This is not going to be a Pinterest Challenge post, though I am still doing the challenge and enjoying it immensely. This post has to do with another very important part of my life - writing.
I have been writing since childhood. I was first published in a poetry anthology at nine years old. Writing has afforded me a way to work through problems and emotions as well as, to get the stories out of my mind in order to make room for the others that are fighting for attention. It has also given me a reason to research all of the things that I am curious about. It is an important part of my little world and one that I happen to know is an important part of the lives of many of my friends.
If you are an aspiring writer and are looking for a way to earn a living writing, I want to give you some advice. That advice is, know your worth! This morning I was rather hatefully accused of being 'too good' to write for certain websites. My reply? "Damn right I am!" You are too. Let me explain....
If you have never been published online or in print and you want to earn a living writing, then you have to gain some experience in order to be able to show a potential client that you know your stuff. For most new writers, that means content mills. There are thousands of web sites that claim that they are looking for writers and will pay you to write articles for their clients. Avoid those places like the plague! They are not worth your talent or the inevitable time you will spend banging your head against the wall wondering why you can't earn enough to pay your bills.
Content mills will offer you a penny per word. Most articles are between 400 and 500 words. BUT, many content mills will offer you less than a penny per word. Those unscrupulous sites want a 400 word article for two dollars. Here is what you may not know when you are starting out, those sites are receiving twenty dollars or more for your work while you are receiving pennies. They turn out articles with lightening speed for various clients and while they are making loads of cash, you can't even buy cat food.
Most of those articles are illegible because the 'writers' do not have a firm grasp on the English language and have never found the spell check button. Punctuation has become unimportant to many content mills and as a result, people like me are called in to re-write entire web sites. It's a pain but you'd better bet they are going to pay me for it.
If someone tells you that it is a good idea to work for a content mill -because, you know, writers have to 'pay their dues' A.K.A. starve until their name is recognized on the header - think of this; What did you have to do to earn that penny? Before you can put down the first word of your article, you had to apply to the website, create an account, write no less than three 'sample articles' if you had no links to provide to your previous work. Then you had to wait for an acceptance email, have a list of articles assigned to you and research the article that you are writing. How much of your valuable time did that take? You haven't even put down the first word of your article yet. Isn't that worth more than a penny?
Some content mills are even worse. I was asked to write content for the web site of an incredibly popular band. In fact, I am a fan of their music. Though the money was good, when I asked what I would be writing, I was given a list of reputable websites and told to troll those sites, 'borrow' their most popular articles (the ones with the most comments), re-write them to look like they had originally come from the band website and publish them under my name. There was a disclaimer on the site that included the line - we are in no way responsible for the articles that our writers provide. WHAT?!!? If you know me -and I hope that you do by now, then you know that I turned the job down flat. Money is not a good enough reason to plagiarize another writers work and ruin your name before you even get your writing career off the ground. If it sounds shady, it is.
Most posts like this one will give you advice on what to stay away from but will not point you in a direction that will help you get started. I'm not going to do that to you. When you first start writing online for payment, you are not going to get rich quick. In fact, keep your day job. If you are a person who stays at home, for what ever reason, (raising children, disability, illness) you will be able to devote more time to learning the ropes so that you can get your career off the ground faster.
First and foremost - Spelling, punctuation, proper grammar and fact checking are paramount! I can not stress enough how important those four things are if you want to be taken seriously. While some slang in a piece of writing may add color to the work, most of your work needs to be spot on. Here is an example of something I recently saw in an article from a content mill. I would have thrown this article out immediately had I been the editor; 'Maddie got all flustrated because her cousin bill went down the slope widout her.' This made my left eye twitch when I read it. Why is this sentence a problem?
NEVER write in text speech. Ever. It's immature and makes you look illiterate. Save 'text speak' for texting. 'Flustrated' is not a word. You can be 'flustered' or you can be 'frustrated'. This is what I mean when I say to know the English language. The word 'bill' should have been capitalized. 'Bill' is a proper noun. 'Widout' is a fine example of why you should use spell check and never write in text speech. What I am trying to tell you is this, write your articles as though your career depends on it. It does. Articles that are written properly get noticed, which means that you get noticed and will get the best writing gigs.
