BellaOnline explanation
Hi. I have been with BellaOnline since they started way back when. They are a completely different place now, because someone bought out the site. It's true that you must write a column weekly, and you don't get paid. However, hosts may earn money from their site and keep all of it. The ads the owner gets just cover the costs of keeping the place running. Money we earn on our own is all ours. Many of the hosts run businesses or set up affiliate ads for their site. You do have to follow rules--for instance, we wouldn't want your "articles" to be ads. But if, for example, your column was on gardening. You write an article on how to use planters to create a theme. You insert a picture of a cute planter that is linked to your personal web store where they can buy the planter from you. You handle the sale yourself and keep everything. It's not a bad deal, and they don't run into what all the other sites do, where they promise to pay at first, but then run out of money and can't keep their promise.
Does it pay off? I've been a freelance writer for many years, both online and off, for free and for pay. A publisher found my BellaOnline column and, after studying my site and my bio, he offered me a book contract. The book will be out in a month or so. He felt my ability to write a weekly column proved I could handle the discipline of writing a book under contract. My magazine articles become recycling in a month or so, but my web stuff stays around forever, building my reputation. Since I'm allowed to write whatever I want within reason (must look professional and stay on topic), I get a chance to write things that matter to me, but don't have a real marketability in the strange world of print publishing.