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Day 19: Article Writing Mania

by MChai
8 replies
This newbie has gone all out article writing. Been slaving away working for other people for pocket money on iWriter. I'm not going to turn this into a rant on how much that site sucks for authors. I want to get good at writing and it's allowed me to get paid while I learn the craft.

All my IM efforts have been put in storage until I'm confident in my content writing. THEN I'll write for my own projects. I surprised my self with an unexpected ability in certain niches. I do killer Adu1t copy - and I don't need to do much research ha-ha.

My approach has been Gonzo. Writing for any and all niches and clients. Submissions have either been a big hit or a massive flop, so I don't have the greatest rating or approval/rejection rate. Flakey clients who don't know how to clearly set requirements don't help. Got to be more careful in choice of clients.

As soon as I reach my goal of Premium Writer status, I'll Level Up to another service. Any thoughts on which service to try next out of eLance, freelancer, oDesk, fiverr, ConstantContent, or any others?
#article #clients #day #flakey #mania #writing
  • Profile picture of the author TheArticlePros
    You're on the right track! I got started in article writing on vWorker. The key was to over-exceed every customer's expectations. I started by bidding on jobs where $0.01/word would've been a bonus...I can remember doing 750 words for $5 just to get some extra pocket money. The clients loved my writing (check vWorker...I have a perfect employee score there) and would contact me for off-site work. I remember one client who would email me and text me at all hours, day or night, because he needed a PowerPoint edited or bullets inserted into a Word doc, and he'd pay me $30-$50 to do that kind of thing.

    Don't ever turn in sub-par work anymore, though. Online, your face is meaningless. No one knows who you are like they do in person. It's your work history, portfolio, and ratings that people can see and judge you by.

    -- j
    Signature

    Posting About Life & Video Games:
    http://www.jarycu.com

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  • Profile picture of the author greenleaf5
    Base all your writing on a strong foundation of quality. The more you can meet, if not exceed, the expectations of your clients, the more you can earn. I don't think you can find too many projects that pay high rates at freelance sites. Of course there are exceptions, but they are few.

    You can advertize your writing services here at WF. Also, you should have a website to showcase your writing samples and garner projects. Once your site is up and running, promote it a lot to get a steady stream of work.
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    • Profile picture of the author cashp0wer
      Do you have a writer's website? If not you should have one. You can then market yourself in many different ways. Posting an ad on the Warrior for Hire forum should bring you some clients, look on Craigslist, Freelance.com, etc. Good luck!
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      My Internet Marketing Blog - Warts And All!
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      • Profile picture of the author Racquel_McFarlane07
        Banned
        You're on the right track in terms of getting practice on freelance websites. Once you have the hang of it, make sure to only submit you're very best work to garner repeat clients as well as positive feedback.
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        • Profile picture of the author MChai
          How do you use the articles you've written; as samples?

          They belong to the client who bought them, so is sending new clients a copy of the article wrong? Do you convert the text to an image to prevent 'leaks'?

          If you find the article online, do you point to it?
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          • Profile picture of the author mindreaderwriter
            Banned
            Hi MChai,

            Normally, any content writing provider won't use any article ordered by any client for marketing purposes unless the client has given the provider a permission to showcase the articles in the provider's portfolio. Being a provider that I am, we write our own samples and we post them on our blog page. That's what we show to our clients whenever they request for samples.

            On the other hand, I don't think that providing some screenshots of the articles isn't a prevention for "leaks." Anybody can still type what they can read on that screenshot.

            Also, there are clients who would want to keep their orders a secret at times, especially if they paid for the service for a very cheap price. Simply put, they don't want their clients know that they got their services up-and-running for a very cheap price. There are also clients who will tell you where they will exactly publish their articles. The best thing to do is to seek permission from the clients if you could showcase their articles in your portfolio.

            mindreaderwriter


            Originally Posted by MChai View Post

            How do you use the articles you've written; as samples?

            They belong to the client who bought them, so is sending new clients a copy of the article wrong? Do you convert the text to an image to prevent 'leaks'?

            If you find the article online, do you point to it?
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          • Profile picture of the author imagene
            Originally Posted by MChai View Post

            How do you use the articles you've written; as samples?

            They belong to the client who bought them, so is sending new clients a copy of the article wrong? Do you convert the text to an image to prevent 'leaks'?

            If the article is online, do you point to it?
            If you were to get permission from your clients to use the articles written for them as part of your portfolio and then convert the txt to image as you suggested, I wouldn't see an issue - just as long as your prospect knows that the content is copyrighted and only purpose is for demonstration of your work only. When I used to produce content, I had a check box at the bottom of my order page that gave me permission to include the content in my portfolio. If they didn't check the box, I didn't include in my portfolio.

            If you have articles submitted to directories, I would definitely point to them.
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            • Profile picture of the author mindreaderwriter
              Banned
              imagene,

              That's a good feature in the Order Details Form of my website. I'll implement that. Thanks!

              Originally Posted by imagene View Post

              When I used to produce content, I had a check box at the bottom of my order page that gave me permission to include the content in my portfolio. If they didn't check the box, I didn't include in my portfolio.
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