I think we're talking apples to oranges, here.

> For $40 you can get an article posted to hundreds of sites. This service
> is provided by thephantomwriters.com.

For the type of writing we're discussing, writers get paid to publish. They don't pay someone to take their material.

Paying someone to publish your writing is considered "vanity publishing" and can be the kiss of death for someone hoping to sell to the large markets (particularly to the large book markets) or to get a reputation in the larger magazines and newspapers. Vanity publishing means you have something that's unsaleable and the only way to get it in print is to bribe someone to print it.

Vanity web publishing is usually considered the mark of a writer who's too poor to get into the regular markets and can't afford a regular vanity press. The one exception is where it's a paying web magazine market and your article goes to only that one site and nowhere else.

There's also an issue of copyright.

If you have a far-flung article that's been freely given to millions or billions of websites, you have no control over your content. It's easy for others to copy and distribute or even repackage your article and sell it as part of something else. They make money -- you don't. You are essentially driving traffic to THEIR site (for the other content) and not necessarily to yours.

With magazine publication, you can sell and resell that same article or story. You get money, the publisher gets people buying the magazine, your name (and URL) get seen and everyone's happy. Resale rights are important. For my story, "Ironrose" in Mercedes Lackey's SWORD OF ICE anthology, I *still* get $25/year (or more) checks... and it's been ten years since I wrote that and got paid $300 for the story.

That's $500 for 2,500 words of a story... about 20 cents per word. And all I have to do is cash checks from now till they finally quit printing the book. Since Misty's a prolific writer and has mega-sales, that book will be in print for another 30 years and I'll still be getting royalties (or my family will, if I kick the bucket.)

If you're going to make a living as a writer, write for the markets that pay. And please, please ignore the advice of the "biz gurus." Focus on what the writing gurus (like Dan Case of www.writingfordollars.com) are saying, instead.

> minutes of time). Even though I know it's a new site, I'm happily
> displaying their little "Featured at ezinearticles.com" graphic
> on my main page. I tend to hate censorship, and despite their lack of it
> the articles seem to be of fairly high quality so far.