Posts Tagged ‘Freelance Writing’

brev·i·ty/ˈbrevitē/Noun
1. Concise and exact use of words in writing or speech.
2. Shortness of time.

It’s a gift not many writers have. I tend to be a wordy writer whether it’s an email or Facebook status. I recognize that it is somewhat of a problem, and I often use the fact that I’m a writer as an excuse. Ironically, I’m not a fan of reading or writing LONG articles…and by LONG, I mean more than 500 words. As a freelancer, I’ve been asked to write articles that were upwards of 1000 words. As a result, I have an unwritten rule to limit myself to 500 words.

However, there are exceptions. How To pieces and tutorials need to run their course. If you try to shorten these types of articles, you end up shorting your readers on valuable information and steps. While I don’t like to write more than 500 words, it’s really about the subject matter. While writing about a specific product such as a purse, 350 words is probably plenty. If you try to make a finished article longer, you end up with useless information.

On the other hand, how many people do you know who have time to read more than 500 words? The world runs on time and the lack thereof. People today like their information short, easy to read/scan, and BRIEF. I try to write the way I like to read. I need to get to the information I’m looking for easily. I don’t want to read 3 paragraphs of filler only to find what I needed in the last paragraph of the article.

Tips

Here’s a few tips on how to keep your writing brief and easily readable:

• Proofread and EDIT. When you feel done with editing, go through it one more time. Remove words you don’t need or repetitive statements.
• Bulleted lists. Bulleted lists are easy to read and scan.
• Headings. Utilize heading to break up your articles into easy-to-read sections.
• Include images and/or video.

These few, BRIEF tips will get you started.

A Writer Gifted With Brevity

A dear friend of mine and Guest Blogger here at PWW, has the gift! Abby runs a blog called AbbyAsks.com

I strongly urge you to check out her site and give her stuff a moment of your time. I’m not just saying this because she mentions me there once in a while. She seriously has a gift. Not only are her posts funny and witty, but they’re never too long or too short. She truly has a talent for presenting and discussing a complete thought in a brief manner.

This is the second post in my new series for writers and why you should have a website. Read the last one here.

This post will mark the first in a new series at ProWebWriter to emphasize the importance of having a website as a writer. Having your own website offers you a certain amount of credibility. The maintenance of that credibility depends upon the type of content you choose to present on your website. It should contain your Writing Portfolio…your best of the best. Your Writing Portfolio can also illustrate your range as a writer. A blog is optional, but a nice touch.

An Illustration in Credibility

Most Americans have probably seen this commercial:

 

 

The star of the commercial hasn’t been the guy with the pulsating muscles (CREEPY) per se, but the tiny giraffe on the treadmill. This little fellow has quite the Internet following. I was Stumbling (StumbleUpon.com) last night and came across this website:

This is a website touting the tiny giraffes from the TV commercial above as reality. I admit, I had to check a couple pages on the site and really think it through to realize if there were a such thing as tiny giraffes, I would know about them before now. That is the credibility of a professional website.

Let’s take a look at how the content on this website drives home the point. First, they have a live webcam of a tiny giraffe on the Home Page. There is a rack strategically placed for size reference. Second, the site has and About Page that includes some black and white photographs that scream P.T. Barnum’s sideshow. These photos give an air of credibility of the grounds that the breeders aren’t a new company. Age gives credibility. Third and final, there are just enough photos to present the myth as reality. The whole site makes you stop and say, “Is this for real?”

There is one screaming clue indicating that all of the above is false; however, and that is the written content. Since the breeders are supposed to be based in Russia, much of the content is written in broken English. There is also a cheesy quality to the writing. As a writer, make sure your writing is believable. Back yourself up with credible sources, but don’t stress yourself out about it. The above site is living proof that it’s possible to cause intelligent (and not so intelligent) people to question reality even without proper written content.

