Most writers are not being solicited by The New Yorker with an endless stream of $1,000 articles. Also, 99.99% of writers are not on the bestsellers lists or touring the country promoting their latest book. Most writers are doing what I am doing right now.
With all honesty, I am sitting here writing this article for Associated Content from Yahoo hoping that it will make some money. I am hoping that it finds a following-a "niche" as we like to call it-and enough people read, click, comment, and "like" that it may provide some income at some point.
I love writing, don't get me wrong, and I did it for years without making a dime or trying to but heck, if this is what I want to do when I am out of the Army in 5-8 years then I need to start now. Build that client load, right?
I prefer upfront paying sites that pay minimal money right now. I do a lot of my work at TextBroker and LondonBrokers and they pay consistently, if minimally. The penny per word at TB is currently the most I have ever made for my writing. I also scoop up any upfront paying gig that YCN offers and even made a couple of bucks at Seed recently. And I currently have "applications" out at some other sites just trying to gauge where I can be most successful. YCN seems to have more up-front jobs that I can handle. Seed's current assignment board is filled with stuff like "Confessions of a Taxi Driver" or "I Survived Spring Break as a Police Officer." They are all good paying jobs, about $25.00 for 800 words, but I just don't have those kinds of experiences and they want first hand stuff and not interviews.
I use Elance and Freelancer.com regularly as well but have yet to win a job on either site. And, not to be offensive to anyone, that is the toughest of all cookies. It seems with those sites that people have to make a choice and it is one that is difficult for me. I can either bid for jobs at ridiculously low rates in hopes of building some legitimacy there or just keep bidding a fair price for jobs and hope that someday someone takes a chance on me. Another problem I have is that international writers can afford to invest 10 hours of their time on 100 articles for $30...I just can't do that. I am not money hungry but I value my time more than that.
So, thus far, TextBroker is my favorite. I can actually earn almost .02 per word with some consistency in my writing and if a client likes my stuff then I can receive a "direct order" from them at a price per word that I name. Either way every two weeks TB pays.
Then there are some good residual income sites like the Associated Content by Yahoo, here. I am not kissing fanny but this is my favorite thus far and with their paying gigs I can earn double: up-front and residual. The AC's system is easy to use and when my stuff is published it looks professional and the community of contributors is one of the friendliest I have found.
Other sites, like Triond, are...well truthfully speaking, scary. The forums are negative and no one seems eager to help anyone else out. I wrote about 7 articles there and after about 45 days I made about .47 cents. I am not even going to link my stuff there in this article. That's how through I am with Triond. Another frustrating thing about Triond is that the Google Adsense thing wasn't working out for me. I read a statistic somewhere that an ad click happens every 200 page views or so, well, I am destroying those statistics. Again, 45 days later and not one single click.
Squidoo is a site that I really like and am thinking about investing a lot of time in. Though it operates a lot like Triond I just get a better feeling from them. Like AC, or is it Yahoo Contributor's Network? Holy crap, how many times have I used different names for it in this article? But I digress... Squidoo presents a professional appearance for my writing. Triond looks like a cheap MySpace page that started a writing site.
Helium, Bright Hub, Mahalo, About.com, and BreakStudios are all other sites that I am experimenting with so we will see how that goes. If anyone has any feedback on any of these sites, please share. I need the help. I won't write for Demand Studios. About a month ago I wrote and asked a question about the application process and received a "read the page" response. So, I may just be being unprofessional and a baby here but I don't need them that bad. I hear good things about them though.
Constant Content seems cool but it takes a while to get an editor to look at your work. In my case I submitted a piece and it took 5 days for disapproval. They are real strict too but the money making possibilities are great. I submitted another piece today and am anxiously awaiting news.
Then there are other sites that are real farts. The one I am intimately familiar with is Content Current. I wrote a 500 word article for free just to get accepted and never heard from them again. After 5 days I wrote them, and asked to be removed from the roles. To hell with that stuff! I like communication which is something the YCN/AC, TB and LB are really good at. From what I have read at other places, like here, there is a lot of negativity about Content Current but some people seem to be doing alright over there.
My aim here is to find the best paying, most convenient, and user friendly sites out there that have great support and a friendly community. When I find the 3 or 4 that I like the best I will stay with them and only use the others if the work is slow.
That's just me though. Other writers may just want to see their names and work published somewhere. Rock on! Maybe they just want to vent and let out feelings that they need to in some way or fashion and every single bit of writing that they will ever do is saved on a hard drive somewhere and never released. To each his own.
Me? I wanna' get paid...(a little anyway)
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