Do professional writers REALLY write for pennies??? Why, yes. Yes we do. We just earn a lot more pennies than those who don't strive to be professional in their writing.
The trick to writing successfully for the web is to BE PROFESSIONAL.
It all started back in the days when print was king. Many of us could earn on average $450 per article writing for major publications in the 1990s. Some writers earned more--much more. Of course, we had to write 1,000 words or more to earn our lofty fee, as well as sometimes produce or pay for professional images, but it was well worth the time and effort.
Then the internet took the world by storm, followed by iPads and smart phones. Large newspapers and magazines--some of which had been around for 150 years or more--began to go out of business.
In addition to writing for several local newspapers and national magazines, I published a local monthly magazine for gospel music in Nashville from 1992 to 2008. I held on as long as I could, but eventually the print version went out of business. It just could not compete with instant news at your fingertips. The web version celebrated 20 years in 2012, and I do earn some pennies from Google ads and Amazon writing for myself, but I learned I could earn more pennies writing for other sites as well.
During the two years proceeding my own paper's demise, all TEN of the publications which I wrote for on a regular business went out of business, so suddenly, there were a ton of very professional writers on the market: writers, editors and publishers competing for fewer and fewer remaining jobs in print. Some went into other businesses. Some lost everything. And some of us learned how to successfully write for pennies. Pennies turn into dollars, you know.
I don't earn as much as I did when I was paid $450 an article... on second thought, sometimes I do. Some months I only published two or three print articles, and some months I have earned over $1000 writing for the web part-time. As mentioned in a previous post, I have been especially successful earning money writing for Examiner.com.
There are definite pluses to writing for the internet. For one thing, it is easier to write for the web. Internet articles usually only have to be 150 to 400 words long as opposed to 1,000 or more for print. For another, writing for several sites I now have my pick of topics and am not locked in to the specific columns I had to write before. In addition, I have chosen to write for sites where I earn residuals as long as I keep writing or checking in, so I am still earning those pennies on all the articles I have written for the web.
The trick to writing successfully for the web is to BE PROFESSIONAL and write about things that will interest more than just your close circle of friends. No one but your mother wants to read what you had for breakfast or how your toaster is working. Sure you can do that on your personal blog if you want, but you won't attract readers beyond your friends that way. If your friends give you enough page views to live on reading what your toaster is doing, more power to you!
You don't have to have an extensive background in journalism to be successful, but it helps to follow basic standards of quality so you can build your brand and your readership.
Here are a few articles that may help.
Writing Tips:
- Writing Tip: How to Write Good Articles for Content-Driven Web Sites
- Writing Tip: Landing Pages - Good Technique or Annoying 'Bait and Switch?
- Writing Tip: How to Write a Basic Press Release to Get Articles and Blogs Noticed!
- Writing Tip: Keyword Stuffing is NOT SEO
- Journal Posts & Discussions vs. Articles
- Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement: Thou Shalt Not Steal
- The Dyslexic Writer - a Journalist Coping with Dyslexia
- We Are What We Create
Thank you for reading and thank you for sharing the link to this article with others. This article is © Kathryn Darden, all rights reserved, and is not available to repost on websites, blogs, discussion boards, Facebook, or to translate and post elsewhere without written permission.
Post ID KD214
Ah, I sometimes miss the days of writing for print. I only wrote for a small local entertainment paper, but I got to review local bands, so it was fun, and the pay was not bad. Still, I do like the wider audience afforded by writing online, so perhaps it evens out.
ReplyDeleteYour article is much more polite than the one I wrote last night. I think I called the "what I had for breakfast" type of writing "myopic drivel"!
Yet another great article, Kathyrn! Perhaps people will listen if we keep it up! ;)
Thanks so much, Laurie. And I did a lot of what you did back in the day, Laurie. When I say I wrote for local papers, that's the kind of thing I got to do. I loved it. But I agree today's audience is broader, thanks to the web. "Myopic drivel" is as good a term as any for some of what I have seen! If the drivel fits...
DeleteHey, I linked to one of YOUR great articles from this one, by the way.
My favorite line is " We just earn a lot more pennies than those who don't strive to be professional in their writing." Content is no longer king on the Internet. Quality content is now in charge.
ReplyDeleteGreat line: "Quality content is now in charge." So true!
DeleteI love this we could spin of each other... LOL and make great topics for articles... I do appreciate you Kathryn.
ReplyDeleteThanks, SM. A little discussion never hurt anyone as long as no one is rude or mean spirited. But I would really like all of us--myself included--to continue striving to improve and to build a really good platform here to help us all earn more pennies!
DeleteI never knew much about the print industry, so this was a great read. I hope for more professional and well-written posts here, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nicole. Print is what I grew up on! As we all improve and make this a more professional site, we will reap the benefits of better traffic and more readers which in turn will mean more page views and more money earned.
Delete"What do you mean my rate for a photo has gone up? I was published in a local magazine not syndicated by Time Magazine!" Ah yes, I remember those days. And I don't miss them.
ReplyDeleteHa! I know what you mean about the photos. Now that I am finally earning a regular decent income from writing, I no longer miss print...as much...but I sure did miss it those first few years! Talk about some lean years!
DeleteYou seem like a really good writer. I can't write long articles so I can't make as much as you, but I try. That's why I like the 150 word minimum here, even though I have a hard time reaching it sometimes lol.
ReplyDeleteDavid, one reason I like Examiner is my articles there only have to be 150 words. I actually prefer shorter articles, so there is definitely a place for articles of 150 words. See my article at: http://preferredwriters.blogspot.com/2014/02/earning-money-writing-for-examinercom.html
DeleteBut the truth is, if you can write 150 words, you can add an introduction, some details, and a conclusion and hit 300 words easily. I have been doing that at Seekyt where I am moving a ton of reviews from Bukisa. To freshen the articles so they are not identical to the Buksa ones which I cannot remove right now, I am adding an intro, some details and a conclusion.