How to Make Money WRITING Online
97
Do You Want to Write Spam, or Do You Want to Write?
Do you dream of earning your living writing for the internet, but so far all you have earned is $3.62 from Google Adsense through your blog? Would you like to turn that $3.62 into $3,620 in only four weeks? Well guess what?
You can't !!!
No, seriously, you can't. At least it's not very likely. Not if you really want to be a writer. If you want to be a spam writer, you might be able to do it, but you will hate yourself in the morning even if you succeed.
I write web copy for this British guy who has an affiliate marketing website. Every week I review 10-25 websites that promise people they can make $5000 while they are brushing their teeth, just by setting up a dummy affiliate site and promoting a product. Then, they are told they can kick back (or brush their teeth) and watch the money roll in. Often the product is a CD or E-book on how how to make money setting up affiliate marketing sites. (Are you dizzy yet? Good!)
At first, I didn't even know this kind of thing existed. This particular writing job was one of my first, and the guy I do this for is a nice guy and pays me on time. The work is easy if a little boring. So, even though I have plenty of other more interesting projects now, I still write these reviews once a week. It takes me maybe 20 minutes, and it get $65 for that. That's $195.00 an hour, but if I did that for an hour I'd shoot myself. So I don't.
I soon realized that there is an avalanche of this crap on the web--that's why my guy has a whole website devoted to nothing but reviews of it--and 99% of it is dreadful, boring, hyped-to-the-nines garbage. I also realized that a lot of people would like to earn money actually writing for the internet as opposed to paying money to someone else to learn about MLM or affiliate marketing scams.
I am no expert on how to earn money writing, but I do currently earn more than I did at my day job just by writing for the web. So I know it can be done. I made $440 a week gross at my day job ( that IS gross! But hey, I live in Michigan...), and last week, I made $560 writing online for that week. I've got another $500 or so lined up for this week. And I still have my day job, only half-time now because I have too much writing now to work full-time elsewhere, and the writing pays better. I've only been doing this writing since November of 2007.
So, in the spirit of sharing (for free) what I've learned so far about how to earn money writing online, here are some tips. Please feel free to add your own. I'm always looking for good advice.
Plan to Work Hard I spend a LOT of time writing. But I love to write. When I'm not writing, I'm looking for new writing work or keeping track of my finances, or visiting other writers' sites and networking, or emailing my regular clients and setting up projects. This bit of advice may sound kind of silly, but if you don't love to write, I mean LOVE to write as in eat, breath, sleep, dream about it, don't try to earn money as a writer. It's not easy money, but if you keep at it, it can be good money.
Establish an Internet Presence Join several writing sites that pay-per-click like HubPages, Helium, Triond, PrintnPost, or Associated Content. You should also start your own blog with Blogger or Wordpress. Then write your ass off. Do this for at least a month, and garner any cudos you can at these sites. At Helium, you can win weekly writing contests and you can also sell articles outright in their Marketplace section. The negative there is that you are peer rated for Helium contests, and that system can be crushing to a delicate ego. But then, if you have a delicate ego and want to write for money, toughening up is a good idea anyway.
Start Your Own Website My favorite place to do this is Weebly, but there are lots of places you can set up a website without shelling out any money. The nice thing about Weebly is you don't have to know anything about HTML or code or anything, it's all done through templates and WYSIWYG functions. Although this may sound like an egomaniacal thing to do, once you start applying for freelance work, its amazingly effective in nailing projects. Buyers will often ask for samples and you can just refer them to your website. Post a real photo of yourself and a professional bio, and post four or five samples of your writing. You can also post a link to your blog. Think of this site as your online resume. Resist the urge to be flip or coy about your ambitions, and pass up avatars and animated .gifs in lieu of a real photo of your real self. Buyers want to work with a real person, not a sparkly porpoise jumping over a rainbow over and over again.
Set up a Profile at Several Freelance Sites I get most of my freelance work at Elance, but I've also heard good things about Guru.com. My daughter sent me a site called ODesk, but I don't much care for it. A lot of the work posted there is horribly underpaid. The same rules for your website apply to your profile at these freelance sites. Be serious, not flip. A sense of humor is fine, but present yourself the way you would for any job. Take some time with it and don't be modest about your accomplishments, as this is what will get you work. Some sites offer to validate your credentials for a fee, which may or may not be worth it to you, depending on your credentials. Think of any money you have to spend on this sort of thing as an investment in yourself. And remember, a lot of it will be deductible on your taxes as a business expense.
Bid On Some Jobs Bid cheap at first, and keep at it until you get something. Most of these sites allow you to bid a certain number of times for free, and after that you have to pay a membership fee. I bid for free until I got work, then I joined and paid the fee. Lots of people balk at paying the fee, but I look at it like this: The fee I pay at Elance is less than what I currently spend on gas to get to my $12/hr day job five days a week. Once you successfully complete a few jobs, you can start upping your price and being a bit more selective.
Decide What You Want to Write and What Your Boundries Are Actually I just got this piece of advice here at HubPages. It's GREAT advice. I was having trouble sporadically with clients who would advertise one thing, then ask for 12 more things once I committed to the work, without any extra pay. I don't like to use contracts. If I can't trust the person I'm writing for then I don't want to write for them. It may well take you awhile to learn what you like to write and what you don't, when and how you want to be paid, how much rewriting you are willing to do, how much pestering you are willing to take, and so on. Once you complete several projects, you will begin to see a pattern emerging regarding what goes well and what doesn't, and you will be able to sniff out the clinkers faster and faster.
