First Week Impressions: Triond Pay

Now that I’ve been with Triond for the better part of a week, I think I’ve learned the ropes enough to write a post about it. These really are just a first week’s impressions, and I’m sure my opinion will continue to evolve in the weeks and months ahead.

First off, a little bit about me. I’m a 2011 college graduate with a B.A. in creative writing, so this type of personal essay/technical/informative style of writing is new to me. I’m working on some personal projects, but I’ve read too many stories by editors who complain about writers who proudly tell them, “I’m writing a book!” and then never hear back from said writers again, so I’ll not divulge what I’m doing.

Triond, on the other hand, allows me to get some of my ideas out there. It was incredibly easy to sign up, and this feels more like a Youtube account where I upload videos than an actual job. I think most writers at Triond would agree with me.

Most of the sentiments I’ve seen in the Triond forums go along the lines of, “You can make a little money, but not a lot,” “Don’t expect to make any money here,” and my favorite, “This is a labor of love.”

The Basics

I’m sure that most writers, when they stumble upon Triond, are concerned with how much Triond pays. Sadly, Triond pays nothing upfront for articles. Writers get paid only by the number of page views each article receives, and from what I can tell, you have to start hitting 10,000 views or more per article on a consistent basis to start “breaking even,” or having articles earn $10 or more.

For example, one short article I wrote 36 hours ago about video games has received 30 views, which has gotten me $0.02. Some writers have claimed to get 80,000 or more views on some of their pages, but I’m not holding my breath.

If my articles generate, on average, $0.10 a month, I’ll probably continue writing for Triond. That may seem ridiculously low, but I’m just starting out, and I bet I can increase that amount several fold.

Making It Work

Let me go into what I’ve learned about increasing my Triond earnings. The single most important thing I need to focus on is increasing my readership. For this, I’ll need to employ the fabled keyword.

Keywords are, well, words or phrases that are repeated several times throughout an article. For example, I’ve repeated the phrase “Triond pay” three times throughout the length of the article. It’s even in the title. This repetition should, in theory, give it a boost on Google and other search engines.

However, the trick is to make it flow naturally and not to stick it in random places. Nobody wants to read a poorly written article or story, of which I’ve seen a fair number on Triond. Again, I haven’t been here too terribly long, but I’d say most writers here are amateur, and this is just a hobby for them.

How else can you increase how much Triond pays? Triond features the ability to link to a number of popular, third party sites. You can connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts to start marketing your articles.

I probably won’t do that, since I write on too many different subjects (politics, writing, video games, books, movies, television, etc.) and too often at that. I don’t want to inundate my friends with three or more articles every single day. Instead, I’ll selectively choose which articles I think my friends might like to read and then manually link to them on social media.

Another easy way to market your material is to post it on a site like Digg, but I’ve found that the more unique articles perform best on there. The most I’ve gotten so far is half a dozen diggs on the site, and I’m personally pretty tickled at that.

If you’re serious about increasing your Triond earnings, go sign up for a Google AdSense account. Under your account settings in Triond, you can link your AdSense account, and Triond will split the earnings 50/50 with you.

I do feel that a 50/50 split is a little uneven in favor of the website over the writer, but it’s still extra cash in your pocket.

Some of the worst earning-potential comes from what I went to school for: creative writing. I’m sure a really good story can get thousands of page views, but a blog’s a more appropriate online medium for fiction, poetry, and the like. After all, readers can easily read your other material on a blog, but it’s not half as easy on a site like Triond.

This is what I’ve learned about Triond earnings, but I’d like to hear back from any veterans of the site or newcomers like myself. Not only will more advice benefit me personally, it’ll benefit everyone else too.  If you’re interesting in increasing your Triond earnings, take a look at my quick guide that won’t tell you how to make $10,000 on your first month but will help you set realistic goals.