#1 Triond

In my opinion Triond is the best website that you can express your writing, pictures, or even media for money.  Triond is one of the safest websites to receive a money transaction.  Plus it’s my personal favorite and I've never had a problem with it.

#2 Helium

I like helium too and they have a lot of great articles about everything.  You could find how-to articles or cooking or sometimes gaming articles.  I've used some of the tips in some of the articles.

#3 Associated Content

The only reason why I have associated content my #3 is because I have had some account troubles before.  It wasn't the payment but the confirmation code.  Anyway...it’s the same thing like Triond or Helium but sometimes you can get paid more if your article is AMAZING.

I know everyone has heard of other great sites like treasure trooper but recommend these sites since I've experienced their content and it’s really safe.  Not to mention that not a lot of personal information is needed unlike treasure trooper.

Have FUN contributing content and earning some cash!!

Based on a thread in the Helium forum, it was September 29, 2008 when they announced that they are now allowing live links in every articles submitted.

The live linking announcement came with other new functions including the refurbished spell-check, article preview and the most awaited word count.

But what concerns members the most is the linking option. The thread was flocked with questions as to what can be linked and to what can be linked to.

Link building is one way to promote an article and improve search engine ranking. With Helium's PageRank at 6, it is eminent that members can use this linking feature to improve the rankings of their own websites.

Embedded Link Dos and Don'ts

The Helium Team was quick to come up with these "Dos and Don'ts of Embedded Linking:

1. Do use embedded links to provide sources for your articles.
2. Don't use embedded links to link to your personal or business website. Self-promotion in articles is against out User Agreement.
3. Don't use embedded links to link to adult content."

Helium also encourage the use of flagging to stop inappropriate linking.

Their User Guide is clear on not allowing promotion like "including your name or website or your products in an article you write is not allowed. Why? The simple answer is this: Anonymity is critical to the success of the rating process."

Helium's rating process involves comparing two articles under the same title and rating which one is the better. Having a name or any identifying information would make the rating biased.

So what can the writers link to?

They are not really strict on what you can link to. The Dos and Don'ts are just general guidelines to show that Helium trusts their members. As long as a member is not violating any guideline, he can link to anything and to anywhere he wants.

With a creative mind on how to link well, writers can still bring traffic to their own websites and improve their rankings.

I started online writing with Triond in August of this year.  I love how you can publish pretty much anything that you can come up with.  There are some rules and regulations that need to be followed though.  Triond has a strict policy of publishing only original material.  They will not publish anything that they believe is a duplicate of content posted elsewhere.  I've got mixed feelings on this.  Of course they do not want to plagiarize another writer's work or infringe on a copyright.  However, I've found that they are a little too overenthusiastic at times about what is considered "duplicate" work.  A couple of times they have rejected my content because it had a similar title to another article out there even though the body of the article was about a completely different subject!  I was able to work it out with them through emails back and forth fairly easily though.  Triond has been great about keeping up an ongoing communication with me as a writer.

Another rule of publishing with Triond is that it is not obscene.  Their version and my version has differed on occasion though.  For instance, when I was publishing an article about quotes of various musicians, I quoted Ozzy Osbourne.  As most of you can attest to, Ozzy is very fond of the F word.  I thought that putting stars over every letter except the F would be okay.  It was rejected.  I actually had to put a star over the F as well.  I think this is perhaps a bit much.  I understand that there are readers and writers of all ages here, my son is one of them.  I really think that he could handle just seeing the letter F though.

The final rule of Triond that I've had problems with is not producing content that is overly commercial.  I had tried to submit an article about a commercial on television.  It was about a Zellers commercial where they go through all of the letters of the alphabet with things you can buy from the store.  My article was mainly an explanation of all the letters because I couldn't figure out a couple for quite a long time.  I was unable to publish it though because they though it was too promotional or commercial.  I was really promoting shopping at Zellers, I was just talking about the commercial itself.