Expect to Get Stiffed Occasionally Actually I'm amazed at how seldom this happens. I've been stiffed once and underpaid twice, but on all of those occasions I could see trouble brewing and did not act quickly or decisively to head it off. I try to stick with 'escrowed' work--that is, work that is set up so that the buyer puts the money up front into an escrow account through your third party freelance site, then releases it to you when you've completed the project. I have done work without escrow, and I still get paid. It just makes me nervous. The one time I got stiffed was a non-escrowed project, and to make matters worse it was an E-book so I'd already written about 12,000 words whe nthey buyer backed out. This kind of thing will happen, and you will learn from it. Don't take it personally.
Exit at the First Whiff of Trouble If a client is a pain in the butt and very demanding and unpleasant, graciously fire that client as soon as the project feels 'off'. My three unpleasant experiences (out of dozens of good ones) were all drawn out way too long in my naieve efforts to please unpleasable exploitive clients. I back out by thanking them and saying a lot of positive stuff that basically, underneath the schmaltz says, "Go away, ok?" Don't be nasty, don't be emotional, just exit ASAP. One of the best things about working for yourself is you get to fire your clients if they mistreat you.
Keep Searching for New Venues New sites spring up almost daily, so when you are bored or need a break from writing about whatever it is you are currently writing about, search the web for other writing sites. Search HubPages and sites like it for articles by people who write for money and read about what works for them. I've found so many good things this way.
Self-Publish Back in the day when you had to self-publish on real paper there was a certain stigma to doing it. However, some of the best-selling books ever were initially self-published. Here are just a few best-selling books that started out as self-published (on paper) books:
Remembrance of things Past, by Marcel Proust
Ulysses, by James Joyce
The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter
A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton
The Bridges of Madison County
What Color is Your Parachute
In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (and his student E. B. White)
The Joy of Cooking
When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
Life's Little Instruction Book
Robert's Rules of Order
Today, it's a lot easier to self-publish. You can self publish for free or a nominal fee at Lulu, CreateSpace, or BookSmart, just to name a few, and you can charge buyers by the downloadable .pdf file. If you wanted a printed paper book you can do that too. You can even order services through these sites like cover art & illustration. For a small fee you can purchase an IBSN number for your book and market it through Amazon, and also make it searchable in any library or bookstore data base.
So if you are sitting on a book you've been sending around to slushpiles for years, think about just publishing it yourself instead. If you do well, publishing houses will approach YOU. Wouldn't THAT be cool?
Keep at It Most people who succeed at what they do are relentless. They don't slap up one MLM website and lay around and collect money, they do something they love and they keep on doing it no matter what until it works out for them. They can't NOT do it; that's how much they love it. They don't take failure personally, they learn from it and keep doing whatever it is they do. The same is true of writing.
My own personal feeling about it is that, while you can teach people to write or to write better, you can't teach anybody to be a writer. You either ARE a writer or you are not a writer. If you are a writer, you know this already. If you aren't a writer and aren't sure if you are one, but you think you might like to be one, then what you need to do first and foremost is start writing, then never stop. Never stop. One day, boom, you will realize that you are pretty much writing all the time, and at that point you will also realize, that, duh, you must be a writer after all!
So that's my free advice, for what it's worth. (Which may not be much?!) Take a chance, learn and love, live and let live, be happy.
Life is too short to waste it doing anything besides what you love.
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Comments
GREAT site! I have tried this but never got behind it... I just thought it was all SPAM i hope we get paid well because there is a lot of fraud going on!
I'm really interested in your findings, PJ, having given serious consideration to look for such jobs. Nothing is easy - my problem with my present job is that it's temporary and part-time. I will investigate your links when I get a moment but have bookmarked and RSS-ed this hub - many thanks and a hearty thumbs up.
Another fabulous one pg--exxcellent, timeless advice. I love the idea of the escrow--I free-lanced newsletters years ago and used to say I spent a third of my time pitching the clients and another third trying to collect the money and only a third of my time doing the writing. These days, with a site like elance it is all sooooo much streamlined....as is the self publishing option. BTW I didn't know all those great books were originally self published--hmmmmmmmmm very interesting :-)
This is terrific information. I also loved the list of self-published books - a lot of those are really important ones! Sharing the practical experience of what it's like to write and how the industry works is so valuable to people who want to actually go out and do it. When people share this kind of experience, the writing community can avoid repeating the same mistakes as new people enter the fray, and the whole industry becomes a lot more streetwise about it all. And nobody shares ideas like writers do! I was just thinking today - I wonder if we should start syndicating? You know how Fox News uses its collective media megaphone muscle to hurl venom and promote ideas that don't work? I looked at that and thought - hey, we could do that, but better! Instead of selling wars and fast food, we could emphasize really good ideas and startups that don't yet have any champions. I'll probably yammer about this some more about this later when I've pulled the idea together a little better. Great stuff!
good solid advice...motivating too! Enjoyed seeing that book list... who knew? Thanks for this hub!
Holy cow! I guess I struck a nerve. I tossed this hub off this morning before heading out to breakfast with my in-laws for Mother's Day. I'd just read the umpteenth make-a-gazillion-dollars through affiliate marketing hub and I thought, oh good Lord, so I wrote this sort of in rebuttal. I really appreciate all the positive comments and feedback. Thank you so much!
