So, how do you find writing work that will pay?

First of all anyone looking for freelance writing work on the internet needs to realise that there are so many other writers doing the same thing all over the world and so, with so many articles available, webmaster and site owners don’t pay very much for your work. Some don’t actually pay for it at all. They give you a monthly payment according to the amount of advertising revenue your article has earned.

So, as well as being a writer, you need to be a marketer and you need to drive as much traffic as you can to your articles.  Traffic means money.

I make a decent part-time income by combining income from a number of content sites and blogs on the internet.

Triond is my main source of writing income and as long as I keep marketing my work my income increases each month. The way this works is that all article in the Triond system continue to earn revenue, so, the more you write, the more income you generate.  I have been writing on this site under the name of Louie Jerome for more than two years now.  I can guarantee that you will get paid in the middle of each and every month (minimum payout 50c). 

***

Associated Content also provides me with a small monthly income but the problem here is that they will no buy my work outright because I am not a US writer. I have no idea why this is but they only pay non-US writers for the reads their articles attract. This is currently somewhere around $1.50 per thousand.  Payment is made on a monthly basis via Paypal.  There’s no need to worry about getting paid from people as I have never had a problem.

***

Word To The Wise is my own blog and it attracts Adsense revenue (slowly), plus an income from Adgitize which is also quite slow but increasing with the traffic.  I don’t run ‘paid to blog’ advertising on my blog. It is relatively easy to find opportunities to do this and you can earn a few dollars per post but it can affect your standing on social networking sites and it can also put readers off coming back to your blog.

Today.com will pay you a dollar a day plus a payment for the reads you get if you set up a blog on their site.  You need to write at least 100 words per day and they guarantee that $1 for 30 days, after which they will revise what they pay you. So, it is advantageous to keep the quality high and write more than the minimum.  I have not earned enough to be paid by this site, so I can’t vouch for them but it looked to be worth a try.

Getpaidfrom.us is another site where I have posted a blog. It is taking time to build traffic here because the url of the blogs posted here tends to scream ‘advertising’ at the reader and it puts people off.   For instance: getpaidfrom.us gives the impression that I am paid to write what they tell me, but that’s not the case.  Driving traffic here is difficult because most social network sites and members don’t like blogs where writers are paid to post and this is what the url implies. I haven’t earned enough to be paid by these people but I have spoken to a couple of people who have been paid, so this one looks a safe bet.

I am a member of Bukisa.com and previously posted some articles there but I have removed them. I do not post anything there, now. I don’t know of anyone who has been paid by them but I am informed that contributors are earning good money. Recent problems with plagiarism left a nasty taste in my mouth and I have also been put off by the set up, the rapid growth and the high initial payments being offered here.  I may be wrong and if so I will reassess the situation.

There are lots of sites that will pay for contributions and I believe that eHow and similar sites offer an income to US writers. Anyone who is not from US should check this out because I actually started to write on eHow and then discovered that they wouldn’t pay me because I don’t live in US. If you are thinking of writing for a new site, read the terms and conditions carefully.

I earn a good regular monthly income from two other sites which are UK only (just to balance the opportunities discussed here!) 

Dooyoo is a UK consumer opinion site which pays 50p which is around $1 for each article and extra for each read. There are also extra payments for outstanding content which are made weekly.  Ciao.co.uk is a similar site which pays less but runs writing competitions on a weekly and monthly basis and provides me with a regular income.

***

Hubpages does not pay you to write but if you publish articles, or Hubs as they call them they will share Adsense revenue with you. You can link this to your existing Adsense account.  This adds a little bit of revenue to that earned by my main blog but not enough to make it worthwhile spending a lot of time on it.

This article is not written with the intention of discussing every writing opportunity available on the internet.  This is the way I earn my income as a writer and includes my personal experience of the sites that I write for.

When your manuscript is ready to be sent out to a publisher it is important that you send your manuscript to the right market. For example it would be unwise to enter your 60,000 word literary novel into a short story competition or to submit a non-fiction work on boat building to Mills & Boon, a publisher of romantic fiction.

Once you have researched and decided to target a particular publisher with which to submit your manuscript, be aware of publishers' pet peeves before sending your manuscript away. Follow the publisher's guidelines on submissions and check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. Make sure you have given your work a sense of closure and check that you have not overwritten scenes and used too many clichés. In other words make sure that the work you are submitting is the very best work you could produce.

Once you have sent your manuscript away, be patient. The publishing business is a slow one and it can take quite some time before editors will get back to you regarding your work. If you find that your work is rejected, do not take it personally. Take a deep breath, read over your work again and either make some changes before resubmitting it or, if you believe the work is strong enough, resubmit it to another editor or publisher.

