On Writing Web Content

The web is a huge and ever expanding animal. Opportunities for the work from home minded are growing by leaps and bounds, and telecommuting is rapidly becoming a viable option for many people who have some basic computer skills. One good example is the virtual secretary. Much like an executive secretary, the virtual secretary handles client appointments, schedules, and itinerary, but works from home online. Many customer service jobs are now online, and all you need in addition to a computer is a high-speed internet connection, a headset, and software downloaded from the employer. While there are still approximately sixty scams for every legitimate job out there, the pool of real work from home jobs is growing fast. My experience is with content writing, and here I would like to share a few of my endeavors

I am relatively new to Hubpages, but I really like it. One important aspect of writing on Hubpages is using your own byline. While many content writing jobs are ghostwriting jobs, where you are selling both the work and your rights to it, on Hubpages one can write, within reason, whatever they want, at whatever skill level they are comfortable with, and publish work for public consumption under their own byline. This work could then be used as a sort of online resume when one is seeking work as a content writer, or just to share with friends, family, or like-minded enthusiasts in a particular niche. The income possible from these pages, to me, is just an added bonus, although some people do make good money here. Another aspect of Hubpages that I like is the sense of community. You are among friends and people with a similar desire to write, and to share thier work with others. It's like social-media and writing for pay combined!

As the name implies, Textbroker is a web content site that serves as a middle man for writers to find work and for clients to buy content. The pay at Textbroker depends on your skill level, and ranges from .7 to 5 cents per word, with 1.4 cents per word being the average median. One does not have to be a college graduate, proper spelling and grammar are the only requirements. The good thing about this site is that payday is every week, through PayPal, as long as you have earned a minimum of $10.00. The work consists of assignments from clients, and is mostly things like sales landing pages, product descriptions, press releases, and blog articles. The good side is that the work is already sold, and payment is guaranteed as long as you do a reasonable job; the downside is that some become bored with the limitations and repetitiveness of the work. Some people make a full-time living at Textbroker, while others just work sporadically as a source of extra income.

ContentBLVD is a young player in the content game, but they have a good thing going and I expect it will grow like wildfire. They are similar to Textbroker in that you are a ghostwriter and selling your work and your rights, but entirely different in format. Here the pay per article is much better, ranging from $12.00 per article to as much as $53.00, depending on the page rank of the site it is published on. Work is all blog articles, and pay is by the article rather than the word. The pay is weekly here too, but the main difference is that you have to write the article first, and wait for it to sell. Requirements are basically the same as Textbroker, if you can write a decent article, you can get in. I like this site too, but, like Textbroker, the assignments call for specific topics, and can become tiresome. On the upside, if your articles don't sell, you are free to use them anywhere else you see fit.

How would you like to get paid every day? At CloudCrowd that is possible. Whether you earn $0.10 or $100.00 your money is paid through PayPal every day. Their format is yet another entirely different animal from everything else. Work is divided up into bits and pieces, with several people contributing to the same body of work. One has to jump through some hoops to begin earning, but requirements are also pretty basic, and anyone with a good command of the English language can work. You go through credential tests to earn levels of credibility to open up more and more assignments. The downside for many, though, is that all work and tests are peer reviewed and sometimes arbitrarily. Think of this as more of a writing game for pay, and you get the idea. Some people do claim to make lots of money here, but the style guide is completely different from most other sites and very rigid. For this reason I don't contribute much at CloudCrowd, but I will go there when nothing else is popping.

I have been asked many times about what I do and how I do it, so I thought this article might answer some questions for those who want to write for pay, and maybe provide some ideas. My best advice to those who want to make a living at this game is to diversify. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Successful online writers work for several sites at once, and quick turnover as well as long term earnings should be combined in order to ensure a steady stream of income. These are just a few of my go-to cash cows, and I am always looking for more.

"Those who truly want to write, write."-- Stephen King