Best place to get paid for content writing

Textbroker.com and other such websites. WFH ad. BST in IM forums. Elance. Guru. Odesk.

Put something in your signature advertising you as a writer, look out for any article related post's and comment, obviously actually give some positive input, not just 'hi here's my signature'.

I'm looking to have a few articles written at the moment, what's you knowledge of internet marketing like, enough to write high quality, SEO'ed, interesting, content packed articles?

Oh, elance by the way, great place also.

:-)

I have to say that I have tried many writers and went back to doing it myself as there are so few that can really write things that others will want to read. You have to become that writer.

If you go on the usual forums, you will have a hard time to maximize your earnings since many, many of those people (not necessarily here, tho) are extremely cheap.

The best to maximize your earnings as a writer:

* Make your name known on forums, get lots of connections and relationships. At some point you will also meet good clients which can turn into long-term clients.

* Get away from "article" writing. Seriously, I personally get aches already when I come across the word "article".... Instead of writing "articles", offer ebooks and professional writing like web copy or guest posting. Try to distance yourself from the rest of the "article writing" crowd.

wyppah

You dont necessarily have to write others? Write for yourself and build an audience. Do you have blog? Invest money and market it.

I have you looked at iwriter.com? check it out.

Promote your services on your own website. You can charge what you want, and offer your portfolio with sample content, a money-back guarantee, testimonials, case studies, and even real life content online.

There are loads of sites to find work. However, you also should be considering other ways to market yourself such as your own site, classified ads, running an ad in the Warriors for Hire in this forum, etc.

what about plr, you could sell your articles on these sites, or howabout ebay selling your services?

Textbroker.com is a best place for to write articles for others as they pay high. You can also sign-up to Odesk and bid for some writing projects. There are still lots of sites there like Elance, Freelancer, and SubmitYourArticle.com where you can sign-up; however, the two sites mentioned above are the one that I recommend.

Wyppah,

If I were you I would focus on strictly writing for myself. If you choose to begin a writing service, you are typically going to be paid roughly what others make for writing. You are going to have to drum up business and be willing to write in niches that you have no interest or desire to be in. Do you really want to be held hostage by your plan to sell one article after another?

I would choose some topics that I have an interest in and begin writing short reports. Turn those into high quality lead generators around specific topics. When you have three or four reports on a topic, blend them together and get a book up on Kindle.

Over time, writing for yourself, you will be able to establish a readership, sell books, sell or give away reports to generate leads, write your own sales letters and develop your own products.

To me, I wouldn't want to trade my time for articles that I sold but that somebody else owned. You want to be the owner.

When you own everything you write, each word, each sentence, each paragraph will multiply itself over and over again in sales income. If you are a quality writer, your upside earning potential will be much much greater than if you simply sell your words once to the next client.

Good luck to you,

Steve

I think iWriter.com is a great place to start. If you have top quality, you can be an Elite member and earn decent money for your articles. There are many mangazines out there that pay decent money for your effortsn I mean $50 per article. Of course, you need to get the help of someone that is already earnings good money writing for these sites to make serious cash here.

iWriter are always looking for quality writers. The earnings are not great to start but can build over time if you are good at what you do.

Also consider listing your skills here on the WF. $20 for a listing will bring you in a heap of work

+1 for iWriter.com. You can also try Odesk, Elance, Freelancer.com etc if those suggestions above don't work well for you.

Elance, freelance, and odesk

Try at AssociatedContent.com. Now known as contributor.yahoo.com. A very trusted content site where you can write reviews, guides or simply your own opinion about any given subject. The good thing about AC is that you can publish articles you have published elsewhere as well. However, you make the most money for articles you write exclusively for AC.

I think better place for you is iwriter.com and odesk.com sometimes microworkers.com

Give some review copies.. Get the testimonials. Post in warrior classified ads. You should be able to get good buyers to match your rate. Hope that this help!!

Maybe instead of writing articles you can post and maintain blogs for local businesses that don't have the time to do it? Or maybe you can become a freelance writer for bigger publications... there are plenty of jobs for qualified bloggers.

-Gabriel

I agree it's better to write for yourself on your own site in a niche you understand. A few dollars for all that effort is ridiculous. On one of my blogs, I have written content for a company promoting their services and been paid £60, which is approx $96.

It doesn't happen very often but the reason it happens at all is because I have established my writing abilities in a niche I understand.

You can try iWriter. They have 3 levels and pay decent rates for the Premium and Elite levels. Once you start at the basic level which pays about $2.50 for 500 words you can get upgraded to the next level if you have written 30 article with an average 4-star rating.

Write yourself up the best possible pitch you can possibly muster in the Warriors for Hire section of the forums and set your pricing rates at a reasonable level that you're satisfied writing under (and will have room for subsequent growth in the future as you gain more notoriety and clients).

Next, read through your pitch. Edit it. Proofread it. Tweak it. Go walk around or even take a prolonged break from the computer and clear your head. Come back and edit, proofread and tweak it some more. Not only is this extremely important due to your pitch thread essentially acting as a sort of resume soapbox of sorts, but it's also going to be excellent practice for when you start seriously writing for higher-end clients down the road.

