I have been doing small amounts of freelance writing and photography for many years. Back before the onslaught of internet writing sites and digital uploads, writers and photographers were very possessive with their copyrights.

Those articles and photo's belonged to those creating them, simple and decisive, never would you bargain, nor would you hand over exclusive rights to anyone, unless they made it very lucrative for you. Consider the fact that if you sell your article to a magazine for exclusive rights, you no longer own those words. You are paid once, yet that magazine can sell that article over and over again.

Photography is the same way. You may get $10.00 for selling that photo to a stock agency and be thrilled. If you gave them exclusive rights, they may sell that photo a hundred times at 10 bucks a pop. Your $10.00 suddenly doesn't look so good, does it?

With all of the many writing sites coming on line, more and more folks are turning to writing as a means to earn a second income. Writing can be a fun and profitable past time, but one needs to beware and consider each site carefully. Read all of the writing guidelines on each site you consider. Above all, consider the long term effects of your writing career.

You may have just written a fantastic piece and are ready to submit it for publication. Associated Content, for example, may offer you an upfront payment of $3.00 and will then own that article. You will still get performance views at about 1.50 per 1000 views. In the mean time, several other markets might become available where you could have submitted that article for much, much more. You can't, because it's not yours anymore.

A lot of the writing sites allow you to retain all publishing rights to your piece, by submitting to them as nonexclusive. This way, you are free to continue marketing that piece to other sites and magazines. Remember that they too, must offer nonexclusive rights. By sticking with nonexclusive publications, your one article can be earning you money in several different places.

Publishers do look at articles on these sites and it would be a shame if they contacted you and wanted to publish your article in their magazine, and you had to decline because your article didn't belong to you anymore!

This is just the opinion of one writer, but be aware of your options and think long and hard before you give away an article that could be a potential money maker on down the road!