As usual Satori you have a really cool idea there! When you are done digesting it, I would love to hear more. What a great idea. Faux News needs a good counterweight!!
Great hub. Thanks a lot for all this useful info. I'm gonna try Elance.
This is indeed an excellent job. Thank you for imparting these things to us.
Good for you pjgrundy! Surprising how the best hubs are those off the top of your head! You've got me going and I need to take some better steps to make things happen. Thank you for a great read and inspiration! Steph
Thank you for such excellent advice! I love the list of books that started out self published - very inspiring. :) I agree with your opinion about Odesk, too. And deciding what you will and will not write at the start is a great suggestion.
Thanks you guys! The issue I have with Odesk is all the buyers who are out there asking to hire people at $3 or $4 an hour. This is probably good money somewhere in the world, but not here. We need a global union to put an end to this kind of thing. A global labor union would instantly create a level playing field for US workers of all kinds.
Thank you for taking the time for writing this article. I'm just getting started myself and just joined a few freelance sites, but didn't know what to do or how much to bid on jobs. Thank you for this information!
Good advice for writers. But on the flip side there are a lot of crappy writers out there that would take your money and produce utter nonsense or unintelligible crap. However, a good writer is worth his/her wait in gold and should be treated with kid gloves.
One of the most informative and motivating hubs I've read on this topic. I greatly appreciate your effort. Keep up the hard work. You're doing great!
Great piece! A LOT of useful info. Thank you.
Thanks for the tips! I'll be sure to put them into use as I get started!
Very interesting Hub - really enjoyed reading it, lots of good information. Looking forward to your next Hub!
I am new to blogging. great information shared thanks
Thank you for the wonderful hub. Lots of info to follow up on. And yes, life is too short to anything other than what you love. I love to write also. And, I've spent a lot of years doing jobs I hated. I'm going to follow your advice and see if I can't make enough money to keep doing what I love.
really good tips for writer who wants to earn ... and for those who have the choice of subject and good control over writing too... where to put the writing!
Nice hub dude.Keep posting.
A good load of information.
I am a writer. I love to do it and am working on a book at the moment. I write every chance that I get and hope that people like it. I have gotten a lot of positive feed back and some negative but I take it all in stride and do my best to write what people will read. Thank you for this hub.
Great information. But are there some statistical evidence or pattern in relating earnings by writing and the efforts made, websites written for and the articles written
Wonderful Hub! A Thumbs up to you.
Statistical evidence or pattern? msms, I don't understand the question. Are you asking if there are statistics available showing how long to takes people to write and whether or not it is worth the effort given the amount of time it takes? I think this would depend on the person. In general through, it does take a lot of time. I spend 8 to 10 hours each day writing, and then I have a four hour a day outside job too at a big bank. So yes, I work really hard.
Thanks for this hub! You give great advice with a humorous voice. I'm going to Digg this!
ROTFL - I saw this hub come up on the hot hubs feed I have on my http://hubpages.com/hub/HubPages-Internet-Marketin and the teaser got me: WTF I thought scammer on hot hubs; love this hub its so true; and exactly the same as I feel about 95% of the internet marketing industry! My hub was the same as yours I was furious when I wrote it and it didn't take that long to write.
I have seriously thought about doing the freelance writing gig: in fact thanks to hubpages I have been asked to apply for (paid) gigs. I decided not to though: I love to write, but only what I am interested in: the rest of it I can procastinate for days and days on: not good if you have a deadline! Instead I am trying the affiliate marketing route: but ethicaly, but hopefully profitably!
Oh and blogger.com is another good place for a free blog: its owned by Google and rumour has that it gets very quickly indexed and featured: completely free and you can add Adsense if you wish
Thanks wennie & Lissie! I know what you mean about deadlines Lissie--after awhile freelancing starts to feel like any other job, but the 'real' job I have right now is so bizarre and I hate it so much it motivated me to try, and so far it's working out ok. I read your marketing hub for new hubsters (how not to get kicked off)--it's awesome. Right now, I feel like I just work 24/7--I'd try affiliate marketing if I thought for a minute I had the time and patience, but at 55 I think my skills are less web-savvy and more paper & pencil savvy. Too bad I can't retire--I'm Sooooooo ready!!!
I am new to this freelance stuff; you posted some good information. I will definitely look into your suggestions
Thanks for sharing all this great information.
regards Zsuzsy
great advice here, glad I stopped by.
I think I have a new experience for your hub. Thank you.
I have just joined hubpages and this is the first page i am reading. I love and submit articles online. I think I will to your hub from time to time.
This is great advice! I have been blogging about the Real Estate Industry for free on Active Rain since November 2007. Recently, I have been doing some Pay Per Post as well. What do you think of Pay Per Post? Thanks for your great advice!
Yes , you are right.
There are lot of people who copy paste content from websites to their blogs and sending out mails to everyone to visit their blogs.
Thanks everyone!
richd--I have not been able to stay at a blog long enough to qualify for pay per post, but I did look into it. I started out blogging for free at Blogger.com at Google, and switched to Wordpress because I like using it better. Then this guy hired me to write a financial blog for him so I've been doing that. How is Pay Per Post working out for you? I thought it was a cool idea, but I never qualified and now I'm getting income off the guy who promotes the finance blog.
An intriguing article all in all. Very detailed and informative. I can see you put some good time into this Hub and can appreciate work like that.
Anyways, good job on the hub. Well done!
