Scribophile, a fiction writing community, is launching a new contest in the spirit of the new decade–and new beginnings.
Scribophile’s New Beginnings Contest gives budding writers the chance to write a short story featuring the theme of new beginnings. How you intepret it is up to you, but the best work gets a $100 Amazon.com gift card and a 3000 word editing credit for Elite Editing. You’ll need to sign up on Scribophile.com to submit your short story, however.
Here’s the rest of the specs:

Submit: To submit, post …

If you know how to SEO, have a handful of good “web-friendly” articles, and have some expertise in some topic, there’s another website where you can speak your mind and get paid for it.  Examiner.com is a UGC website that runs solely on the submissions provided by “examiners”, writers with experience writing good web copy and expertise in a certain category.  Each examiner is assigned to a city and provides information about topics relevant to their expertise area (i.e.; a Minneapolis Travel Examiner would provide information about parks, restaurants, and …

These are some of the tutorials on Associated Content that will teach you how to write well, authored by popular contributors such as Pam Gaulin and Jamie Wilson.  FAQ will be updated regularly.  Enjoy!
SEO/LSI/Using Keywords
Using Keyword Popularity to Refine and Create Content by Pam Gaulin
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/136781/using_keyword_popularity_to_refine.html
Learning Keywords and LSI: Exercises by Jamie K. Wilson
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/287128/learning_keywording_and_lsi_exercises.html
Easy SEO Techniques for Online Article Writers by Lyn Lomasi
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2334840/easy_seo_techniques_for_online_article.html
Tips on Writing for AC and the Web Part 1: SEO Tips by Lyn Lomasi
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1615566/tips_on_writing_for_ac_and_the_web.html
Methods of Search Engine Optimization: Site Research, Marketing, and Acheiving Good Ranking Results by Lolaness
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/17453/methods_of_search_engine_optimization.html
655 …

eHow is a UGC website where anyone can publish articles about how to do something (hence the name eHow).  Each article lists a step-by-step process, materials needed to complete the objective, and additional information.  eHow is an extremely popular website with novice writers because they are not bound by strict writing criteria.
eHow writers earn money when a person clicks on an advertisement in their article, earning them a handful of cents with each successful click.  The biggest advantage is that you don’t need to gain thousands of page views to …

Want to win $500 and be published in an anthology?  The “Why I Write Contest”, hosted by EditorUnleashed.com and SmashWords, wants to hear why exactly you’ve decided to write.  The best essay wins $500 and an immediate entry into SmashWords’ next anthology, along with 40 other winners.
End Date: December 31, 2009
Rules: Will be updated on November 2 on EditorUnleashed.com.
Theme: About what inspires you to write, in essay form.
More details: EditorUnleashed.com’s website.
Thanks to Rissa Watkins for informing WJR about this great contest!
UPDATED: November 9, 2009
Want to win $500 and be published …