One of the things I really like about publishing with Triond is that you can publish all types of content -- anything from text articles to pictures to audio files and videos.  I've found that readership of text articles is much higher than that of pictures but I love that you can publish in practically any form.  From poetry to pictures of your cat to reviews of what you watched on t.v. last night.  It definitely helps keep the creative juices flowing.

Triond is an online community of writers.  You can make "friends" and "fans" on this site to help you gain a wider readership.  Readers will often leave comments too on your articles which can really help  you to improve your writing, learn others opinions and come up with ideas for other articles.  I really like receiving comments and try to writer comments on other's work as well even if it's just a "Great Article" or "Keep up the Good Work".  Sometimes I have more to say than other times but if I write great article you can be sure that I actually mean it.

The best part of publishing with Triond, of course, is the money.  You are definitely not going to get rich quick here.  I've made about $25 in about 3 months.  The more you write, the more you make.  It may just be pennies at first but those pennies do add up quicker than you'd think.  And your articles just keep on making money after they're published.  I've found that sometimes articles lose their popularity and sort of fall off of my radar.  And then a few weeks later, they are rediscovered and start earning again.  It's the neatest thing to think that I'm actually making money just from my thoughts and writing efforts.  Sometimes Triond will publish your article on an outside website.  They have done this with one of my articles so far.  That article has gotten 13,500 views!  My most popular article that was published on a Triond website got about 4,000 views so that's a huge difference.  I'm not sure what the qualifications for your article to be offered to an outside website.  I wish I did because then maybe I could be published outside again!  It is definitely worth it even though you lose some editorial control.

Helium

Helium is another online writing website.  Here they provide the titles for you to write to.  They only publish text only articles -- you cannot even illustrate your ideas with pictures which I've found quite annoying.  Once you have written to an article, it is rated by other Helium users.  Their rate section has two articles of the same title for the rater to read.  You then choose which one is better in your opinion.  You can say one is worth slightly more, more, or substantially more than the other article.  I do not really understand this process although I've been looking at it pretty extensively for the last couple of weeks.  I guess how well your article does depends on what other users think of it.

Helium has a "Marketplace" where websites looking for content advertise what they are looking for.  Again, you have to write to titles already provided.  Each publisher has a list of qualifications for each offer and an amount that you could potentially earn if your article is chosen.  I've found that the marketplace is not exactly full of offers.  At the moment, there are less than ten offers to buy articles there.  You could potentially earn quite a bit of money though.  I've seen offers anywhere from $10 to $160!  Of course, the offer for $160 had alot of articles written for it.  The content that they are looking for is quite varied so that it is possible for anyone with any skill set to earn some money here.

They also have writing contests that you can write to.  These seem to be mostly about topics that have not been written about very much.  These submissions are then rated against others in the category.  The first place winner gets $60, 2nd gets $40 and 3rd gets $20.  There are twenty titles in each category though so it's pretty tough to get in the top 10, never mind the top 3.

Your articles can be bought by people looking for content and they could get exclusive rights or just the right to use your article.  I'm not exactly sure how this process works though.  I don't like that it is vague about how money is earned.  It's nice to know that your efforts are paying off even if it is very slowly.  When you write and write and earn nothing, it can be quite discouraging.  Especially if you're not sure why you're not earning anything or what you could do differently.

I'm going to keep writing for both sites for now.  Triond is definitely my favourite at the moment though.  Being able to use pictures in the articles is a major plus to Triond.  Some things are almost undescribable with words alone.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words for a reason.  I also like how transparent the money you're earning at Triond is too.  There is never any doubt as to how much you are owed at the end of the month.  Helium has more earning potential.  But it's just that, potential.  I'll keep you posted as time goes on and my views on the two sites are updated.

Helium also has two opportunities that I love. One is the writing contests. I came in 5th place in one of the contests and won $5.00. The other is the marketplace. It's kind of like the Writer's Market except a lot smaller and easier to access. There's articles you can write and the companies will pay between $15 and $150 per article. You can also see how many other people have applied and how many days are left. Once all the submissions are in, you can read each other's articles and they are ranked by other members.

