Coffee Session Two:
Greetings !
In coffee session one, we examined the types of writing jobs that are found on the web, what they entail and how to access some of them. You can look for online writing jobs as a freelance writer. Freelance writers have a number of writers resources at their disposal.
In coffee session two, we will look at some specifics of these jobs and how you can easily make money from using your writing skills. Use this information as you would a writers workshop. It will help you overcome writers block. We will ask the question, “So How do I become a Freelance Writer?” Start with the following simple steps.
Here’s a couple more sites to check out for Article Writing, which if you recall, is the example I shall be using for the step-by-step guide.
Ezine Articles - http://www.ezinearticles.com/
Isnare Articles -
and Article Alley -
Did you go to the ezine article site and do some research? While the kettle is boiling, go and have a look at these sites, so you have some idea of where we are going. Read their terms and conditions and subscribe to their email newsletter. The more you know the better armed you will be to write sought after material.
[Action] Let’s join now, as f.r.ee members.
Ezinearticles is a place where you can leave your articles for companies to pick up and use. You give the article for free and have your contact details (better to have your website link on the article) inserted in the article. If your article is picked up by a business, they will generally go to your webpage looking for more. You of course, will have a couple more similar articles on your webpage plus your email address and contact details.
This is the most important ezine site for ‘being noticed.’
If a business likes your article and your style you may get extra work from them. In any case you will be slowly building a valuable reputation.
The other option is to think about subjects that you hold a lot of information on, then research who it is who wants that regular information on the internet and approach them with some articles to choose from.
You can find information on various topics by interviewing experts, reading magazines and journals at the local library and doing an internet search.
I suggest putting up some articles on topics that you have uncovered in your research.
Here’s the clever idea from this site: The articles are fr.e.e to use right? Then, if you have already secured a contract writing for someone’s blog site, use this site to find relevant articles to put up on the site that you are writing for. It’s a good way of adding valuable content when you have very little time to do it yourself.
Make sure it fits in with your work agreement. ie: you may have a contract to ‘keep a blog updated with fresh posts on a daily basis’. The contract may not specify that you actually have to author each article. So, away you go with the shortcut and still get paid for it. The author of the article benefits too, from the greater exposure.
[Action] When you reach the Articlealley site, click the button ‘submit articles’ and join as an author. Look at all the topics that are displayed. Have a look at some of the articles in a topic that you know something about. Now write a couple of articles on this topic yourself. Check the word length with what you find there. An article doesn’t have to be very long. 800 – 1500 words is ok. For a blog, it is anything from 50 – 300 words. The great thing about this site is that you can get a website here to promote yourself.
Next, click on the link ‘most read articles’. Have a look at the list. You might be starting to get the idea of what people are searching for. You might also look at the topic titles.
Have a thought that perhaps they are missing out on clicks because they don’t have a strong advertising pull in the headline?
Click on the article in the list titled: ‘How to Set Your Freelance Writing Rates.’ By Brian Scott.
There is an add from Google next to this article that says Blog writers can earn around $675 / month for keeping one blog site up-to-date with fresh content.
Look at the right side column on related articles. Read some of them. They will teach you a lot.
You will notice that this right side column information changes depending on which article you have clicked on to read.
[Action] The third site, Isnare articles, has a column titled Fr.ee article directory, then below that, Top 10 tags used, then, “Join to receive fr.ee articles everyday.” Join this one.
Tags are simply words most searched for when a person puts a search phrase in the search box on their browser. This gives you a hint to what people are wanting in their article topics.
That’s a great start then. You can now familiarise yourself with what an article is by reading lots of them on different topics. Start to write some yourself, and load them up to these professional article houses to see what happens.
[Just a note about my spelling of the word f.re.e. Search engines penalise websites that use this word many times. It’s a quick way to get on the black list and have your site dumped. That’s why even in emails you will see authors disguising the word.]
Are you finding this interesting so far? Skip ahead if you are already familiar with these concepts.
Now I will show you a way to bid for a job contract. We are going to look at the website:
You are ready now with some article experience and can register your services on this site.
[Action] Click the button at the top- sign in or register, and register yourself. Next, click back to front page and click the ‘How Elance Works’ button. Explore this site thoroughly.
There are immediate jobs waiting to bid on.
Click the tab ‘writing & translation’ and have a look at the column there titled ‘Skills in Demand.’ Wow, this is an eye opener for sure- where you see the headings such as content writing and article writing, next to them in brackets ( ) are numbers in light grey.
For content writing there are 1602 jobs pending. For article writing, there are 1380 jobs pending, the last time I checked.
These are the number of jobs waiting for a writer to work on. Build your reputation quickly by commencing to bid on these jobs. Check what other writers are asking. You may need to start low at first, until your reputation grows. When you bid there, it’s like an auction for your services.
It is irrelevant that the jobs may not be in your country of residence, that’s what the internet is for.
There are rules that apply, the same as if you were bidding on ebay. Check it out. This site has been around a long time and is highly trusted. It’s a must, to explore it thoroughly and start offering your service.
You may consider bidding on writing reports and ebooks. These are not as difficult as you may think. Consider an ebook as only 8 – 10 articles in length, with a report only 3 – 6 articles in length. This is generous. I have downloaded many ebooks and the so-called pages, have each about 250 words ! It’s not hard.
We will cover ebooks down the track.
In a very little time you will be reaping handsome rewards for your skills.
That just about wraps up coffee session two.
See you soon,
Eloise
copyright article by eloise dawson, 2009, from http://www.me2Uhelp.info
You are welcome to re-publish this article in it’s entirety only, including these footnotes. ed.