Any experiences of ways to earn money by writing on the internet?

In six months I have earned enough to pay for my laptop and all my internet usage. My revenue share from page views at Helium is growing and adding up day by day, in addition to payments for articles sold in the Marketplace. With my writing stars I also get upfront payments for each new article I submit. If you do think about joining Helium I recommend you visit the community forum for help and advice in how to earn there. I did put some articles on Triond around six months ago, but I never promoted them, and they were not on popular topics. I have only earned just over one dollar from them!

I think your feedback is pretty sound. Helium comes up repeatedly as does Triond. for those in the UK these sound good bets. But have you costed your time? Are the fees that you get cumulative (ie do you get paid by submission on a one off basis or on a repeat basis in accordance with then number of "hits" you get? If the latter, have you considered how the internet market operates and how you get those hits? My point here is that maybe one needs a more integrated apprach in dealing with the internet to maximise gains so that the income generated is rather more profitable. I've been investigating more, and think I am finding the solutions ... but it is early days. I suspect that if I just wrote articles for Helium and Trond I would still be ther in 6 months beavering away only to find that in fact I am earning enough to pay the internet bill but no way near enough to make a sensible living. I am determined to find ways - but only ethical ones!

This is a really useful reply. I have just signed up with Triond but I found it difficult to see any indication of the potential rewards in real terms. Thanks for the information. Helium seems to crop up in quite a lot of posts. I hadn't come across sites such as Constant Content sound interesting. I am in the UK so I guess Associated Content may not be so good for me, from what you say?

Speaking from experience, I advise against Constant Content. I still have an account with them because I use their calls for ideas for Associated Content articles but that's about it. Occasionally one of my articles that are still posted will sell and magically I will get paid without even knowing what happened! But for the most part I don't like them. For starters, if you haven't already had an article accepted that fits a call, you are very unlikely to get one accepted while the call is still valid. It takes them up to 14 days to review an article and then, if they happen to reject it, they are very vague as to the reasons why. I think that my most hated phrase in the English language is "comma use." Does that mean too many, not enough, commas in the wrong place? Or does it mean that they are reviewing articles based on syntax rules from 20 years ago, which are no longer, necessarily, accurate? Also, when pricing your articles... how do you determine what the articles are worth? Several magazines will pay writers up to $1 per word. For a 400 word article, that's $400! But try selling exclusive rights on CC for $400 and see how far you get. You'll be lucky to sell that same article for $20. I find them to be incredibly frustrating and not worth the effort required to get to the $50 minimum payout.

This sounds good, but if you get paid on a per post basis it sounds as though they don't discriminate between good quality posts and bad quality posts? Which, if true, suggests that at least one could predict potential earnings. But I wonder what the longer term implications of this policy are in terms of developing a site and a system that can endure over time and guarantee that payments are actually made. How long have you been a member and have you actually received regular funds from them over a period of months/years? Thanks

I'm glad that Dragon Naturally Speaking is now gaining popularity for normal use. I first came across it over 10 years ago, at which time it was being recommended for use by some adults with severe dyslexia, who could not put pen to paper and achieve an acceptable result. At that time it was a long learning curve to get used to the software .... and for the software to get used to the user. How long did it take you to get comfortable using it? I sometimes think I would like to get it but my problem is that I think whilst I am writing about the content of what I am saying and I am not convinced that I would be able to think Whilst speaking in quite the same way. Do you find that using this software changes the style and even the content of what you write?

Associated Content is another place that pays to write. if that's any help