Always, always, always give your articles a proofread and edit read-through at least once -- every single time. I'd actually recommend more like two or three times if you're truly serious about this becoming a legitimate career and making as much money as possible in the future, but writing and editing styles vary from writer to writer, so just find whatever works the best for you and roll with that full-speed ahead.

Now, the single most important thing I can possibly recommend to you -- at least in terms of getting your freelance writing off the ground in a relatively short period of time on here -- is to offer two free review copy articles to relatively well-respected members of the forum.

Show them what you've got, let them provide honest feedback in the form of reviews within your aforementioned pitch thread and, if you did your best and what you provided these members was of a sufficient quality, you can then enjoy watching the orders begin flowing in. Yes, it's $20 to post/bump your pitch thread on the Warriors for Hire forum everytime it falls off the second page, but I don't think I need to explain to you how this is a ridiculously tiny, up-front investment when weighed against what you can potentially make on there.

In addition, I'd also suggest offering the absolute highest customer service you can possibly muster, 24-7-365. Obviously this is common sense, but I mean it -- it's the little things that'll help you stand apart from the other lemmings out there just doing barely enough to get by. And no, this doesn't mean simply saying nice things and following a client's initial instructions -- that stuff's a frigging given -- but instead actually going above and beyond for the sake of offering the most consummate level freelance writing services you possibly can.

Whether this is in the form of simply shooting them an e-mail or PM update if the ETA's going to change or even offering free, on-the-house edits/revisions to any articles after you've provided the final draft (within reason) merely in good faith. It doesn't matter. What matters is the level of service that you offer and -- in the end -- your clients' subsequent level of complete and utter satisfaction. You don't just want to write for people and have it be a one-and-done kind of thing. Build up your client list, save them as contacts, establish and foster friendly relationships and strive to become their content/copywriter of choice for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, use the half-up front, half-upon completion payment setup. It's the fairest, most risk-free way to do it for both parties. End of story.

If you have any questions starting out (on here or even if you choose to pursue other avenues discussed/suggested already), feel free to shoot me a PM or hit me up on Skype. I've learned a thing or two from climbing and clawing my way up the proverbial ladder. From writing for peanuts back in the **** flog days nearly six years ago to now making a very comfortable living targeting the premium side of the market and branching out and getting hired by some CPA networks. It's certainly not the easiest way to make money online, but if you have even a small love for writing whatsoever, it can be quite rewarding and fulfilling when it's all said and done.

I wish you the best of luck!

If you are a high quality writer, sign up at Constant Content. You can name your price on your articles. The editors are EXTREMELY picky, right down to commas and capitalization in title, so be very careful when you submit an article and be sure that you have carefully proofread it and that it meets all submission guidelines.


I write articles over at iwriter when I have a lull in jobs, but there are a few reasons why you may find it hard to make money there. First of all, you have to write for crap pay to start out with. People can request articles for $1.62 for 300 words. On top of that, you can spend your time writing a decent article only to have it rejected. I am currently an elite writer on the site and have had articles rejected for some of the stupidest reasons ever. "a comma is missing" "KW density too high" (when they asked for an article using a particular KW 25 times in a 500 word article). Requesters also do things like ask you to write a 400 word article when they are only paying the minimum amount for a 300 word article "or it will be rejected". I have a few regular requesters that I write for and I tend to only write for them as much as I can, because they know my style and I know they will accept my articles and give me a five star rating.


The rating system is very important. If you fall below a certain rating, your account can get banned. I think requesters should take that into account too when they reject an article and give a writer one star.


I have recently experienced a great deal of frustration on iwriter with requesters who want the moon, but only want to pay the minimum. How would you feel if you were asked to write a 500 word article for $4 only to have it rejected for some completely ridiculous reasons.


I think the site has come a long way over the last year with improvements, but one major improvement they could incorporate is for writers to be able to ignore certain requesters so that when they are searching through the pages of jobs they don't have to look at requesters who routinely reject work. Each requester gets a rating too - writers are allowed to leave a review for them after the conclusion of a project.


It's a good idea to steer clear of requesters who have less than a 70% acceptance rate. There are some requesters who have such a low acceptance rate that they have to open a new account with a new name just to get people to write for them.

There is also the option of starting up your own website offering writing services, I have done that myself, but it is really difficult to get the word out with so much competition out there.


It's tough to bid on jobs on sites like freelancer and odesk because the competition is fierce. If you have the $20, then post an ad on Warrior here. A few regular paying clients is all you need.

I have used plenty of people on Elance and always get good results so I tend to stick with that. I know you will earn a lot more than $5 for 500 words so give it a go and best to bid low - $80 for 1,000 words for instance to get you up and running.

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I agree with others that the writer mills are a bad way to go. When there are thousands of "writers", it's hard to compete for the pittance they call "pay" in the first place. It will take too much time messing around just bidding for pay that is substandard for a decent writer.

