There are many forms of writing that take place on the internet. This can range from formal article writing to posting comments on certain sites. There are an unlimited number of options that can help you be the most successful writer that you can be.
Finding the websites that will actually pay people to write can be a little tricky. There are far too many scam sites that will gladly take your money and leave you with little satisfaction. Distinguishing the good from the bad takes just a little knowledge.
Never pay a site to publish your work. The idea is to make money, not to lose it. Most website that offer large amounts of income for writing simple ads are only seeking to empty your wallet and fill up theirs.
Recommendations for legitimate sites that will pay you to write:
Helium.com
Helium is an article site. There are no membership fees and they have several ways in which to make money. You have to be dedicated to writing online articles that appeal to people outside of the site. You must also be well versed in proper spelling and sentence structure.
This site allows your articles to be published immediately. It then goes into a rating system where other members rate your article against another article under the same title. If you follow the rules of conduct, your work will rise to the top of the pile.
You must rate other writers articles in order to profit from your articles. This isn't a very difficult task to perform and you must have at least one rating star to benefit.
You can earn a residual income that comes from the number of times people click on your article. Once your article has been published, you don't have to do anything else to earn money from them. The income is monthly.
There are other ways to earn money from Helium. They run weekly contests and have a Marketplace. Marketplace is where publishers outside of Helium will choose the article they feel is best for their publication. You are then paid a fee for that article. The fee is generally stated in the guidelines. You must follow the guidelines in order to be in the running for these articles.
Helium is a great site to learn more about the craft of writing. The community base is excellent. The high quality of it's writers makes it a number one pick for anyone that wishes to make money writing on the web.
Associated Content
Associatedcontent.com is another site that pay you to write articles geared toward an internet audience. It differ from Helium in many aspects. Although you are still able to get upfront payments for your articles, your work first has to be reviewed.
Associated Content allows a lot more freedom in your choice of subject matter because you are not put up against any other writers. There isn't the same kind of competition in this site as Helium. You still need to stay up to standard though.
There are several ways in which to make money on AC. To get the most financial gain from your articles, it is best to make the article exclusive. This means that you can only publish the article with AC. If you submit it this way you will still receive performance payments (per 1000 views to your articles). It does take up to two weeks for the article to be reviewed and an offer made to you. Once you have accepted the offer, you will begin to receive the performance payments for it.
You can submit work that you previously published elsewhere (only non-exclusively) to AC. This will allow you to earn residual income from an article that you wrote from at least two places. This works very well with articles that you wrote to Helium. You can then publish them in AC to make the most of your work.
There are also monthly contests that AC runs that allow you to possibly win and larger amount of cash. This isn't money that you can count on, but it can give you a little extra pocket money every now and then.
My Lot
Mylot.com is a different type of writing spot. In this website, you choose your interests, post meaningful, thought provoking comments and watch your pennies grow. You receive payment for starting new discussions and for taking part in discussions that others have posted.
This is a fun site that has just about every subject line you could think of. If you can't find what you are looking for, create it. You would have to spend a great deal of time on this site for it to amount to any decent income from it, but you will have fun while you are doing it.
The writing that you will do on this site is not the formal type of writing that you would do in the previously mentioned two sites. This is great for someone that doesn't want to spend a lot of time minding their p's and q's or researching their subject. It is centered on a writer's opinion.
Blogspot
Blogspot.com is exactly as it's name states. This is a blogging site that allows you to post whatever you wish to share. You can use Google Adsense, which will put advertising on your blog. You will get paid by Adsense for clicks to the advertising that is there. The writing isn't quite as formal as writing articles but not quite as lax as writing comments in MyLot.
You have to drive traffic to any of the above sites in order to make the most money. The first two options are for people who take writing seriously and love to do it. The last two are for those that choose to be a little more lenient with their writing technique. It all depends on the person.
There are several other sites that allow you access to finding freelance writing jobs. The site doesn't pay you for those jobs, the client that goes through them does. One such site is WAHM.com. You must be very skilled in order to find repeat buyers. These type of jobs are not for those that don't enjoy writing.
You can make a decent amount of extra income from any of these ventures. It does take dedication and time to build it up to anything substantial. If you are looking for a quick buck, you should steer clear of writing sites. None of them will come easy. You must be dedicated to the task of writing and you have to keep focused. If you feel you can do that, you can do well in all of these sites.