Debunking the Petite Giraffe (Irrelevant to Writing – Feel Free to Skip)

A web savvy investigator can easily debunk the above website as a fake. Let’s start with a WHOIS domain search. I used: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/ — This search yielded the following data:

Registrant:
	Grey Global Group
	200 5th Ave
	4th Fl
	NEW YORK, NY 10010
	US
	Domain Name: PETITELAPGIRAFFE.COM

The Grey Global Group is a marketing company (a brilliant one) in New York. Fair enough, but not quite telling enough. Let’s check out some of their images on the above site. First this one:

It looks like la petit giraffe is taking a bath. Further investigation yields that this image of a marble bath is available via Corbis: http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/42-25705449.html — Showing here:

A myth to the madness. Perhaps all is fair in advertising.

DEBUNKING SOURCE: http://iandennismiller.com/blog/2011/03/petite-lap-giraffes/

Looking for a way to break into the writing business? I found one! My dear friend Ava told me about a site on Facebook called Freellance (sic) Writers. They post daily different job sites where you can submit stories, be a ghost writer, write magazine articles, etc.

It was through that site that I found God Makes Lemonade. It is a series of books containing inspirational true stories from regular folks. I sent in my story, and they informed me that they were going to include it in their upcoming book! They paid me $250, and I get 10 free copies of the book once it’s published to share with my family and friends! It’ll be my first published work, and it gave me the inspiration to keep writing.

Freellance Writers posts new jobs daily, and I’m always checking to find new ways to make a little extra money, and build my writingportfolio. It’s a great way to fill your spare time, and it is not only financially rewarding, but it can also give you a great sense of accomplishment and pride when someone tells you that your writing is good enough to be published.

I’m going to keep looking for new avenues and opportunities in the writing business, and I hope you will too! If I find anything of interest, I will be sure to pass this information on to you!

And be sure to watch for the God Makes Lemonade book, to be published later this year!

Guest Post by Lisa M. Lane

Lisa Lane is an up and coming writer. I asked Lisa to write a post because she had taken and avenue into freelance writing that I had not by utilizing Freellance Writers. I felt this was a viable resource for writers everywhere and who better to present it than someone who has utilized the system. I’m trying to convince Lisa to blog! Help me out!

If you would like to contact Lisa with questions or to hire her to write for you, please use the Contact Form below:

[contact-form 2 "Contact Lisa Lane"]

My pricing listed on this site has accidentally ended up being a year long experiment. I tried to go with the school of thought that if I listed higher rates, then I would command higher rates. I undersold SEVERAL competitors to cover more bases. I’m sure there’s some marketing rule written or otherwise that I am breaking, but basically, neither tactic worked.

A lot of freelance writing sites would have you believe that you are selling out if you take low-paying work. Somehow, it devalues THEIR work. I’ve heard this before when I moved in the web design circles as well. In fact, designers have a whole movement devoted to the idea. The situation of Speculative (Spec) work is that you work on a design, enter it in a contest, and hope you win the specified pay. 99designs is the best example of this type of work.

When I was in design school (2004), my professors would say that a logo or “corporate identification” paid $3000 on average. “You may say that I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one.” What I found is that the places willing to pay that are few, far between, and called things like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald’s. It’s the same with writing.

A Look at My Pricing Table with Commentary

First off, ALL of these prices are inflated except maybe the How To Articles and Tutorials depending upon length. In the current economy, there are few companies that have the resources to invest this much in written content. Limiting yourself to only those few companies is a significant limit. You might as well forget working with small businesses or working locally in your area unless the businesses you contact ( or sit around and wait to contact you) are extremely successful.

I can’t tell you how to price your services, but I can tell you what has and has not worked for me…and these prices DO NOT work. The best judge of price is YOU. How much would you pay? I surely wouldn’t pay $25 for a blog post. I would write it myself first…even if I weren’t a professional writer. Make sense?

I’ve adopted a new strategy:

• Do your own thing; don’t listen to the competition or any naysayers
• Go with your gut
• Price with your heart
• Negotiate
• Be transparent
• Interact positively with the community

The Backstory (You can skip this if you want.)

I began writing for Demand Studios in July of 2009. At the time, it was a dream come true. I was living in a sleepy little town with no jobs. Demand Studios met me right where I needed them to and provided writing opportunities that fit my abilities and expertise. At that point in time, Demand Studios boasted right around 20,000 Writers in their employ. There was a steady stream of a few thousand titles to choose from and while searching for titles was time-consuming, I always found something to write about.