Great article--your article description definitely drew me in and I had to see for myself what you would say. As a book coach and well-paid freelancer I heartily agree. It took me quite some time to make great money at this work. Those who follow your advice, particularly about being picky about the clients they take on will find the road to success much faster than those who take any work that comes their way. Focus on the people you enjoy working with. If you love what you do, you'll find the money comes over time--and just gets better and better.
Thank you for such a fascinating and well-researched hub! I will definitely refer back to your suggestions as I write more. Good luck continuing to do what you love!
Pgrundy, you are an expert obviously. I was trying to understand your views or experience
1- what in your experience should be the number of websites a writer should write for,
2- What quantum of articles one should post per week or per month in order to earn (say $ 200 a week)?
3- What is the earning potential of different sites individually in relation to the number of articles posted per week (i.e. rate of posting of articles on different websites)
Though you have answered most of my questions very well. Thanks
Very good Hub - Thanks for all the work you did on it! i am emailing my daughter the link to this hub - it is something she would be interested in doing herself.
Lisatener--thank you the validation! It doesn't come easy at all but it's so worth it when we love doing it. My experience is turning out to be similar to yours--started slow, gets better all the time as I hone in on 'good' clients.
msms--at first I wrote regularly for three sites nd sporadicallly at others and didn't make much at all. To make $200 per week all you really have to do is bid for a win a project each week that pays $200, or four that pay $50, or any other combo. It may take a long time to learn the best way to achieve this for you personally. You just have to keep at it. As for the earning potential of various sites--I think Elance is highest, Guru.com is next, then Helium.com--but Hubpages is my favorite hands down, and I do see my Adsense revenue steadily increasing here.
Informative hub. I am new here and information such as yours is very helpful. I wasn't aware there were sites like this online to write for. I did an extensive search and found several. Your information explains in great detail how to begin a journey into the world of writing, while making some bucks doing it.
Thank you so much for all the work you put into writing this article and for giving tips and plain advice, with no trimmings! I have been stydying self-publishing quite a bit, so hope to be able to share as clearly as you have what I have learnt so far... Thanks again!
Very good!
good info
Good information and great ideas!! Sooo glad I found it!! I love to write and hope to get to the same place you're at and then--well, beyond!! Really want to try writing a book!
Very very helpful and well written hub. Thank You for the advice.
Very good hub.
It always comes down to hard work and persistence
This is great. I'm definitely going to visit the websites you suggested. Thanks!
Nice. OMG! John Grisham self-published!
A GREAT HUB. i AM DEFFINITLY GOING VISIT THE WEB SITE YOU SUGGESTED THANX
Great advice for the budding writers.
Your article is most generous. Thank you. You mke your own luck. Nice job.
Great hub! Lots of information for us writers on how to do well at what we love doing.Wonderful style you have and I'll be checking out those sites for more information- Thank-you!
Great tips. I would love to wrok solely online, but insurance is a problem as is paying taxes off of what you earn.
Great hub. It is especially good advice for me since I already have self published a book, and I love to write. Unfortunately, my day job (Chrysler) take up so much of my time I can hardly find time to write. But I will look into it more. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Excellent work and advice here. You are more aware than many who have been at this longer. I know the $10/hr jobs in MI (friends) == may you be able to quit your job
This is a great article for those of us that have been using our talent offline. I will try to apply your information and hope to get better result. Thanks! Keep it up!
This is the best and honest opinion about writtiing and making money so far.
Thank you so much for such a rich hub. I'm on it!
tDMg
LdsNana-AskMormon
Thanks hubbers for your views and ideas, an interesting way to enrich a person. What a great idea! I love nature and the outdoors, and would like to share my experiences through writing.This is a good idea to start sharing my experiences. Wow! and what way to make money.
Very impressive, well done article. i enjoyed the list of self-published, great authors! It WAS a stigma to publish yourself in years past. I spent too much time and money sending manuscripts off to irritating publishers and agents.
I just want to write. I don't want to do the marketing...but, if I can publish those novels sitting on my shelf without an agent or trying to get the attention of some snooty publisher half-way across the country, I'm thinking this might be an OK idea! Also, I set out to write my last book with the idea that I would self-publish because it was not fiction. I still intend to do just that, without a publisher or agent.
I've been hearing some serious whining from recognized writers lately because they have little respect for on-line writers. They consider the work we do as "unsubstantianted, not well researched work." Of course they're whining! The tables have been turned a bit...seen what crap is on the best seller lists lately? The writers who have the name don't even write anymore; a team writes for them! Sorry if the rest of us are tired of playing the game..I want to write and I want someone to read my work. Some over-worked publisher's assistant can't accomplish what we can in a day, on line.
Again, really good piece! Thanks for the tips
I liked your candid responses to the questions asked, it gave us an uncommon glimpse into what it is really like to earn from writing online. I'm going to look into all 3 of your recomended sites. I have only heard good things about elance. I'm glad it wasn't another internet marketing aricle.
Great Advice! I'm sure this article is going to prove very useful to me. Thank you!
Thanks everyone! I'm so happy this was helpful--I kind of wrote it in a snit, so it's cool to see it was useful anyway.
Madison--I know what you mean about writers and the new stigma of writing online. I never fit into 'serious writer' communities because like you, I just want to write and be read, I don't really care if I impress anyone. So much of literary publishing is glorified vanity publishing, and then these same people turn around and get snotty about anyone who doesn't go through the same channels. To them I say, hey, get over yourself! Some of the best writers ever--including Shakespeare--got no respect in their time and especially not from their peers. So bring on the stigma! And best of luck on your soon-to-be self-published novels!
