In the time I’ve been writing for Triond, I’ve learned a lot about what content performs well and what content doesn’t. There’s quite a big learning curve, and it seems that most of us learn by trial and error.
Hopefully, I can save you some effort and keep you from having the frustrating, discouraging, and disillusioning feelings I’ve suffered through as I’ve struggled to achieve success and make money on Triond.
The Daunting and Difficult Uphill Climb
I started writing for Triond 3 1/2 months ago. In that time, I have been initiated by fire. I’ve wanted to quit the site several times out of frustration and discouragement that I’ve poured so much effort into creating and publishing content without getting much compensation. However, I keep coming back in the hopes that I can challenge myself, stretch a little farther, and earn a little more.
Success on Triond is relative. You must gauge your success only against what you have achieved in the past–not against the success that other Trionders have achieved. I console myself by realizing I am learning, improving, and earning more every month, even if it’s only a dollar or two more.
Give Up on Poetry?
When I signed up for Triond, I began by publishing poetry. On about the first 10 poems, I didn’t receive any comments or likes, but I kept writing. Gradually, I started to connect with other poets and writers, and I started to receive some feedback. However, after a month or so of publishing primarily poetry, I was finding that it was not lucrative. I think I earned about $0.33 the first month and a half I was publishing poetry. My worst performing poem still has a mere 9 views on it (White Kite). My most successful poem has 60 views (God Mixes Metaphors).
The bottom line is poetry is not very popular. If you write poetry primarily for personal enjoyment, that’s fantastic. Keep at it. There is a great, supportive community of creative writers on Triond with whom you can connect. However, if you would like to be compensated for your poetry, you probably will be disappointed on Triond. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read from others, short stories and other creative pieces, which are also published on Authspot, do not fair much better than poetry in terms of compensation.
Give Up on Photos?
After my less-than-fulfilling experience publishing poetry, I branched out into photography. I found that earning money from images was even harder than with poetry, if you can believe it! Many of my photos still have yet to earn a penny, and one has received just 3 views on it so far (Utah Lake).
Articles = Earning Potential
The first article that I achieved some measure of success with was a long essay that I wrote about my personal search for God (My Search for God and Judaism). It remained my most popular article for a couple of months, though this is only because it was competing with poetry and photos, which were only garnering 10 views at the most. This article currently only has 117 total views, though it continues to get a hit or two a day.
Religious/Spiritual Articles
My Search for God and Judaism gave me a little confidence, so I began writing about various spiritual and religious topics. Though none of the articles have been wildly successful, I have had some decent results. I have a couple of evergreen articles (Sacred Ayahuasca in Shamanism: Its Uses, Effects, and Legality and Michael Jackson’s Spiritual Search and What We Can Learn About Ourselves From Him) that continue to pull in a few views a day despite being published a month or two ago.
I have theories about why these two articles are performing well. I think the success of the ayahuasca article is due to the fact that the topic is pretty specialized and out of the ordinary. Though even when the article was first published, it didn’t pull in more than several views a day, it continues to do this day in and day out. There aren’t that many other articles that have been written on this topic competing with it. The second article on Michael Jackson is obviously doing well because there are many people continuing to search for information about him. My experience with these two articles goes to show that niche topics can do well and so can wildly popular topics.
Health Articles
Start digging around a little on Triond, and you’ll discover that Trionders have found that health articles are usually the most popular and earn the most. I’ve only written two of them (All in Your Head?: The Cause of Illnesses and Diseases and Killer Flu?: 10 Facts You Might Not Know About H1n1). Both have been moderately successful in terms of hits with around 200 hits apiece, though I haven’t put as much effort into promoting them as some of my other articles. The earnings per click on these articles are much higher than articles on many of the other Triond sites, though. More on this in just a bit.
Cat Articles
I started to see some great leaps in my success on Triond when I started writing cat articles. The first successful cat article I wrote was Litter Box Problems: 10 Things to Try Instead of Sending Fluffy to the Pound. It currently has 405 views. It continues to get several hits a day.
I hit the real jackpot (now, again, remember all success on Triond is relative–so what is a jackpot to me would not be to the extremely successful writers on this site) when I began writing funny cat articles. 12 Cats Caught in Funny, Embarrassing, Bizarre, and Compromising Situations has 1,150 views. Humor appears to be very popular on Triond. I’ve also found that including links to my funny cat articles on Fark and Reddit has boosted my hits considerably. Most of my funny cat articles have generated over 400 views to date.
