A New Year Has Begun

A new year has begun!

I have been putting my new Kobo Vox to good use; I have downloaded several books which are helping me stay on track with my blogs and my other writing. Now that the busy time is over and routines are being resumed we can all sit back for a moment and be thankful for what we have. I am thankful for spending time with family as well as the fact our holiday was safe and happy; I pray that was the case for everyone else as well.

As I begin my third year as a freelancer I can look back and see how much I have learned since day one. I was tired of working for someone else and never reaping the benefits of my hard work. I am still a long way away from "The Writer's Life" but am a much happier person because of my decision.

I have learned by doing, and made some mistakes along the way. I am a bit on the stubborn side and like to do things by myself. I have come to realize this is not always the best way to go about it so I have made a point to visit websites, read books and subscribe to fellow author's newsletters. One of the best sites to find answers to questions is the EzineArticles site. I haven't written many articles on that site, but the information available to writers is phenomenal. I would recommend anyone starting out to sign up (it's free) and get started on the right track. There are several videos available as well which I have found to be helpful.

The first site I published on was HubPages and am starting to earn more than just a few pennies a month. The key is to submit articles regularly and utilize the Amazon affiliate option. I have referred readers to products via my articles and have received several dollars to date. Their ad program also pays a bit to me almost every day; as my articles increase so do my earnings. Google Adsense is also a good program to utilize on HubPages; I would recommend this site to new writers as well. One note on the site, however: they do not moderate the articles so please do your best work. Proper sentence structure, spelling and grammar are always important - there is nothing more frustrating to me than to start reading an article riddled with typos and bad grammar. The members of HubPages are generally very helpful and inciteful; if you have questions they are more than happy to answer them.

I belong to several more sites but I must say HubPages is the one that has earned me the most money to date. The only downside is the payment threshold is higher than I would like it to be.

One more site I will mention today is Triond. This is a site which I have mixed feelings about but they do have a low payment threshold if you wish to be paid via PayPal. I have received a few payments from them without any trouble. It is a site that must be taken with a grain of salt, as they do not seem to have any rules regarding content. Google Adsense is also available on the site and does earn me a few pennies a month. I have not contributed any new articles lately but if you are looking for an easy place to submit to then Triond is the answer. As I stated before, keep your articles properly formatted and error free...your reputation as a writer is on the line so don't do anything that might compromise it further down the road.

I will continue to inform you of writing and publishing sites as the weeks go on. Please feel free to comment or share sites you belong to as well.

Good luck and have a great day!

Diane