by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: January 12, 2007   Last Updated: June 20, 2010

There are many sites that pay for writing. One of the most lucrative sites which pays well for writing is Helium.com, but you do need to learn how to use your experience to the best advantage. Apart from the obvious benefits of earning from people reading your articles, the Marketplace area of the site is a good earner for people who can follow guidelines by publishers to produce content they need. The contest area is also a favorite for earning, and you get quick returns even if you don't win, because chances are more people will read what you write.

One of the highest payers used to be a site called Dooyoo.com, and here it is interesting to residents of any country because they offer choice of cashing in in Amazon.co.uk vouchers, and this site is available for purchasers from all over the world. What Dooyoo pay for is reviews of products, written from a personal perspective of use. It's a very good site, and the ratings are fairer than on other sites which do similar product reviews. Dooyoo.co.uk is the English site, though there are Spanish, German and French sites also.

Epinions is another site which is American based, though the rewards are intermittent at best and in dollars so very difficult for those people that live in other countries, since tax considerations are difficult. The problem with this site is that there is a hierarchy and if your face doesn't fit, then it doesn't pay that much.

Trivago is a site for travel reviewers and this one is a little different from the norm in that you get a Mentor to give you instructions until you reach a certain level. I am told that after attaining recognition you do get good reward, although in my case, the rewards were mediocre and my participation flagged a little, although I do intend to start the New Year giving that site more of a chance to prove itself. Trivago is opening up and encouraging reviews on hotels, locations, etc., and for a travel reviewer offer a good opportunity to earn, even from posting photographs of locations, which is a new thing for review sites.

Ciao is another site, which is UK based and here you can write anything from product reviews from a personal user perspective to what they call "cafe" reviews, or creative writing. They pay for most product reviews, though the only recognition you get for creative work is community points, and some seem happy with this. Ciao also have an American site, although this has been a bit of a failure due to people spamming articles which are copied. The earnings are limited.

Youstay.uk is another site where you can write about areas that you are interested in although the earnings potential is limited. If you are interested in writing UK travel guides, it's not a bad site at all, but certainly not from a payment point of view.

The site which earns the most I have left until last. With upfront payments, Marketplace and contests, Helium.com pays more than other sites. The amount of things you can write about is astounding, and takes in all walks of life, and the neat thing about Helium is that they pay through PayPal, so any country who lives within a PayPal zone can become a writer.

Learning to write online is one thing, though where Helium wins hands down among its competitors is that it helps a writer to develop their style and to get articles bought by online publishers, and that really has to be a bonus. In many years of writing online, this is the best it gets.

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