Online Writing Opportunities Review: 10 Huge Advantages of Writing For Yourself: Here are the 10 huge advantages of writing content for yourself as against writing for a client or getting published on a blogging platform...
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
10 Huge Advantages of Writing For Yourself
Here are the 10 huge advantages of writing content for yourself as against writing for a client or getting published on a blogging platform like revenue sharing sites.
1. Learning Experience: When you write on your personal blogging platform, it helps you become independent. You keep learning as you write. You have to take decisions like the topics to write on, the importance and popularity of the topics you choose to write on, the likely readership and so on. There are several factors that go into the decisions you make on these issues which ensures you do research using the free online tools available. As your learning curve grows higher you will want to switch over from free domain host to the paid one and eventually continue on the growth trajectory.
2. Development of Expertise: There is a difference in learning and expertise. While learning is a life long process, when you develop expertise you develop a certain level of comfort over the broad field of your writing. For instance, you enhance your reputation if you are an expert in an area. For instance, you may develop expertise over any one or more among science, healthcare, technology, literature, books, entertainment, pets, gardening, wildlife and so on. As a writer, at a certain stage you will have to decide which area you want to develop expertise in. No one can write on everything. So, developing expertise helps in the long run.
3. Technological Learning: When you've your own writing platform, the real frustration comes not in writing unless you have never written anything before, but in arranging and tweaking, creating good layout, designing the website. As you can see I am very poor in these things, so this site looks cluttered. However, with time you learn and I too hope to learn some basic html language and understand how coding works. Since this is a self-learning, it will come about slowly with trials and errors. Yet, I strongly feel the time has come when every writer should have some basic understanding of technology used in content creation. The younger generation may not face this problem as IT is now pretty much a part of school curriculum right from the first standard.
4. Freedom to Write: Although the revenue sharing sites also give the writers the freedom to write on anything you want and any time, the freedom with your personal writing site comes with the sense of responsibility. It is like your child that you give your complete attention to. With revenue sharing sites on the other hand, the admin or the site operators are your boss and you could be debarred from writing if you break the rules. Here you make your own rules or change and modify them or not make any rules at all. Yet the freedom here comes with responsibility.
5. Earning: With your own writing platform, you have no one to share the revenues you generate. While this is the upside, the downside is that it takes a lot of effort and time to generate revenues. With revenue sharing sites, especially those ranking high in PR, it is relatively easier to generate readership and consequent revenue.
6. Content Ownership: While you own your contents on revenue sharing sites as well as your own site, the advantage of owning them is that you can transition to dotcom or personal domain from free website along with all the contents, while in transitioning to your own site from revenue sharing site, you cannot pull out your contents from there unless you delete them manually from the original site in which case your revenue sharing site will have no contents to show.
7. Sell Your Site At a Considerable Advantage: If you have your own site, you can easily sell it at a higher price, if the site is optimized and doing well. You cannot sell your account on a revenue sharing site. There are many sellers like Flippa for instance where hundreds of websites are bought and sold everyday. It is common for some of the revenue optimized sites to be sold for several thousands of dollars.
8. Freedom to Choose Advertisers: If you have your own site, you can decide to choose advertisers who will pay you for clicks or page views. While adsense is the well known advertiser, there are many more that you can have on your blog. With revenue sharing sites, there are advertisers like adsense but rarely beyond.
9. Freedom to Promote: You can promote nearly anything you choose to on your site and earn commission in the process, but on revenue sharing platforms, you cannot promote any company beyond ebay and amazon. Only Squidoo offers you a larger choice in promotion.
10. Its Your Completely Owned Business: Your website is your own business that you may want to grow with and take to new heights. When you write for clients, you feel alienated from your work. On the contrary when you write for yourself, you have the highest degree of involvement.
1. Learning Experience: When you write on your personal blogging platform, it helps you become independent. You keep learning as you write. You have to take decisions like the topics to write on, the importance and popularity of the topics you choose to write on, the likely readership and so on. There are several factors that go into the decisions you make on these issues which ensures you do research using the free online tools available. As your learning curve grows higher you will want to switch over from free domain host to the paid one and eventually continue on the growth trajectory.
2. Development of Expertise: There is a difference in learning and expertise. While learning is a life long process, when you develop expertise you develop a certain level of comfort over the broad field of your writing. For instance, you enhance your reputation if you are an expert in an area. For instance, you may develop expertise over any one or more among science, healthcare, technology, literature, books, entertainment, pets, gardening, wildlife and so on. As a writer, at a certain stage you will have to decide which area you want to develop expertise in. No one can write on everything. So, developing expertise helps in the long run.
3. Technological Learning: When you've your own writing platform, the real frustration comes not in writing unless you have never written anything before, but in arranging and tweaking, creating good layout, designing the website. As you can see I am very poor in these things, so this site looks cluttered. However, with time you learn and I too hope to learn some basic html language and understand how coding works. Since this is a self-learning, it will come about slowly with trials and errors. Yet, I strongly feel the time has come when every writer should have some basic understanding of technology used in content creation. The younger generation may not face this problem as IT is now pretty much a part of school curriculum right from the first standard.
4. Freedom to Write: Although the revenue sharing sites also give the writers the freedom to write on anything you want and any time, the freedom with your personal writing site comes with the sense of responsibility. It is like your child that you give your complete attention to. With revenue sharing sites on the other hand, the admin or the site operators are your boss and you could be debarred from writing if you break the rules. Here you make your own rules or change and modify them or not make any rules at all. Yet the freedom here comes with responsibility.
5. Earning: With your own writing platform, you have no one to share the revenues you generate. While this is the upside, the downside is that it takes a lot of effort and time to generate revenues. With revenue sharing sites, especially those ranking high in PR, it is relatively easier to generate readership and consequent revenue.
6. Content Ownership: While you own your contents on revenue sharing sites as well as your own site, the advantage of owning them is that you can transition to dotcom or personal domain from free website along with all the contents, while in transitioning to your own site from revenue sharing site, you cannot pull out your contents from there unless you delete them manually from the original site in which case your revenue sharing site will have no contents to show.
