I am fed up with low paying writing gigs. Please help me.

Hi all

I guess this will be little lengthy so please bear with me. I am going to spit out all my anger over here.

I started blogging in October 2006 and as of now I have two blogs CompuWorld and the Senorita. Till now I was busy with my blogs and my full time computer engineering curriculum but some weeks ago I finished my computer engineering and thought about doing some freelance writing.

People like jhmattern (apologies if I messed up with the spelling) and many others were quick to say that I should NOT settle with low rates and I did the same. I started with $0.02 per word but no one seemed agree with it.

Situation became worse day by day and I have been writing articles for $0.01 per word

I am a hard worker and I know you need to have patience to earn money online BUT how much?

My blogs bring in trickles so I want more and hence I am looking for some long term freelance writing gig but nothing yet.

I did try to send emails to jobs listed in freelancewritinggigs and similar sites but to no avail?

Many times using paypal isn't secure as the person who pays me might request a charge back and I will lose my money. Hence I want to know if people use western union or wire transfer?

I want to earn $500 monthly and I am ready to work hard for that. People please leave your suggestions.

In last month I have written around 60 health related articles, diamond related articles, tech articles, credit card related articles, and many other niches.

I am a good writer but somehow black light isn't ready to leave me?!?!​

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The Internet has made the writing field much more competitive. To get good jobs, your writing has to improve beyond what you think is good enough.

Can you take a writing course at a local college or something? Or maybe brush-up by reading some books on writing well. A favorite that I re-read over through the years is The Elements of Style by Strunk & White. This book is considered a "bible" by many, and if you haven't studied it, you're at a huge disadvantage. Every working writer has learned what's in this book and as a result, is in a better position to get quality jobs, I bet.

Other than that, I recently posted about how to get more freelance work on my blog. You can read the post here if you're interested in my list of tips.

Best of luck!

 

In my opinion, if you have the skills you have to focus on selling yourself now, get your name about and work will come in.

 

This place is overpopulated with people who are happy making 0.01$ per word,yeah i know sad but true.

 

You should better keep patience till you happen to meet a nice webmaster.Your objective of $500 for a month is no big deal once you are" in the web of a good master".

 

yeah i know the cheap article writers make it impossible for high paid writers to ask for the deserving price but if you have the talent don't bother..write on articles of your interest and contact the people in the services section who need quality over quantity and are ready to pay even a bit more for quality

Dont loose the hope..you surely will find people who understand the importance of quality work. All the best

 

It is tough starting out, but it doesn't have to be as bad as it is. Don't rely on DP or other forums in marketplace areas because there will always be people working for less than .01/word. What do you like to write about? You have a few blogs, so you have plenty to show potential clients. Scour the web for sites that don't seem to be updated regularly, and email them. Yes, not a cold call, but a cold email. Just be nice, professional, and to the point. I recently got a position at a travel site doing this. Surprisingly, they were very much looking for another writer. Did they advertise it? No. Were they happy? Yes.

 

I know it is tough starting out. But are you getting bylines for your work at least? In that way, you can be sure that even if you are getting paid low right now, you are building up a portfolio of your work, so you can start contacting people who would be willing to pay higher. No one needs to know how much you earned doing an article on a website or a magazine, but if you have a byline (just your author name will do), you immediately hike up your reputation, and future clients would be willing to pay more.


If you don't want to work for 1 cent a word, do not bid for jobs on forums (DP or otherwise) which pay that much. That way you will stop presenting yourself as a cheap writer. You have to be patient, but work will come your way if continue to do quality work, and develop skills in a niche.

I make about 3000 usd a month when I am writing about 4-6 hours a day, but it took me about two years to get here. I am sure I can improve, and so can you

 

I belive they have made a couple threads on this. you can post ur comment on there instead of manking new threads. Although since people will always work for .001 per word there really isnt anything you can do. Unless the bum article writers win the lottery. There will always beee bum writers. Only way to combat is to build a client base and charge more as the more experince you get

 

Dude, you are Sh*tting me! Honestly, $0.02 a word? Did you at least write a book? You undersold yourself, pal.

Your blogs have got some really good information on it that could be very helpful to people, but I've noticed a couple of things missing, perhaps I missed it. I don't see any ads anywhere. How are you going to monetize your site? You've got a lot of good content.