My first article to get on the Hot Content list was How I Cat-Proofed My Home: Strategies for Dealing with Fur, Poop, and Throw Up. Since then, I’ve found that it has been much easier to get articles on the Hot Content list. To date, I’ve had a total of 6 articles make it on the list. It seems that once you have gotten one article on the list, the Powers that Be at Triond might trust you more. I’m not sure. The confusing thing is that many of my articles that have made it on the Hot Content list have not been exceedingly successful. Half of them have not even received 100 views yet. The others are currently right around 500 views.
Articles on Writing
I’ve also begun to branch out into writing articles about my experiences on Triond (like this one!). For The Love of Writing & The Money: How to Promote Your Articles was my first foray into this arena. I quickly discovered that the majority of us writers on Triond are here for the same primary reason: we want to be successful writers. We can quibble about what success means, but we nevertheless all strive for it. Accordingly, we all want to read articles with good recommendations on how we can achieve success. The one downside is that articles about writing are published on WebUpon and WritingHood, which don’t pay as much per click as some of the other Triond sites.
Different Triond Sites Pay Differently Per Click
I’ve discovered that there is a big difference in how much the various Triond sites pay per click. The ones that I’ve found pay the most are the Real Owner, HealthMad, and Trifter. The ones that pay the least are Picable and Authspot.
Secrets to Writing Successful Articles
I’ve discovered a few “secrets” to writing successful articles that I’ll share with you. Actually none of these are really secrets, but many writers don’t employ them because they take time and effort, so in that sense they are secrets.
Titles
One of the most effective ways to increase readership is to give your articles intriguing and interesting titles. When I first started writing for Triond, I didn’t know anything about this. It is indeed an art. In my experience, strings of adjectives grab people’s attention. I also try to write titles that are attention getting, out of the ordinary, and a little strange. Here are a few examples:
10 Ways to Reduce How Many Slimy, Yucky, Revolting Hairballs Your Cat Pukes Up
Sexy, Sultry, Saucy, Silly, Somewhat Sinful Kitty Cats Lookin’ for Love
Funny, Cool, and Thought-Provoking Signs That Deal with God and Religion
Topics
In my experience, funny articles perform the best on Triond. For example, my funny cat articles perform better than my informative cat articles. 10 Possessed Cats in Need of an Exorcism has 522 views, while Does Your Cat Have a Bladder Infection or a Behavioral Problem? has 182. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t write informative articles. There is a lot to learn about promoting informative articles–techniques I haven’t perfected yet. I’ve discovered some of the secrets to promoting funny content, though.
Photos
I spend nearly half of my time searching for photos to illustrate my articles. Photos help break up the text, provide a break for the reader’s eyes, and make articles more interesting. Didn’t we all love pictures books when we were kids? Well, we’re just big kids now. We still want pictures!
Length
Articles that are around 500-1,000 words seem to be about the right length. (By the way, this particular article is a little on the long side, IMO.) It’s hard to hold a readers attention with online content, so keep articles pithy. Page after page of words gets very tedious. Get your points across quickly. Don’t make readers wade through unnecessary fluff to get to the meat of what you are saying.
Keep At It Day After Day!
My advice to you (and my advice to myself!) is to keep at it. Success on Triond comes slowly, but I’m finding that it does come. Each month you’ll learn a little more about writing and promoting your work, expand your network of followers, and publish more content. Each of those articles that you publish will be working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make your writing dreams come true. Best of luck to you, my friend!
Related Articles
For The Love of Writing & The Money: How to Promote Your Articles
Want to Publish Your Book? Advice From an Editor
Triond Etiquette 101: Do’s and Don’ts for The Triond Writer
September 27th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Some interesting points. The trouble is that there does not seem to be any consistency within Triond itself. An article with zero reads can get onto hot content, stolen poetry has made it there and articles with thousands of hits don’t get a look in! It’s a game of chance, but having said that it is possible to make money here. I don’t think it is as lucrative as it used to be two years ago, or even one year ago. Maybe it’s to do with the general financial climate.
