Online Writing Income

Ground Report.com, founded in 2006, is a website that pays for the latest news, both local and abroad. Not limited to US only writers, Ground Report accepts international writers and pays monthly via PayPal. The Founder & CEO Rachel Sterne is a former reporter for the UN and developed this site in an attempt to “democratize the media.”

What’s Acceptable and Not Acceptable

As with most websites, they want original, non-affiliate laden news items. They don’t accept articles that sell products or sounds like a commercial. The news must be true, original and accurate. Engaging eyewitness accounts are especially desired. They do not accept porn, obscene or hate filled articles (commendable).

Licensing

You keep the rights to all of your work and can remove it from the Ground Report website whenever you want. However, if it’s earning money, why take it off.

Earnings

It appears that they pay based on page views. The more views your news item gets, the more you’ll earn so it pays to promote your news items.

I came across a website today that looks like it can work well for those who enjoy academic writing. The name of the site is Academia-Research.com. It looks promising.

Requirements:

In order to become a writer for Academia-Research you must register at their website and take a test. The test consists of an essay for which you have a few days to complete. If you do well, you’re in.

Payment:

According to the website, they pay their contracted freelance writers anywhere from $6 to $20 per page. Pages are double spaced and a minimum of 250 words.

Who Should Apply?:

Anyone who likes to write and has the wherewithal to do the proper research and put together a grammatically correct, non plagiarized, resource referenced work should apply.

If you have what it takes, check out their Sign Up page and give it a whirl.

If you’re a freelance writer looking for online gigs you must put the Online Writing Jobs.com database in your job search basket.

My First Gig

When I first decided I wanted to earn money online, I got my first writing gig through them. Granted, back then I was eager to write 300 word articles for a whopping $5, but the gig paid weekly and I could write as many articles as I wanted.

I knew then it was a low paying gig, but I had no confidence as a writer so I took it. It was nice to see the money deposited into my PayPal account weekly. They liked me and gave me a raise so I started earning $6 per article.

Graduation Time

Shortly thereafter, I realized that there were many more opportunities available on the internet, so I went back to the Online Writing Jobs.com database and I managed to land a writing gig for a print magazine. I earned $520 for my second gig (1,200 word article).

That was all I needed to build my confidence as a writer. If someone was willing to pay me (yes, me), $520 to write an article, I guess I had enough writing juice to make a living on this stuff.

Give it a Try

So, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned professional, check out the Online Writing Jobs database. You never know what you’ll find. It helped me; I hope it does the same for you.

If you think the economy will negatively affect your freelance writing income, it will. If you think your freelance writing income will continue to grow in spite of the economy, it will.

The old saying, “Whether your believe you can or you believe you can’t you’re right.”

Before you look at your earnings, look in the mirror and have a talk with yourself. What is your mindset? When you begin the self-conversation, do you begin by acknowledging all of the problems that can occur? Google ads are down, people aren’t surfing the net anymore, no one wants to read what I’m writing about, etc., etc., etc.

Well if that’s the way you begin your conversation, you might as well give up now.

Instead of letting the outside forces dictate your earning potential, decide what you want and go and get it. If you are determined to be the beacon in these dark economic times, then change your thinking and get going.

I don’t know about you, but last year I increased my freelance writing income by over 200% (225% to be exact). Not only that, I don’t have any special writing skills or talents, just tenacity. I couldn’t have done that if I sat around and lamented over the poor state of the economy.

Try spendinga little less time complaining and commiserating and a lot more writing. You’ll find that the state of the economy won’t affect your ability to increase your freelance writing income. After all, the Empire State Building was built during the height of the depression. I guess someone forgot to tell them that it wasn’t financially possible.

I’m on the mailing list for a few forums. I don’t usually have the time to visit the forums, but from time to time I receive emails of the latest goings on on.

Well, here’s an opportunity that ended up in my inbox as a result of one of the forums. The name of the site is Universal Class. If you know how to write instructional courses, you can earn anywhere from .04 to .06 per word. According to the website, if you can take complicated subjects and explain them in an easy to understand, clear and logical manner, they want you.

If this sounds like something you can do or are willing to do, give them a whirl. What do you have to lose?

P.S. - If you do give it a try, come back and share your experience with us.

I’m not too sure of any other line of work where there is such a sense of helping others than the online freelance writing community.

