the big article sites. The ‘author’ will be paid $20 for the article so is only willing to pay out $10 to a ghost writer.
Sometimes the ‘author’ will be planning to earn from the ads that surround the ghost writer’s work. In this scenario she is taking a bigger risk and will usually only pay a ghost writer $5 for an article she expects to earn her $10 a year.
I have written a longer post on this subject, check it out – Article Ghost Writer A Career Opportunity