Hi everyone, at the moment I'm considering trying to write a few articles to make a little money online while I study, are there any hints or tips you can give me before I start? eg where to look at publishing my work, writing styles that might increase my chances of success? I look forward to hearing what you have to say
articles on what? it's a good thing you only want to make 'a little' money, since that's about all the ones that pay will bring you... and to get that, you'll have to write lots and lots and send out your work non-stop, till you get a nibble... fyi, the competition is fierce, for online copy that pays... much worse than for print venues, actually, since it's so easy for anyone to click 'send' and no postage, paper, envopes, ink expenses are incurred, no long waiting times must be endured... thus, everyone and his/her cousin seems to think it's an easy way to make money... the hardest part, aside from writing well enough for your work to be marketable, is finding the right places to query with it, since there are jillions of sites on the web that need a constant influx of material and most don't pay at all; those that do, pay little; and many more are scams you have to watch out for... my best tip/hint is for you to make sure you can write well enough that someone will pay you for what you turn out... have someone knowledgeable look over what you think are the 3 best things you've ever written and give you honest, neutral feedback... that can't be a family member or friend... as for writing style, that depends on how you can write... each publication will have its own 'house style' more or less, so while you do have to be pretty versatile, to make more than pin money at freelancing, trying to force yourself to write in a style you're not comfy with would not be a good idea and would probably be a waste of time and effort... for more detailed/personal help, you can email me, as i mentor many freelancers, along with all other writing breeds... love and hugs, maia
If I were you, I'd focus more on writing for something like the campus magazines or local magazines and build a portfolio that way, rather than trying to write online. It will be of far greater benefit to you in the long run to have print credits to your name rather than a few internet articles, even if those did pay a small amount (and it would be small).
If you're talking about "articles" to make a little money, there are a lot of places on the internet that pay (peanuts) for short text. But, there seems to be precious little money involved in on-line text writing for websites. The writing styles for websites that are looking for content focus on key words that move the webpage up in the search engines (Search Engine Optimization, or SEO). They'll often tell you what those words are and sometimes how many times you must use them. The articles are often 250-500 words and most require a bit of research in order to address the particular topic. As to actually publishing your own work (as opposed to writing for hire on-line), you can check Duotrope and other similar places that list publications (e-zines and such) that pay for writing of various kinds. Or just google "ezines," and you'll find a number of resources that'll link you to the websites of hundreds of publications where you can read the guidelines for any that strike you as interesting.
lol I've found it easier to just put my articles on my own site to try and generate add revenue. As of right now my website can pay for itself and make a little profit. that being said it took 3 and a half years to get to that point and I hate doing web design.
Good ideas are dime-a-dozen. Making something out of them takes the kind of effort most people can't muster. (Although when they do, history seems to forgive them...I'm looking at you Edison...)
Write for high quality websites You can definitely make some money from writing online, but you need a few things: - a portfolio, this can be as simple as your own blog. - if you are getting started and don't have writing samples, you can easily get some high quality writing samples by contributing to some content websites. However, as a whole they tend to get a bad rap, but there are some high quality websites with very stringent requirements for their writers, where new writers can nonetheless still get a foot in the door. The benefit is that you are not writing for free, like for a community paper, you are getting some pay while you build your portfolio.
??? how does contibuting there guarantee 'high quality'?... that would depend on the ability of the writer, not the site, wouldn't it?
