Why Professional Writers Write for Pennies: A History of Recent Journalism Trends

 

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

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We Are What We Create

As a writer, your name is your "brand", and what you create is what people are going to identify that brand with. Do you want to be a "name brand", or do you want to be known for neurotic ramblings?

I apologize if my label of less formal writings seems a bit harsh, but it really is what you are putting forth to all the world when you write such things. You are what you write. You are all that you create. Someone who knows you only through your writings will know only that which you create, and to them, that is what you will be.

That is not to say you cannot create anecdotal writings that tell the events of a day, or a particular occurrence in your life. However, if they are not put forth in an interesting manner, who is to say they will be read at all. If you put forth only myopic drivel, even when it is read, people are far less likely to read your work again, unless you made it interesting the first time.

This is something you should remember in each and every piece you write, even if it is only a brief post. You never know which piece of your work will be the first one that a particular reader reads. You should endeavor to make each and every one count, and represent you at your best as a writer.

So, if you must tell the story of how your aunt came over for dinner last night, or how you had a bout of road rage on the way home; at least make it the most epic piece of story telling you can possibly put forth. This, and only this will make your readers care about such things enough to give you a second read.

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