Write to Earn

A writer on a list I frequent says that it is never good to put all of your writing eggs in one basket, especially eggs that only pay $15 an article. This is good advice. When writing for the web, you may take jobs that pay out $15 an article if the work is easy, but remember to keep plenty of other clients to boost your monthly income.

I make a living for my family being a full-time freelance writer. To do this I have many clients all at once. Here’s a list of some of my regular gigs:

• 3 gigs with privet clients (flat rate payments)
• Demand Studios (flat rate flat rate payments)
• Feature Writer with Suite 101
• eHow (passive income)
• Bright Hub (flat rate and residual income)
• 2 blogs on Today.com (flat rate and residual income)
• Prevention Buzz Blogs (flat rate payments)
• VisualTravelTours.com (I just started designing a tour for them yesterday- flat rate and residual income)

Sure, some of these may be low paying jobs, but I use them to fill in spots when I need that income boost. To make low paying gigs worth it, remember to make sure that you can whip out an article for them in around 30 minutes. That way, you’re making $30-an-hour. Not a shabby wage at all!

One of our readers had more questions about Bright Hub jobs for writers and I thought that I’d answer them here.

I just got hired at Bright Hub, and so far they have been great. You get paid $10 for articles of 300 words or more and 80% of site revenue per 1,000 page views for pages that contain your content. I haven’t had any experience on what this adds up to, since I was just hired. From what I understand, the extra revenue is a new program that has just started.

Bright Hub also offers incentives. For the month of September, if writers got five articles published they received an extra $30. Not too shabby. I was able to get my five published in just a few days.

If you would like to see what kind of articles Bright Hub publishes and what kind of bio and extras they give writers, you can take a look at mine, here .

Since my last post was about residual income, I thought I’d post two more jobs that offer residual income.

LifeTips

I was just browsing the writer’s agreement at LifeTips.com site and saw this:

“I also understand that beginning in January of 2009 and/or after a 3 month trial basis, I will be eligible for commission payment on advertising revenue earned on the Tip Site and Blog pages published at LifeTips. The commission rate for advertising revenue may vary and change based on performance and other factors at that time.”

So, LifeTips is now offering residual income along with its usual payment package of $10 per tip, $2 per sold book, and $100 or more per articles. Not a bad offer as long as you don’t mind that they keep all rights.

Here is a link to the LifeTips’ writers page.

Today.com

Today.com also offers residual income. They give you $1-$5 per 100 word or more blog plus ad revenue. Click the link to the left for more information.

The number one best way I have found to make a good living off of web writing is to make sure that you not only get a flat fee, but that you also get residual income. Many times, the residual income adds up to being more than your flat fee.

To get a residual income freelance job, look for jobs that offer a flat fee and a cut of the ad revenue or payment for page views.

For example, when I started with Demand Studios I got $15 per article (around 10 a week) and an additional payment from page views through their eHow’s Writer Compensation Program. They got rid their pay + revenue plan a while back, but I am still receiving around $70 a month for the articles that are sitting at eHow. (You can see the terms of eHow’s Writer Compensation Program here .)

Where do you find these fantastic jobs? Well, here is one to get you started. Bright Hub is looking for technology writers. The articles are approximately 300-750 words at $10 each in addition to future revenue sharing based on it’s popularity. Here is how to apply .

The first step to becoming a successful freelance writer on the web is knowing how to find jobs quickly. The key is having a list of go-to job websites that always have a fresh list of job opportunities for freelancers. These job sites must have a large about of telecommuting jobs as opposed to sites that focus on on-site jobs.

Here is my list of sites that meet this criteria:

Elance.com

I’ve heard a lot of discussion over whether or not Elance is a good place to look for jobs. A lot of this debate has to do with the fact that Elance has a membership fee and takes a cut (around 8%) of the profits. I have to say I love Elance. I’ve found tons of work and a lot of repeat customers there. Any fees and percentages are worth it, to me.

Freelance Writing Gigs 

I have been a long-time fan of this site. It is a blog that lists a round-up of freelance writing jobs every day. It saves you tons of time searching on sites like Craigslist.

Online Writing Jobs.com

This site is great. The jobs are always fresh and there is tons of variety.

Digital Point Content Wanted Forum http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?s=adac72beec6f3497597864263ca50272&f=76

If you want some quick cash, the best place to go is the Digital Point Content forum. Content buyers post their needs there and forum dwellers snatch up the jobs like hotcakes.

Have a content article or two sitting around not making money? You can sell them on this forum, too. Mine always get sold within 24 hours. You probably won’t bag much money, but it’s better than getting no money, right?

Freelance Writing Jobs Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freelancewritingjobs/message/198

Sign up to this group and you get a fantastic, irreplaceable weekly round-up newsletter of all the hottest freelance jobs for that week. I just got a job from pursuing this email last week.

In one of my last posts, I talked about why buyers pay less for web articles than they do for print articles. Today, I am going to tell you one of my secrets for crafting a fantastic content article that can be typed out and sent off in less than 30 minutes. It’s called cherry picking.

Remember, writing for the internet is only profitable if you do it with speed. One of the keys to writing with speed is writing on a subject you already know a lot about. Only pick projects and jobs that are on subjects you know a lot about.

For instance, if you have worked as a dog groomer you would probably be okay writing articles about dogs. If you’ve worked in a real estate office than you should pick projects with a real estate theme (real estate is a hot topic that is very profitable for writers, btw). You don’t have to have job history for these articles, though. You can write about anything you’re interested in.

Before you go job hunting, make a “cherry picking” list of all the subjects you are comfortable with. Here’s my list:

• Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness- I am obsessed with reading about health and fitness, so I already have a grasp on general topics.
• Parenting- Hey, I’m a parent and I’ve read dozens of book on the subject.
• Women’s Issues- Last time I checked, I was a woman.
• Fine Art- I have been a professional artist for more than ten years.
• Self-Help Issues (setting goals, stopping procrastination, etc.)- I used to read several self-help books a week. (No kidding!)
• Relationships- See above.

See, I can write on a wide range of subjects without a bunch of research. I bet you can, too. Why not make your own list right now?

One of the biggest complaints writers have is how little people pay for web articles and blog content. Many writers have the misconception that content created for the web should cost just as much as an article in Vanity Fair. Huh, what?

Okay, I agree that asking for articles to post on your site at $1 a piece is ridiculous, but, on the other hand, writers can’t expect to sell these types of articles for hundreds of dollars, either. Why? Here’s several reasons:

1. Web articles are SHORT.

While most magazine articles are well over 1,000 words long, most web articles are only 250-600 words. You simply can’t charge the same rate if the article is shorter.

2. Web articles take little-to-no research.

This blows most writers mind, but it’s true. Web writers simply write on subjects they already know a lot about.

3. Web articles take 15-30 minutes to write.

• Because of rules 1 and 2, web articles take very little time to write.
• Because of these rules, of course the pay will be less than writing a magazine article.
• So why should you write web content? You’re making more profit per hour, which raises your overall profits.

For example, if you write a web article for $15 every 30 minutes you make $30 an hour. Now, compare that to a magazine article. It takes many writers around 20 hours or more to write an article, including interviews and research. Say the writer is getting .50 (a very good rate) a word for a 1,000 word piece. That breaks down to $25 an hour or less.

Who’s getting the better deal?

And, yes, writing web articles for $15 a piece is possible. Stay tuned to my blog for tips on how to find these types of jobs.