Some full-time freelancers shun them as just another content mill…even though they are the highest paying such mill that I know of. When you break it down, they pay $15 for a basic article in various formats. That $15 buys ALL rights to that content. It comes down to if you are willing to sell ALL rights to your work at that price. I look at it like this…when I started out working for Demand, I could punch out an article in less than an hour. I found solid resources (because it’s required) and basically rewrote the content. If someone wants to pay me $15 for mediocre…fine with me.

I definitely needed the money. In this economy, and with the large influx of freelancers, no one is paying $25+ for content anymore. People who say they are, find it beneath them to offer proof or any REAL methods to land this type of work yourself. That’s a whole other post in and of itself. Let me see if I can get back on track here. I’m gonna focus on some of the  troubles I’ve experienced in recent months with Demand Studios.

Over the last year and a half, it has become increasingly difficult to be a “Demand Studios Writer” for a number of reasons:

Less Viable Titles

Demand Studios is notorious for crazy titles…such as:

“How to Build Your Own Keyboard Mouse Scanner”

I consider myself pretty intelligent and computer savvy, even well read about do-it-yourself type things, but uh, I have no idea what a “Keyboard Mouse Scanner” might even be. A Google search delivered no results as to what the heck it is either…much less how to “build your own”.

So while at the time of this writing, there were 295, 066 titles available to write, a crazy percentage of them are like the example above or something like:

“Backflow Check Valve Installation”
“How To Remove a Printer’s Print Codes”
“How To Use Frame Machines”

Large Writer Pool

The last I knew, there were 20,000 Writers working with Demand Studios. No doubt that number has increased over the last year and a half with the addition of Demand’s social media outlets and Craigslist listings for Writers. I was unable to find anything recent stating how many Writers are currently working for Demand Studios…not even in the Writer Forums. Since this information is being kept on the down low, I must logically assume that there are too many Writers.

Increased Editing Times

When I started with Demand, my articles were usually edited the same day…sometimes in a matter of a few hours. The last several times I have submitted articles, the editing time lagged and I didn’t get paid for some of them until the next payday. Demand Studios is not a place to earn a quick few bucks anymore now that editing times are impossible to predict.

Inconsistent Editing

Demand Studios has set strict guidelines for their Writers, and I can only assume the same to be true when it comes to editing. An Editor is responsible for knowing the Writers’ guidelines for all types of articles (15 formats as of this writing), and their own set of rules as well. I wouldn’t be familiar with that since I’m not an Editor. Granted, I’m sure it’s not the easiest job and I think they make about $3.50 per article. Inconsistency in editing is unavoidable, but that doesn’t make it less of an aggravation for the Writer. Knowing what you can get by with in the editing phase, inadvertently shapes the way you write your articles. Editors who are sticklers are trouble.

Everchanging Strict Guidelines

Demand Studios has guidelines out the wazoo. If they were any more strict, they’d be telling you what to write word for word. They have overall guidelines, and then separate guidelines for each format…yeah, 15 formats. As if that weren’t enough, they have blacklists of resources that you cannot use as well. First on the blacklists are all the sites that compete with various Demand Media websites. You also can’t use Demand Media sites to reference your article either. So, once you have a good handle on all the guidelines and blacklists, they change them…oh yes, at least once a week there is some kind of addendum to the “Studio Guidelines”. Ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

The Wrap-Up

This article is not meant to discourage anyone from giving Demand Studios a try. It’s worth a try. Heck, you might know what a “Keyboard Mouse Scanner” or a “Frame Machine” is. Here’s hopin’ you can find a viable reference to support your article so you can get paid. I get a lot of traffic on this site to the articles I have written about Demand Studios, so I know a lot of people are in the same boat and trying to figure out where to go from here. I wish I had your answer. Goodness knows if I was making bank in freelancing, I would have let you know by now.