I checked the purchase date for the article that I wrote. It was about the freshman 15. (Something I know a lot about) The purchase date was Oct 16. So at about midnight on the 16th, I checked my ranking. I was number 1 out of 8! That means they are more likely to buy mine! (If they don't, I'll be so pissed). So at about noon I went back to check if they had made their selection yet.

"Helium is undergoing maintenance and will be back online at 2:00 ET."

So I checked back at 1:00 because I live in Illinois which is in Central Time. It still said 2:00 and then I reloaded it. It changed to 3:00. So an hour later I checked back. 4:30. Ugh! So after my class I checked at about 6:30 CT and it said 4:30 ET. I was very confused. I kept checking all night. I guess they mean 4:30 the next day. So here it is the next day and it's 2:00 here. I guess I have to wait until 3:30 to see if I won $32. This is very frustrating.

One site that is not too good and I have never liked using is Helium. The first red flag to me is they will not tell you how much you make each article. The amount appears to be a random amount if anyone money is paid to you at all. Posting your articles is a major pain on Helium. Just the hassle of getting articles posted in the right place was to much work and kept me from writing to much for the site.

The worst site I know is Essay writers. This site does not appear to be popular or well known. You can end up owing the site money. Nothing good can be said about this site. Personally I was not paid long after I should have been paid and do not know if I will ever really get paid. They have a big infrastructure with people you can chat with but they are of no help. Employees call and harass you if you have not logged on to the site in a day, it does not matter that you have a week to finish an assignment you have to log on everyday. I could go into more details regarding all the problems with essay writers but I will stop here.

Reviewstream is annoying bad for a number of reasons. The first is that they don't tell you how long to make the articles. A big problem is it takes $50 you get paid. They never tell you how much they will pay you, instead they state prices are subject to change. I have known people to get all kinds of amounts per article but since you have to reach $50 I have never known anyone who got any money.

Now for some better sites. Daytipper gives you a dollar for short tips. Daytipper is good about getting back to you fast and letting you know if your tip has been approved or not. One downside is if they do take the tip it can take months tip publish the tip and you don't get paid until after they publish the tip.

Triond is great. They don't pay any upfront payments, however they will accept most of what you write. Very few articles get turned down and they will tell you why so you can fix the problem. You don't make much at one time but you get a good residual income. They split the profits made from people looking at your article that is not a lot at once but over time it can be very good. They pay you regularly even when you did not make much money. They only take original articles so you cannot use previous work you wrote.

Another good site is Associated Content. I have never made a fortune in upfront payments but I can make good money by writing and then continue to get residuals. They have calls for content and you can know upfront how much they will pay you. They have a rating system and if you are featured you get lots of additional hits.

Few sites have been good. I find writing for the local paper, magazine articles, or freelance work like SEO articles pays you the best but if you want to simply write online then Triond is a great place to start.

Helium

Helium is the place where I have written most of my articles and has given me the greatest financial return. When I first joined Helium, they had just started running a Rewardathon where writers were paid per article based on the number of writing stars they had as a result of the rating system in place. The rating system is by no means perfect but the articles generally find their true place after a while. Combined with the Rewardathon earnings, I was also able to sell a few Marketplace articles and won or placed in the weekly writing contests. Without those means of earning available, I would not have earned much simply relying on page views.

Associated Content

Associated Content provided a little bit more on page view earnings but is not the ideal arrangement if you happen to live outside the USA. As a US resident you can earn up front payments, but if not, you have to rely on page view returns which of course is limited. Having submitted articles for a few months, I have been given some idea of the kind of return that can be expected. I certainly wouldn't give up my day job to pursue this as a means of income.

Triond

I am relatively new to Triond having written around 30 articles in the past two weeks. I can see a steady increase as cents are added daily but will obviously need a few months of activity to make a genuine comparison. The difference between Triond and Helium is that Triond will apparently also include a share of ad revenue, although I understand this is only if the click through results in a sale. My general feeling is that it will take a high volume of articles to see a reasonable financial return but time will tell.