7. Sell Your Site At a Considerable Advantage: If you have your own site, you can easily sell it at a higher price, if the site is optimized and doing well. You cannot sell your account on a revenue sharing site. There are many sellers like Flippa for instance where hundreds of websites are bought and sold everyday. It is common for some of the revenue optimized sites to be sold for several thousands of dollars.
8. Freedom to Choose Advertisers: If you have your own site, you can decide to choose advertisers who will pay you for clicks or page views. While adsense is the well known advertiser, there are many more that you can have on your blog. With revenue sharing sites, there are advertisers like adsense but rarely beyond.
9. Freedom to Promote: You can promote nearly anything you choose to on your site and earn commission in the process, but on revenue sharing platforms, you cannot promote any company beyond ebay and amazon. Only Squidoo offers you a larger choice in promotion.
10. Its Your Completely Owned Business: Your website is your own business that you may want to grow with and take to new heights. When you write for clients, you feel alienated from your work. On the contrary when you write for yourself, you have the highest degree of involvement.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Online Writing Opportunities Review: Should You Write For Clients or Should You Write F...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: Should You Write For Clients or Should You Write F...: When I began writing online, I just looked for some kind of writing opportunity to get paid. Being new to internet, the idea of getting pai...
Should You Write For Clients or Should You Write For Yourself?
When I began writing online, I just looked for some kind of writing opportunity to get paid. Being new to internet, the idea of getting paid for writing online was immensely appealing. I learned over a period of time, the ways to find clients willing to pay you for writing for them. The first place I bumped into after losing some money in scam was Guru.com. Landing the first job there was not easy because I had no ideas on bidding, how much to quote, how to make promises you make sound genuine, where to show the portfolio of your work. In fact I did not have online samples of work. So, much of your online activities are in fact lessons in learning.
Then, one day I was surprised when a client without my least expectation chose me to write for his blog. Actually, he was running a gambling site. I had absolutely no idea on gambling. Yet he chose me for I have no idea, what. He said he was willing to pay me 6 euros for three articles. I was excited beyond my belief. I wrote the three articles in quick succession, while he quickly transferred the six euros to my paypal account. The sight of those six euros into my account made me feel like an internet millionaire. For the first time ever, some one was paying me for my first ever online writing work. I thought I had nearly hit a goldmine or jackpot because I had never believed that you can actually get paid online. Everything about the online scams I had heard so long now appeared rumors or myths.
I didn't believe I could ever write on gambling or gaming for I could not distinguish a spade from a jack, yet I tweaked and rewrote something from an article that made no sense to me. Neither did the final product - the stuff I had written made a sense to me.
When you do something the first time after lot of learning and effort, the repeat task becomes easy. So, I wrote few more articles for this client when I realized he was paying me peanuts. He was not an exception, nearly every client looking for a writer wants them to work for peanut wages.
Yet, with little effort and endless bidding, I soon landed with a client willing to pay me at $10 to an article. This was a nearly five times jump. I was now beginning to get convinced that a writer can survive online. The rest is history. Along the way I learned a valuable lesson: If you just want to earn something writing online, you should be able to do that within an hour. There are nearly endless opportunities with sites that lets you choose work on the basis of your bids. There are similarly many other sites that let us you choose a work you want to do at a fixed price of say $5, or $10 or more depending on the quantum of work or size of the content.
However, a stage comes when the cycle of write to get paid upfront begins to get monotonous. This is especially so when you work for one of the content mills where writing, a creative task begins to haunt you like the ennui that haunted the 18th and 19th century industrial workers. The boredom, the monotony, the ennui, the listlessness and dissatisfaction from the writing work you do is comparable to alienation of the workers that Marx spoke of. I was getting alienated from the writings I did because subjects like online poker, furniture, a new carpet for your room, and other crappy topics that clients requested me to write on did not enthrall and elevate my soul, as I thought writings are designed to. In addition, most of the clients want you to work at 18th century third world wages.
This was the time when I began to ask, should I write for myself. In other words, you write on things you are passionate about or you have an expertise in or both. There are some very good blogs that let you write on anything you want to write and make some money in the process. These are Hubpages, Squidoo lens, Triond, YCN and hundreds of others. The best thing about these sites is that you can continue to earn monthly revenue from them after you have assiduously built a fairly good amount of content, that is an impressive list of articles.
In addition, you can build your own blog. You may begin with a freeblog as this blog where I publish my articles. It needs to be reminded here that no one should expect to begin earning with the very first article you write here. The consistent result begins to appear with consistent efforts after a period of time.
Then, one day I was surprised when a client without my least expectation chose me to write for his blog. Actually, he was running a gambling site. I had absolutely no idea on gambling. Yet he chose me for I have no idea, what. He said he was willing to pay me 6 euros for three articles. I was excited beyond my belief. I wrote the three articles in quick succession, while he quickly transferred the six euros to my paypal account. The sight of those six euros into my account made me feel like an internet millionaire. For the first time ever, some one was paying me for my first ever online writing work. I thought I had nearly hit a goldmine or jackpot because I had never believed that you can actually get paid online. Everything about the online scams I had heard so long now appeared rumors or myths.
I didn't believe I could ever write on gambling or gaming for I could not distinguish a spade from a jack, yet I tweaked and rewrote something from an article that made no sense to me. Neither did the final product - the stuff I had written made a sense to me.
When you do something the first time after lot of learning and effort, the repeat task becomes easy. So, I wrote few more articles for this client when I realized he was paying me peanuts. He was not an exception, nearly every client looking for a writer wants them to work for peanut wages.
Yet, with little effort and endless bidding, I soon landed with a client willing to pay me at $10 to an article. This was a nearly five times jump. I was now beginning to get convinced that a writer can survive online. The rest is history. Along the way I learned a valuable lesson: If you just want to earn something writing online, you should be able to do that within an hour. There are nearly endless opportunities with sites that lets you choose work on the basis of your bids. There are similarly many other sites that let us you choose a work you want to do at a fixed price of say $5, or $10 or more depending on the quantum of work or size of the content.
