Now I went through the trouble of putting my paintings up for sale on eBay but found out that the artist has to pay for the space he uses on the site. Now this is a good scheme to get exposure but if the artist wants to come away with a profit, he had better consider the cost of having the site host his paintings. What I did not like about the web advertisement besides the cost was the presentation; the paintings appear in a list among other artistic works. Being on a large search engine has its advantages because Ebay has developed a name for itself but the disadvantage is unless the artist can come up with something original, his work is not going to stick out from the rest. The result is that some good work often gets overlooked

If the artist is going to chose a site to sale his works he should know that people do prefer to see the painting directly. Many like the idea of standing up close to a painting to see its composition and texture clearly. Websites are getting close to seeing the real thing but there is nothing like seeing it first hand without the polished look it will have on a digital image screen. He should then look into sites that have the best ratings. A site with a counter will be a good indication of how many potential buyers visits it in order to buy. So this is something for the artist to look for on a website when choosing one to host his artwork.

One art site was set up which allowed the artist to set up a mock room with his picture hanging on a wall surrounded by furniture and the like. It offered an idea of an interior decorated room. This sort of site would be something to look into especially when the buyer is interested in matching a painting to the upholstery of his couch. Now this might be a total turn off for the artist who considers his work as independent of home furnishings. However it is the buyer who is going to pay money for his work so both parties should be satisfied. At least the person is getting exposure.

Serious exposure is better than none and so an artist must exhibit his paintings at reputable places in order to increase his credibility. A lot of fine work is also exhibited at cafes and bistros so I am not negating those venues but usually there are richer buyers who frequent the well-known galleries as opposed to buying art at a café. Again this is not to say the artist cannot sell a painting at a café; your truly has and continues to do so when galleries are too expensive to rent. It is just that there is the awful reality that many people associate better quality art as being exhibit in established galleries and if these people are going to make a serious investment, they will likely go there instead of the corner café.

The artist should never sell himself too low. In other words he should study the range of prices that exist out there and govern himself accordingly. There is a formula that I was given in order for the artist to come up with a price but this system considers that the art is dependent on the size and not on the artistic value of the painting, installation or work of art. So the artist has to ask himself if he wants to be recognized as an artist who gets paid by the square inch or someone who will merit him for the amount of work he puts into his work. Now there are tons of people who have no idea of how many hours of painstaking work it takes to get special effect on a painting. These are most likely people who you do not want to sell to.

If you are going to depend on a website listing your art will get lost among the masses so the best solution here as for other art producers like writers, is to have your own website with a minimal amount of advertisement. Having advertisement on the site will help drive people to your site and Google had come up with a valid scheme to incorporate ads that will do just that. The website should be pleasing to the eye and the paintings should be shown individually and not just as thumbnails on some international websites. The visitor will want to click on the art piece and zoom in to get a closer look.

Once the site has been created it is up to the artist to make sure the word gets out about it. One way would be by adding a link to your site on art search engines and referring to your site on blogs and forums where possible. One never knows the type of visitor who will look in on those sites so the best thing is to make sure you market your site on diverse locations.

The artist should also consider reinventing himself from time to time so that viewers will always be surprised. This means you will have a better chance of being recognized as someone who keeps up to date. The road is long when it comes to being successful but if you are tenacious some success will arrive.

After I found ChaCha , the first site that paid me to do what I was doing all the time anyway (searching the internet), I began a quest to find every site I could that was for real, was proven to actually pay, and was worth my time to use it. Below is a list of sites that are working for me, categorized between those that require little to no skills and those that require at least some basic grammar and writing skills.

Get Paid to Read, Click, and Fill Out Forms

Cash Crate

There are a ton of sites that pay you to complete free offers online, but from my experience nothing beats Cash Crate. I made almost thirty dollars the first night I tried it and got a check in the mail the following month. It's possible to make a lot more than that if you're very comfortable giving out your personal information. I recommend getting a separate email address for these offers, since the junk mail they accumulate is overwhelming. Also, although there are a lot of free offer sites and many of them are good, I haven't personally found much point in fully participating in more than one. They all have the same offers, and I'd rather get one big check than several small ones. If you're still interested in trying several, two of the better ones are Treasure Trooper and Swat Cash.

Zotspot

If you're like most of us, you search the Internet daily, usually several times a day. Of the sites that pay you to use their search engine, Zotspot is the most straightforward and has the most potential for earnings. You won't amass a fortune doing this, but you won't lose much time to it either. This site, like many of the “get paid to” sites, also has a referral program where you can exponentially increase your earnings by inviting others to join, which makes the pennies add up more quickly. One important note: Don't be concerned when your account shows 0 for a long period of time. There is a delay of about two months between when you do the searches and when your account is credited, just like a pay lag. But once you get that first credit, you can cash out monthly for as long as you continue searching. For those of you who want to try some of the other legitimate paid search engines, check out Slash My Search and Agloco

Clix Sense

Clix Sense is just one of several sites that will pay you to look at ads. On Clix Sense, you get a penny or two per ad, which you need to leave open in your browser window for at least thirty seconds. I've found Clix Sense to be rather painless, since I can do it while I'm online doing other things, but this is not a big money earner for me. I'd say I'm making about ten cents a day. By using several of these sites and taking advantage of the referral programs, it's possible to make more. If you want to check out some other reputable sites, try Adbux and WordLinx. There is also Myster-e-mail for those who'd like to get paid to read email, and Cash Fiesta for those who want to get paid to surf.