Comparing all three from my own perspective, Helium has definitely proved more rewarding financially because of the other opportunities to earn apart from reliance on page views. My guess would be that Helium, Triond and Associated Content will all pay pretty much the same when it come to page views but then again, I'm sure there rae some writers out there who would beg to differ.

First of all, Helium.com is a website where writers write articles and they can earn money from them. The earnings can be from a cent to anything higher.

But we all have complained about the earnings we generate, right? Yes! A lot of writers only earn a few cents or less for their articles. The work we put into those articles earn very little! And those who live in the UK like me, a cent is only half a penny! Now that is just what kids can earn for their good behaviour. But for us, its like we are poor and that pennies are going to change our lives.

But hopefully my advice will help you boost your earnings. But first here is my little story with Helium.

I joined Helium in May 2008. I was very interested to write articles and make money out of it. So I started submitting work! I got to a total of 39. Yes that isn't bad for a starter. My earnings grew from 00.01 to 00.11 during the weeks. Yes it took me more or less a week to earn at least 2 cents! I was very discouraged! For the rest of May I earned a total of 3 cents. In June I earned 5 cents and most of July I earned only 3! I gave up and thought it was a waste of time until I read an article which made me start over. It was 23 rd July and I REALLY started submitting! The end of July came and the earnings went from 3 to 10 cents! Now that is higher than what I expected! By the middle of August, I had a total of 100 articles and I earned 41 cents for that whole month. Yes! Much higher! The earnings had gone from earning a cent in a week to a few cents a week! And surprisingly, I started earning 2-5 cents a day! At this moment I have 119 articles and my earning total is 81 cents. Ok still it is not good enough but it has risen much more than before! Before I began writing frequently, my earnings were only 12 cents! Big difference, right?

Make sure you write hundreds or even thousands of articles! That way your income can rise higher and you can earn residual income throughout your lifetime. Thousands could earn you more like dollars! So get your pens and work on them articles now!

However, do not waste time writing articles which will not be of any interest. Pick good channels such as Business. I have written over 39 poems in the Creative Writing channel on Helium and nearly all of them have earned nothing! It was a waste!

When you write articles, be positive to write on those which appear in front pages. These get the most page views and can you earn you more! The amount of page views is unknown. No one knows how much you need to earn at least a cent. But I tell you that it isn't something like 10 page views. It would be more!

Nevertheless, Triond, compared to other content publishing firms, offers better publishing mechanics, simpler and unique distribution schemes and on-time payments. Hence, Triond is considerably a better way to invest free time publishing and writing even at first the earnings hit only less than a dollar.

Based from my personal experience, I managed to formulate a simple plan on how can I increase my earnings up to $300 monthly from my published articles. There are three things I need to consider in reaching this income projection:

1. How many articles do I need to publish per day?
2. How many hits should I attain for every article per month?
3. How long will it takes for me to generate the projected income at Triond?

Starting with the first question: How many articles do I need to publish per day?

In order to answer this question, I have utilized two important components, namely (a) eRPM and (b) projected income per day (PIPD). Based from the Triond earnings FAQS, eRPM ranges between $0.5 to $10.00 per 1000 page views, but for the sake of the calculation, I have simplified the range by getting its average, which is $5.25 per 1000 page views.

If the eRPM of an article is $5.25 and the PIPD is $300, we can use the following equation to determine the how many articles are needed to be published per day. Addition to the equation is the expected hits per article (HPP), which assumes the needed hits per

1. eRPM x 30 Days = Expected Earnings per 1000 page views per month
   
   $5.25 x 30 Days = $157.5 per 1000 views of one single published content per month
   
2. PIPD / 30 days = Projected Earnings per day of a single published article
   
   $300/ 30 days = $10 must be generated by a single article per day
   
3. [(eRPM x 30) / 2] x 1/PIPD = The number of Articles Published with hits of 500 page views per day
   
   [($5.25 x 30) / 2] x 1/$300 = 4 Articles with hits of 500 page views per day should be published

To Check:

[(Number of Articles per day x eRPM) / 2] x 30 days = Approximated PIPD

[(4 x $5.25) / 2] x 30 days = $315 per month for 4 articles with at least 500 page views per day and an eRPM rate of $5.25

If an article will have the maximum of 500 page views per day in the lowest possible eRPM of $0.5 per 1000 page views, then the following equation should be used to know the number of articles needed to be published per day and the number of hits it should possess per day.

