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There is no getting away from the fact that it is not easy to make a sustainable, liveable income by writing online. Certainly there are many who do succeed in this field - and I am living proof of it - but the vast majority who try only do so to fail miserably.

So why do so many fail? We will ignore the obvious answer, "Because they can't write!" and assume that the person is indeed an accomplished writer for the purposes of this article. We will instead consider the possibility that the person firstly is not posting their articles on the correct site and/or is unaware of how to promote said articles in the correct fashion once they have been posted.

Other than Helium, here are some examples of different sites which I frequently use:

Squidoo

Squidoo is a Web 2.0 hosting site with a difference. The writer creates a web page or a series of web pages called "lenses" by essentially building them from an impressive variety of available modules. The page can be built over a period of time and should be updated with fresh content fairly regularly. The writer can sell such as Amazon or eBay products from his or her lens for commission and dependant on the lens performance, may be eligible for a share of Squidoo's Google pot each month.

Hub Pages

Very similar to Squidoo in a lot of ways, Hub Pages also allows the writer to build a presence on the site - or "Hub" - with a series of modules but the payment structure is very different. The writer is required to have his or her own accounts with Google Adsense, Amazon and eBay in order to properly monetise their pages.

Today

Today is a Blogging site with a difference. When a new writer signs up for what is deemed to be a VIP Blog, he or she will be paid $1.00 for each approved posting of a mere 100 words or more for thirty days. Only one paid post is allowed per day (though as many more unpaid posts can be made as are desired) and only one VIP Blog is allowed per person. After thirty days, the performance of the Blog is manually reviewed and payment increased or decreased accordingly. There is also a pay per page view system in operation

The above three sites are just a few of the top paying ones which I use regularly. There are many more but the second consideration which we have to bear in mind is that we then have to promote these writings and pages once we have put them in place.

We can do this with social networking sites such as Yuwie - the one which I use most frequently as it too pays! - MySpace and Facebook. We can do it on Blogs which we have. We can put our page on to book-marking sites such as StumbleUpon, Reddit or Digg. Be creative - there are a great many options out there.

The one thing we must never do is "Spam." This could be in the form of sending bulk e-mails to people you don't know, posting too frequently on forums with inappropriate or duplicated content, or even placing too many items in a short space of time on a book-marking site.

I hope that by following this advice - and remembering the warning! - you too can boost your online earnings.

Learn more about this author, Gordon Hamilton.
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