Writing sites I have known and loved (and sometimes hated)

I think I have tried every writing site on the Internet at one time or another. Some have come and gone; some have gotten larger and stronger. Here are a few that I have sampled. I am still writing at most of them.

Triond
 

I have published articles and photographs here. The photographs are published on the site Picable.com and the articles are posted to variety of sites which are chosen by Triond. They also accept audio and video. You are paid by how many views your content receives. I haven't figured out yet how many views you need to earn one cent. You get paid through PayPal once the total earned adds up to 50 cents or more. I have gotten paid in the past so it is a legitimate site. Triond now allows you to earn extra money with Adsense and referrals.

Helium

 

I have posted several articles at Helium. One of my articles was sold to a publisher through their Marketplace. You can basically write about whatever you wish at Helium, they also accept fiction. They have a peer review system that helps quality articles to rise to the top. Articles are rated numerically. Helium occasionally has contests in which you can win money. You get paid through PayPal when you earn at least $25. One thing you should know is that your articles will be there forever. You can't delete them yourself.

Orble

 

I had a couple of blogs here. Anyone can set up a blog. Earniings are through AdSense. I didn't earn any money there.  Some of the blogs here are better than others. If the editors think you have some talent, they will ask if you want to take over any of their blogs with their own domain. There is a supportive community of bloggers here.

Gather

 

I occasionally post articles here. You earn points for articles, photographs, videos, commenting on content and rating content. Since I am in Canada, while I earn points, I can't cash those points in for rewards. The rewards consist of gift cards or charitable donations. I have met some very friendly people here and it is a great site discussions of all kind.

Suite101

 

I used to write here in the early 00s. I was the writer for Shakespeare on Film. I never did earn anything there then. However, I am writing there as a contributing writer now. You are paid through PayPal and get a cut of the site’s income. They have a stringent application process; you have to submit two quality articles you have written and give them a list of sites you have written for. It is a very supportive community and there is help and training for writers. You are expected to post 10 articles in 3 months. After 3 months you can apply to be a featured writer in your chosen topic. According to Suite101, they receive over 7 million visitors a month to the site.

HubPages

 

I've been writing at HubPages now for 2 years and have written over 100 hubs. I have managed to reach Adsense payout three times.  I have also earned a few dollars from Amazon or Ebay. I love playing around with the hub capsules.

Digital Journal

You post news stories to this site and get paid through paypal once you reach $10. They prefer well-researched news stories; the more local the better.

Each of these sites has their pros and cons but they do all pay. Good luck if you want to try any of them.

Controversy and conspiracies

My two latest articles on HubPages are Controversy sells and Conspiracies 'R' us. I didn't see the two as being similar when I first wrote them. However, I can see how some use conspiracies to create controversy to get more traffic to their hubs; whether they believe in what they are saying or not.

Do you write articles or blog posts on subjects you don't truly believe in just to get traffic?

Finished!

I am finished. 30 hubs in 30 days...with one day to spare. It was a great experience and really got my writing juices going. I don't think I'll start on another one right away.

#28
What is a Living Will?

#29
Scrapbooking - My Introduction to Digital Scrapbooking


#30
I Still Have It...I Just Can't Remember Where I Put It - A Review

Three more and we are in the last stretch

I think I'm actually going to make 30 hubs in 30 day. I think also that I will take a break after this and concentrate on my other sites for a bit.

#25
Marvelous Muffin Recipes

#26
To Kill A Mockingbird - Censorship rears its ugly head again

#27
5 Questions for my Cat


I don't have a clue what the last three will be about :)

Now some Triond news. They have launched a new site and are accepting articles about pets. "From now until October 31, TheRealOwner.com is offering a minimum of $3 eRPM for all new, published content." I have published a couple of articles there and they have resulted in me earning more money on the two articles than I have earned for every other submission to Triond combined. I just submitted another one. If you are interested in reading my articles you can find them here:
How to Prevent Hairballs in Cats and 10 Reasons Why Cats are Better than Dogs. Here is a rebuttal to my 10 Reasons Why Cats are Better Than Dogs article. 15 Reasons Why Dogs are Better than Cats

On a Roll

I was on a roll yesterday, I wrote 3 hubs. I'm now up to 24, so I have 6 to write in 8 days, nice to be ahead of the game for a change.

