Today’s content publishers, especially of the online variety (website owners, online business owners) don’t have the tools, the time or the resources to find a “qualified” content writer. Now, this may not be true for large online companies or corporations that hire writers – but it’s overwhelmingly true in situations with average Joe or Jane, sole proprietor type businesses.  In the majority of cases – they don’t care how much training you have; they don’t care where you went to school, they don’t care if you’re a stay-at-home parent or a full-time professional – they just want the content that will help them for their purposes.

This tidbit of information really is good news for the budding writers amongst us, especially if that’s you.  Now, it’s unrealistic to think that a no-experience writer will get $20 per article straight out the gate, even with offline writing experience or training – but it’s certainly not unheard of.  Really, how much money you make as a writer starting out depends more on where you find your writing jobs than your qualifications.  Even if you’re a mediocre writer, you can make that ever-coveted $20 per 400 word article if you market your services to the right people.

Bottom line – you don’t need a lot of experience as a writer to get paid to write online content.  If you head on over and pickup your own copy of the Daily Writing Jobs report, you’ll find a ton of resources that will help you to find writing jobs in no time flat, regardless of your current experience level.

• If you can write, you can get paid
• Open for Business
• Get paid to write articles
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• Can I Write Full-Time Online?

Many writers are overworked and underpaid

Many new writers will try their hand at pay-per-performance type websites or bid-for-work freelance websites in hopes of making a living online as a writer, and there are some that manage to do this. However – these types of writing jobs don’t usually give writers the freedoms that they could be enjoying if they only took the time to establish themselves.

For instance – in the two aforementioned types of writing gigs – pay for performance and bid-for-work writing gigs, a writer using these venues is really spending a lot of time and effort on work that doesn’t pay very well. You could liken trying to make a living by using these writer’s resources as working a minimum-wage job; sure, you’re making some money, but you’re putting in a whole lot of effort for a minimal amount of money, sometimes as little as $3-$5 per hour.

Yes, you can try to argue that you’re working from home while making money in your spare time – but let’s contemplate a hypothetical situation here.

Established writers can make more money working for themselves

Let’s say that you write for a bid-for-work type freelance website; there is an exceptional amount of competition and the buyers that frequent these websites are, by and large, seeking out the best deal on writing services. So – you’re competing against writers who will write for $2 per 400 word article even while there’s commissions being taken out of every project…. and, some of these $2 article writers may even write better than you can – which really puts you at a disadvantage.

Now, maybe you’ve built up a solid reputation as a good or even excellent writer on a certain bid-for-work freelance website; in cases such as this, maybe you can grab $10 per 400 word article, less commission, on a regular basis. That’s all fine and dandy – but you’re still only making $7 or so per article. In reality, this should be a bottom-of-the-barrel rate for English speaking writers from industrialized countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia.

However – if you’re making decent money on a bid-for-work freelance website comparatively speaking, there’s no reason that you couldn’t make $15+ per 400 word article as a contract writer offering writing services from your own website. In addition to making more money from your own website – you’ll probably get paid much faster and you may even be able to get your full writing fee in advance, you get to keep more of your money per project and you can really work less hours to make the same amount of money that you made when you were finding writing work through the bid-for-work resource.

How to get established as a freelance writer

Getting established as an online writer is quite simple – you have to put in your time as a “grunt-writer”, but once you have a few satisfied clients in your back pocket, it’s time to expand your services and start offering them directly to the general public.

Preferably you should acquire a domain name and your own web hosting account as you have full control over your website, hosting and content. Setting up a website is super-simple with Wordpress and if you choose a web hosting provider like Hostgator, you can install Wordpress with a couple of clicks.

Consequently, if you decide to obtain hosting services through Hostgator and you use the link above, I’ll help you setup Wordpress on your website free of charge. You can contact me from the link on the main site towards the bottom of the page.

However, if you want to get started by offering your services as a freelance writer without cost, you can use Blogger; it won’t cost you a penny and I’ve seen where many writers have used this free blogging platform to offer writing services and share their writing portfolios without any cost attached other than a little bit of setup time.

Promoting your writing website

Now, I don’t expect you to understand the intricacies of SEO or know how to market your website to any great degree of effectiveness – but even with nearly zero skills you can still point targeted buyers to your writing website:

1. Use Email Signatures. When you’re conversing with other people via email, be sure that you include a link to your writing website.   This is especially effective when you’re conversing with existing clients that you’ve worked with through various write-for-pay-type websites.
2. Send your writing website to your clients. If the bid-for-work type website that you write for allows you to communicate directly with the buyer – absolutely include your website’s URL in the email or though the website’s contact form (if allowed by the website, of course).  If a buyer likes your work and they find your rates affordable, you’ll more than likely pick up a few direct clients which can help you to put more money in your pocket for each writing project.
3. Include your website’s URL with your writing work. If you write for a pay-for-performance type website and they allow either an “about the author” bio for each article or they allow you to create an “about the author” page – including your website’s URL here may very well net you some direct-paying clients.

Now, these are only a few ways that you can use to promote your writing website, but they’re sure-fire winners that don’t require any technical know-how.

Getting established is the key to making more money as a freelance writer

While there are some low-paying writing gigs that a new writer must take on initially as they enter the online writing field – you really don’t have to settle as a low-paid writer if you have moderate skills as a freelance writer or better.  Purchasing written content is a popular tactic that website owners use because the need for website content is very real; if you just take the time to establish yourself and then take the time to setup your own writing website – you can be on your way to better writing rates for less effort.

Questions about getting established as a writer?

If you have any questions about getting established as an online freelancer, please post your questions here.  I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have ASAP.

• When clients try to take advantage of writers
• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• Get Paid with No Writing Experience
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• Importance of revising and proofing your writing projects (get more clients)