However, a stage comes when the cycle of write to get paid upfront begins to get monotonous. This is especially so when you work for one of the content mills where writing, a creative task begins to haunt you like the ennui that haunted the 18th and 19th century industrial workers. The boredom, the monotony, the ennui, the listlessness and dissatisfaction from the writing work you do is comparable to alienation of the workers that Marx spoke of. I was getting alienated from the writings I did because subjects like online poker, furniture, a new carpet for your room, and other crappy topics that clients requested me to write on did not enthrall and elevate my soul, as I thought writings are designed to. In addition, most of the clients want you to work at 18th century third world wages.
This was the time when I began to ask, should I write for myself. In other words, you write on things you are passionate about or you have an expertise in or both. There are some very good blogs that let you write on anything you want to write and make some money in the process. These are Hubpages, Squidoo lens, Triond, YCN and hundreds of others. The best thing about these sites is that you can continue to earn monthly revenue from them after you have assiduously built a fairly good amount of content, that is an impressive list of articles.
In addition, you can build your own blog. You may begin with a freeblog as this blog where I publish my articles. It needs to be reminded here that no one should expect to begin earning with the very first article you write here. The consistent result begins to appear with consistent efforts after a period of time.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Online Writing Opportunities Review: How To Make An Impact With Your Writing
Online Writing Opportunities Review: How To Make An Impact With Your Writing: A major reason you want to write is to make an impact. A piece of writing can either inform or drive home a point, make an appeal or do one...
How To Make An Impact With Your Writing
A major reason you want to write is to make an impact. A piece of writing can either inform or drive home a point, make an appeal or do one or more of these. There are basically just three things in a writing that make an impact. These historical ingredients were well recognized by the Greek philosophers and the best writers even today use these very qualities in their writing. These are ethos, pathos and logos. A judicious mix of these three make a speech or writing persuasive.
In other words, your writing whether serious or humorous must be factual. If you can cite authorities, credible sources and statistics the readers will take your writing seriously. It should be logical. In other words, what you claim in your writing must be appealing to common sense. Finally, if the writing makes an emotional appeal, readers tend to get swayed. However, you must be cautious in using these critical elements. They should be subtle and somewhat detached from the writer in the sense that the writer should appear to use them to drive home a point.
Some of the best speeches and writings make persuasive use of language. Funeral oration of Pericles for instance may appear to use these qualities. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Address and Martin Luther King's speeches, as also the speeches of Hitler are some of the examples of persuasive speech.
What is true for speech is also true for writing. Shakespeare has used this approach in his works.
A writer can use the elements of ethos, pathos and logos depending on the kind of writing. A serious scientific piece of writing for instance will be mostly factual, yet writers can add subtle emotion. For instance when writing on "static charge" a writer can elude to how the importance of this topic is little appreciated by people and cite some of the historical accidents that have taken place due to "static electrical charge".
Similarly, a writer writing a piece of humor may add a line or two on how humor is important to human health and may cite evidences to elude to health benefits of humor.
The important thing to note is that writers should ask right in the beginning before actually writing a piece, who are they writing for and what message do they want to give to their audience. If this question is answered before the writing, the next task will be easy enough. More to the point, the writing should be appropriate to the age group of the audience.
The next important thing is create and sustain interest of the readers. The first sentence in a piece of writing is known as "hook". The best writers know how to create the hook that instantly connects them to the readers. Some writers begin with a question, the others with a quote, and still others with an interesting anecdote. Each writer has their own unique strategy.
However, hook is just the beginning. The writer must know the skill of holding their readers' interest till the end. That is the kind of art that comes with the practice to write constantly and evolves over time.
In other words, your writing whether serious or humorous must be factual. If you can cite authorities, credible sources and statistics the readers will take your writing seriously. It should be logical. In other words, what you claim in your writing must be appealing to common sense. Finally, if the writing makes an emotional appeal, readers tend to get swayed. However, you must be cautious in using these critical elements. They should be subtle and somewhat detached from the writer in the sense that the writer should appear to use them to drive home a point.
Some of the best speeches and writings make persuasive use of language. Funeral oration of Pericles for instance may appear to use these qualities. Kennedy's Day of Affirmation Address and Martin Luther King's speeches, as also the speeches of Hitler are some of the examples of persuasive speech.
What is true for speech is also true for writing. Shakespeare has used this approach in his works.
A writer can use the elements of ethos, pathos and logos depending on the kind of writing. A serious scientific piece of writing for instance will be mostly factual, yet writers can add subtle emotion. For instance when writing on "static charge" a writer can elude to how the importance of this topic is little appreciated by people and cite some of the historical accidents that have taken place due to "static electrical charge".
Similarly, a writer writing a piece of humor may add a line or two on how humor is important to human health and may cite evidences to elude to health benefits of humor.
The important thing to note is that writers should ask right in the beginning before actually writing a piece, who are they writing for and what message do they want to give to their audience. If this question is answered before the writing, the next task will be easy enough. More to the point, the writing should be appropriate to the age group of the audience.
The next important thing is create and sustain interest of the readers. The first sentence in a piece of writing is known as "hook". The best writers know how to create the hook that instantly connects them to the readers. Some writers begin with a question, the others with a quote, and still others with an interesting anecdote. Each writer has their own unique strategy.
However, hook is just the beginning. The writer must know the skill of holding their readers' interest till the end. That is the kind of art that comes with the practice to write constantly and evolves over time.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
How Writing Career Is Transforming Today
Writing career has changed dramatically within the last decade or two. I believe every one, that is pretty much every one who uses internet, mobile and other gadgets to communicate is a writer. That was not the case earlier. In past, there were limited avenues in the print media for writers. Technology has changed all that. A writer need not be at the mercy of publishers and editors because every one needs content today. If you think, you can write, you can write. It is that easy. If you think you can earn money writing, you can. This is possible largely because technology has empowered everyone.
However, if you are used to security in career or are looking forward to a secured tenure, internet is not the place that can instantly guarantee full time earning. Yet, you can certainly find a little time to make money online writing.