Thanks, PG!
I'm with you on all of your comments! I heard a Wall Street Journal writer just the other day on CNBC complaining that on line writers "write for free," and that it is hard to compete as a "professional Journalist." True, there is a lot of crap on the web, and one needs to NOT believe everything one reads on line, for sure. However, there are some excellent writers on the web. The quality varies from channel to channel, day to day, but in this evolving media, there is REAL talent.
As for the Journal guy, I do hope he's polishing up his resume. I think there may be a day when newspapers will go the way of the dinosaur. I doubt books will see their demise because so many of us still love the feel, look and smell of books and old book-shops! (I could get lost all day in a vintage bookstore!)
Anyway, great article, keep on keepin' on, great job!
Wow, pgrundy! This hub really caught the attention of appreciative readers! Great tips you have give us!
Hey pgrundy, Very motivational hub. Thanx, C.S.Alexis
I AM VERY INTERESTED IN WRITING AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER ME ONLINE
ALMANAC1
I had to smile at your use of WYSIWYG. The phrase that represents, What You See Is What You Get, was first penned by Phil Hahn for Laugh-In, the show for which he won an Emmy award. Phil retired to Coos Bay, Oregon, where I met him attending my church, and he is now a member of my dedicated, hard-working writer's group, and my very good friend. We frequently tease that he should be getting royalties on the phrase.
Thanks for this great hub - have favourited you!
interesting info, ill have to look into it $500 ontop of your actual wage is pretty good :D
Thanks, great hub!
Glad you used other tips than just Adsense writing. I mean make some REAL money with your work writing about your own products and services, and your affiliate products and services, oh yeah!
Great advice! Thanks.
Thanks for the great hub!!!
I really enjoyed your hub. I write a lot. I have my own website and write at least two articles a week. I am currently working on my second book.
I have also had two poems published. However I have not gone into the avenues that you have. They are very interesting! You have done well for yourself.
Writing, I believe is something that you feel. I can pick up an article or see a headline and the juices start to flow. I am looking for facts and figures. Getting data and writing away.
May your head always be filled with words!
Extra ordinary. So many people benifitted. Long list of comments. I voted it up.
can you advice me where should I write seeing at my hubpages?
Waiting for your advice. Seriously!
Thanx,
Jyoti kothari
hubpages.com/author/jyoti+kothari/hot
Honest and direct. How refreshing! Thank you for all the good tips. I am going to tag this page.
A professionally-written hub by a professional! And so nice to read real content not about: tatoos, MLM, How to make 100 gazillion dollars through Adsense, or pseudo-sex!
Good advice.
:-)
thank you everybody! I continue to be amazed at this hub--it's funny in a way that this turned out to be helpful, but I'm glad it did. And it's so great to hear from other writers. Thanks!
Great article. Sounds like you've really checked out the Internet writing scene. There are some great sites to sell your writing to out there but you really have to be careful not to sell your hard work for peanuts. Will be interested in reading more of your hubs!
Thanks dsletten!
It's so true--there are sites that think nothing of advertising for an 'experienced writer' and want to pay $3 or $4 an hour, and want to know how many articles you can pump out in an hour. Incredible. But I guess in some countries this is good money, so I can't be too snotty about it. If $3 bought my groceries I'd do it myself. We need a global union.
I really thank you for this article. I know I am a writer and I know it, I am just an elementary online student. Thanks for sharing this information with us. There are a lot of things I am, and persistent is one of them. It gives me hope to think that one day that annoying persistence might pay off. (Don't even talk to my sweet husband about my persistence.....)
:0)
Thanks again ~
Interesting article. You made some very important points for anybody who wants to be successful as a writer. You said "if you don't love to write, I mean LOVE to write as in eat, breath, sleep, dream about it, don't try to earn money as a writer. It's not easy money, but if you keep at it, it can be good money." What that means to me is if our driving force is the love of money rather than the love of benefiting others through our writing we are bound to fail. Great Job!
These are superb suggestions.
There is a big difference between Get Rich and Get Rich Quick. You can get rich, but, surprise surprise, it takes work.
fantastic piece of realistic truth and honest tips in a mumbo jumbo world of writing. keep the good work going
Great ideas. Much continued success to you.
Thank you so much for creating this hub it was informative and well written. I have completed most of the objectives in your hub but have a few more to go before I will be even close to getting paid enough to cut down to part time at my day job! Thank you again! You have given me hope!
i am just wondering , i just keep a look at comments for every hub, ohhhh
for me its a real shock that this hub got so many comments that i cant complete
thank god , i go the reason for comments, its fantastic thanks for the great advice
My dear friend you have provided very useful and suberb information in this hub. I think your tips are genuine and interesting. I will definitely follow your steps and will try to start earning money writing reviews. Right now, I am writing articles for several web portals but the research and writing takes a lot of time and money according to that is less. You have helped me and changed my mind. Thanks for the effort. Thumbs up to you and you are in my favorities.
Great info and hub! Along with everyone else...thanks for sharing!
THANKS FOR ALL THE VALUABLE INFO! YOU REALLY LAID IT DOWN
Awesome hub. You've nailed everything I could think of, including the most important - hard work.
Do you have any idea how far I had to scroll to say excellent hub?
