i don't recommend posting work on any sites... and don't know that anyone has really made any significant sales that way... btw, why do you say 'published'?... do they pay for work now?... would be interested in hearing evidence-backed facts to the contrary, if i'm wrong...
I've looked into writing for or through a number of websites. The vast majority of them are somewhat simliar: You sign up to a website and more or less 'bid' for jobs with the list of companies supplied. You are not paid in any way by the website itself - very often, in fact, you would pay them for the previldge of using thier resources to find a real employer. If a company likes you, they'll hire you (in a sense). It is that company that is repsonsible for paying you. In every case I've seen, you are hired simply for blogging or posting on various websites, and/or your own, as an advertising scheme. The method and skill and subtlty of such a plan can vary tremedously. However, what I'm sure Mama was getting at is that it is almost impossble to make any real money doing it - even if you work full time. Many people, according to the agreement with the company that hired you, are paid only pennies, or perhaps a few dollars for making a few posts (often paid that per post) each day or so. Also, there is alot of competition from English speakers in other countries who work for wages that would seem like borderline slavery to say, a middle class European or American due to currency exchange rates. Personally, it's probably not worth it unless you can secure a sizable contract of some sort for good quality work. Naturally, as with anything, that's difficult.
AC and Helium are just to make some dollars. I'm 14 years of age, and I like to make a few writing about things I like, but you can't get anything important from them. If you're from the US, I'd say AC is the best. If you are not from the US, try Helium. Anyways, it's not worth losing your time with any of them.
I pulled about $400 from Helium. Never tried AC, but I've heard it was possible to make a few dollars from them. I used to be involved on Helium quite a bit, but I quit really going on there when they instituted all these rules with earning stars and other crap like that. There are too many people cheating the system, and too many idiots on there who don't know how to write, thus don't know how to read and rate articles for readability. I post an article from time to time, and I go on and rate 10 articles once a month, just to keep my $10 a month earnings from my articles already on the site. It's like my little savings account. It's just for me. Thing is I have 200 articles on there to earn $10 a month through pennies. It takes a while to write them, and for the overall effort, if I were to look at joining now, knowing what I know, I wouldn't bother joining. It's not even a really good judge of how good your writing is either, if you were thinking of using it as practice. The rating systems aren't always very accurate that way on any of those sites. And it is all about hitting the keywords for search engines. I would say don't bother with any of them.
Nancy I would say that your best bet for making any kind of money is to check out Duotropes Digest. It's a collection of publishers, mostly magazines, that are looking for content to be submitted to them. You will be able to look up current publishers that are willing to look over your work. You have to follow their submissions to the letter or you will not be looked at. Overall though, it is a great way to start out.
I've written quite a bit for AC. There are folks who make 200+ dollars PER month there, in page views alone! One lady broke four digits. AC is a great way to make residual income while practing your craft and informing the public about topics YOU care about. I would recommend them to anyone wishing to be published, and yes - they do pay.
It's been a suspicion of mine that most people who make any real money doing that sort of thing are what I call "corporate bloggers." Basically professional bloggers, nearly always with ties in big business - not budding writers. Besides, 50 bucks a week isn't exactly supermarket spending money for many people. Just my two cents.....
I enjoy going on Helium, but you don't make money quickly at all from revenue sharing. What I do like about the site is that they constantly have writing contests going (for pay) and there's also a section called Marketplace where magazines post what articles they need, how much they'll pay, when they need it, and you can submit an article through Helium. I think the rating generally is pretty poor, but it gives you an idea of how average people will react to something you write. I kind of like to use it to test things out to decide if I want to try to publish it. If I get poor ratings, I won't give up on the project, but it will give me an idea at least. ~Eliza
