Hiya Ever,
I'm one of the "successful" part-time writers here. I say "successful" because I make what I want here and I'm happy about that. On months where I really need extra money, and my other writing assignments are down, I will submit a ton. Other months, I only submit one or two articles. One thing that is hard to get over as a writer is the varying pay scale. For example, some of my more researched articles, like "Produce the Note" I price high. Others, like your flea market one I would price to move, because that topic would appeal to web masters who make money off of advertising, not paid subscriptions. They just don't usually have the budget to pay $50 for 300 words on a topic they can get much cheaper. Therefore, 330 wrods, basically a blog post, I personally would not price $50 for full rights, at $.05 per word, that's only $15, the par for a blog post on a generalized topic (i.e. you aren't really uncovering ground breaking information about flea markets) so to earn that, the C-C price would be $23 to account for the cut.
I don't say that to discourage you, but you do need to be realistic about your goals. If your goal is volume, price accordingly. Not saying undercut the other authors, like pricing for $1-$5 full rights, but keep in line with the market. The web market is NOTHING like the print market when it comes to writing. The good news, is here you can showcase your articles like an art gallery and walk away. You don't have to do the marketing, the spec letters, nothing. Now, that 330 word blog post may eventually sell for $50, but it is unlikely to do so quickly. Look to see how many hits you have, although now might not be a good indicator as many of us checked out your work to help you. But in the future, watch the hits on your articles, if you're getting lots of hits but no bites, you might be priced just a little out of the genre's budget.
To your question about researching and only making a pittance.. here is what I do. If I'm researching for an hour or so, I make sure I get enough material for 2-3 articles. Why? Because I know my personal ratio of sales to uploads is roughly 60-75%. I can bank that if I post 10 articles, I will sell about 6-7 of them within two months. Ofcourse I continue writing so there is overlap. So if I spent an hour researching, which I price my time accordingly, and I write 3 articles, I am sure one will sell usually quickly, and the other two will not be far behind. For example, there was a solar panel public request a while back. I researched for about an hour, and then wrote two articles, one suiting the public request and an additional one that took a different twist (how to maximize solar panels in less than ideal weather). Grand total I wrote 1800 words, spent 4 hours total researching, writing, and editing. The public request one sold one week later to a different buyer and the maximizing in less than ideal weather sold 3 months later for a use license, so I could sell that one again or put it in another market. Money wise, after the cut, I made $70, divided by 4 hours of "work" yielded me $17.50 an hour.
For me, that makes me squeal with glee. I can write part-time, a little 4 hour stint on the weekend or another day when I have time away from family obligations, and bring in a nice hourly paycheck. I couldn't find a part-time job paying that high, with flexible hours, and freedom over my activities. Those are very important to me. What you need to do is sit down and decide what is important to you. The very well-written, thought-provoking subjects do sell for top dollar here, but it takes a while for the right buyer to come along. Generalized content, you have a ton of competition here on this site and from other markets. To be competitive, you need to price accordingly.
Good luck and most importantly, have fun with it. Your sales and writing will always improve if what you're doing makes you smile.