No one will ask you how qualified you are. No one looks for credentials or certificates to write online. All you need in the online world to write is to write something that makes sense. In other words, everyone from a Nigerian to Pakistani and Indian known as ESL writers or the writers whose English is the second language to EFL Americans and Britishers with English as their first language are free to write on the same platform.
All you need to decide is when and for whom are you going to write. If you are going to write for a client, they will pay you to write the stuff they want. If you want to earn writing within half an hour to an hour with money paid instantly, you can begin writing for iwriter. But there are hundreds of other online writing sites where you get paid to write. All you need is Google "freelance writing" or any other search term.
When you begin writing for the first time online, anything you earn first time sounds too good. Soon you will realize, you are getting peanuts for all your labor. The clients who want you to write for them are actually making money off your writing.
So, a better idea is why not write for yourself. In other words, when you write for yourself, you have your byline and you also earn something in addition. There are some websites like hubpages, triond, YCN, Squiddo lense and several more, where you can open multiple earning channels. For instance, you earn from google adsense, from amazon, from ebay and few more sources. Only your income is split 50/50 or 40/60 depending on where you are writing. The income split is justified because you do not have to worry about hosting your site. In addition, these sites have high PR which helps you promote your content to a large number of audience.
This is quite unlike ever before. Anyone can be a writer and anyone can begin writing and earning anytime they decide to. Compared to the past, where only few could write, this has been a real transformation. Some of the old print newspapers are today dying and decaying or have been compelled to transform and run online versions along with printed paper versions.
In addition, the niche for which any one can write has multiplied exponentially. There are more fields to write than one can imagine. In comparison, there were limited periodicals earlier with limited topics and issues to write on.
We have entered into an era when content is truly the King. Every one who has a presence on internet needs content whether they write it themselves or hire writers to write them. In addition, the need for content is increasing by the day because content is essential to drive traffic.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Online Writing Opportunities Review: What problems you are likely to face as an online ...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: What problems you are likely to face as an online ...: There are both rewards and punishments to online writing career. The rewards are flexibility and freedom and in many cases handsome remun...
Thursday, December 27, 2012
How to Make Money off Your Blog
You probably know that blogging is a great way to make money. But do you know how exactly can you make money off your blog? You can of course make money through google adsense. However, to make decent money you need to post a lot of quality articles. You will need to post several quality articles every day year round when your blog begins to earn some rewards. Don't get discouraged by the pennies you see rolling once in a while in the beginning.
However, there is another great way to make money. It is through writing on your blog for others. Yes, you heard me right. There are advertisers willing to pay you to write what they want on your blog. However, if your blog is new, no one will probably be interested in featuring on your blog. So, what's the way out?
There is only one way out - continue posting original articles on your blog. Remember, what you post should be relevant to the name of your blog or the purpose your blog serves. You must also carefully promote your blog and link the posts to other blogs, websites, forums etc. so that eventually you begin to appear in Alexa ranking. This would be of great interest to advertisers who would then begin to offer you to write reviews of their products or services.
So, the question is how do you land with these opportunities?
Here is how you can claim those opportunities. There are sites like pay per post or review me. You need to first of all register yourself on these sites. For example, once you register on pay per post, you will be asked to identify your blog url, fill in some details like what the blog is about, the tags etc. Once you've done that you will click next, which takes you on a new page. This page instructs you to make a fresh post on your blog along with a randomly generated sentence. In response to this request I am making this new post and pasting the sentence as here: a cat makes life fun.
Once you do that you are done. Now you come back to your ppp account and press the claim blog button. After you have done that, you can wait for the right opportunities to come to you through ppp.
However, there is another great way to make money. It is through writing on your blog for others. Yes, you heard me right. There are advertisers willing to pay you to write what they want on your blog. However, if your blog is new, no one will probably be interested in featuring on your blog. So, what's the way out?
There is only one way out - continue posting original articles on your blog. Remember, what you post should be relevant to the name of your blog or the purpose your blog serves. You must also carefully promote your blog and link the posts to other blogs, websites, forums etc. so that eventually you begin to appear in Alexa ranking. This would be of great interest to advertisers who would then begin to offer you to write reviews of their products or services.
So, the question is how do you land with these opportunities?
Here is how you can claim those opportunities. There are sites like pay per post or review me. You need to first of all register yourself on these sites. For example, once you register on pay per post, you will be asked to identify your blog url, fill in some details like what the blog is about, the tags etc. Once you've done that you will click next, which takes you on a new page. This page instructs you to make a fresh post on your blog along with a randomly generated sentence. In response to this request I am making this new post and pasting the sentence as here: a cat makes life fun.
Once you do that you are done. Now you come back to your ppp account and press the claim blog button. After you have done that, you can wait for the right opportunities to come to you through ppp.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
How to Land Your First Writing Job on Elance
Since you are reading this article, I presume you know what is Elance. It is the world's leading site for online work. They have every kind of online jobs for just about every online worker. The last time I checked the site, they had about 18,000 live jobs available on their dashboard.
Sounds great! IT and Programming alone had over 7500 jobs, while design and multimedia had over 3500 listed jobs. While Writing and Translation was at the third place with about 2500 jobs. On the lower side, while Engineering and Manufacturing featured under 400 jobs, Finance and Management showed barely 300 jobs, and Legal segment showed a measly 183 jobs. From the available figures, it is clear that IT and Programming professionals have the most lucrative opportunity on online work sites including Elance. In other words, if you're technically skilled, you will not have to compete severely for jobs. Here is why? In all there are about 620,000 professionals vying for all jobs available on Elance. Of these, about 538,000 are individuals and about 82,000 are companies.
From available figures, it is clear that over 600,000 professionals are vying for about 18,000 jobs at any time on Elance. On average, there's one job for approximately every 35 persons competing for jobs. This indeed makes landing with a job very competitive. Here's some more statistics. There are about 168,000 IT and Programming professionals competing for 7500 jobs which means about 22 to 23 professionals compete on average for one job. In other words, IT and Programming professionals are at a slightly advantageous position than the rest. In the domain of Writing, 139,000 professionals including companies are found competing for about 2500 jobs, which means on average 55 to 56 professionals will compete for one job. The obvious conclusion - on average a writing professional will find more than two times tougher to get a job in comparison to an IT and Programming professional. Additionally, the average wage of a writer is likely to be less than half of the average wage of an IT and Programming professional.
