by Laura Byrnes

Created on: June 30, 2007

Getting paid to write articles online is one of the few painless, legitimate ways to make money online. Everybody has something to say, so why not get a couple bucks for saying it?

There are a number of sites who will pay you for your thoughts, my two personal favorites being AssociatedContent.com and Helium.com. AssociatedContent makes an offer on your article upfront for somewhere between $3 and $20. With Helium, you earn money per page view, and with enough articles, this can rack up quick!

So can write about anything - reviews on products, restaurants, movies or concerts. How to Guides, editorials, news, debates. Whatever you can come up with! Many sites (such as the ones I previously mentioned) accept all appropriate articles - appropriate meaning ones that meet the word count and are well written (no chat speak, decent grammar and no profanities, and you're good!). But enough with introductions, I'm sure you're already sold! So let's get down to the tips and tricks.

First, I've got two words for you: NON EXCLUSIVE! In short, that means that you still own the rights to your articles, and can submit them to any other place you want. Why is this important? Because you can write one article, and submit it to all of the sites you frequent - even on your own blog - and be earning money from it multiple times. If you're like me, and just use Associated Content and Helium, then this is especially important, as you get up front payment for one, and the other one earns over it's lifetime.

Next, develop a schedule. It's easy to get into the idea of doing paid articles and go all out one day, and then just slack off. Don't burn yourself out! Set a goal for yourself. Maybe write one or two articles a day. Even if you only get $3 per, it's still an extra $21 to $42 a week. Keep on this schedule, and thats $84 to $168 a month! And remember, that's just with the minimum bid!

Speaking of bids, that brings me to my next tip. Watch what sells! Did you get a particularly high bid on one piece? Is one of your articles rating up in the top 5 or 10 on Helium, and earning $0.20, $0.30 or more a day? Then keep writing on it! Take that topic and expand. Go into specifics, maybe a different "specific" in each article! Use that topic to compare and contrast to other similar things. For example, I wrote on the debate of Online Surveys and if they can really earn you money. I was amazed that it was up over a dollar in earnings in just the first few days. So what did I do? I expanded! I wrote an article all about "Get Paid To" sites, and another on if they're really worth it. And I still have a million topic ideas in my head!

Writing articles for cash has to be one of the best ways to make money online - so why not jump on the bandwagon? Even if you only write a few articles a week, you'll still be getting a little cushion in your wallet!

Learn more about this author, Laura Byrnes.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.