Learn SEO. SEO means Search Engine Optimized. Put simply, it means that when you write an article, put keywords in several places within that article so that when someone is searching for a specific topic, your article will be displayed by the search engine. Be mindful of how you use keywords. I have read tons of articles that are so SEO laden that the article makes no sense. The writer just wanted to make sure the piece was pulled when a search term was requested. Use your keywords in a way that make sense within the body of the article. Otherwise, you come off looking like an amateur and no legitimate SEO content offers will come your way.
Now, where do you start if you are trying to break in to the paid writing world? I have a few examples for you and one is a content mill but I will explain that in a moment. If you have never been published, I suggest that you look for what is trending on any major search engine home page. Yahoo and Google both have a 'trending' section on the right hand side of their respective home pages. Choose five topics, research them from as many angles as you can think of for different perspectives and then write an article on each of no less than 400 hundred words but no more than 500 words. Polish those articles until they shine and put them away to be used as sample articles. I often do this just to stay sharp so that my writing and research skills remain strong.
Yahoo offers paid article writing. This is the content mill that I wanted to explain to you. The reason that I include Yahoo on my list of places to start is because it is a good place to begin to sharpen your skills. The payment per article is low but it is much better than other content mills and there are three benefits to writing for them. One: They have an editorial team that will not accept articles that are full of errors. Two: You will receive residual income for your articles. Meaning, once published, you will continue to receive a small income for every person who reads your article after your initial payment. For example, You received five dollars for a 400 word article but thirty days later, you received another small amount per one thousand people who have read your article. You will continue to receive those small payments for as long as your article is still being read. I have an article on Yahoo that has been read 178,000+ times over the past three years. It isn't a lot of money but it does add up. Three: The more articles you write for Yahoo and the more popular you become with their readers, the more money you will be offered up front for your work.
http://www.writersdigest.com is, in my opinion, a fantastic place to find legitimate work. Not only will you be able to find gigs that pay well but you will also find thousands of articles that will help you to hone your skills as a writer and as a business owner. Make no mistake about it, writing for payment is a business. You must treat it as such so that you can do what you love yet still pay the bills.
http://www.wahm.com WAHM stands for 'Work At Home Mom'. They too, have a job board. Their job board is not just for writers, though they do post quite a few writing gigs. The site offers advice and direction for anyone wanting to stay at home and earn a living. If writing isn't enough to pay the bills yet, you can apply at one of the call centers that route calls to your home. Alpine Access and West At Home are both legitimate call centers who use home workers rather than massive call centers to take orders for everything from infomercials to The Home Shopping Network. I have worked for West during writing dry spells and recommend it to anyone needing a legitimate job.
Blogging. I have yet to monetize this blog though I am strongly considering it. Once your blog has gained popularity, you can sign up for Google AdSense. You do not have to fill your blog with ads, rather, you will be able to choose the ads that are relevant to your blog or your current posts. When a reader clicks on the ad, you receive a small payment. I have not done this yet because honestly, my blog goes in whatever direction the wind happens to take me that day but if you have a specialized blog, say crafting or cooking, you can place ads that are relevant to your blog.
Craigslist. So many writers overlook craigslist as a place to find legitimate writing work. Don't make that mistake. Under the 'Gigs' section there is a tab for writing. Check it often. There is a good chance that you will find work. Placing an ad on craigslist offering your services as a writer is free and, even better, local. If you deliver quality work on time, word spreads fast and before you know it, you will have local companies asking you to write articles and blog posts for them. $50.00 for a blog post has become the norm so do not be afraid to ask for what your work is worth.
I hope that I have been able to help you get started. Don't expect to have an inbox full of requests for your work over night. Writing has never been a get rich quick scheme but with some patience and a lot of love for your work, you will eventually be able to earn a living.
On an unrelated topic; Google has changed the cookie policy pertaining to leaving comments. I have attempted to work around the new policy (to have readers set their settings to accept third party cookies) but I am not certain if my little 'fix' has worked. Try to leave a comment, if you will. If the page still won't let you, let me know on my facebook page, please. Thank you!
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