In the last post I covered the basic information about becoming a freelance writer and the first method to profit from writing articles. If you are just joining us, the previous post contained information about starting an article writing service to provide content to interested individuals for a profit. The methods I will be covering from here on out are much simpler and very easy to get started. You will be able to better your writing skills, have your articles critiqued by other readers and earn money on the content you produce. There will also be opportunities for you to write for clients that are already in need of content, so stay tuned to upcoming posts to get all the details.
The second method I will cover is submitting articles to publishing sites. A publishing site is a website that will publish your articles to be read and possibly purchased by others for a fee that you designate. Some publishing sites will pay you an upfront fee to place the article, and then if it is purchased you will be paid according to how much you stated you want for that particular article. You can usually pick any topic you like and write whatever you want, as long as you use good spelling, grammar, punctuation and structure in the article. A few great publishing sites are AssociatedContent.com, Helium.com and Ehow.com.
What you need to do is go to the website you want to write for (as I said, I use all of these), sign up for a free account, go through the website and get familiar with it and then start writing and submitting content. Make sure to read the submission guidelines before submitting any article so that you know it adheres to the guidelines for each site.
AssociatedContent.com is a site that allows you to write about whatever you like, but you must follow the guidelines for article submission. You will be given the option to set a price for purchasing rights to the article if someone may be interested to do so. You earn upfront payments for the articles submitted and you also earn performance incentives based on how many views the articles get. You can invite new writers for additional income if you like, but the main goal is to submit and earn money on your articles. The more you write and the better you get at it, the more money you will make. The key is to write as much as possible, but make it quality work so you have the option of making additional money if someone is interested in purchasing the article. They also have a list of open orders or calls for content that you can write for individuals needing content for a certain price.
Helium.com is a website that gives you a list of available channels (topics available to write about). You select from the list the channel you want, then you will have the available titles in that channel to select from. Once you select your channel, you write your article and submit it for publishing. Helium does offer upfront payments also, but you have to be consistent in submitting articles because the upfront payments are based on writing and rating stars that you have. The way it works is you sign up for your account, get familiar with the site (definitely read the tutorials and get started information to know exactly how everything works), and write and submit articles. They give you a scale to show you how many articles you need to write to receive a writing star, and with one writing star you qualify for upfront payments. The rating stars are similar to the writing stars except to will read and rate articles written by other writers on the site. This means that every article you submit will also be rated by other readers, which will help you become a better writer. Write and rate articles as much as possible to make sure that you maintain at least one writing and one rating star at all times. This is not hard at all, just be consistent with it and you will build them up. The more writing stars and rating stars you have the more you will make for upfront payments and for other monthly incentives. They also offer many informational articles and services that will help you better your skills as a writer, so this site is really my favorite out of all of these. I write and submit more to this one than the others currently, but plan to try to write more often so I can submit consistently to all three. This is how you will build up your earnings, so remember stay CONSISTENT.
The last of the three that I am going to cover is Ehow.com. This website is just like the other two except you write how to articles on anything and everything under the sun. You can write about "How to fix a perfect bubble bath" or "How to tie your shoes properly", as long as you write it in a how to article format and follow the submission guidelines. You can earn money based on article performance on this site and there are opportunities for you to write on certain topics and have your article shown on the home page for a payment of usually about $10. How great is that. You write on whatever you want and submit it to start earning you money. The better quality your work is the better your earnings will be.
Now that I have covered the publishing sites, lets go over some basics that you need before getting started. Make sure you set up your account and get familiar with the sites (I know it may take a little time to read through everything, but it really does help, trust me.) Take some time and come up with some topics you would like to write about by visiting some of the article directories I mentioned in the last post or looking through each of these sites for ideas. Make sure just to check out titles so that you do not copy any of the work from the articles unknowingly while you are writing because your articles have to be original content. Once you have the topic, jot down some ideas to expand on different aspects of your topic. When you have done this, you are pretty much ready to start writing. You want to make the articles easy to read, and not too long. Make sure to separate the article into paragraphs so the article is cut into sections (this makes it easier to read because it seams shorter with small paragraphs as opposed to one large mass of information...have you ever gotten bored reading something like this...I know I have). Include interesting information, but don't expand so much that you go off topic for a paragraph or two because you want the article to be relevant to what the title is or the specific topic you selected. The more you write the better you will get and the more money you will make, so have fun with it and don't stress about it. You don't have to be an expert, and you don't have to sound like one. I hate reading articles that use tons of words that I don't understand...most times the writer probably doesn't either, so don't try to sound like an expert. Just make sure you research the topic to find enough facts to explain or support your topic and present it in a professional but understandable and easy to read fashion.
If you have trouble with this or you would like specific questions answered just let me know. In the next post I will be covering information on blog posting to earn money, so stay tuned for all the details.
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