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Marketing Articles

by edelynpoblete
5 replies
I am new to the online article writing industry, and I was wondering how do I market myself as an article writer.
#articles #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author AlexisMoore
    The way that I started was through vWorker.com. There are tests that you can take that will prove your intelligence so that people will be more likely to hire you. I took all of the tests on English and writing to prove my skills. Then you just start bidding on jobs. It takes awhile to get a job at first, but all it takes is one job with a good review and then you start getting more and more. You have to work for very little money at first. Then you can gradually start asking for more. You will also start to get regular clients after awhile if you consistently give them quality work with on-time delivery. There may be other ways to get started, but this is how I did it and now I am doing very well.

    Good luck, I hope you succeed in your endeavors!
    Lexi
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    • Profile picture of the author adamj2
      Yeah, I would not recommened going down the route of working for virtually nothing to start with in the hope you can get paid more after you have some work under your belt.

      As then people will see you as writer to charge low prices to and will be hard to escape that.

      Try to put up a decent looking writer website, include some of your article samples (can just write some yourself for this), maybe write some blog posts on the site for other example content, and add your testimonials when you get some.

      And then contact people directly for work and charge a price that you are happy to work for.

      Write a well presented and thought out email (not just a generic copy and paste) and come across as a reliable person and someone they would like to work with.

      If there is a niche you are naturally interested and knowledgeable about, I would focus finding websites in that area and contact them to see if they would like to use your services as an article writer.

      do a google search and look for websites that are obviously monetezing it. Especially the ones that have their own product for sale, they probably like to outsource a lot of content writing type work.

      There are also sites out there to bid for work on, I have done some jobs at elance.com. So is a good way to get some early testimonials and to find new clients for the future.

      But is a good idea to find clients that are prepared to pay a lot of money for good work, and not the sort of people looking for $5 articles.

      Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by edelynpoblete View Post

    I was wondering how do I market myself as an article writer.
    Good question, and more appropriately asked than we normally see - because it is about "marketing yourself", exactly. In fact 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.

    In the lower-priced markets, writing articles for $5, I suspect there are more service providers than customers, making that the most difficult market in which to compete.

    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).

    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:-

    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.
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  • Profile picture of the author Claire Sharp
    When i was interviewing my VA, i have learned that she started as a writer. She's been a writer for almost 3 yrs. She benefited so much from making great contents to most of her employers. I guess you can do that too if you love writing.
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    • Profile picture of the author AlexisMoore
      Everyone has a different approach that works for them, and we all take a different path to get to our own success.

      One thing I will say is that by starting out small and working hard I was able to get a 50/50 partnership in a business that was already established and successful.

      The type of clients that I was able to attract started to change over time. I got a little confidence and started shooting for those $10 an article jobs, and when the clients read my reviews and saw the samples I sent them it was a no brainer and I was hired. I lost a few of my previous clients when I asked for more money, but I was gaining higher paying ones so I was making more money either way.

      I impressed someone enough to get offered a partnership, and the rest is history!

      Still, this may not be the way for you, I'm just giving you an example of how I did it.

      I hope it works out for you. I enjoy doing it, and it allows me to be home with my children.

      Good Luck!
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