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clear that an article ranked 1 of 20' will get a lot more moola per click than one at '14 of 20'.

Now, there are two things about Helium that makes writing for them a bit harder. First, they have peculiar quality standards. Articles (with some exceptions) must be at least 400 words. That's not such a big deal (though you might have to babble a bit to fill out the word count on a short-and-sweet type topic). Additionally, you cannot include any personally identifying information in your articles. The idea is that it might foul up the rating system, which is supposed to be anonymous. However, if you so much as say "In my experience as a _____ Professor," or some similar credibility-building statement, your article might get rejected, edited, or deleted.

Helium's editors can be quite fickle. Sometimes they'll reject an article that deals with a specific issue or item of news, saying it's too focused'. Other times, they'll reject a general approach to the same subject matter, saying it's too broad'.

Sometimes you can just revise your articles to correct whatever the problem is, but you will end up with a goodly stock of wasted work for those times when an article just cannot be broadened or focused without losing its coherence.

The second big drawback to Helium is that you can't get your hands on the money you've earned until you're due at least $25. Once you've got a bunch of articles on Helium, you might hit this number fairly quickly, but, just starting out, earning a little here and there, it might take a while. A lot of people get frustrated and drop out before they reach that mark.

The best site for paid freelance writing, overall, is AssociatedContent. First of all, you get paid a heck of a lot more than any of the other sites I've mentioned here (and they are upfront about it): $1.50 per 1,000 views. On top of that, you can get up-front bonuses, if your writing is good. For example, a college research paper might net you $4.

While HubPages and ThisIsBy.Us allow you to add photos to your articles, AC lets you add up to 5, no matter how short your article might be. Unlike the others, AC also automatically breaks your work down into multiple pages, for ease of reading.

But the best aspect of AC, among it's many other pluses, is that unlike any of the others, you can submit content in non-text formats. Any user can create audio and video content, and get paid for those too. Frankly, I don't know why YouTube is so popular, when you can do the same thing on AC and get paid for it.

AC, of course, does have its drawbacks. For one, you can only enter a maximum of five search tags for each article. There are also a limited number of categories an article can fall into. For example, if you write an article about life as an active-duty soldier, you'll have to decide if it would fit best under lifestyle' or society'. If you want to discuss international trade regulations, you'll probably have to stick it in either politics' or opinion'.

I could go on for quite a while about the unique features and benefits of each of these sites; however, at the end of the day, this article is about making money for your writing. With that in mind, above all else, AC is surely your best bet.

That said, though, it is important to remember that you, as a professional writer, don't need to pick only one.

Learn more about this author, Bryan Belrad.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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