The best advice I have is get yourself a website. You won’t get rich, but you’ll have an outlet for drivel like this AND for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Throw some ads on it, and enjoy the 2 or 3 cents a month it brings. No, but seriously…your own site is the way to go.

I applied for the job at Demand just before I was laid off as a full-time Technical Writer. I had done some freelancing here and there on the side for extra money and I had applied at a number of the “content mills” on the Internet. I really didn’t think that Demand Studios would be much different. So, I took a nonchalant approach to putting together my application. While I can’t remember what articles I used in my application, I just copied and pasted something I had on my hard drive at the time.

I really didn’t know anything about Demand Media, and I wasn’t concerned either way with getting the job. I think I half thought it was too good to be true since it was the highest paying “content mill” I had applied to. Two weeks later, I received my approval email. I updated my profile, and there it sat from February to July 2009. I jumped into writing for Demand with both feet on July 4th. This followed a cross-country move, and several months trying to secure full-time employment.

Part of the reason that I had procrastinated so on getting started was the extensive guidelines set forth by Demand. There are General Guidelines, and then separate guidelines for each article type. There are 12 different article types currently at the time of this writing. If you’ve checked into or been accepted as a DS writer, then I’m sure you have experienced how overwhelming that can be.

Needless to say, I was rather nervous when I submitted my first article. It ended up being a fairly painless process and it was approved with only a small change. There was no stopping me after that. While my contributions to the Studio have slowed somewhat since I’ve gotten a full-time job, I still write occasionally.

It’s important to note that if you can write coherently, show that you have some professional writing experience, and submit a couple decent articles, becoming a Demand Studios writer should be no big deal for you.

Isn’t this the loaded post? With the downturn on the economy, hordes of displaced workers have turned to the Internet to find income streams. Web and computer savvy individuals everywhere are taking their MySpace, Facebook, and professional skills online to eek out a living to supplement their income. Many are finding that it’s not as easy as it sounds including yours truly. Building an online presence and brand is hard work. Online workers often put in more hours than one might at a conventional job. Working online has its perks like working in your pajamas or working anytime from anywhere with an Internet connection.

The thing that almost everyone wants to know though, is where to find freelance jobs and clients. This is the biggest challenge of working at home. You are your own boss, marketing department, IT department, secretary, etc. It sounds great in so many ways, but it is a very big challenge without a plan and resources. I’m going to list some tips and resources to help you find freelance jobs. You may know some of them, and others may have never occurred to you. Hopefully, this will help you advance your freelance career.

• Friends and family – Talk to your friends and family about your online endeavors and gain their support. This is how you begin growing your network.
• Online friends – Starting spreading the news of your intentions through your social interactions on the web.
• Get a website/blog – It’s easier than it sounds. If you don’t know how to go about it, chances are that one of your friends does. Research online how to go about it.
• Email – Put a link your site in your email signature. Each time you apply for a job whether on or offline, your website outlining your skills goes out with that email.
• Polish your resume – Make it shine and put a PDF version for download on your website. Don’t forget to remove your address and phone number if you don’t want the entire world to have it. Leave your email.
• Keywords – Figure out what they are and how to use them right down to the domain name your choose for you site.
• Marketing – Learn how to go about it on and offline.
• Social Media – Learn what it is and how to use it to your advantage.

If you’re not already plugged in all over the web, you have a lot of accounts to create. Visit these resources, learn from them, and learn how to use them.

