Online Freelance Writing: Why I Do It

It's Not Just About the Money

by A.L. Woods, Staff Writer

As a freelance writer, my income success is fully dependent upon the frequent and consistent generation of content, whether it is in the form of blog posts, articles, books, deliverables for private clients, or whatever. In addition, it's important that I strategically diversify my income streams by writing for a variety of sites, owning and operating my own blogs, and taking on work assignments from a broad range of clients. When the field of online freelance writing was brought to my attention I thought that it might be a way to diversify in a new and different way.

When researching new writing gigs recently I stumbled across a variety of online sites that appealed to me. Actually I'd set up profiles with a few of them a few years back but never did anything with them. I also have a friend who has been a contributor for one of the more well-known sites for many years who has written an impressive volume of articles on assignment in the area of Business and Finance.

Long story short, I started claiming assignments and generating my own article ideas a couple of weeks ago, and to my delight all of them have been accepted thus far. I'm very excited about the idea of getting paid to write on topics that I enjoy, but beyond this there are three important reasons that I've chosen online freelance writing as one of my revenue streams.

I write for the exposure.

Online freelance writing can garner the savvy and well-written writer a worldwide audience. Due to the nature of their writing assignments not all sites give a byline, but the ones that do make it possible for me to have the potential to gain both new clients and new readers of not only the articles that I'm writing but of the books that I've written. This is self-promotion at its finest and easiest.

I write for fun.

I'm finding that after a long day of writing longer and more detailed deliverables, articles, blog posts, books, etc., for my offline clients, the topics that I write for my online writing sites are both relaxing and fun. Because I get to create my own article ideas the added bonus is the fact that I have the creative freedom to inject my personal authentic voice into what I write. My readers truly get to know me on a more in-depth basis.

I write to network.

The community forums at my online writing sites are outstanding. The vets there are very helpful and willing to answer any questions that I may have, and the Community Guides are quick and responsive. I'm forming new connections and have found many talented writers whose work I enjoy. I also have the opportunity to receive constructive feedback on my work while reciprocating the same.

In short, I'm finding that I love online freelance writing more and more each day. My online sites have been a lovely addition to my ever growing roster of writing gigs, and I look forward to enjoying a mutually profitable relationship with them for many years to come.

*Photo: Adikos via Flickr


[Originally published on Yahoo! Voices on 05/29/2014 (no longer published there).]

Writing for the Web: The Four Major Lessons That I've Learned

by A.L. Woods, Staff Writer

As a child, when I dreamed of one day becoming a professional writer, my vision always included writing books, writing for magazines, or writing for newspapers. Little did I know that when the smoke cleared that my primary writing venue of choice would be the Web. Here are four major lessons that I've learned since I started writing for the Web.

1. Web writing is a whole other animal from offline writing. The biggest thing that surprised me when I first started writing in this genre was how different it was from writing offline. In fact, I needed to reference an industry-specific style guide in order to create effective content. I found that articles needed to be more concise, that it was important that the formatting allowed the reader's eye to flow, and that interactive context, e.g., hyperlinking to information sources, videos, and photos, was essential for the completion of a good article.
2. Don't get fancy with headlines. I've always been a very creative writer, especially in the area of titling my work. I was very surprised to find that SEO (search engine optimization), i.e., writing headlines that readers could find easily when doing searches through the search engines through the judicious use of keywords, held a slightly higher importance than plays on words to make headlines more interesting. Don't get me wrong; you do want the headline to appeal to the reader. There's just a slight tipping of the scales in the direction of the search engines for your keyword use.
3. Break it up. Formatting is a very important element in writing for the Web. As a writer, you must always keep in the back of your mind that the text should be broken up in such a manner that the reader doesn't feel like he's looking at a huge chunk of block text. This can be accomplished by utilizing paragraphing, bullet points, numbering, subheadings, etc. Bolding and italics can also help with the visual flow of your piece.
4. Create original content, but incorporate other ideas. As in offline writing, one of the mantras of online writing is that you should create original content. The additional proviso in web writing is that while creating this content you should incorporate other ideas and sources of information into your piece by hyperlinking to and citing the sources of your thought content.

Even though I initially had a slight learning curve while adjusting to the differences in style between print writing and web writing, I found that with practice and diligent study of online writing style guides, such as the Yahoo Style Guide, that I was able to transition into this area of writing without much difficulty. If you're considering writing for the Web as a career, you should be able to do it too. It's just a matter of adapting what you already know into the documented style that's been found most effective, entertaining, and educational for online readers.

Sources:
NYU.edu: Writing for the Web
Mashable.com: 7 Best Practices for Improving Your Website's Usability
Macmillan Publishers: Yahoo! Style Guide
Personal experience
 

*Photo: Juha Siltala via Flickr

[Originally published on Yahoo! Voices on 06/27/2014 (no longer published there).]

The Disadvantages of Being a Web Writer

by A.L. Woods, Staff Writer

Much has been written about the benefits of being a web writer. I should know -- I've written many of those articles. However, there are always two sides of the coin. Let me share a few of the disadvantages of being a web writer with you.

Money

As web writers, we have to be very selective about the clients we accept. There are a plethora of folks out there who want Cadillac-quality writing for hoopty-level pricing. The same work that we do for low pay is the same work that if carried out for premium clients will net premium pay. Always position your mindset so that you're consistently pursuing higher paying markets as your skillset evolves.

Clients

As an extension of what I wrote above, there are tons of folks out there who would be happy to allow you to write a 500-word article for $5, or, even worse, for free. Don't do it! If you are confident that you're bringing value-based article creation to your clients, then price yourself accordingly. Be fair, but be fair to both sides of the equation: to both your client(s) and you.

Marketing

I don't think that it's a stretch to say that most web writers are self-employed. As such, we don't have the luxury of just firing up the computer each morning, finishing up the work that's in our queue, and signing off for the evening. We must constantly be on the lookout for new sources of work. Whether it's new online writing sites, private clients, or even our own blogs and online properties, we must constantly be pitching ourselves in order to acquire new clients and new markets.

If we maintain our own income-producing online properties, we must always be consistently branding and promoting ourselves on a variety of social media in order to not only attract new readers, but to connect on a deeper level with those who already follow our work.

Benefits

Again, most of us are self-employed, so we don't have an automatic benefits package as part of our work life. We must purchase our benefits, such as health insurance, on our own, and these types of benefits usually are more expensive for self-employed individuals than for those who work as employees.

Because we operate on 1099 income we don't have an employer to deduct money for our taxes out of our paychecks each pay period, so we must be certain that we set aside at least 30% of our income to hedge against the tax bill that is sure to come on April 15^th. Along with this, self-employment tax bills out at a higher rate than traditional employment tax.

Finally, we must think of our retirement and have financial vehicles in place to prepare for that season of our life. If we don't take care of this it won't get taken care of and we may find ourselves in an unhappy financial quandary in our old age.

Conclusion

Despite all of the above, if I had to do it over again, I would still choose web writing as one of my primary genres in which to write. The lifestyle associated with it offers a freedom, flexibility, fulfillment, and income potential that I never found in traditional 9-to-5 employment.

Any other web writers out there? What disadvantages have you discovered during your time in the field?

*Photo: Ryan Hyde via Flickr

[Originally published on Yahoo! Voices on 06/26/2014 (no longer published there).]