Ditto on the scroll, lol. Perfect advice! To the point with no punches pulled.
very very useful tips.so much of response.realy it diserves.my hearty wishes for you.definitely i will follow your advices. thank you very much for your guidance.
If I decided that I wanted to be a writer I would certainly follow your advice but what interested me the most was that you seem to be the kind of writer that I like to hire.
I have hired writers in the past that advertised extremely low rates and They almost always cost me more in time to watch them,tell them what to do and correct their errors than if I had done the writing myself. I did not want spammy junk.
Today, my writers write what I need without any supervision at a reasonable price. The writers do need to like what they are writing about to do a good job and not be bored.
Good job done !
great hub 100%
Thanks for the wonderful article pgrundy! i am very new at this and i am having difficulties in determining whether a writing job i see on the net is fraudulent or not. i also like the advice that you gave on becoming a better self-sufficient freelance writer. good luck!
Those are some great tips for writing online. I've done a few of those but some are ideas I never thought of!
i really enjoyed reading this article and i learned more about writing too. i recently started writing online so i'm still learning how things work here. =)
Enjoyed it....Indeed, I believe that many people don't (or are not able to) appreciate good writing. It is like great acting. A great actor makes acting look easy. They can make it look so natural that one may think that acting is easy. The ones that can do that are great actors---great artists indeed. So it is with writing. A talented writer can write in a way that can seem effortless and yet effective. This will lead many to think that they too can write. Writing is a craft (like acting) that takes time to develop and perfect. There really aren't that many great writers when you consider how many writers there are. thanks again....
A very real approach that touches a lot of the truth of online writing. Many will benefit from this.
great advice
Thanks for a Hub that is honest about how much real work is involved in making money.
Thanks for the GREAT advice--this is an excellent hub!!!
Excellent hub indeed! Thanks for all the info :)
This was very inspirational and very helpful! Thanks you!
i really like the picture at the top... the one with the guy and his typewriter... holding a pencil and paper.
Excellent information! It´s hard to find honest people online really looking to make a living from writing.
I found thias interesting and inspiring and it is useful to have practical information on the payment sie and how to manage clients.
Awesome advice. Thank you!
Solid, simply Solid. I've never seen this type of generousity go unrewarded. The amount of work you put into this article illustrates how Pros do it...and why they make the big bucks:) You're a Class Act PGrundy. Thank you for being here!!
Very motivating from the people who really know about life as a writer. Excellent !
Thank you for the great advice and I will have to follow up on some of your tips seeing as I spend a lot of time writing for nothing or a real pittance whilst dreaming of one day making some decent money!
A very useful and inspiring article. Thankyou very much pgrundy. You have a new fan.
This is is exactly what we do with our website http://www.movingcompanies.co.il
Thumbs up! Great hub!
Awesome - you have a great viewpoint and shared valuable and insightful information. Thanks!
Darn it! I thought you'd found the magic formula for instant riches! :)
Excellent job! Thx for sharing this helpful information.
This is great information! Thanks for putting in so much effort!
Strong, solid advice. I know it can be overwhelming for people looking to start writing online, but you have outlined some great steps. Thanks for the heads up on Weebly. I had never heard of that before. (I wish I had known before paying for a website.)
Computer glitch duplicated post. Oops.
Makes me want to pull some of the dribble from my own blogs. Excellent advice and keep up the writing tips.
I can only agree with what has already been said. This hub is likely to do even more for your career. Quality work, you deserve the praise you've earned. I too will chase down some of the links you mentioned. Thanks.
Thank you for the advice. I am new to the Hubs and found this very informative.
Cheers!
Thank You,Very Much! Great Work! Thanks,for all the tips,and information!
Who Dares Wins
Terrific information for a starter like me. Thanks.
Great hub, I can see big potential here. Thanks for your efforts. Appreciated.
great hub and I am sure you are the one who has a chance to make living online by writing. Seriously. I was reading your hubs before and I remember that you are currently looking for any stress-free job and I seriously believe that you can make (not probably thousands) but some additional income by writing. There are sites where small businesses and bloggers hire full and part time blog writers and web content writers. Looks like writing is fun for you, and everything that you write is great!
You have given a lot of good information and advice here. I have been writing website content for several websites for the past 2 1/2 years. I shave to admit I am not making $500 a week but I hope to someday be ablle to. I have written about many different topics and love searching and writing the articles. You are never too old to learn as the saying goes and that is so true. I have learned so much through the information I have researched and written about. I have also written and submitted articles to ConstantContant.com I have made as much as $100 for on a single article. The only problem I have with them is they only pay once a month and they also take 35% of your money made. They have a $50 minimum so if you do not make that in a month, it will be carried forward until you do make at least $50. The articles also have to be very well written.
You also have to be very careful. Just last week I was scammed or cheated you might say. I responded to an article on Craig's List for a content writer needed. The party needed 10 articles on the subject of real estate and how to make money investing in it. I wrote the articles and emailed them to the person who agreed to pay me through PayPal for the articles. They never contacted me again. I tried to contact them about my payment for the articles and the email bounced back to me. The email account had been closed. Needless to say I spent time writing articles which were never paid for. So I plan on selling them somewhere else.You just never know who you can trust and who you can't. Good luck to you all and I hope you find your niche in the writing world if that is what you are looking for. b
I just discovered HubPages and you, PGrundy. Your article really hit home. I'm bookmarking it (is that old-fashioned to bookmark?).
hi.. im new at this annd i want to earn some money for financial needs in order to graduate. and i will be very thankful if someone will teasch me or show me how. thank you so much. you will be a blessing to me
This was very well written, very informative and the article I have been looking for but didn't realize! LOL Thank you!
