After writing a review of some of the myriad websites that claim to pay people to write for them, I have learned that there are, as you can imagine, a ton of them. Most, if not all, for the purposes of making a consequential amount of money are relatively crooked. Writing for these programs is like trying to make your millions in an MLM (Multiple Level Marketing): you work and you work and all your doing is making the guy at the top richer than he already is.
Every freelance writer should keep a product in mind they would like to develop, whether it is a book, an information product, website, or even (though I wouldn't recommend this as a first choice) someone else's product. Somewhere along the line you are going to want your standing in the communities you are active in and all the meticulous SEO and backlinking you have done to culminate into something, and that's where your product comes in. Trust me, all your hard work, all your hours of coffee guzzling and keyboard slapping will NOT pay off if you only have ten cents a month from a WebAnswer to "How to best remove a bandaid". I can, with almost complete certainty, guarantee you it will not happen for you like this.
Blogging and article writing should be the means to getting recognized and connected, not the end itself. Writing, commenting, and networking puts you on the map: a little blot of land in a giant sea of people who aren't you. Some people begin to recognize you as an expert in your field of focus, or at least take notice that you exist and occasionally have something worth saying. These people, your followers on Twitter and fiction writing group on LinkedIn, will help you more later on than you can imagine. Because to those people, what you say has value, and by gaining their respect, you will also have a warm audience to present your product or service to when the time comes.
This is the power of social networking, but do not fall into the errors that so many writers fall into thinking that it is the be-all-end-all of anything, much less a career. And I cannot stress enough that social networking is a tool and NOT A MARKETING PLAN! A marketing plan will involve many circumstances and many people on different levels depending upon the product or service you market. A marketing plan to sell hemp jewelry out of your trunk should vary greatly from a plan to market an information product through affiliates and independent contractors. One effects what people have on their wrist, while another could change the lives of the people who buy your advice or sell your your product. There is a different level of responsibility and impact you have between asking someone to wear your necklace and telling someone what to do to be successful or make money.
I don't want to paint a drearly picture of article writing, but looking to it as an end goal for producing income just isn't realistic. I want you, the writer, the reader, to know that it is important step in establishing oneself as a professional. It also serves as a useful marketing tool in too many ways to consider listing here. But most importantly it is keeping us writing. Good writers must write. A lot. There is simply no replacement for practice and experience. And when it does come time to tackle a bigger hurdle, to mount a bigger project, those who have kept writing in the meantime will have a truly better chance of succeeding in a project that clearly mirrors who they are creatively and professionally.
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