Do you know how many people are coming to your sites? If you don't you should at least put a tracker on there.

Thirdly, you want to get more visibility. I've seen people go on to You tube and show folks how put adsense on their sites or how to set up a certain type of software. Take a few minutes and film yourself actually going through the process of blogging or setting up antivirus software. Then put a link back to your blogs for more information.

I just found this out, but I didn't know you could put google adsense on your You Tube videos. Of course they don't tell you about it because it's way in the bottom left corner of your profile page called "Monetize your site", but you can allow 30 second ad blips on your video before they begin apparently and get paid that way.

So you've got to tell yourself that you're worth the big money and don't sell yourself for $0.02 cents of word if that's not making you happy. Always go for what you're worth. Have you tried elance, the freelance site? What about pay per post or social spark?

 

Well rates are very low at DP and you can only get few buyers who paid more than $0.02. But there are many Freelancing websites pays more. I would suggest you to join Demand Studios as they pay good amount per article and you can write on more then 25 niche.

 

nofullstop,

I'm really sorry you're feeling so frustrated. Believe me, I can relate.

I can't really suggest much as I'm learning myself, but a couple of things I've been doing are:

1) not budging on my fee (save for a couple of exceptions)

2) stepping outside DP 'cos it's quite easy to think that DP is all there is

3) working on a CV/portfolio

4) reading other writers' websites for tips/guidelines

5) thinking about what I really (truly) like writing about


I know it can be tempting to go low on price when you're not getting much interest, but don't do it if you can help it. It can be quite demoralising.

Good luck. I really wish you the best. Sometimes, before the sun comes up, it can rain like hell.

take care...

 

I would suggest finding a field and learning everything you can about it and specialize in it.
People pay good money for specialized field but you have to be good and know what you are talking about.

Higher end websites are on the leading edge of their fields and they are putting out high-end reference content.

If a custom race 4x4 dirt pro track wants an article about the pros and cons of building a race unit with grade 8 bolts instead of grade 5 bolts they are going to have to find a specialist in that field and pay them well. No one is going to be able to write an article like that for 1 cent a word.

Or law or in depth medical articles you have to be a specialist to write stuff like that and people pay good money for it. But you have to know your stuff because people will pick it apart and discredit you if they can.

Find a specialty niche and learn everything there is to learn about it, make connections and make a reputation.

Or you could go the other route and write about exciting stuff people love to read like go live on a war front or an exotic place and write about it.

But writing stuff to fill google ads websites is just cheap filler and anyone can do it and it will never pay more then the bottom rate.

 

As stated earlier, it's very competitive out there! Have you tried finding jobs through elance? I have hired all of my writers though elance.

 

Quit your writing job. Start with article marketing and affiliate marketing.

 

Last poster is quite right about it...besides client work take a look in Clickbank forum for example, writing your usual number of articles in a day (when there is no clients) will give you probably the same money over few monthes!

 

I may be wrong.... But I feel like the only reason people would buy content is if they can make more money than they are paying for the content. Therefore, unless you are getting paid, if you have written a lot of content about a topic you should create your own niche site?

 

Yeah, good idea.

And you could trade someone some articles to build you a site it you aren’t good at web design

At the least you could use the site as a portfolio.

 

Wow. I had a 500-word post written. Just snipped it.

Think I will come out with that guide for profiting from writing.

Anyway, if you can write, there are many ways to profit from it. Don't get too hung up on client fees and all the other stuff. Take life as it comes and constantly test and improve.

One idea (for credential reasons) would be to visit some top sites in the field you want to mainly work in and offer to write one free article for them. Explain how you normally charge (yadda yadda), but you love their site and would be willing to do this one free article---in exchange for a byline of course.

Don't do this unless you're going to specialize and until you're very sure with whatever area you've chosen.

I thank God daily that I can write and that I went to college to get my journalism degree (and that I've learned all I've learned).

If you can write at all, you can make money. And $500 isn't a killing by any means. You just need to know what to do and you need to do it (luck helps a little ).

Good luck!

 

Just a few hours ago, I did somethign like this for a site I frequent, only I pitched them on proofreading/editing. They had a few grammatical errors, so I sent an email saying how much I love their site, politely pointed out the errors, and offered to proof some of their work. Haven't gotten a response yet, but that demonstrates how to get work without trolling the BST forums here.

Yes, you should. I'll probably buy it.