• Digital Point – Digital Point is the largest webmaster forum on the Internet. It is packed with information about everything you need to know to create and maintain a website/blog.
• Twitter – If you haven’t heard of Twitter, you must have been under a rock for the last couple years. Create an account. Download TweetDeck. It’s a client for use with Twitter. Create a new column with keyword search terms pertaining to your niche. For example, I have a column that updates anytime someone tweets about “freelance writing”.
• Facebook – Get an account and start adding friends. Post your skills and information. Post links to your website. Post when you update your blog. Who knows, you may find your long lost high school buddies.
• Craigslist – Craigslist has job classifieds. Check them out. Don’t forget the “gigs” section directly under the job listings.
• Delicious – Delicious is a social bookmarking site. You can keep all of your bookmarks online so you can access them from any computer. You can add friends and browse their bookmarks to find additional resources. Look for freelance job listings.
• Google – If you are not Googling what ARE you doing? Google is the best search engine on the Internet. If Google can’t find it, no one can. Type in search terms and look for job listings.
• YouTube – And you thought YouTube was just for entertainment! Create an account. You may think you’ll never make videos, but you’ll learn that you can convert all kinds of things to video like still images and PowerPoint presentations. Upload them to YouTube with a link to your site and take advantage of the millions of YouTube users daily.
• StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is a nifty add-on for your browser. Hit the “Stumble” button and discover unique websites. StumbleUpon is also a traffic tool. By “Stumbling” your site, you submit it to StumbleUpon for others to discover as well.
• Digg – Digg is another social bookmarking site, but it works a little differently from Delicious. Submit important website and blog posts to Digg to get traffic to your website.
• Entrecard – Entrecard is a networking tool for bloggers. It can be time-consuming and will bring traffic to your website. The problem is that most of that traffic isn’t there to see your site. However, the networking power and small amount of genuine traffic generated by Entrecard does have its benefits.
• Work Place Like Home – WPLH is a forums that lists legitimate work at homes jobs including virtual assistant, phone representatives and writers.
• Index of Legitimate Work From Home Jobs – This is…well, an index of legitimate work from home jobs.
• GenuineJobs.com – An online job site with no fees and no bidding!
• AuthenticJobs.com – Job listings for web, design and creative professionals.
• FreelanceSwitch.com – Articles and job listings for freelancers.

For Writers:

You know I had to have a special section just for writers. Writers, heed all below in addition to the above tips and resources.

• Demand Studios – Demand Media owns the likes of sites such as LiveStrong.com, AnswerBag.com and eHow.com and they are constantly looking for writers, editors and videographers.The pay ranges from $3 for a simple 50 word article up to $30 for more intense writing.
• Break Studios – Break Studios runs several sites that target men such as Break.com, MadeMen.com and Chickipedia.com.They hire writers and editors to fill their sites with relevant content. The pay once a month, but I’m unsure of the amount per article.
• About.com – About.com hires guides and contributing writers to their various categories of pages. The pay is decent and their demands aren’t too rigorous. It’s pretty hard to break in and get your foot in the door though.
• AllFreelanceWriting – AllFreelanceWriting.com is and excellent resource for anyone considering freelance writing as a career. The site is contributed to by several freelancers willing to relay their experiences and provide helpful tips.
• PoeWar.com – A writing career site with job listings.
• BloggerJobs – Jobs for those who want to blog only.
• FreelanceWritingJobs – Check out freelance jobs and read some informative posts. FreelanceWritingJobs has some of both.
• Be A Writer for MakeUseOf – A freelance writing opportunity with a decent payment structure.
• FreelanceWriting.com – Articles and job listings for freelance writers. FreelanceWriting aggregates all the writing jobs from sources like Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com and Craigslist.org in one spot for easy searching.

Bidding Sites:

• WritingBids.com – WritingBids.com is a large freelance writing side with hundreds of projects.
• Scriptlance.com – Scriptlance has a large amount of listings for writers, designers, programmers and more. The site is free as opposed to many other bidding sites, but you’ll have to wait 30 days for your first payment.
• GetAFreelancer.com – Another bidding site.
• Elance.com – Aaaaand….another one.

Resource Sites (Articles and Information):

• Freelance Water Cooler – A resource for freelancers of all types.
• How to Make Money on the Internet – An eHow article with a lot of ideas.
• A List of Resources from The Freelance Rant – The Freelance Rant’s list of resources for freelancers.
• 85+ Tools for Freelancers – I don’t like Mashable for personal reasons, but they do have good info.
• The Freelance Forum – A message board. This board isn’t really active yet, but it’s worth a join if you’re a freelancer.

This should give you a good start and quite a bit of reading and research to help get you started. You will find pretty much everything you need at the sites provided here to launch into a successful freelance career.