Moreover, with increased demand for technical writing and the higher wages for the same, IT and Programming professionals have both writing and IT jobs open to them. Therefore, writing professionals would do well to learn technical skills to survive the competition.
Here are some strategies for the writing professionals to land with your first job.
Register with elance and complete your profile. Employers prefer to hire workers with complete profile. Showcase your writing samples in your profile. Employers invariably go through your sample before selecting your bid. Showcase your best work samples.
When bidding for the job, put yourself in the shoes of the employer and try to see what solution the employer is looking for. Tell the employer how best and unique is your solution. Tell them everything you will do and your expectations from the employer. Don't overstate or claim more than you can do or more than you are capable of. Give evidence for your claims.
Take the professional tests available on elance. The score on these tests will inform employers about your expertise. You have the chance to improve you score, so don't hesitate in taking tests.
Try to connect with the employer one on one. Engage them with questions that will help you improve the outcome.
Never bid more than the amount the employer has indicated. Better still, if you're trying to land your first job, bid low.
Don't get disheartened if you do not land a job in your first month or month after month. On average for every 55 or 56 bids you make, you are likely to land with a job. That's the average - you may get more or less. However, with completed profile and few professional tests, you're likely to improve your successful bid counts, better than the average.
Finally, it is the persistence that pays. Keeping on bidding effectively when a time will come, you will begin getting jobs. Among all the professionals bidding for the jobs, there are actually very few who continue to persist, the rest are weeded you naturally because they have no patience to continue the struggle and continue improving skills. The quitters in fact make the task easier for you.
Half of those currently listed under professionals are not serious. So, don't get disheartened by confrontations with a very large number of bidders. If you can continue and persist, you will likely break ice before you can imagine.
Remember, landing a job on elance requires not extraordinary IQ or talent. All it takes is a systematic course of action combined with persistence.
Sounds great! IT and Programming alone had over 7500 jobs, while design and multimedia had over 3500 listed jobs. While Writing and Translation was at the third place with about 2500 jobs. On the lower side, while Engineering and Manufacturing featured under 400 jobs, Finance and Management showed barely 300 jobs, and Legal segment showed a measly 183 jobs. From the available figures, it is clear that IT and Programming professionals have the most lucrative opportunity on online work sites including Elance. In other words, if you're technically skilled, you will not have to compete severely for jobs. Here is why? In all there are about 620,000 professionals vying for all jobs available on Elance. Of these, about 538,000 are individuals and about 82,000 are companies.
From available figures, it is clear that over 600,000 professionals are vying for about 18,000 jobs at any time on Elance. On average, there's one job for approximately every 35 persons competing for jobs. This indeed makes landing with a job very competitive. Here's some more statistics. There are about 168,000 IT and Programming professionals competing for 7500 jobs which means about 22 to 23 professionals compete on average for one job. In other words, IT and Programming professionals are at a slightly advantageous position than the rest. In the domain of Writing, 139,000 professionals including companies are found competing for about 2500 jobs, which means on average 55 to 56 professionals will compete for one job. The obvious conclusion - on average a writing professional will find more than two times tougher to get a job in comparison to an IT and Programming professional. Additionally, the average wage of a writer is likely to be less than half of the average wage of an IT and Programming professional.
Moreover, with increased demand for technical writing and the higher wages for the same, IT and Programming professionals have both writing and IT jobs open to them. Therefore, writing professionals would do well to learn technical skills to survive the competition.
Here are some strategies for the writing professionals to land with your first job.
Register with elance and complete your profile. Employers prefer to hire workers with complete profile. Showcase your writing samples in your profile. Employers invariably go through your sample before selecting your bid. Showcase your best work samples.
When bidding for the job, put yourself in the shoes of the employer and try to see what solution the employer is looking for. Tell the employer how best and unique is your solution. Tell them everything you will do and your expectations from the employer. Don't overstate or claim more than you can do or more than you are capable of. Give evidence for your claims.
Take the professional tests available on elance. The score on these tests will inform employers about your expertise. You have the chance to improve you score, so don't hesitate in taking tests.
Try to connect with the employer one on one. Engage them with questions that will help you improve the outcome.
Never bid more than the amount the employer has indicated. Better still, if you're trying to land your first job, bid low.
Don't get disheartened if you do not land a job in your first month or month after month. On average for every 55 or 56 bids you make, you are likely to land with a job. That's the average - you may get more or less. However, with completed profile and few professional tests, you're likely to improve your successful bid counts, better than the average.
Finally, it is the persistence that pays. Keeping on bidding effectively when a time will come, you will begin getting jobs. Among all the professionals bidding for the jobs, there are actually very few who continue to persist, the rest are weeded you naturally because they have no patience to continue the struggle and continue improving skills. The quitters in fact make the task easier for you.
Half of those currently listed under professionals are not serious. So, don't get disheartened by confrontations with a very large number of bidders. If you can continue and persist, you will likely break ice before you can imagine.
Remember, landing a job on elance requires not extraordinary IQ or talent. All it takes is a systematic course of action combined with persistence.
Monday, November 12, 2012
What problems you are likely to face as an online freelance writer?
There are both rewards and punishments to online writing career. The rewards are flexibility and freedom and in many cases handsome remuneration. A majority of the online freelance writers are struggling writers. But then, most of them also have a day job and are happy with some additional income. There are other writers including students and housewives who need just about some additional income.
Problems the online freelance writers face
If you are not from a nation where English is the first language, you will not get many higher paying jobs. Writing companies like Demand Studios, Text Broker, and several more with decent flow of jobs and fairly standard pay per article have closed their gates to entry for writers whose native language is not English. I am also one of their victims. Yahoo Content Network doesn't even pay residual income to non-U.S writers although you are free to write for them. Most of the unpaid writers probably write for them just to build the links to their blogs, which has its own rewards.