Remember that getting your work published is not easy however you can help your chances of doing so. Make sure you are familiar with what publishing houses produce. Stay abreast of what is going on in the publishing world by mixing with other writers, and by joining a writing group or a national writing body such as the New Zealand Society of Authors. Try and raise your profile as a writer by getting some of your work into print and consider using a smaller publishing house, one that may be more prepared to take on a first-time author, than one of the larger publishers who already have a well stocked stable of established authors.

Then change your thinking.

Nowadays, the Internet is offering writers the growing opportunity to become published. Some sites like Triond allow writers the chance to see their hard work in publication within a day. You say to yourself, so I've written an article here, a poem there, but that's still not a tangible, in-print book.

Who says it's not?

More and more e-books are being published online. Increasingly, writers are turning to publication sites like Triond, Helium, and blogging. Who says that the 350+ pages of writing you have submitted is not equivalent to a book already?

We are writers after all; creativity and looking at the world in a new way is one of our key specialties.

And, another great way to look at the success of your online publication is to look at your earnings. Think about the average cost books are being sold for today. Check out Barnes n' Nobles. Check out the sales prices online. It's about $5-10 per book. On average books are also anywhere from 100 - 300 pages long. There are even smaller books that are published as novelty gifts, etc.

Taken this way, if you made $10/month on Triond, it is like you sold one book. And, if you made that much just from one article, you are ahead of the authors who poured their blood sweat and tears into a 300 page novel that then had to painfully undergo the scrutiny of publishers who hold the key to your publication success or not.

On top of that, traditional published authors must then go out and tour, market and advertise their work. This takes extra financing, time, and stress.

Now, I'm not knocking traditional publishing. The thought of having a well established publishing company recognize my work is still on the very top of my list of dreams, however, I am just proposing a different way of looking at your writing accomplishments thus far. Anything that gives you an extra boost of self-esteem and sense of accomplishment will only help propel you closer to making all your dreams a reality.

So, by the above calculations, how many books have you sold already?

Successful writing and best wishes to all.

Make an outline of what you want to cover in your article. This will ensure that your article flows smoothly and that you don't leave out any important points. A few minutes spent producing an outline will save time when you finally start to write.

Come up with a dynamic, emotion inducing title for your article. Your title is the single most important factor that determines whether people will continue to read your article. Make sure your title has an impact. For example, which has more impact:

1. How to Train Your Dog
2. How to Train Your Dog to Behave in a Single Afternoon without Driving Yourself Crazy. The second title certainly adds more punch than the first one.

Write in a fun and entertaining manner. Let your voice and personality come through loud and clear! Don't bore your reader by just reciting facts they can find in an encyclopedia. Tell stories and give vivid examples. Your unique viewpoint is what makes your article special and ultimately what sells your product.

Make a brief outline of what you want to cover in your article. This will ensure that your article flows well and that you don't leave out any important points. A few minutes spent producing an outline will save you time when you finally start to write.

Perform keyword research before writing your article in order to get good search engine placement. Focus on a single keyword and use it in your title and periodically throughout your article. Also include your designated keyword in your article conclusion. A prominent search engine listing will bring you lots of readers and interest in the product you're promoting.

Now that you've written your articles, it's time to submit them so your reader's can enjoy them and, hopefully, buy your products. Congratulations on a job well done.

So I turned to the internet to see if there were any markets in cyberspace that I could submit to, and earn some cash along the way.

It was an eye opening journey. I'd never heard of blogging before (yes, I'm a novice really, did you guess?), but I've found two sites that look promising. blogcharm.com looks to be in its early stages, but the site is easy to navigate and hopefully will develop as it settles down. The other good looking site is writersup.com , which is a little more established, and I've heard good things about it. Both pay you a percentage of advertising revenue generated when people read your blog and click on the ads nearby.

I've also dipped a toe into constant-content.com , which is free to post articles on, and you set your prices for people to buy them from you to post on their own websites. My toe is now well into this particular pond, as I've sold over ninety articles to date.

It's true to say there are a lot of scams on the net, but don't tar everyone with the same brush. There are a lot of good guys out there as well. It's well worth searching for a few hours to find the pearls. Try helium.com - the most popular questions asked on that site involve working from home, and how to earn money working on your computer, or over the net. And join Helium as a member to earn some cash every single time someone reads one of your articles.

If you want to earn money online by using your writing skills, the information is out there - you just need to persevere in finding it. Try out the sites mentioned above - you could be earning sooner than you think. Good luck!