[($0.5 x 30) / 2] x 1/$300 = 40 Articles with hits of 500 page views per day should be published in order to obtain your PIPD

To Check:

[(40 x $0.5) / 2] x 30 days = $300 per month for 4 articles with at least 500 page views per day and an eRPM rate of $5.25

In conclusion, you need to publish 120 articles with eRPM rates of $5.25 and should be viewed at lest 500 times per day for you to obtain $300 per month. Meanwhile, if the eRPM is the lowest $0.5 then you must be able to publish 1200 articles with similar conditions above for you to obtain your $300 dollars per month. The good news is eRPM rates increase over time due to several reasons, such as popularity, number of clicks, and quality of the content. Bottom line is you need to publish good content for you to earn higher eRPM rates and eventually getting your projected amount per month.

Even Well Written Articles Can Be Rated Low

Just that the article is rated low by fellow members does not mean it is written poorly. In theory, the articles should be rated for quality and not writer's message, but in practice, it might be different at times. I had some articles that were rather poorly written in the very beginning of my writing career and they were rated higher than the ones of much better quality I wrote later on.

Earning Writing Stars Is Not As Easy As They Say

There is a star reward system on Helium. You get stars for writing and for rating articles. I was happy when I found out that I am a three star writer, but my joy didn't last long; they all disappeared just before Helium was about to pay extra to the writers who have more than two writing stars.

According to the rules, you have to have four to twenty nine articles rated in the top quarter in order to qualify for one writing star. I had much more, so what happened to my stars?

I went on community forum to find out. Many disillusioned souls were wandering the same thing. Then we were told that the articles rated low hurt our writing score and take away our stars based on some sinister Helium calculations that they never told us upfront. Many were outraged and their angry messages removed from the forum.

Some of Your Articles Might be Deleted

Helium writing standards change and they will delete all articles that do not meet new standards. When I joined, the articles could be as long or as short as you wished, later they gave minimum word count and just removed all the articles that were shorter than that. You have no rights to your content after you submit, so you cannot delete anything yourself to improve your writing score; you can only edit it by using leapfrog, and this doesn't give you any assurance that your content will be rated any higher.

About The Pay

You can only earn something more if you have writing stars and manage to sell some articles on Helium Marketplace, which is not very easy. It will cost you many hours of hard work. I have written 198 articles, after I lost about 10 or more and earned less than fifty dollars for them, even though more than half of them are rated in the first quarter and I have no writing stars. Dear fellow writer, decide yourself if Helium is for you.

What I do, and it works for me. Get a pack of medium sized post it notes, 2 different colors. Go to the Helium home page, and write down all the topics on separate post it notes, and then fold each one in half. With the other colored notes, use at least 3 notes, and number them 2, 3, and 4. (I skip 1 because I would want to write more than 1 article.) I let my kid's pick what I will be writing about. Put the notes that you just done in a bowl or something that can hold all your little papers. Either you or the kid's can swish them around and then pick one of each color. That will tell you what topic, and the other will tell you how many articles of that topic to write for that day.

Like if they (or you) picks art, then a 4.…that means you write 4 articles about art. Go to Helium, and run through the sub-topics and titles to give you an idea on a write-up. Or if you should get, say… travel, and a number 2. You need 2 articles on Travel for the next day. Any more article you crank out is great, the number picked is just an "at least" number. And it's extra if you still have time during the day for it.

I have a schedule that I go by, otherwise nothing would get wrote! I do my research, article planning later in the evening, so the kids pick my topic around suppertime. What they pick is what I research for in the evening, and write up on the following day. Taking time to send the pieces in is up to you. Sometimes I send each in as I do them, other times I'll wait until I have 2 or more, then send all of them at one sitting.

Don't forget to take breaks too…. Few hours, or a couple days. Writing article content everyday, all day can really drain the brain!