Get Paid to Write and Help Others

Daytipper

Daytipper is a site that pays $3.00 each for brief descriptions of useful tips. If you know a way to get wine out of carpet or to sleep when you've got insomnia, write up a blurb on it and send it in. The site accepts and publishes about 1/3 of its submissions, so you'll want to take the time to write well and clearly. Still, even with care to grammar, structure, and spelling, it doesn't take long to write a tip. The downside of this site is that it can take months to get the payment from them, but the upside is that they do actually send it.

Review Stream

Review Stream pays as much as $1.50 each for reviews of just about anything. Review books, movies, medicines, your favorite restaurant, the mp3 player you got for Christmas, whatever you like. These reviews need not be long; they just need to include your personal opinion of the item in a way that is useful to others. It's fun and easy and they come through with the payments. Review Stream requires full rights to your reviews, meaning you can never publish or post them elsewhere.

Epinions

Epinions is another site that pays writers for reviews. However, instead of a single upfront payment, Epinions pays you a penny or two each time someone reads your review page. Like Helium, Epinions has a system in place to ensure that the best reviews are more likely to be read, so it's essential in making money on this site to write clear, useful reviews. It's also to your benefit to review items that people search on frequently.

Review Party

Review Party is one more site where users can make money for writing reviews. In this case, your payments come solely through advertising on your page, which you take some responsibility for procuring by signing up for Google Adsense and the Amazon Associate program. The key to this site is to write reviews that will generate enough readers that some of them will click on your ads. Review Party does not require exclusive rights to your reviews, so it might be worthwhile to publish them here as well as elsewhere and see if they generate any income.

Associated Content

If you're looking to make some extra cash writing articles for web pages, there are several sites that will pay for your efforts. The best of these is Associated Content. Unlike many "get paid to write" sites, they frequently pay a lump sum upon publishing the article, as well as a bonus for the number of page views the article generates. Also, unlike many other sites, it is your choice whether or not to give them exclusive rights to your work. You may choose to accept a smaller initial payment in order to keep the option of publishing the article again in the future. Payment for articles is generally under $20.00, but if you can quickly write clear, engaging articles, you can make some decent income here.

Helium

On Helium it pays to be a good writer who can create informative or entertaining articles on popular topics. This is a site that pays you based solely on clicks to your articles, so if you're not drawing readers, you're not getting paid. There is a voting system in place to further assure that the best articles get the most attention, a useful feature that helps keep poorly written articles from annoying readers. This is necessary because any article written on an existing Helium topic is immediately published to the site. If you're a serious writer, money can be made on Helium, but it may take a considerable amount of work and tweaking to find what will bring in the money. If you like to write and you like the challenge of improving your writing to meet the demands of readers, this site is worth a try.

Triond

Triond is quite similar to Helium, in that you are paid for visitors to your article pages rather than given an upfront payment. There is voting at this site, but it is not as central to readership as it is at Helium. Triond appears to weed out poorly written articles by declining to put them on their websites in the first place. Another major difference between the two is that, unlike Helium, Triond requires that all articles submitted to them be previously unpublished, either in print or on the web. You are free thereafter to republish your work as often as you like.

Looking For Clues

This site is similar to Associated Content. It pays upfront for well-written articles on a variety of subjects that are then available on the site and accessible from search engines. The major difference is that Looking For Clues is specifically seeking articles that are more insightful or entertaining than the usual fare. It's harder to get published on Looking For Clues, but when your articles are accepted, you are paid a higher rate for them, usually between $10 and $30. Looking For Clues requires the full rights to your articles, but the higher payment makes this worthwhile for many writers.

My Lot

I mention this briefly only for people who sincerely enjoy posting in forums and would spend their time doing it anyway. My Lot will pay you a penny or two for each post, which means that if you post fifty to a hundred times, you can make a dollar. They have a referral program that gives you a percentage of your friends' posts as well, but even then it's not really possible to make a significant amount of money on this site without spending all your waking hours at your keyboard.

ChaCha

The ChaCha search engine pays guides to assist users in finding information on the Internet. ChaCha is a real work at home opportunity that can bring in a significant amount of money depending on the time and work a person is willing to dedicate to it. ChaCha pays guides $5.00 an hour, but this amount is often less for new guides who rarely get a steady stream of searches.

Another limitation is that searches are only paid for the first six minutes, so those that run over cut into the hourly rate. There is a significant amount of unpaid training involved to get to the higher levels where more and better searches come in, and because ChaCha guides are rated by users, it's necessary to deliver consistently excellent customer service to maintain those levels. ChaCha guides are independent contractors, meaning they have to pay self-employment tax (in addition to regular income tax) on their earnings, another factor that lowers the $5.00 hourly rate. There are also a number of rules and regulations ChaCha guides are expected to follow that can sometimes feel restrictive.

Despite all this, ChaCha has something going for it that makes it a serious contender as an at-home income generator: it's addictive. Guiding searches is challenging, fun, and although sometimes infuriating, it is never boring. ChaCha is not currently taking on new guides as of June 2007, but it's certain they will do so again in the future. You can become a guide by finding another guide to invite you or by applying through the “become a guide” link at the bottom of the ChaCha home page.

WAHM

For those of you looking for more serious work at home opportunities, something more like a real job, the WAHM (Work At Home Moms) forums are the best place to start. They list legitimate companies that hire telecommuters and at- home workers with a variety of different skills. I got my first at-home transcriptionist job through WAHM, for which I will always enthusiastically recommend their site.

To conclude, by making use of a multitude of these sites, it's possible to bring in a significant amount of money each month. Since many of them also have paid referral programs, you can increase your income by inviting other users to join. As with most pursuits, you'll get out of these sites what you put into them. A little extra work in the beginning can pay off handsomely in the end. Have fun trying them out!