Let's take a moment to review the steps needed to become successful and a popular writer on the Internet.

Rule #1: Set Realistic Goals

Before, you ever set-off to find an online publisher to publish your completed work, you should sit-down and write out a list of goals that you want to achieve each day, week, month or year. Do not set unrealistic goals that are impossible to achieve, especially if you have never published anything, anywhere before. You just have no clue how things really work in the online publishing industry, until you have spent some quality time testing the system and testing yourself, so to learn how the publisher that you have chosen to write for and publish with works.

When setting goals, do not focus on the number of future readers (views) that your article, poem or story is going to receive, because you cannot control that outcome. Only set your goals to what you can control and set no goals on what you cannot control.

Rule #2: Choosing An Online Publisher

There are hundreds of online publishing opportunities on the Internet, some that will pay you to write for their websites, ezines or newsletters and other publishing opportunities do not pay in money, but they pay in exposure or recognition, which in some ways can be better than earning an income. As a writer, you need to decide what you are writing to accomplished (see “Rule #1”) before you decide which publisher that you are going to write for and publish your writing with.

If you are wanting to earn an income, then you need to understand that you earn money usually two ways, either through 1) the number of views (readers) that your article, poem or story receive in 30-days or 2) by accepting an one-time lump-sum for the completed work.

There are pros and cons to each of these choices and they are: a) earning an income from total number of views received, usually does not generate a huge sum of money in a short amount of time, but it will consistently generate a small sum of money month-after-month for as long as the article, poem or story is still receiving readers (views) online.

Writing for an online publisher whom pays an one-time lump sum of money for each word, page or completed assignment, then it doesn't matter how many views that the published work receives, because the publisher has agreed to pay you a set amount for your work. Each publisher sets their own terms and pays different amounts depending on the assignment or who the author is or how well known (popular) the author is online or offline.

If you choose to publish your writing using a publisher that does not pay any money, but they do offer to pay you in reader recognition or exposure, then you must understand that you are actually building a fan base that you can attract to other works that you have published for earning an income.

Triond is the publisher that I write for and from my experience it is the best and the easiest publisher to write and publish with. Triond has a large and very friendly writing community that offers a wide range of interesting topics, poems, stories and my favorite articles to choose from and by some of the most talented writers from around the globe. Check it out for yourself and if you decide to join, then look me up, Nelson Doyle (http://www.triond.com/users/Nelson+Doyle) and I will be a friend that you can ask questions to, so to help you get started in this business on the right foot.

Rule #3: Choosing a Pen Name

Your pen name lets people know who you are, just like your real (birth) name introduce who you are in the real world. The important thing that you must understand about creating a pen name is, is that your pen name should be easy to remember and easy to lookup in standard search engines. If you create a pen name that is hard to spell or that uses numbers or a combination of numbers and letters, then it will make it much more difficult for the average person to remember especially if they liked your work, but just cannot remember where to find it on the Internet. It is better to use your real name or a name that is relatively common or easy to spell, so that the reader can locate your work using a search engine.

Rule #4: Creating Your Online Image

Most online publishers that you can write for, gives an author an opportunity to setup a profile page, so that potential readers and other writers can learn who you are and what you like to write about. Setting up your personal profile page should not be rushed through and should be carefully written, edited and updated regularly, because your first impression may be the only impression that you have to encourage your visitors to take the time to read some of your published work.

If your profile page is loaded with misspellings, incomplete sentences, poor grammar or anything that makes it hard for a visitor to quickly sum up exactly who you are or what you write about, then that visitor will most likely leave without reading anything that you have published online. In many cases, this is the only time that you have to make a good first impression on a visitor who has never read any of your work and if your profile page is hard to read, then chances are the other things that you have written will be much of the same.

