Earn at least $1 for my art or writing.

I wrote 2 articles and submitted and made $100 I am a horrible writer and my English skills are so bad you would think that I flunked out of 3rd grade.

I pulled my box of old writings out of the closet and submitted them, with some changes, to several different websites, including Associated Content, Helium, and a few poetry websites (Creative-Poems and MoonTownCafe.)

The only one of these that really pays anything, though, is Associated Content (paying anywhere from $4-$20/item depending on numerous factors, including whether you sell them exclusive or non-exclusive rights.)

On Helium, you will rack up small change (very slowly!) as your writings are read by others. They’re also ranked based on peer review—and one thing I will say is that it is very rewarding when your piece rises to the top of the heap in its category!

Creative-Poems and MoonTownCafe offer members the opportunity to either comment on (C-P)or review (MTC)one another’s work. On MTC, members can also rate, if desired, using a 5-star rating system. However, these two sites don’t offer payment for your work. But exposure is always a good thing! You never know who may be checking those sites and reading your work! And it never hurts to get some feedback on your work—particularly when it’s complimentary!

Anyway, I would encourage you to go for it! There’s no reason why you should keep those gems you’ve written to yourself when it’s so easy to get them published on the internet!

It isn’t difficult to make at least $1 for your writing! In fact, you can very conceivably make $4-8/per item on AC – even if you don’t sell them exclusive rights to your work. I know – I did! (That isn’t much, but it’s a start!) They pay more for exclusive rights, but I wouldn’t recommend that, because you wouldn’t be able to use your own work again after selling it to them. With non-exclusive rights, you can repost and even resell the same pieces to other markets later.

You can find each of the above websites by keying in their names (without spaces) and adding the ”.com” extension.

Much luck to you!

I’ve had 16 different pieces (articles, poems, and one short story) published on the Associated Content website, so far (since Jan. 1st!) Eight of them were purchased (though the pay isn’t very much, really.) But it is a start! They don’t pay for fiction; nor do they pay for anything under 400 words—which, unfortunately, includes most poetry!) If you haven’t, yet, you might want to check them out. You can find them at http://www.associatedcontent.com.

If you like crime stories, my very first item posted on Associated Content was a flash fiction piece, called “Confession” (hence, this gun photo.) You might enjoy it! Here’s the link:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/111471/confession.html

To check out my other work on AC, here’s the link to my AC Content Producer page:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/39393/jeanne_dininni.html

I figure that, though AC doesn’t pay much, it’s valuable to get my work out there where it can be read. Who knows who might see it and want to hire me or buy my work? (I’ve actually found some of my articles by doing a Google search.)

Good luck, and Happy Writing!
Jeanne

I’d sat by, giving a cheer to a friend about this goal, and yet I myself hesitated to add it even though I knew – and she no doubt knows as well given our discussions through the years – that on some level this was/is a goal. Though I think the reason I hesitated was because I wasn’t thinking in terms of “earn a buck”... I was thinking more in terms of throwing myself “out there” to the public at large, exposing my creativity or research or whatever… sure, making some money was in the equation, but it wasn’t the driving factor – creativity was/is. Then I re-read her list of things… and I re-read the way this one was worded… “earn at least $1 for..” That was it.. two little words, “at least”... a long time ago I offered to sell a commissioned piece that I did wholly out of desire, in support and belief of, altruism, volunteerism, because I could, “whatever”.. for any purpose but to make money, but the matter of “copyright” came up… I wasn’t concerned with copyright, I was gifting it to the Temple… to him… so when he insisted on a price, I said $1… and he balked, didn’t take me seriously I guess, thought I was making it exclusive or like I wouldn’t forfeit the copyrights on it, but that wasn’t the case. We ended up in a row and I never got the dollar, soooo… here I am. Thinking that $1 isn’t much… I can do that, right? Can I? I mean, really, can I? Does earning at least $1 for my writing or artwork remove me from the starving artist/aspiring writer stereotype? I don’t think so. But to have the goal to earn at least one dollar… isn’t the same as having a goal to “get rich”... it’s something else, isn’t it? I don’t think it’s about my time being paid for… not by wage standards… but about someone else putting a value, monetary, on my creative expression… being willing to buy it. The question is, can I sell it? Not can I pitch a sale, not can I be a salesperson, but can I sell – essentially – a part of myself? Is that which I try to sell something someone is attracted to enough to actually pay for? Time will tell.