If, like me, you’re new to all this Triond publishing stuff, you’ll be discovering just what a wonderful site it is to make a little extra cash  – as long as you know how to use it and get the most from the opportunities available out there on the big world-wide-web

Like many other Triond-ites, I recently came to Triond as a writer, looking for an outlet for my creative activities as well as hopefully making some income from it. Now, I realise I am not going to become an overnight millionaire and I think that anybody who signs up and expects their bank account to be bursting at the seams within a few weeks is either dillusional or just plain bonkers. It just won’t happen!

I have now had six related articles published on Triond within a week and am probably approaching my first fifty pence. This has not been achieved simply by letting my work sit there hoping it gets some exposure, but by following some of the tips and advice from other experienced writers who obviously know their way around the web and have seen the results for themselves. To a certain extent their strategies work and my fifty pence worth of input is the proof! 

My work is mainly focused around transport history and my articles thus far have been about my views on London’s famous Routemaster buses. Along with the written word I have attached photographs to illustrate my work, all taken by myself over the past few years. Now, I also soon realised that, in addition to submitting written words, there is also the means to simply submit and download photographs as Triond content and I have downloaded a few related photos to try and get even more income generated through links to my main articles.

This all got me thinking further – a little outside the box as it were. Last year I published a series of my Routemaster bus photographs as commercailly available postcards, to be sold through advertising and on the web to fellow enthusiasts and collectors. I spent over £60 on advertising in the enthusiast press but had limited response - certainly not enough to recoup my costs.

As I had to justify the expense of printing, publishing and advertising my cards I had to look at other ways to sell them and I took to putting them on ebay –  again with some success but not enough to start making a profit.

I am now re-advertising my postcards on ebay and adding the URLs to my Routemaster bus material on Triond. My theory is that most of the people searching out bus postcards for sale on ebay would be enthusiast collectors and, even though they might not be interested in buying the cards, they might hit the links and generate more hits for my Triond account. Advertsiing and selling on ebay does cost – I normally pay around 15p per listing. On average I get around 50 views per week for my card ads so if half of those viewers also linked to my my Triond material that is 25 more hits per week. Not a significant number to make much more money I know but enough to offsett some of the ebay costs and thus, allowing me to sell my product at a slightly reduced price, which may then generate more interest and the process goes round again. 

I am also now advertising my cards on Gumtree with the links. I don’t display the items for sale on the ad so if anybody wants to see what is being sold they make the link and – another hit for my Triond account! 

As I have dozens of transport related photos sitting on discs on my office shelf I believe that I might as well stick them on Triond over the next few weeks, with links,  in order to at least generate some income from them. Again this won’t be much but it will be more than I am getting by just letting them gather dust on the shelf.

I also have landscapes and other subjects available so whenever I send an email, I add the URL to one of my photos, as a kind of greeting card and, when that is hit and opened by the recipient - it goes towards that monthy Paypal credit. It all adds up and gets my photos working for me.  

If you have your own original photos try looking at ways to make them work for you on Triond. As I say, you won’t make a mint but by sharing them and letting people see more of them your monthly Triond account should be getting slightly fatter each day.Good luck!