Here are my latest hubs if you are interested:

I was a Trekkie

Ladies Jackets

My Top Five Favorite Authors

Memories of Being Bullied

The last one was tough to write but it's something I've been wanting to get off my chest for years.

Two More

I have written another two hubs for the 30 day hub challenge. I hope you like them:

How to Download Movies from iTunes

How to Clean Windows

I may have said it before but I am really getting into writing a hub a day, it's not that hard. And...I'm heading towards 100 hubs total.

Shakespeare Films of Kenneth Branagh

This is number nine in the hubchallenge. This one was fun to write, I am a Branagh fan so it was also easy.

Shakespeare Films of Kenneth Branagh

I'm really getting into the swing of writing a hub every day, it is great. Of course, it's easy on a long weekend when I have nothing else to worry about. We shall see if I can continue writing daily next week. But I have another long weekend coming up in the middle of the month so I'll get some done them too if I fall behind.

Bottom Freezer Refrigerators

I wrote another hub today. I'm alternating between writing about topics I am interested in and using the infobank on HubPages. This is an infobank one...

Bottom Freezer Refrigerator - Pros and Cons

The HubChallenge - Week One

Well, it's been one week since the hub challenge began. I have written 7 so far. Here are my most recent articles:

The Benefits of an Undermount Kitchen Sink
The Leather Bomber Jacket
Bobby Darin, Cool Cat

Okay, I'm going to try it again. I am going to try...the operative word being try...to write 30 hubs in 30 days. I may not succeed but I am definitely going to give it the old college try. Why don't you join us at HubPages and take your own challenge?

My challenge is not to make more money (although that would be nice) but to write 30 quality articles in 30 days.

Berthe Morisot - Female Impressionist Painter

I am taking part in the hubchallenge as I mentioned before. I've only written 12 so far, here is number 12 Berthe Morisot - Female Impressionist Painter.

You can find the rest listed here: http://hubpages.com/author/Uninvited+Writer/latest/

So far I've written 11 on famous Impressionist artists, I took a break and wrote one with fudge recipes yesterday.

So...I may only be doing 30 this month :) I'm not very good at writing short blurbs about merchandise so I doubt I'll make much more money than usual...but I will have more hubs than I had previously and that is always a good thing.

I must be crazy

I write articles at HubPages regularly and starting Monday I am going to attempt to write 100 hubs in 30 days. Each hub will have a minimum of 250 words.

If you don't belong to HubPages or if you do, why not jump in and try this challenge? There is also a lesser challenge of 30 hubs in 30 days. Click on the banner to join us.

HubPages

I'm finding I'm really beginning to like HubPages. The people who do quality writing are excellent. Of course, there are those who are pretty bad, many spammers post non-articles, but they disappear pretty quickly. You have the ability to flag "hubs" for review. As someone at HubPages told me, the cream rises to the top. The people I have met so far have all been friendly and helpful, many of us seem to share the same sense of humour. I'm going to concentrating on writing there for a little while.

You will notice a change in this blog shortly, I have bought my own domain through Blogger. The address will soon be http://www.uninvitedwriter.com.

One thing I have noticed at HubPages is that many people seem to think that just because they mention the source that they can copy and paste articles. You are meant to get permission for one thing, and making money off of others work is totally unethical and will get you banned from HubPages, Amazon, Ebay, Google AdSense and whatever other site you are an affiliate of. And, if you do get the information in an article from another source you should at least rewrite it in your own words. Anything else is plagiarism. I am amused when I see people posting content right off of commercial catalogue sites, they will not make any money at all. Also, posting 25 hubs in a row is just a waste of your time. If you post too often all of the search engines will ignore most of your articles. People just see dollar signs and all sense seems to go out the window.

So, when I write articles from now on they will be given a Creative Commons license. Stuff like this won't, but any article I have researched certainly will be.