How Not to Make Very Much Money Online

I don't have a cooking clue how to make money online. Well, I can make sense about cents, but considering how much I've worked and written, $12 isn't very impressive, is it? Especially as most of that was earned in the insane sweatshop of Amazon Turk. There's something satisfying about someone paying you a few cents to answer whether you like a shade of blue or not, but is it worth it, especially considering that South Africa's blacklisted as far as Amazon.com is concerned. Let me back up here and elucidate; Amazon Turk pays into your bank account if you're in the USA, by cheque if you're in India and the other option that applies to everyone is Amazon.com gift certificates. A while back though, due to the horrendous level of postal fraud here, they stopped all except the very expensive courier options - no standard shipping rates to South Africa at all. So you can buy from them, but it'll probably cost you twice as much to get it delivered. I suppose the options are; cough up the extra money, use a remailer in the USA or start using it to buy gifts for friends overseas. Or don't bother with any of it in the first place.

After around a month and 25 articles on Associated Content, I have about 1000 page views, which will get me $1.50 via paypal. Being outside the USA means I can't get the upfront payment for articles that Americans can. I'm continuing there though, for the simple reason that they accept non-exclusive content which frankly might as well sit there and earn a few pennies. Although ... one must remember that there's not a lot of point putting content all over the place without a significant rewrite. SEO! Yeah!

Triond.com does require first publication rights, but not exclusive. It's purely click based and I think I have just under a dollar there.

Helium.com pays for articles up front wherever you are, depending on how you're rated. There's also a marketplace where you can write articles for buyers, but it's competition based, so your article will be competing with whoever else writes. They also have contests. I have no idea whether I've made any money there yet - I got 2 writing stars then lost them, 4 rating stars then 3. I have a Premium Marketplace Writer badge which allows me to write for certain customers. Money though? Again, no clue.

Apart from all of that pissing about for freelance writing pennies online, I've been applying for various online writing gigs. No luck so far.

Conclusions! I'm not writing the right sort of content. This, I think, will change gradually. Will I ever make any money writing? Still no clue. I'm investing time and energy in it all and losing lots of sleep, but all of those things are free and freely given. Sold some photos though