I'd sure be interested

[Elizabeth Donovan]

Hi Frank. I have a bit of a different opinion than my colleagues on content writing sites. I consider myself very online savvy and I have written for Suite101 and EHow along with a couple of others and found it just wasn't worth my time. I was being offered a few bucks for articles that were well researched. In the end, making 20 bucks a day for several hours worth of hard work just didn't seem worth it to me - but hey, that's just me

That being said, there are some writers who make a fair amount writing content for these sites, but from my experience this requires them to crank out lots of articles per day. I don't consider myself completely "old school" (lol) but I do think there is value added when you are published in say, Redbook or Parenting Magazine (or others) as opposed to online content sites. Yes, it's more difficult to get those gigs, but it makes me feel more important lol. So I suppose what I am really trying to say is that if writers want to get credentials and build their resumes, these are good sites to start with - but I think we shouldn't neglect to keep trying to reach for the "big gigs" in life!

[Frank Baron]

I agree Elizabeth but as you say, some folks say they're making a decent buck and they seem happy enough.

But I am old school and I'd sure rather spend 40 hours researching and writing a 1500-word article for a glossy and get a buck a word.

But I guess as 3D mags became less relevant (as newspapers already are) those gigs will be fewer and farther between.

I think I hung up my freelancing spurs at just about the right time.

[Margaret Compeau]

Hi Frank,
I think it depends on what site you write for, on the amount of pay. I am with Victoria. I recommend Demand Studios. I got hired there, haven't submitted anything yet because I'm trying to understand their writer's guidelines.) But they get paid twice a week and the money per article is a lot better than some other sites I have seen. It could turn into a full time writing job if someone works hard enough, I think. Associated Content is pretty good to. They have a lot of different topics to write about. Some are based per performance, while others are up front payments. But the good thing is your work can post to a lot of the major Yahoo sites. Which means you have a chance of having a lot of people reading your work versus if you were to write for small sites that not a lot of people know about it. I write for a site called Wikipeers and it's not bad. It's low pay ($1.25 per article) so I have to do tons of articles to make decent pay. It's actually caused me to stop writing for them for the minute and try other avenues. Helium is good to. They offer writing for their Marketplace and some articles are $60 or more depending on the publication asking for the article. Hope that helps. I think depending on the site if the writer works hard enough then it could help build their portfolio. But other sites can be dead ends too.

[Margaret Compeau]

I agree Elizabeth. Some of the online sites I write for might be seen as small, but I still try to reach for bigger and better things. Online and offinline also. I think we all have to have that to keep us going. Gives us drive. It does for me anyway.