September 27th, 2009 at 5:50 am
Fantastically helpful article. I have only been on Triond since August 31st but have learnt so much in that time due to people like you kindly offering advice. I think I am up to just over 2 dollars and still climbing which I am very happy with for now but next month seems to be a daunting challenge!
September 27th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Nice article, ive been on Triond fot just over a month and i am trying to figure out whats popular and not, my hits are starting to climb though so i must be going in the right direction.
September 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Very informative article. Thanks for sharing.
September 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I’m a photo junkie, and now I see why I don’t earn much from it!! Why are photos treated as the poor relation on Triond? Do they not realise how much time, effort and patience goes into some shots! It can take me 5 minutes to write a poem in comparison!
September 27th, 2009 at 11:56 am
@ Louie — Thanks for your insights. It seems there is no rhyme or reason to the Hot Content. Surely it must be a computer-generated thing because some of the stuff that gets on there is certainly not the best of the best.
@ lilyrose — You’re way ahead of me when I had been on the site for a month.
@ Frosty — I’m still trying to figure it out, too! LOL
@ Darla — Thank you!
@ Lostash — Yeah, it’s really sad about the photos. I love taking pictures, too. It is a ton of work to get the perfect shot and then crop, adjust the colors, etc. to prepare to put them up.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
The things we are learning at Triond cannot be found in any book that I know of. I’m lovin’ it.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
@ Guy — You bring up a very good point. Triond gives us the chance to get almost instant feedback on our work and immediately see what’s popular and what’s not. This is the first time in my life that I am consistently producing pieces of writing. Triond has been a great inspiration for me to continue to write more and work harder.
September 27th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
This is very encouraging as I too have been becoming frustrated with the lack of earnings I’ve received so far. It’s good to keep a positive mindset. Thanks for the encouragement and keep up the good work.
September 27th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Thanks, this was a very helpful article with lots of good advice
September 28th, 2009 at 5:21 am
There is no clear path to the “money click”. And writing ability, while moderately useful does not seem to play that big a role in the “money click”. I do think subject matter, matters! How it is written seems to have little to do with the number of “money clicks”. In my own realm, my articles on sex always remain at the top of the list. There is one clear exception and that is the mainly photo article I did on our recent trip to Carlsbad Caverns. That took off like a rocket. After review of my ’stuff’, I will probably stick to articles on travel (we do a lot of camping and those articles produce a steady stream of viewers). With you it was cats, with me it seems to be our personal travel with a lot of photos.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Very true.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Your points are very true. I haven’t tried poetry and photos (I thoughs about photos) but I have also found that some topics just don’t get decent traffic. As usually, practical tips rank better – i.e topics how to solve a particular problem.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Thanks for this article, I guess I’m not alone! I’ve found AC pays better (well, pays something when on Triond you’ll get paid close to $0) for some articles, but they don’t allow much freedom with photos which are essential for some pieces. Also, I’m really into instant gratification, so Triond is my favorite publishing site right now.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
great article. I am learning every day and i think things are picking up for me as i go a long. some good advice and some true words spoken. thanks for this
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thanx so much for your insight. I enjoyed reading this article very much. I am a newbie and am taking it all in for now. Thanx again.
October 4th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Good article and some good advice.
At first, my most popular piece was one where I bashed Triond and I was bummed out that this topic was the one people wanted to see the most. But since then, my favorite article has blown past it, and I am very pleased with that since it tells me that content does count for something here. I feel a bit more positive about the place than I did before.
I like the concept that my articles can in theory earn money forever, day or night, and that the numbers will tell me what works and what doesn’t. It’s a good model… I don’t know if I will ever make much, but it is worth sticking around for a while to find out
October 5th, 2009 at 1:57 am
Choosing a right and hot topic is very neccessary…I choose most the topics related to health and money…
October 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Good analysis. I think it all eventually comes down to what your aims are. I want to write poetry and improve my skills, so connecting with similar minded people does help. As far as the monetary aspect is concerned, money is always welcome especially in this economy. I concur with your analysis. Thanks for posting this and broadening my outlook!
October 24th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Great advice and tips..I’m doing fine WriteEditSeek..but you’ve given me something to think about..thank you for sharing your writing experience and what works for you and dosen’t work for you
October 31st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for sharing.. we all need to learn how to work the site to get more viewer interest in our writings.
November 1st, 2009 at 2:03 am
True and very interesting also.TX
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
You have made some good points and it is all trail and error.