Gather.Com: Make Money Writing Articles at This Discussion Site

There are plenty of Web sites out there that pay for your writing skills, and Gather.com is one of my favorites. I don't make a ton of money there, but I have a lot of fun trying.

You make money on Gather by writing "articles" and commenting on other peoples' writing. The reason I wrote "articles" in quotation marks is mainly because most of the articles on there seem more like discussion board threads and posts, although there are still plenty of true articles to be found. Your articles can be any length, and on any topic you want to write about.

Although it's not plainly written out on the site exactly what you are paid for, my experience has shown me that they seem to pay for your articles, for commenting on other peoples' articles, for getting comments on your own, and also for posting and commenting on photos. You also can "ping" other site users, which is just basically making a comment on the person's page.

Most people on Gather get paid with gift cards to places like Borders, Macy's, and Home Depot. Gather works on a points system, with $1 equaling about 62 or so points. Once you reach 3000 points in one month, you can elect to get paid in cash, which is about $50 bucks. You won't make a fortune on the site, but you can make some decent extra spending money. It's relatively easy to make a couple hundred points a day. Right now I average about a hundred points a day, without really trying.

You can make more money by making friends and joining groups on the site. The more friends you have, the more people will read your stuff and make comments. Just remember to reciprocate, or you will just annoy your friends. Joining groups will make your work be seen by more people too. When you publish a photo or article, you can publish it to relevant groups you're a member of, as well as the main site. You can also form your own groups,on any topic you like. Others who are interested in the topic are likel;y to join, or you can send group invites to your friends.

The best thing about Gather, though, is that it's really fun. The people there are really cool, and there isn't a lot of spam or flame warring trolls to ruin my day and make the site ugly. There are a couple of cons, though, including somewhat difficult navigation at the site. There isn't a good category system, so make sure you use relevent tags when you are writing your articles, or no one will find your stuff.

Although yopu probably won't make a lot of money on the site, you can at least make some, or get some cool gift cards you can use for yourself or give as gifts to others. There's also the option of giving your points to charities of your choice, so if you are altruistic, you can enjoy the discussions and articles, make friends, and feel good about yourself for donating to charity at Gather.