Additionally, for every legitimate online paying sites, there are five to ten scams. A beginning writer may fall in their trap. However, there is a strategy to choose a site to write for. It is highly recommended that you check the background of the site. It can be as easy as using the search term "(name of the site) Review" in Google. Read the reviews, you will most likely have some idea about the site.
Which writing sites to avoid
If a site does not give their physical address, phone number and other details, it is best to avoid them. However, in many cases, I have been paid regularly by them. So, what I stated is not a hard and fast, strict strategy. However, just in case they run away with your money, there's nothing you can do. Most of the scam online writing companies, according to sources are from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ukraine.
Which is the place to begin writing
Some of the companies I found legitimate and well paying are Independent Publishing (The minimum pay for a bronze writer is $4.66 for a 250-word write up and goes up several times over for silver and gold writers). However, they are not always flooded with jobs, but when the jobs come pouring in they are more than you can handle. So you can earn fairly good income within a span of few weeks when jobs exist on their job boards.
The other good writing company is Content Current. They pay about $7 for an article of about 400 words. This company also cannot assure you with year round flow of jobs. But you need to keep checking their dashboard. I didn't. So, they kicked me out for my inactivity.
Recently, I came across another site called Scripted. Their pay rate is probably one among the best. You can hope to earn anywhere from $24 to $150 for a 450 word blog post. Also, you cannot write for any niche you may want to but only for those you are selected to write out of about 15 to 20 niches. They are very strict on deadlines and quality. Make a mistake on any of the two, and you're kicked out for good.
There are many more sites that you can try.
How to overcome the problems you face
A writer attempting to make living off online writing may face the basic problem every freelance writer faces sometime or the other. You may not always have enough work or jobs that pay well. This problem can be addressed only over a time, and not overnight.
(i) Multiple sources: It is best to subscribe to several jobs rather than remain stuck with one source.
(ii) Build residual income source: When you begin building residual income source on hubpages and Squiddo, or other sources, you will eventually find an additional revenue stream paying you month after month.
(iii) Continue to bid: Companies like elance, ODesk, and Guru are among the top companies for freelancers. There are several more. As you persist in bidding for jobs at these sites, you will eventually begin getting jobs.
(iv) Build your blog: You may begin with free blog available at Blogger or Wordpress. There are several more companies that offer free blog. It will take few minutes to set up your free blog and you may begin posting immediately. It will showcase your talent. You may eventually consider switching to paid blog @ up to $10 or less per year.
(v) There is a very wonderful site called fanBox. You can post almost anything there. They allow you to plagiarize and post articles directly from other sites and pay you as well. They offer multiple opportunities to earn from posting, categorizing and rating, selling your products and services and many more.
However, I would like to caution beginning writers not to leave their day job for a while. Once, you are better established in the online world with regular online income, you may consider bidding your day job a good bye.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Online Writing Opportunities Review: The site that offers earning with learning
Online Writing Opportunities Review: The site that offers earning with learning: There are hundreds of sites that pay you to write. With some of the sites you can make enough money to make full time living. However, not ...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: Should you write for essay writing companies
Online Writing Opportunities Review: Should you write for essay writing companies: If you are interested in academic writing, essay writing companies offer good opportunities to you. However, there are several reasons why...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: What writing opportunities do you have on internet...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: What writing opportunities do you have on internet...: There are literally limitless writing opportunities on internet. In fact internet has opened up opportunities for writers as never before. ...
Online Writing Opportunities Review: How much can you earn from your writing
Online Writing Opportunities Review: How much can you earn from your writing: Many people ask me how much do I earn from my writing? I tell them freelance income fluctuates month to month. However, I am never worried ...
How much can you earn from your writing
Many people ask me how much do I earn from my writing? I tell them freelance income fluctuates month to month. However, I am never worried about earning a certain minimum level even under worst circumstances, because the demand for online writer continues to and will continue to grow. Yet, if you do not earn enough or earn little, you are solely responsible for it. Chances are you are not making sincere efforts to find clients, or write, or both. The chances are you are a beginning writer struggling to find your way through. The following guidelines will help you build your writing career.How to begin earning from writing online
There is no straight answer to the question how much can you earn from writing. It depends on a number of factors: (i) your writing experience (ii) time you give to writing (iii) the rate (per page/per hour) you receive for writing (iv) your writing speed (v) the quality of your writing (vi) meeting the guidelines sent by clients (vii) continuing to learn while growing within the profession (viii) building a strong niche or a set of niches you want to write in (ix) building your trust as a writer, and (x) developing strong relationships with your clients so you continue to get repeat orders.
If you are looking to start earning online from your writing, the best place to go is elance which is the marketplace for freelance writers and employers looking for one another. The signup process is easy and you can begin bidding on available jobs within moments of signing. However, if you are new to writing process, it is advisable to build a portfolio. Almost every client wants to see your sample or past work before they decide to hire you. Don't have a portfolio? No problem.
How to build a portfolio
There are several webcompanies who are open to your writing. Some of the well known among them are Associated Content (Now a division of Yahoo), Yahoo Voices, Hubpages, Triond, and several others. You may go to one or more of these sites and begin publishing your work so that you can showcase your writing samples to the employers. Additionally, you get paid residual earning for your writing on these sites. But for some initial years, your writing at these sites may not be enough to meet even the expenses for your evening snack. So, that's probably the reason you may want go for upfront payments for your writing job.
How much do the clients pay you
During your initial career as a freelancer with nothing much to showcase, you may not expect to earn well. There are more clients looking for $1to$5 per page writers. Yet, sites like elance, Guru, freelancer, and others are flooded with bidders for these jobs. After some experience, reputation and excellent portfolio to showcase you may find clients paying at least $10 per page which in my opinion is the minimum, a freelance writer deserves. Typically, a page contains about 300 words. There are many clients offering that much although in overall terms of percentage, they form a small minority.
Take your first step
While many persons have told me they are interested in writing and would like to make writing a secondary source of their income, but not many among them actually begin writing. You have to take the first step. Go, write anything that comes to your mind. Practice writing. Get familiar with your key board and begin to press letters. Sooner or later that will become your habit, a habit that you cannot live without. Once you begin writing on your desktop and publish your first work, you will feel like having won the Olympic race. It is the first step that is difficult, the rest is easy.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
What writing opportunities do you have on internet?