Rule #5: Writing With Purpose

Many writers write about a broad range of topics (including myself), but this is not necessarily the best or the most profitable way to make a sustainable income month-after-month, because this practice is all too often a hit and miss style of writing. Some topics such as travel, health and electronics attract a much larger audience than topics that are related to holidays, poetry, personal stories, or sports in general. Of course, to really get an understanding about which topics that will reach the broadest audience takes some time and research and trial-and-error to figure out, and even then it is still relatively a guessing game.

On the other hand, if a writer specializes in a specific topic, such as travel or health, just as examples, then in time the writer will begin to attract and retain the audience that enjoys reading and following that author's work. The audience in this case, will understand what they are going to get when they follow this author's blog or writings and usually will not be confused by the no-rhyme-or-reason writing style of writers who write about anything and everything that strikes their fancy, and this is a good long-term writing style that can potentially draw the largest audience over time.

Rule #6: Networking

It is extremely important that when writing for an income on the Internet, that new and veteran writers get to know each other in their publishing communities. Making friends with some of the writers in a community can benefit new writers, because many times they will find a writer who is willing to share tips to improve the writing experience in that publishing community overall. However, try to avoid becoming a pest or asking too many questions, because most of the serious writers (top writers) are very busy as this is the way that they make a living and asking too many questions could result in receiving no answers due to the amount of time it requires to answer them. And, try to avoid asking authors “how much money that they earn”, because this is usually a private matter and it doesn't necessarily reflect what the average Internet content writer will earn himself or herself.

I have been writing for Triond for just a little over a year and have put in countless hours into marketing and writing over 100 articles, poems and stories and due to the fact that Triond pays according to the number of views that each article (on an individual basis) receives, I have been able to earn a very nice income each month. However, it wasn't always like it is now.

The first month, I earned less than $7.00 for the entire month, but that was before I understood how to market my work and what topics generally pay the most, but just like you will have to do in your own time, I had to take the time to learn the business. This takes a lot of time to do correctly and you cannot be scared to try new things to attract readers. It will either work out the way that you expected it would or it will blow-up in your face and you will just have to try something else. Just never give up trying or you will never succeed.

Rule #7: Marketing

Marketing and networking is not exactly the same thing and different techniques are required to be successful. A writer can visit Myspace or Facebook or make friends within the publishing community that they write for, to network successfully, but marketing is something completely different and separate from networking.

There are thousands of ways both online and offline to execute a marketing plan, but a few of the best ways to conduct marketing on the Internet would be to do one or more of the following:

1. Join social bookmarking websites such as; StumbleUpon, Digg, Faves, etc. and bookmark your writings and websites that you visit, so to share them with your friends and browsers (people who just read or visit websites that other members have bookmarked) in the networks that you have joined.
2. Build a website or web page to promote your writings and other authors that you enjoy.
3. Start a newsletter and link to your writings, but use the newsletter to share information that your subscribers can only obtain by subscribing to the newsletter.
4. Join forums that are geared at the topics that you write about and participate in these forums, as you normally would do if you were not a writer. Most forums allow their members to link to their favorite website or websites in their member profile page and this can drive a lot of new readers, especially if you are an active member who plays by their rules and do not practice spamming the forums.
5. Make friends with other popular bloggers and ask them if they would be interested in reading and possibly linking to your blog or writings. You can always return the favor by writing about or linking to their blogs in one of your future articles or blogs. This way you would target a new audience and your blogger friends will have the same opportunity to do the same.

Rule #8: To Read or Not To Read

Most writers belonging to a publishing community want their friends to read the articles or blogs that they write and after reading, then they want you to leave a comment about what you have read. This is all good if you have time to read their writing and complete your own writing.

Remember, if you decide to read and leave comments about your friends' writings, then most of the time they will read and leave comments for your writings, too. However, if you have a lot of friends, too many friends, then it may not be possible to read and leave comments on everyone's work, because there just isn't enough time in the day to do it and finish your own writings that you have been working on. And, if you are writing for a living, then you just may not have the time to read as much as you or they would like.

Rule #9: What Pays The Most?

