Frugal….not cheap!

I really believe that the internet is changing.   We are going to depend on it more to cut costs and earn us money.  My girlfriend use to spend a lot of money on her phone bill, but now because of Skype, it costs her nothing.  No more long distant calls for her and if you are still paying them, you need to stop.

It seems as though the internet is going in the direction of  a pyramid scheme.  There are more and more websites going up that are having every day people supply the content.  The philosophy seems to be that everyone is an expert at something, so instead of hiring people to write content they let people sign up as independent contractors and let them do the writing.  Now here’s the interesting part.  The websites put ads up from Adsense, for example, and Adsense pays the website whenever someone clicks on the ads.  Then the website turns and gives part of that income to the writers.  The website probably keeps 75% of the revenue and gives the rest to the writers, but I am only guessing.  I don’t know if how much the writers are getting will ever be found out.

I started out writing for eHow back in 2007 and was surprised that it was no scam, that I actually could make some pocket change doing this.  I started doing the math afer a couple of months and realized that I could write more articles and get bigger pocket change.  There was no limit to how much I could make doing this.  As long as I wanted to write articles, eHow was there to pay me for it.

eHow is not the only one doing this,  Bukisa is doing it, too, but it doesn’t just stick to how to articles, it runs the gamut of any style of writing.  Other websites are eZine and hubpages.  You can write about what you want as long as you stick to some rules.

The Examiner, who I write for as the Women’s Business columnist, started out as a brick and mortar newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner and after closing down, is now strickly an online newspaper.  In my earlier post of this year, I told everyone that I would be writing more on eHow and Bukisa and then working on an eBook, but that has changed since I got the Examiner gig.  You have to go through a online interview and show previous experience as a writer, to become a columnist, but it is worth the effort.  As much as I am an eHow fan, I do enjoy writing for the examiner, because I am able to chose who I interview, my subject for the day and can express my own views when I write.  My daily income is growing and I have already double last months earnings.  If you think you would like to try it out, drop me a line and I can give you a referral.

I just recently discovered the Trendhunter website where you can post the latest Trends on their website and earn money.  I haven’t tried this one yet, but it looks promising, especially if you are not much into writing.   They claim on the website that you can earn $200.00 to $2,000 a month, depending on how much work you do.  You only need to join and have a adsense account to get paid.  Not much writing skills needed her, just a short blurb and a link to the original website is all that you have to do.  If I decide to give it a try, I will let you know how that looks in the future.

As far as my eBook goes, I have yet to begin.  My mom says she doesn’t know where I get the time to do all the things I do.  All I know, is there isn’t enough time in the day to enjoy the things that I do.

The internet will provide for a lot of people over the next year as the model changes.  I suggest you climb aboard before you are left behind.