Digital Writer Success: How to Make a Living Blogging, Freelance Writing, & Publishing Online by Truex Leslie

Author:Truex, Leslie [Truex, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781633932142
Publisher: Koehler Studios, Inc.
Published: 2015-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Creating a Professional Writer Image

YOU NOW HAVE all the information and resources you need to get started as a freelance writer for online markets. If you haven’t been hired or sold an article yet, keep plugging away. I’ve discovered that freelance writing, like many work-at-home options, takes time to get up and running, but once you have a system, work will start coming in. Then you have to learn to manage your work and your time.

Getting Paid More

For many writers, their first jobs and article sales don’t pay very well, and that’s okay. You need to start somewhere, especially if you have no experience or clips. But writing is one of those skills that improve the more you do it, and as a result you should strive to earn more per piece.

Writing often involves a catch-22: You can’t get work without clips, but you can’t get clips without work. Writing online solves this problem because you can get low-paying writing jobs to get the experience and clips you need. With experience and clips, you have what you need to seek higher-paying gigs.

Finding Higher-Paying Jobs

There are several ways to earn more for your writing.

1. Write well with few edits. Many writing publications will increase pay for writers who can submit quality articles that don’t require many edits.

2. Leverage your certifications or degrees. Health writers tend to earn more because they’re required to have specialized education in medicine, nursing, nutrition, fitness, or other related health fields. Business and law also pay more on average. Find websites related to your field, certification, or degree and see if they hire writers.

3. Ask for more. If you’ve written several good articles with little to no editing, ask about getting paid a higher rate.

4. Search the writing job sites for better jobs. You can use the resources provided in Appendix C to find jobs.

5. Contact websites directly about writing opportunities. Writers read. When you’re reading online for work or pleasure, see if the site hires freelance writers. For example, if you love trains, know a lot about trains, and visit train websites, email the sites and ask if they use freelance writers.

6. Join LinkedIn. When it comes to finding work, a great place to network is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is all about work, networking, referrals, and expanding your career.

When seeking higher-paying jobs, submit the same high quality resume, application, and samples as you were taught in Chapter Nine, but this time also include your clips. If you’re writing a lot, don’t be afraid to tell potential employers the number of articles you’ve written. For example, I’ve written over 300 articles for LIVESTRONG. Of course, I’m not going to give a link to all 300, but sometimes I like to mention it because it sounds impressive, especially if I want to write health and fitness articles for another source.

The same is true with clips. If you only have a couple of clips, list them all. But if you have more than five, pick the ones with topics that match the media source you want to write for and are your best writing samples.

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