There are literally limitless writing opportunities on internet. In fact internet has opened up opportunities for writers as never before. Whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced writer, you can end up earning well on internet according to the work you do and time you devote. Broadly, there are two kinds of writing opportunities for you. There are are writing sites which do not pay you directly but you keep on earning month after month from your writing on these sites depending on the work you perform. The income you generate from them is known as the residual income or royalty income (We will explain about them in other posts). The second is the upfront payment for your writing. You get paid instantly for the work you do.
If you are really new to writing, it will take a little time and research from finding a site, getting the leads, finding the employer, hiring and payment. Some of the sites like Guru.com, ODesk, Freelancer.com, elance.com and several more are the meeting platforms for writers and the employers. You register at the site, make bids and the employer selects you for the job. This may take some time if you are new. But once you land your first writing assignment, things will become easier for you. Writing opportunities will keep coming regularly thereafter.
There are other writing sites that employ you directly and pay you to write. They may conduct some kind of test to determine whether you can write well. They may not always be flooded with jobs, but when jobs come, you can pick one or more to write and get paid.
Real Writing Jobs for You
However, if you want to remain constantly flooded with writing opportunities. I will suggest you to join Real Writing Jobs (click on the link which will take you directly to the site). This company will ask you to pay about $30 one time fee. Since I have bought their membership, I know it is not a scam. They are real and genuine. However, you may ask whether this program is for me?
First of all, let me tell you for whom this program may not be very useful. If you are already so thoroughly involved in your writing profession and earning full time income from writing, the program may not be for you. If you are engaged with offline publishers and have no interest in online writing or making money writing online, this program may not be for you.
Is Real Writing Jobs for You
If you have been looking for writing job opportunities, but haven't landed with one or many and you need to grow as a writer, then Real Writing Jobs is definitely for you. Let me add also that I am not promoting it because I will get commission from your purchase, but I have purchased it and seen the features in it. Although, there may be several opportunities within this site that any experienced writer is already familiar with, the beginning writers will save a lot of time researching individual writing programs. Additionally, those who are making an attempt to begin their online writing career will come across a lot of useful information about web writing, the different kinds of writing, the strategies to master the skills, how to find the writing gigs, the different kinds of employers and the ongoing wage rates. More to the point, there are several writing opportunities that keep arising on a day to day basis and require social media skills that will be presented right in front of your screen. So, even those experienced writers who want to widen their net will find Real Writing Jobs immensely helpful.
Why Should You Try Real Writing Jobs
If you've a compelling reason to write and earn money, then you should definitely give it a try because you do not need to pay for anything else after you make the initial payment. This is quite unlike some of the earning opportunities where you pay once, and then you realize you've to pay for additional features and services. This company is ethical in what they claim. Additionally, if you are not satisfied or find that program doesn't work for you can get refund within 60 days.
However, I do not see why anyone cannot make money writing online if one wants to or is determined to. What this program does is systematize the work for you and source for you the best writing jobs that are not always easy to find. You will have to do the writing. The writing you do for making money online does not often require exceptional writing talent. If you can write like a fifth grader, you can still make money. If you can post a sentence or two in Facebook twitter and other social media sites, you will make money because there are employers ready to pay you.
If someone is really interested in making money writing online, it is my personal guarantee that they can make money. I am not talking about few dollars and pennies here and there, but about consistent $3000 every month or more. That is quite possible but if you are a newbie, you will need to persist. If you want the task made easy and tailored to your needs, then Real Writing Jobs are definitely for you.
A Word of Caution
I do not endorse or recommend Real Writing Jobs for every one. I purchased it for $1, with free trial for three days. I could not access jobs during the first three day. I could only see them on the dashboard. After the free look period, you will be charged $27 (I don't remember the exact amount though) but you can still get your refund within 60 days if you are not satisfied with it. I decided to refund the product because I had access to several job boards from where I could get the jobs. I had an idea that they have jobs exclusive to their website. However, that's not the case. The have a software that brings all the writing jobs available on internet at one place. So, if you do not want to take the hassle of hopping from site to site in search of jobs, this could be the ideal platform for you. In any case, you will need to prove your worth as a writer. Please don't go by the company's claim that you can earn money if you just have an internet connection. That is of course the basic requirement, but then your command over writing must meet certain basic standard.
If you are really new to writing, it will take a little time and research from finding a site, getting the leads, finding the employer, hiring and payment. Some of the sites like Guru.com, ODesk, Freelancer.com, elance.com and several more are the meeting platforms for writers and the employers. You register at the site, make bids and the employer selects you for the job. This may take some time if you are new. But once you land your first writing assignment, things will become easier for you. Writing opportunities will keep coming regularly thereafter.
There are other writing sites that employ you directly and pay you to write. They may conduct some kind of test to determine whether you can write well. They may not always be flooded with jobs, but when jobs come, you can pick one or more to write and get paid.
Real Writing Jobs for You
However, if you want to remain constantly flooded with writing opportunities. I will suggest you to join Real Writing Jobs (click on the link which will take you directly to the site). This company will ask you to pay about $30 one time fee. Since I have bought their membership, I know it is not a scam. They are real and genuine. However, you may ask whether this program is for me?
First of all, let me tell you for whom this program may not be very useful. If you are already so thoroughly involved in your writing profession and earning full time income from writing, the program may not be for you. If you are engaged with offline publishers and have no interest in online writing or making money writing online, this program may not be for you.
Is Real Writing Jobs for You
If you have been looking for writing job opportunities, but haven't landed with one or many and you need to grow as a writer, then Real Writing Jobs is definitely for you. Let me add also that I am not promoting it because I will get commission from your purchase, but I have purchased it and seen the features in it. Although, there may be several opportunities within this site that any experienced writer is already familiar with, the beginning writers will save a lot of time researching individual writing programs. Additionally, those who are making an attempt to begin their online writing career will come across a lot of useful information about web writing, the different kinds of writing, the strategies to master the skills, how to find the writing gigs, the different kinds of employers and the ongoing wage rates. More to the point, there are several writing opportunities that keep arising on a day to day basis and require social media skills that will be presented right in front of your screen. So, even those experienced writers who want to widen their net will find Real Writing Jobs immensely helpful.