This is an awesone article! Loads of great advice that I will use and I didn't have to pay a $9.99 s&h fee to a pop up website to get a book filled with garbage. Seriously, thanks.
I'm going to have to jump on this bandwagen and also say GREAT HUB. I am going to be diving into posting for a writer on Elance within the next month or two because I currently have a full time job and not enough time to do proper research and write good articles for a new site I've put up.
As far as someone thinking they're going to get a writer for $3-$4 an hour.... well, you'll get what you pay for. Maybe some quick and dirty bum marketing articles. I'm sure there are some good writers in India and elsewhere that would be happy to get that kind of pay. And maybe there are some who have excellent English but they're probably charging more.
Anyway, I digress. Great hub and nice comments, too. I actually read every one. BTW, I have the book Letting Go of the Words. Good book, I'd recommend it to anyone writing for the web.
Cheryl
Excellent Hub with great advice on making money writing online and your description of the sites you write reviews for had me cracking up :-). I've had some success writing for Associated Content in the past but I haven't submitted anything to them in about a year. Your article is just the inspiration I need to write a few articles to test out AC's performance pay plan. Thanks!
Wow, thank you for all the positive feedback! I continue to be amazed at how many people have read this hub. Seriously, I just wrote it in hissy because I was annoyed by some MLM hub. Thank you so much for all your kind words.
bjjp--I know what you mean about Craig's List. I've never used it for the reason you mention--there's no intermediary, no way to know who these folks are, no way to even sort of insure you get paid. I get an email list of freelance job postings too and I've never answered any of them either, but maybe I shold--some of them, you do know who is asking for the work. Hang in there. Not everyone is a thief.
lavenderstreak--You deserve some kind of award for reading every single one of these comments! That alone shows you will go far!
wolfedp--I promise to answer your request with a hub on how to get organized--but I do want you to know that I'm one of the most disorganized persons I know. My work station at the bank and my writing station at home both look like I sleep in them, and I've been putting off talking to my accountant for weeks. But thank you for asking! I will do it.
I feel I have been bleesed by your knowledge. Thanks wise one! :)
Great article! Thanks.
Just wanted to say that I've been watching the comments on your hub since you published it, because it's a most informative and helpful hub, and because the comments are so interesting. I see that the score for this hub is 100. So, congrats! I think you set an example here. This is extremely good work.
This is a very encouraging hub for writers who may want to earn money from the internet. Great!
Great info. I didn't know about some of the resources above. It's true to be successful you have to be relentless. If you have a wishy washy attitude nothing good or useful gets accomplished.
Excellent. The hub projects lot of information for the writers. Thanks for providing useful information. This hub will motivate all the writers who want their presence in the online community.
Very thorough job. I'm impressed, and I'm bookmarking this page!
Jim Henry, aka crashcromwell
Thanks Everyone! Sally's Trove--I show a lower score than 100 but I don't really understand all that anyway. I used to spend a lot more time at Helium but I don't like their scoring nonsense and the stars and all that crap, it makes me nuts. It's so much friendlier here.
Crashcromwell--just read your bio and a few of your hubs, what an interesting life you've had! I applied to Phoenix/Axia and they said thanks but no thanks, but that's ok I guess. Every time I try to teach writing I get shot down so maybe it isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. Tried to teach writing at the university after grad school years ago, and again, got shoved off into women's studies and taught film and philosophy in their department instead. Even the head of the WS department went to bat for me for teaching freshman comp, but they had a new head of the composition department back then who was all about the latest method and just wouldn't hire me. I felt so bad about it at the time, but once I got to teaching in WS, I realized I hated teaching anyway. Half the students would read none of the assignments and then ask if they could turn their papers in in pencil (why not crayon! watercolors! finger-paints!), and every semester some sweet soul would come up to me and say adoringly, "How can I be what you are? That's what I want, I want to do what you are doing!" And I'd think, you mean you want to work three jobs and still not be able to afford a car? Why would you want that? Why would anyone want that? Instead, I'd just tell them to go to grad school and specialize in a single disciple (not several) and be ruthless so they could earn a decent salary. I always felt like I was doing them no service, and I was so miserable there.
I guess things have a way of working out. I guess I'm more of a perennial student.
Thanks for the kind words everyone.
Excellent resource. Very helpful. Thanks for sharing you ideas and discoveries.
I was looking for you on elance, but nothing came up. Do you use another name?
Hi elliebiscuits,
My Helium profile and articles can be found at http://www.helium.com/users/344796
Thanks for asking!
Great post. I recently turned down a second job, inspiring me to get off my ass and get my writing career going. Will definately use the tools you gave, great advice!
This is very usefu.Thanks
Thank you for some very helpful information. It sounds like you know what you are talking about.
I thought I'll never get to the end of the comments. I'm so ready to retire too, and I'll keep this as a handy guide when I decide to start that path. I am now your grateful fan! Thanks for writing this hub.
As someone whom helps people get set up in a home business successfully, I will make it a priority for my new team members to read your post. Very truthful, straight to the point and is an excellent blueprint for success online. Well Done!
Great job with your continous writing. Care to visit my hubs.