I write for Demand Studios. I have been writing for them since July 4, 2009. I was accepted as a writer long before then, but it was in July that my financial situation hit dire straits. I can’t remember what articles I sent them as samples, but I am almost certain that they were unremarkable. I half expected to be easily accepted and half expected them to be somewhat of a scam.

When I received my acceptance, it was nice since I had just lost my job. At least I had *something*. I hesitated to submit my first article after reading their strict and tedious guidelines. I thought, “I’ll never remember everything.” I started out writing Strategy articles. A Strategy article back then was almost like a tutorial. My first article was approved with a rewrite that only required a couple small edits. That gave me the confidence I needed to continue. I branched out and wrote a couple of other different kinds of articles: About and Fact Sheets.

I continued having success submitting articles and eventually fell in love with How To pieces. I write them almost exclusively now. The problem that I’ve had with Demand Studios is that I’ve had a really hard time meeting my financial goals writing for them. I know I can do it. It shouldn’t be that hard to write 40 articles and make $600 in a week…but it is. There are many variables that must be in sync when it comes to having a successful week with Demand such as:

• Writable titles
• New titles
• Figuring out when Demand uploads new titles
• Beating other writers to the good titles
• Exercising self discipline
• Keeping a schedule
• Maintaining a strong focus

Demand Studios has more than 160,000 titles available for claiming as of this writing. You would think that with such a large number of titles to choose from, it would be easy to find 40 to write. The truth as of late is that it takes HOURS to find just a few titles that are actually writable. I define writable as something that is possible to write, fits within my realm of knowledge and research, and is properly categorized. While you can search for any keyword you like, you may or may not find viable titles pertaining to your keyword choice. One of my favorite keyword searches is “photoshop”. As of late, there is less than a page of titles on Photoshop available. A few of these titles don’t make sense…they are not writable. A few of them specify that the article be about Photoshop Elements which is a completely different piece of software. These variables eliminate those titles as writable. Demand does have a category search, but it has been out of whack for months.

I don’t spend much time in the forums at Demand Studios, because hello! I need to be writing. The forums seem to be wrought with a lot of complaints regarding the copy editors and issues surrounding the writing and approval process. I’m not sure if not participating in the forums is to my detriment or not. Perhaps there’s something that I am missing. Supposedly, there is a set time each day that Demand uploads new titles, and if you are in the know about when this is, you have a chance to grab all the good titles. I don’t know when this moment happens, and the last couple weeks has proven that to me with a vengeance. It’s frustrating when you spend 2-3 hours searching for titles and end up with four.

The rate of pay is also up for debate. Until last week, the most you could make on a Demand Studios article was $15. That is tough to swallow when there are freelancers out there who claim to be commanding $50+ per article. So where I need write 8 articles per day with Demand, at that rate, I could get by with three. It saps one’s motivation. When I first started at Demand, all the writers were basically on the same level. Now they’ve launched a Premium program where they hand-picked writers who are eligible to write articles that pay as high as $75. Yours truly was not selected. I’m trying not to be bitter.

When you get down to it…I’ve been writing for Demand for 8 months and I still can only claim 10 articles at a time with consistent scores well above average. I have had 76% of my articles approved without a rewrite, and I can’t even get my queue increased 5 more articles. Speaking of consistency, the copy editors are not…in the least bit consistent. I won’t elaborate because I don’t want this post to become an outright bitchfest…and yeah, they *score* you. They score you based on grammar and research. Both things where it is easy to let one’s personal pet peeves take over.

Pros

• Demand Studios pays twice a week
• Payment is consistent and on time
• Large pool of titles
• Writers must be native English speakers
• Guidelines are well outlined

Cons

• Title to writable title ratio is opposite what it should be
• Recently expanding writer pool to the UK and Canada
• There are no briefings for articles
• Interpretation of the title is left up to the writer’s discretion
• Copy editors are inconsistent
• Huge pool of writers

If you are thinking about applying for Demand Studios, think about it. I won’t tell you not to do it because they have been a viable source of income for me and I’m not sure what I would have done without the opportunity. My best advice is to keep your options open, and you can do that while writing for Demand Studios. If you want to write for Demand or you already do, drop me line, I really like to network with my colleagues.