I also agree that you need to write for yourself - but build a portfolio. You never know when someone will offer you a "price is right" deal. While I very rarely write for others - sometimes I get acceptable offers to write something for someone else. Sometimes I make deals just for the purpose of networking, too - never forget that networking is just as important as any other part of business.

What I did when starting online was to start a blog and 48 hours after posting to the blog I'd put the article on Ezinearticles.com. The link to my article base there is in a portfolio package. People are always looking for outstanding PLR, too. You may write articles at $4 a pop rather than just 4 or 5 all tolled and make a good amount for each. I've written PLR reports and ebooks - it gives the buyer something they can use as gifts for their own lists and viewers right off the bat, or they can resource it any way they want. Give them excellence. If you can't provide excellence (of info and style), then go to the writer mills until you can handle it. The people that buy my niches are always happy when I put out another hunk of PLR in their niche. Once they buy, they know what to expect, so you can build repeat buyers that way. If your niche misses the mark, move on to one that sells well. Not all pieces will be a hit so if you fall flat on one even though the quality is high, just move on to the next.

Kindle is also a good option - low price copy sold at a high volume is still good return.

Put an excerpt of your best works into your portfolio. You never know when someone that will actually fork over the appropriate amounts for a project you are interested in doing will come along and when they do you will have a portfolio ready for them to scrutinize. Some people actually understand that professionals get paid for what they do. Writing for someone who has a project that really cranks your interest is a lot different than writing for some idiot whose basic worry is how many keywords you can stuff into your work and that, basically, is the type of trap you will see people who are in the writing mills fall into over and over again. Don't do stuff that takes the thrill of the work out of you. That road is a direct path to mediocrity. There are too many ways to write enjoyably to do that to yourself.

Good luck to you whichever route you decide to pursue.

The problem with getting paid for writing articles is that most people don't know how to leverage the opportunity into something bigger.

I understand the need or want to get paid upfront for something, because it removes the risk involved, but you definitely won't get rich getting paid $5 for a 300 word article.

The key is to leverage that content into something bigger.

One trick that I used to use is that I would get paid to write articles for others, then I would use the research that I used to create that article and I would change it around and create another article that I would then post on either my own website or Hubpages/Squidoo and put in my own affiliate links with it.

You could then even take it a step farther and turn those articles into videos and create a whole other piece of content.

So at that point instead of spending your time creating content for someone else, you can get paid for the article and also create content for yourself to use in much faster time than you would if you were purely writing for yourself.

iwriter is a nice site for your needs...

Try Warriors For Hire
many people need writers

I don't freelance, but if I were to go that route, I'd definitely batch writing services with guest posting. People will pay a premium for getting guest posts published on real blogs/websites. The better guest post spots you're able to get, the more you can charge.

Essentially, this is a networking business ... making connections with authority website publishers. Once you have a few relationships with authority sites who like your work, you can charge premium bucks ($40 to $100) for guest post articles.

I'd stick to one niche so you can build up relationships with the big players in that niche, which will fetch you higher prices.

You can certainly couple this model with writing for clients ... in fact you can offer both services for clients.

In my experience, corporations that operate in industries where you have specialized expertise in, especially ones that have newly launched products and without affiliate programs, pay excellent rates and offer good contracts and provide better opportunities for bigger things. Startup and established corporations will both be great. What you can try is:


Set up a website. Search for local and international corporations that operate in industries where you have specialized expertise in, particularly those with newly launched products and without affiliate programs (even those with affiliate programs for their newly launched products will do).


Study the exact things they need for their onsite and offsite content marketing campaigns. Write some materials that could most likely be helpful in their onsite and offsite content marketing campaigns. Post those materials on your website as samples.


Cold contact them. Offer your services. Show your relevant samples. Tell them you'd be happy to set up an affiliate program for them, and explain the benefits they can get from having an affiliate program for their newly launched products (for those that don't have an affiliate program yet). Tell them you're greatly interested in signing up as their affiliate, so you can also drive more traffic and generate more sales for them on top of your content writing work for them, since this will allow you to in turn earn more.


When you start working with them as their telecommuting subcontractor, keep in mind that your objective is to produce work that can give them the results they need for their onsite and offsite content marketing campaigns. Doing this will not only ensure better pay and longer contracts in the future (and better passive income through affiliate commissions), but also possible B2B offers and referrals when this happens.


I'm not telling you the things above because I read the same things in other threads here and around the Internet, or heard many others say similar things and believe the theoretical results and benefits doing these things can give you, without firsthand experience. Nope...


These are the exact things I did to build, from scratch, my now 6-year old ICT outsourcing company, grow our manpower base from 4 work at home mom and dads, my wife and I included, to 140 employees and subcontractors combined in a few months upon company registration, expand my company assets from a home office to 2 capital city offices and 9 provincial city offices across the country in a few months, and become the recipient of the 2008 Most Inspiring Entrepreneur of the Philippines award, given to me by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, a national government office headed by none other than the Philippine presidential consultant on business and entrepreneurship, who also happens to be the principal of RFM Corp, a giant corporation in the food and beverage industry here in the Philippines. Also, what I left out is:


I did the things above with my eyes closed, literally, because I have been totally blind for more than 9 years now.