Thanks for all the information on writing sites and making money as a freelancer. Currently my regular job pays net considerably more than the $400 or so you mentioned so I have to stick with that for a couple of more years at least which limits how much time I have to write, but I am bookmarking this for future reference as I get more time. Excellent hub.
Very nice writing style, informative and easy to understand. Also a fun read.
great advice. now if I was only a writer already. :)
Very Good Hub. and Great Advice.
Someone in his/her comment above said 'tips look genuine' or something like that. I second that.
Great Info! I came across a few of rec's and never heard of few. Checked them out and they look good....thanks
Pgrundy you've got another fan. I've always wanted to be a writer but never knew how to go about it. You've given me some powerful information and a renewed interest writing. Thanks for YOUR time.
2 thumbs up!
Good hub I would have to say you can start small like focus on the specialized sites like what u know and u can do? Something you know well like your cities and stuff around you . Than choose the best site for your you .
I can tell you what i do . I travel a lot so i write about traveling even without great traveling skills I get my hits - the idea is to choose the website designed for your content , I have choosen www.worldpolis.com it suits me well
Like hubpages dont give me much its more designed for news and genraql advice
Great Article! I know about Elance and Guru.com. Info you provided is correct.
I use MultilingualBookstore.com so that my books are published is several languages (2 right now, except for a short Pastry Making book that has already been translated into a dozen languages because they are making it into a kind of collection) and then they use Lulu for the printed versions. It works very fine for me.
Great Advice. I DiGG it!
Liked your opening - "it can't be done" This is a good look at what's involved for serious writing on the web.
Hey, man. I just joined the Hubpages. Very nice article. Thanks for the insight. I look forward to reading more from you. Enjoy mine when you can.
Excellent article and very informative for aspiring writers!
After 3 weeks of joining Hubpages, I finally found this Hub. Great. Thanks for sharing.
Its nice work and much useful.. i can write wel.. can u help by saying any sites r individuals ll pay me for writing..
Hi pgrundy,
Your hub encourages a newbie like me. Thanks a lot.
franciaonline
What a great hub page! This is a refreshing change from what is out there on the web in general. (Present company excluded).
Great Hub,
I went from being laid off from a job as a systems analyst making close to a 6 figure income to my current venue (working at a bank Uggghh!) for about what you are making. I enjoy writing but have been sticking to topics close to my heart. I will soon expand my horizon because of the limited success I'm experiencing. Thanks for the pep talk
hi higlick--I'm so sorry that happened to you. I hate my bank job, I hate it so much I can't find words to describe how much I hate it--I'd do the writing bit all the time instead if we didn't live in the kind of country where you can't have health insurance unless you are a wage slave. God it makes me mad.
All the best to you. Good luck!
well said.
Great hub! It's good to see another writing telling the truth about the trials and tribulations of writing online, and not promising very unrealistic goals. Thanks for helping clear the fog of deceit on Internet writing.
Thanks a lot.
excellent hub!
This is awesome!
Writing online articles is not a 'blue ocean' business anymore, but 'red ocean' already (too many competitors). There are many people now writing articles online to make money. We should be aware of this and start to make innovation of other way to make money online.
I don't say that we should stop writing; we can make lots of money from writing but it takes time. If you have a great idea, hire a web designer, and run your own website like this HubPages.
What do you think?
Well written hub and great opening...it made me laugh :-D I like your witty, humorous - yet informing writing style!
Excellent information and very well written. A bit of personality mixed with alot of information...kept me reading. It certainly is the most useful information I have found regarding online writing and, believe me, I have looked. Keep up the good work!
Excellent. Just my type of story too...lol. Wonderful work. I think you have a fan!
Ronald--I think you are right, it's very very competitive. But it's also the case that there are a lot of different buyers and a lot of different writers. I think if you write well you will be able to make money if you can find you niche and the right group pf buers, but you will work hard for the money. It's definitely not easy money by any means. Also, I think the internet in general is changing so fast it's very hard for anyone to keep up with it. The minute anyone comes up with a 'surefire way to make money online' it's already not a surefire way to make money,
Thank you everyone for you positive comments!
This is a great hubpost.. very informative.. thus far this is the best post I have seen. Thanks!
This one is STILL getting hits. Mind you it was also the first of yours I read. We all want to know how to make money writing on-line. But then you made me laugh in paragraph two and I've been a fan ever since.
Hi CJ! The admiration society is mutual!
Ironically, this hub gets more hits than all my others combined, even though (I think) it basically says yeah you can make money writing online if you work your ass off. You wouldn't think that was all that inspirational. I still take on paid projects but I am beginning to hate many of them. I just fired a major client because he caused me no end of grief running up fees at Elance and changing up the project constantly--I found myself writing for him day and night--do this, no do this, now do it on your head, now do it on your head backwards-- and I thought you know what? I hate this. So that was that. He got mad when I bowed out and stiffed me for all of last week. Bastard.
It's so much more fun writing here at HubPages isn't it? Really I don't want to work at all, I just want to do what I want to do. I'm two years old all over again.
FANTASTICALLY INFORMATIVE post!! Thank you so much for this =)
Its an excellent Post! I think for every good start there has to be some effort put in...it is important...Thanks for the information.
nice info thanks see yah
You've inspired me to go and reach for my stars. I know where to start now. Open a profile without my
Uninvited Writer says:
8 months ago
Very good hub :) I looked into oDesk also and I agree with you. Great advice.