Since the publishers pay writers and the advertisers pay the publishers, then articles or blogs written about topics with high revenue potential are what pays the most. Let's say that you write about free music and you use popular keywords such as; Free Music, Songs, Downloads, Musicians, then you are not going to attract the high paying advertisers, because anytime you are using the keyword “Free”, then there isn't anything high value about that keyword. However, if you are writing an article about “MP3 Players” whether it be a product review or the best places to purchase a “MP3 Player” for Christmas, then you will earn more, because advertisers are willing to pay more in order to potentially sell some expensive or inexpensive MP3 Players.

The difference of the two examples is, one example is targeting an audience that is looking to locate something for free and the other example is targeting an audience that may be interested in potentially purchasing a product. Advertisers are paying to receive a potential return on their investment and an advertiser will invest more when the perceived profit return is greater. When advertising a free product, then the potential profit return will be less than investing in advertising to sell a product or website that a consumer or visitor will actually buy and these advertisers are willing to pay more, because of the greater profit potential return from their advertising investment.

Generally, writing poetry or personal stories about your life or a fictional character will not earn as much money as writing about a specific product, place, website or company. Articles generally pay more than all other forms of writing, which includes most blog styles, but not all.

Rule #10: Don't Give Up!

Let's just face it, not every person has what it takes to become a successful Internet writer, because too many people just will throw up their arms and hands in defeat, before even giving it time to find an audience. Most people who start out writing on the Internet falsely believe that just because they have heard about a handful of people making a lot of money writing online, then they can do it also. However, it just doesn't work that way.

We have all heard about writers and bloggers making a full-time living writing articles and blogs on the Internet and we have thought that we can do the same, because in our minds it must be easy money. The things that we don't know about is what will prevent most of us from ever making any money much less the big money writing on the Internet.

Most writers who have become successful on the Internet has done so, because they have worked very hard writing good articles and marketing their work effectively and this all requires some time to learn and to implement. Some of these writers have dedicated a set number of hours to do nothing but writing and have dedicated some more hours to focus on their marketing and networking. These writers use tested marketing and networking techniques that other writers have written about and other writers are daring enough to invent new ways to attract a larger audience despite what they are testing may not work and that they have seemingly wasted some precious time that they could have used doing something that they already know has worked in the past. So, why would they want to invent a new technique to market or network their work without knowing exactly what the outcome could be, well because if it does work, then these writers will have a technique that is fresh and has not be seen everywhere already and this will give these writers a bit of an edge and potentially draw a larger audience to their work over time.

The majority of writers that start writing for an income this year, will probably have given up by the next year, because they either have no clue what it takes to become successful or they just do not want to do the work it requires to earn their way to the top. Most writers just starting out believe that writing on the Internet will be a quick and easy way to make a million dollars or something along those lines, but then reality sets in and they realize that they may have to work just as hard or harder than just working a 9 to 5 job in the real world and this scares them away.

Rule number 10 is probably the most important rule of all of the rules, because if you give up too soon or at all, then you will never be successful at this and if you give up on this, then what else are you willing to give up on, because it requires some actual work to become successful at doing?

Let's say that you are a poet and your first and foremost inter desire is to write to express yourself to the world, in your own uniquely individual way. Making money hasn't even crossed your mind not once since you first discovered the endless possibilities that the Internet is changing the landscape for determine dedicated writer. Where oh where can a relatively unknown poet get noticed?

Poetry

This is the largest poetry community on the Internet and the traffic exposure that your writings can potentially receive after your poetry has been published on the website for public viewing. Besides, Poetry.com holding writing contests, this opportunity doesn't pay writers who publish their poetry on their website.

After you have writing for Poetry.com for a while and earning an audience that loyally follow your writings, then you just might be ready to shift gears and start writing for money on the Internet. After all, you already have a loyal audience that if informed would most likely read your writings no matter where you decide to write.