Why Should You Try Real Writing Jobs
If you've a compelling reason to write and earn money, then you should definitely give it a try because you do not need to pay for anything else after you make the initial payment. This is quite unlike some of the earning opportunities where you pay once, and then you realize you've to pay for additional features and services. This company is ethical in what they claim. Additionally, if you are not satisfied or find that program doesn't work for you can get refund within 60 days.
However, I do not see why anyone cannot make money writing online if one wants to or is determined to. What this program does is systematize the work for you and source for you the best writing jobs that are not always easy to find. You will have to do the writing. The writing you do for making money online does not often require exceptional writing talent. If you can write like a fifth grader, you can still make money. If you can post a sentence or two in Facebook twitter and other social media sites, you will make money because there are employers ready to pay you.
If someone is really interested in making money writing online, it is my personal guarantee that they can make money. I am not talking about few dollars and pennies here and there, but about consistent $3000 every month or more. That is quite possible but if you are a newbie, you will need to persist. If you want the task made easy and tailored to your needs, then Real Writing Jobs are definitely for you.
A Word of Caution
I do not endorse or recommend Real Writing Jobs for every one. I purchased it for $1, with free trial for three days. I could not access jobs during the first three day. I could only see them on the dashboard. After the free look period, you will be charged $27 (I don't remember the exact amount though) but you can still get your refund within 60 days if you are not satisfied with it. I decided to refund the product because I had access to several job boards from where I could get the jobs. I had an idea that they have jobs exclusive to their website. However, that's not the case. The have a software that brings all the writing jobs available on internet at one place. So, if you do not want to take the hassle of hopping from site to site in search of jobs, this could be the ideal platform for you. In any case, you will need to prove your worth as a writer. Please don't go by the company's claim that you can earn money if you just have an internet connection. That is of course the basic requirement, but then your command over writing must meet certain basic standard.
Should you write for essay writing companies
If you are interested in academic writing, essay writing companies offer good opportunities to you. However, there are several reasons why there can be downside to essay writing, which is not to deny that there are positive advantages of writing for essay writing companies. I will briefly point out some of the positive side to writing for essay writing companies. The essay writing companies are primarily in the business of writing essays, theses, term papers and dissertations for students. In the process of writing for students, the writers develop research skills. They also have the opportunity to read and revise what they may have begun to forget. The research skills are critical for any writer. It offers an immense opportunity to learn and continue to learn. Life long learning is critical to success in any field.
On the downside, writers have to live with the dilemma of doing what may not be ethical. Students are expected to do their work on their own. Their performance in academics depends to a great extent on the performance of their term papers. So, is it ethical for the writers to do their task for monetary consideration?
There can be diverse opinion on the issue. Some writers believe that they are providing only some form of guidance to the students they serve, while students are expected to treat the delivered writing products purely as guidance material and do their work on own.
Additionally, there are writers and companies that churn out low quality content to students that positively harms them. Almost every writing company claims to offer products and services free from plagiarism, but that's not always the case.
As for writers, if they are employed by a scam writing company, they tend to lose their hard earned money. I had this experience with a writing company. I don't want to name the company but I have learned my lesson well. Therefore, before joining a company, writers are advised to do a thorough background search of the company. You can do the background search of the essay writing companies at essay scam site.
On the downside, writers have to live with the dilemma of doing what may not be ethical. Students are expected to do their work on their own. Their performance in academics depends to a great extent on the performance of their term papers. So, is it ethical for the writers to do their task for monetary consideration?
There can be diverse opinion on the issue. Some writers believe that they are providing only some form of guidance to the students they serve, while students are expected to treat the delivered writing products purely as guidance material and do their work on own.
Additionally, there are writers and companies that churn out low quality content to students that positively harms them. Almost every writing company claims to offer products and services free from plagiarism, but that's not always the case.
As for writers, if they are employed by a scam writing company, they tend to lose their hard earned money. I had this experience with a writing company. I don't want to name the company but I have learned my lesson well. Therefore, before joining a company, writers are advised to do a thorough background search of the company. You can do the background search of the essay writing companies at essay scam site.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
The site that offers earning with learning
There are hundreds of sites that pay you to write. With some of the sites you can make enough money to make full time living. However, not all of these sites are open to international writers. Recently, I came across a company that pays you to write in multiple ways. That apart, you have complete flexibility in writing what you want, when you want.
The company is IndiaStudyChannel
The company is IndiaStudyChannel
I will briefly explain the history of this company. It is the fastest growing educational website in India. According to the information presented on the site: "ISC was originally developed as an academic project by Timmy John, as part of his B.Tech course in Pondicherry university. The project came up well, so his teachers and professors encouraged him to host this project as a publicly available website. That gave birth to IndiaStudyChannel.com in June 2007. Currently, there are 3 partners for ISC: Timmy (Founder of ISC), Tony (Technical Architect/Business Management, Microsoft MVP), Jose Mathew (Webmaster)." The company is growing very fast and as of May 2009 received on average 275000 page views perday. The members of the company together receive around $2800 per month in adsense revenue while the company gives away a lot of money to members for promotion. It is not a get rich quick scheme but what is reassured that if you can devote some time to writing and participation, your earning will keep on growing since the works you do will keep you returning income month after month.
Earning programs of ISC
The company offers three primary earning programs: (i) Cash Credits (ii) Google Ad Revenue (iii) Cash prizes and credits from various competitions. ISC has various sections like Resources, Ask experts etc. You earn money for posting under these sections. This money is known as cash credits shown instantaneously on your dash board but paid when it reaches minimum threshold. There are several ways you can earn cash credits including posting your old question papers, asking questions, answering questions and so on. Additionally you can earn through Google Adsense program. You can earn 90 percent from Google Adsense. The company generates revenue through other advertisement programs which it uses to give away gifts and cash awards to members.
If the idea of earning from multiple sources within a single website appeals you, click here
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