by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 14, 2009

Web 2.0 hosting and the concept of user driven content for websites has brought about an explosion in recent times in the number of websites that pay for writing. Writers are paid for writing articles to a specific subject, they are paid for writing articles on a general subject and we even have sites such as Today.com which pays writers for making posts to a blog on any subject of their choosing!

This is of course great news for all those who make their living with the written word, or even those who pursue the craft chiefly as a hobby, but with this increase in the numbers of such sites there inevitably comes a downside. The negative aspect of this whole concept is that not all of these sites are what they seem or deliver what they promise. I personally have been stung on a few occasions by sites which either bury "conditions" in the deepest part of the small print, or simply fail to include them at all. The sites I will discuss below are therefore the ones from which I personally get paid for writing upon.

I have no hesitation whatsoever in naming Helium as the best site on the Web which pays for article writing. The site is incredibly well structured, incredibly easy to understand and to navigate and it affords the writer an all but infinite variety of subjects upon which he or she may write. Payment is made in several ways, such as ongoing royalties, upfront payments to prolific and quality writers and even competition prizes on a weekly basis. Helium also has a section where external publishers advertise for articles and if a writer submits one which is chosen for publication, they will receive the fee which is nominated.

Squidoo is not strictly speaking a website which pays for writing in itself but if we consider the bigger picture, we will discover that effectively it is. Squidoo is a site which allows its members to build a series of mini websites called "lenses," on any subject of their choosing, which they then populate not only with written text but with a whole series of features such as the sale of Amazon and eBay products for commissions, links to other associated websites and a fascinating array of other items via the extensive number of tools provided in house. Payment is made by pooling the adsense revenue each month and distributing it among the creators of the most successful lenses on a tiered basis.

Blogger is Google's blog hosting site and my favourite. It does not pay for writing in a direct sense but allows us to include our own Google ads on our blogs for potential pay per click revenue. It also facilitates our including products from any affiliate companies with which we have a connection in order to make commissions.

I have had some limited success with other websites that pay for writing but these three are so far ahead of any others, to mention those others in the same article would not be appropriate. I very much hope that you have a look at these sites and make the same success of the opportunities they afford as I have.

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