Triond

This is a genuine online publisher that shares the advertising revenue earned from views received for a writer's work during a 30-day period of time. Promising poets choosing to write for Triond can earn real cash for writing their thoughts and emotions for everyone to experience. Even poets and writers just starting out as professional Internet content writers, can attract a larger audience and make some money, because of the website's popularity.

Maybe after writing freelance for a revenue sharing online publisher and sharpening your word skills, it is time to give you a most deserved raise and promotion. You have earned the loyalty and admiration of hundreds of thousands of fans and have experience a taste of the income potential that your writing can potentially earn. Keeping in mind that you and your Internet publisher share the advertising revenue 50/50 and if you can manage publishing your own work on the Internet it can potentially increase your income by double of that earning presently.

Blogspot

This offers writers the opportunity to create your own blog and add your own Google Adsense Code, so you can earn a potentially huge income from the blog, especially if your blog manages to become extremely popular.

Popular bloggers who's blogs attracts 10s of thousands of readers or more can attract additional income opportunities from businesses, services and other website webmasters who wish to pay for these bloggers to write and post a paid advert within their blog. Some paid bloggers earn six-figure incomes each year.

These particular online publishing opportunities are not by far the only paying or non-paying writing opportunities on the Internet. There are many, many different ones some that share revenue, others that create valuable exposure for the author's writings, and lastly, those publishing opportunities that specialize in a targeted writing genre.

This is not a top ten list and each of the writing opportunities offered within this article may not be right for every writer. It is the responsibly of the interested writer to read the rules, guidelines and policies of the companies in which the writer chooses to write for in the future. This article only provides a brief summary of the benefits and/or payout opportunities of each company. It is your responsibility to continue on with any further inquiry regarding the benefits, rules, writing guidelines and payout benefits for each company.

Use this article to find a writing opportunity that is right for you, and then write like the winner that you know that you are.

Thisisby.us

This paid writing opportunity offers its content writers a 50%royalty payout that is based off of the advertising revenue that the website is able to generate from your articles. Writers can earn more money if their “Goodness” is high. The “Goodness” model is based on the number of views that your article receives in the last 24 hours. In addition, Thisisby.us pays a 10% royalty (based on Advertising Revenue) to commenters who leave a comment on the articles that they have read, but all commenters must be current members of Thisisby.us to receive the royalty payout. The more users vote for your comments, then the more you'll get paid. So, it pays to become both a writer and/or commenter at Thisisby.us.

HubPages

HubPages is a place where writers can write about just about anything that is interesting to them and earn 60% of the ad revenue that is generated from their writings. Writer must register for a free affiliate account through Google Adsense, eBay and/or Amazon, so to enable them to start earning an income. When you have time pay a visit to HubPages and take the quick HubPages Tour, so to learn how exactly the program works.

Wise Bread

Wise Bread is a website that focuses on personal finance and frugal living and its writers writes blogs that offers useful information related to these topics. Wise Bread offers a few ways for writers to earn an income that includes: Google Adsense, site-wide ads, Feedburner, and reprint licenses. Writers will receive 100% of the ad revenue that is generated through their personal Google Adsense account, and then Wise Bread will split advertising revenue with its writers that are generated from site-wide ads (based on traffic, so the more traffic your articles generates, the more you make) and will split earnings made from Feedburner (or any other form of syndication).

Print n Post

At PrintNPost writers maintain their own blog and/or writes articles that are then published on the PrintNPost website. Writers earn an income from their Google Adsense advertising, but a Google Adsense Account is necessary to make money using this site. The more articles or blogs that you write, then the more money you can potentially make. PrintNPost writers benefit as a community, because they all share in the overall traffic that the site receives, because visitors are visiting the site to read maybe what other PrintNPost authors have written and they may stick around and also read some of your articles and/or blog during their visit.