I remember a while ago when I stated one of my other blogs, my brother read a few of my entries and asked if I wasn’t giving away the store. In other words, if I shared all of my freelance writing secrets wouldn’t that is some way be like shooting myself in the foot?

Hmmm, I thought of it for about ½ of a second and said no. The more I help other freelance writers, it seems that the more help I get. Think about it for a minute. How many blogs are there in the blog-o-sphere that help freelance writers? Here are a few blogs to take a look at in your spare time.

aboutfreelancewriting
thegoldenpencil
catalystblogger
thewritersmanifesto
allcotmedia
freelancefolder

I’ve worked in a few different industries, and I’ve found being an online freelance writer to be one of the best gigs yet.

No matter how fast you type, I can bet that you don’t type as fast as you talk. Just imagine if you didn’t have to type each article. All you had to do is think, speak and your computer would do the rest. Your final task was look it over to make sure its what you wanted to say.

Well, if that’s what you want, what are you waiting for? I’ve been doing it for about a year now and am lost without my technology. I’m talking about getting a digital voice recorder. They’re not expensive, they are a tax write off if you use them in your freelance writing business, and once you get the hang of it, your productivity goes through the roof.

I call my digital recorder my brain and I have it hanging around my neck. When an idea hits, no longer do I run to find a piece of paper and a pen (the ink in the pen is never ready when I am). By the time I find the paper and pen, I forget what I was about to write (yes, I am at that age where my memory plays hide-n-seek).

Once I do a brain dump, I hook my brain to the computer, download it and let the software transcribe it. All I have to do is edit it.

If you’re serious about earning money as a freelance writer, the more you write the more you earn, why not speed up the process?

With so many companies offering affiliate programs, I find Amazon to be one that is a no brainier to add to the freelance writing income arsenal. After all, who hasn’t heard of Amazon?

Pros

The benefit of becoming an Amazon affiliate is that no matter what you write about, Amazon has a product to compliment the article. If you write for sites that allow you to add affiliate links, it’s a quick and easy way to make a couple of extra bucks.

Cons

The commissions aren’t very high unless you get tons of traffic and lots of sales. The commissions are graded on a sliding scale. The more products you sell the higher the commission.

Bottom line, this past Christmas season when so many retailers were groaning about poor sales numbers and lack of profits, Amazon had one of its best holiday seasons ever. It pays to stick with a winning team.

Sign up is easy. All you have to is sign up, write a few articles, place your links and forget about it. Amazon does the rest. All you have to do is watch your commissions grow.

If you are a freelance writer and have any sort of presence in the blog-o-sphere, right after setting up your blog (as mentioned in an earlier post), trot over to the Google AdSense websites and open an AdSense account.

Personally, I’ve found that Google AdSense works better on websites than they do blogs. That might have a lot to do with my blog topics. If you have a blog that talks about the latest gadgets, insurance topics or health and fitness machines, AdSense may work out well for you.

Blogs that talk about writing or writing opportunities don’t seem to do as well with AdSense. The good thing about being a freelance writer in this day and age is that you can have more than one blog. If you have the time and the inclination, you can manage several blogs on the most lucrative topics and watch Google AdSense work for you.

Keep in mind that Google AdSense isn’t the only game in town when it comes to earning money through your blog. In later posts I’ll share some other ways I’ve managed to earn a few shekels over the past year or two.

It’s a New Year and time for new resolutions…or maybe not.

It all depends on how well you did with your last years’ resolutions. If you haven’t achieved your last year’s resolutions, why make new ones?

Here’s my theory:

A new year’s resolution is not completed until December 31st of the year. If you vow to quit smoking and quit by the 3rd of January only to pick it back up by February 2nd, then you didn’t quit. However, if you slowly reduce your cigarette intake over the year until you are down to zero by December, then guess what. Success!

Writing is the same thing. Making unreasonable goals at the beginning of the year only to find that it is unattainable and unachievable does nothing but discourages you. Why not make small monthly goals. Make a vow to improve your writing by 10% each month, or increase your article count by 10% each month or increase your query letters by 10% each month. If 10% is to aggressive a goal, vow to increase it by 5% or 2% or 1%, just make sure to make improvements.

I’ve been around the block a few times and realize that the year includes the months of February through December. Therefore, there is no need for me to make my life as uncomfortable as possible in January only to regret falling off the wagon in February, March and so on. Take it slow, measure your success and you’ll be able to cross off your resolutions this year in favor of new and improved resolutions for next year.