Tips for getting started on writing articles for money?

That's odd, I saw your gig on Fiverr. I was going to hire you but I saw you wrote an ebook on hypnosis and I've already got that covered with another writer.

Take a look at our blog and if you put together a short post (maybe 250 words) about the hilarious trials and tribulations of celebrity gossip writing, I'll publish it with your byline. You can link to your Fiverr gig and your site. Deal?

fLufF
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I am sold, you just proved you can write English with good flow. That is, I read what you write without those subtle oddities that grab my attention.

I began by posting an advert in the 'for hire' section on WF when I first began writing content.

If you can write good, well researched articles or reports you should easily be able to recoup your investment.

Maybe offer one or two articles at 50% off in return for a testimonial.

Don't offer free ones though - if you are good, you don't need to.

Good luck

Karen

Hi Kyle,

Well, look ... here's the thing: I haven't been running my writing service for well over a year, and haven't been looking for new clients for about two years, so my information and impressions may be out of date or inaccurate, because markets do change (especially this one, I suspect).

However ...

I suspect that there are two things you can greatly improve, here:-

(i) Your website makes you look like a "foreign writer" ... I can imagine some prejudiced/ill-informed people looking at your website and thinking "Well, this one looks like he might from Kazakhstan or somewhere ... maybe not".

The reality, I suspect is very different? I think you're actually American, albeit that your family name is perhaps of Polish origin? (I'm guessing all this). It seems to me, from looking at your published work, that English is clearly your first language, anyway ... but you don't say so anywhere on your website ...

In the market in which you're competing, and especially at the prices at which you're choosing to compete, that's a big thing, and quite a selling-point, because it's not true of many of your competitors - and potential customers do care about that (because many - albeit not rightly - associate "foreign writers" with bad English, poor grammar and spelling, limited vocabulary, and so on).

You need to clarify that on your website, I think.

And I think your user-name here, and your domain-name, may not be helping you at all, and you should think seriously about changing both of them (very easily done, for your username here, by the way). Sorry, but "kyle-writing-services.com" (or something similar) is a much better name.

(ii) I suspect you may be competing in the wrong markets.

What you earn, writing articles for people, isn't primarily about your writing skills (yes, you have to have those, too, of course): it's mostly about your marketing skills. I don't mean for writing for marketers - I mean for yourself: to market your own professional services as a writer.

In the market in which you're competing, writing articles for $5 - $10, I suspect there may be more service providers than customers. Well, almost.

The customers for $5 articles aren't necessarily able to tell the difference between your work and the work of someone who's charging $20/$25. And you might have more customers at that price. (Yes, seriously).

Your market positioning is inappropriate to your writing skills, in other words. Your question about whether you'll earn back the $20 you'd need to advertise in Warriors For Hire, or whatever it's called, shows this. You're aiming at the wrong market.

It's all about the markets in which you choose to compete.

If you choose to compete in the low-price markets represented by Odesk, Elance, Getafreelancer, Fiverr and so on, you're effectively labelling your work "Low Cost Writing" and you're choosing to compete with people who are living and working in countries where $5 is a full day's pay.

Many people with genuinely valuable writing skills start off with very low-paid projects, thinking that this will help them to move on to higher-paid projects. It usually doesn't, at all.

It's really important, I think, to avoid at the outset the mistake of imagining that it's sensible to "start off by writing for low prices" with a view to raising your prices after clients have seen what you can produce. When writing for online markets, it simply doesn't work that way: when you write for low prices you attract clients whose primary motivation is to pay low prices, and you lose almost all of them when you increase prices later.

You might find some of these resources helpful/interesting, Kyle:-

Jennifer Mattern's blog

Carol Tice's blog

Freelance writing jobs (minmum payment requirement of $50 per article to be listed there)

Free report on how to attract new freelance writing clients during a recession

The Renegade Writer Blog

The "Irreverent Freelancer" blog

The Well-Fed Writer: Lucrative Commercial Freelance Writing - Land Lucrative Freelance Writing Jobs

Words on the Page.

Edited to add: all the responses above appeared while I was typing this long reply - so I've replied without having read any of them - sorry.

Hey Kyle,

Alexa's advice to you is golden. And it's something I wish I had learned when I was first starting out.

For someone with a good service and quality skills such as yourself, making more money is as simple a matter as charging more. Trust me. It IS that easy.

If you're looking to build your portfolio, you'd serve yourself just as well by writing content for or to promote your own website. Share tips on writing effectively online, maybe... Whatever it is that you're into. This will help you position yourself as an expert, instead of slaving by writing $5 articles.

As Alexa touched on, your rate coincides hand-in-hand with the quality of the client you'll attract.

Those looking for the cheapest possible rate tend to have a very low level of commitment to the project you're working on, and your articles may never even go live and you'll never get the praise and exposure you deserve from them.

You don't have to spend time haggling with the penny pinchers if you don't want to. Good luck

One more thing about your website:

I'm not sure that it's a good idea to insist on being credited for every article that someone purchases from you.

"...I require that all written work by me that you publish be credited to my name, Kyle Stankiewicz."

I was going to place an order but that one statement made me look elsewhere.

I'm almost sure that clients usually buy all the rights to the articles. However, I stand to be corrected.

Karen

Here's how I did it, so I can't say it would work for everyone... but just TRY everything you read about.

I'm sure you've already read about many methods of making money, well TRY ONE.

I kept trying methods until I found one that works.

Once you do that, you expand on the method that works.

Presto, money online.

I could have charged money for that. lol

Warrior for Hire would probably bring you a lot of work. I just bookmarked your site because I hire writers and your writing samples are good.

Funny, I read the Wakey news before and I liked the writing. Great Google News site. Sold for $11,000 on Flippa.

For starters - yes, you should bother with SEO on your own portfolio site. There are plenty of people looking for writers online everyday. You need to do keyword research for your own site just as you would for any other project.

As far as Elance is concerned, do you have anything in your portfolio on the site? If portfolio fodder is an issue, you may want to consider writing a couple of SEO articles for use in your portfolio and applications. It will take a bit of time but it will give you some work to show potential clients.

Kyle, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experience here. To a beginning freelancer/article writer like me, this read was invaluable. Thanks-a-million!

I was steered towards this thread by a recent post by Alexa. Thank you all. I, too, am am trying to build my writing clientele. Tried fiverr. Ugh. Never again, but I must say I did get one outside client from that gig who has paid me $100 for a 2,000 word article. I am close to establishing myself on the Warrior for Hire forum, and my plan is to offer a great deal for testimonials. The information on this thread and others mentioned is invaluable. Thank you.