Review Party

Not every writer wants to write full-length articles or blogs to make an income. Some writers enjoy writing opinions about the books the recently read, the music that they listen to, and/or the DVD movies and television shows that they watch. ReviewParty offers an opportunity for writers to write thoughtful reviews about the books, music, DVD movies and television shows that you currently enjoy, so earning money indefinitely through your own Amazon Affiliate links. Writers must have an Amazon Affiliate Account to earn an income with ReviewParty.

Squidoo

Squidoo allow writers to write about just about anything that you love sharing and writing about within reason. Squidoo members write and maintain their own Squidoo Lens (where their writing appears) and can earn money in the process. From my personal experiences writing for Squidoo the earnings caution at the lower end of the payscale than some of the other writing opportunities on the Internet.

Blog Posts for Sale

Blog Posts For Sale has created an opportunity for bloggers to get paid by selling advertising links that are placed within the blog posts that the writers' blog about. The bloggers set their own prices and Blog Posts For Sale has set a minimum price of $20.00 per permanent advertising link. Blog Posts For Sale will receive $7.00 BPFS fee, so the writer would earn an actual $13.00 per link (if the link was sold for $20.00) and more if the advertising link is sold for more than $20.00. Blog Posts For Sale reserves the right to accept and deny blog posts and subjects that are not allowed are: Sex, poker and gambling. Anything illegal.

Helium

Helium is a site where writers share their experience-based knowledge, wisdom and creativity through their articles and/or blogs. Helium writers can write for publishers who are willing to pay popular writers from $20 to $200 for each selected article that the partnered publisher chooses. Helium writers can choose to participate in fun and interesting writing contests that are held by Helium and potentially win some additional money and win a greater audience of readers.

Associated Content

Writers writing for Associated Content can earn performance payments based on per 1000 views (currently $1.50 per 1000 views) that their articles receive. Sometimes Associate Content may offer an upfront payment for your text or video content that range from $3.00 to $20.00. Writers can write about just about any topic that they want to write about, but be sure to carefully read Associated Content's writers rules and guidelines before submitting any article or blog.

Triond

Leaving the best writing opportunity (IMO) for last. Triond is a legitimate writing opportunity that pays its writers to write creative, interesting and entertaining articles, stories, poetry and much, much more. Triond pays writers 50% of the advertising revenue generated from the articles that each writer publishes with Triond. Triond takes care of the advertising sales and website marketing promotions, so that the writers do not need to worry about registering for advertising affiliation accounts (Google Adsense, Amazon, etc.). Triond writers are free to focus the majority of their energies on writing more articles. Triond provides promotional marketing tools for writers that wish to self-promote their articles in order to drive even more traffic (readers) to their articles and earn potentially greater profits for their content. Writers are paid once a month and on the 15th day of each month and for the earnings generated the previous month.

Since the internet exploded and brought us millions of websites that are crying out for content, we've seen an explosion in markets for the freelance writer to target. Many writers who used to write regularly for magazines (myself included) re-branded themselves as online web content writers, and started sourcing work online instead.

But where do you actually find this work? Is it really out there?

I can confirm that it is.

After three weeks of my search for online freelance writing jobs (spending every evening trawling job boards, Craigslist and writers' newsletters too numerous to mention) I have succeeded in getting two long term writing gigs, both of which are offering more work than I could handle, if I could fit it all in.

I've also found a third job which should provide at least one batch of articles to write each week, and I've made another contact who is providing me with short keyword articles to write - sometimes a batch, sometimes just the one.

And that's after just three weeks. I've actually made the decision not to bid on or apply for any more jobs at the moment, because the writing jobs I have are keeping me more than busy.

I never thought I'd be in a position to say that. The work I have is writing short articles, and web pages for all kinds of sites. The subjects are diverse and I could never get bored.

So what's my best advice on how to bag an online freelance writing job (or four)?

Persevere. Find as many job boards, newsletters, job listings and sites as you can, and check them all on a daily basis. Daily. That's important. You want to be the first to jump on an opportunity when it comes along.

If you really put the effort in, you'll find work in no time. Just make sure you don't get swamped!

Good luck.

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!