Swabbin the Decks After Pirate Day

Well, me hearties, what a great Talk Like a Pirate Day it was. Just some numbers:
This post was dugg 997 times (as of right now) and received well over 6,500 unique visitors who left comments, rum and swill all over WriteNonsense - thank you, come again and please remember to keep digging my posts!

If you were wondering how the whole Talk Like a Pirate Day thing came about, check out Getting To Know Talk Like a Pirate Day at HoboTrashcan.com. It's a rousing good yarn. But now, moving on to today's post:

Getting Your Articles Published in Magazines (Trackback URL)
(Part 1 of Writing For Magazines)

Magazines are tricky customers, and it takes a lot of work to convince them to publish something you wrote. They only have so many pages, and they want to put the best articles they can in. However, magazines pay very well. You can expect to get anywhere from between $50 - $500, depending on the magazine and the length of your article.

Here are a few tips that will help you to get your articles published in magazines.

1. Don't Just Write!

Magazines won't print a random article anymore than they will print the ramblings of a lunatic. Call up the magazine, find out what their submission guidelines are. Ask them the following:

• What word counts are accepted (usually 300, 500, 1,000 etc)
• Are there any topics they need articles for? Magazines like to plan ahead and request articles accordingly
• Whom you should address your submission to. Often this is "The Editor", but try to find out a name as well.
• If there are any style requirements, such as how many quotes they prefer etc.
• How much they pay per word! (Magazines should offer you between $0.20 and $1 per word, so don't accept $20 for a whole article)

2. Familiarize Yourself With the Magazine

Get hold of as many copies as you can. See what kind of article gets featured, and ask someone how much of what you see on the page comes from the writer. Magazines might prefer to publish your article if you can provide a picture or a good sound byte. This will make it much easier to write magazine articles in the way they want.

Also: if you have old issues, check that the editor is still the same person! A new editor might like a different style entirely.

3. Write The Same Article 3 Times

This might sound tedious, but write it for all the word counts that the magazine publishes. This way you give them a choice. If you write a 1,000 word article and they like it, but not enough to give it the space, you won't be paid anything. If you include a 300 word shorter version they will usually be happy to publish this, or they might save your article for a later issue if it is not too topical.

4. Submit to the Competition

By this I mean send your articles to all the magazines that compete with the magazine you want to publish in. As long as they are the same style, at least one of them is bound to like your article.

5. Use Your Connections

Magazines love interviews because they really attract readers. What's more, they're hard to get. If you know an interesting person or a celebrity's nephew's friend from school, use that connection to get an interview!

Trade journals also publish interviews, so if your Uncle Bob is a well-respected restorer of antique furniture interview him. Send the article off to a few trade journals about antique furniture and you'll get back a $100 bill just like this one here (except not as blurry).

Related Posts:

• Part 2: How to Research a Magazine Article

Technorati Tag: Write for Magazine

Web Article Types You Should Be Good At

Freelance writing jobs are usually once-off article projects. A client will have a batch of articles for one website, and would prefer to have one freelancer do all of the articles rather than send them out to many different freelance writers. Because of this, people hiring writers will obviously want the person most qualified to do those types of SEO articles.

Here are a few categories of articles that you should learn to write. I recommend these because they come up often, and are often the most paid.

1. Travel Writing

Travel articles are possibly the most common type of web content you will write. If you can write good travel articles you can charge as much as $200 each for them. If you are just starting, expect between $5-$10 per article. The good news: they're usually short and very easy to do.

2. Technical Writing

Technical writing jobs are all over the place: You can find a lot of them on GetAFreelancer. The good news is that good technical writers and technical editors are as rare as hens' teeth. Learn how to write about something technical - anything - and try to broaden your range of subjects that you can write at a technical level on. Technical writing jobs pay very well once you are experienced.

3. Real Estate Article Writing

Everybody's trying to sell real estate, or they're trying to sell real estate investment guides. Being able to write real estate articles means you'll never be out of a job. Have a look at Deborah Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs board, because there are usually a lot of Craigslist jobs for real estate writers there

4. Medical Writing

Clinics, hospitals and websites that are trying to direct traffic to them are always in need of quality content. Most of the time they need general information about specific diseases, operations, equipment, facilities etc. Here, Wikipedia is your friend. Become a skilled at medical writing jobs and you could be making hundreds of dollars a day.

5. Website and Product Reviews

Believe it or not, writing product & site reviews is very lucrative. I did a bunch of 500 word reviews of sites for $12 a piece a few months back. When the project was over I had made a good few hundred dollars for about 3 days work. Here, humor is your friend. See More on Writing Reviews

Related Posts:

• How To Write 15 Minute SEO Articles


• 5 SEO Article Writing Tips


• How To Write SEO Articles


• Writing Well Paid Articles

Technorati Tag: Internet Copywriting

Review - Deborah Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs

There are a lot of blogs about writing, but one of them is actually useful. Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" is one of the elite online writing studios at WritersRow.com. Freelance Writing Jobs started as a blog about the writing life and a resource for writers, but it has grown into its own bustling community.

I first subscribed to Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" feed because of her incredible writing jobs board. What she does is she scans Craigslist for all the best freelance writing jobs that you can do online. She claims to never post any freelance writing jobs that pay less than $20 per article - and Deborah should know because she's one of the most well-paid freelance writers and reviewers around.

Apart from her writing jobs you can also find a selection of blogging jobs, as well as daily commentary on how to write better, make more money writing articles and where all the best writing gigs are to be found.

If you are an aspiring freelance writer or you want to perfect your trade, Deborah Ng's "Freelance Writing Jobs" is essential daily reading.

Technorati Tag: Deborah Ng

Writing SEO Articles that Make Money

SEO articles can go for anything from $2 to $25 each or more, but most of us seem to find ourselves working on the bottom end of this scale. Like any other industry, web content writing has vast earnings disparity. So what makes some article writers well paid, and others not?

Well, for starters, experience is worth a lot more in this industry than a qualification (although this helps). The best way to land a well paying writing project on GetAFreelancer or another writing site is to have relevant experience writing the type of articles the client needs. Here are 5 tips on how to be well paid for your writing:

1. Generalize
If someone offers you rectal cancer articles, do them. The next time a medical articles writing project comes up, you can bid high and claim relevant experience


2. Fewer clients, less money
Stick to 2 or 3 clients, and write articles for them for a few months. Good references will get you a long way


3. Focus on Quality
The better your web content and SEO articles are, the more you can charge people for them. The only way to increase your price is slowly


4. Promote Yourself
Tell people what you do, network, make business cards, start a blog - do whatever it takes to tell the world about your writing abilities.


5. Don't Sell Yourself Short
If you know your SEO articles are worth $10 each, don't bid lower than this. There will always be more projects going from clients who appreciate a highly skilled writer.

Writing Competition - Win Free Link

My previously mentioned Free Link Writing Competition is now on! Write me an article on just about anything you like, and submit it to me via email as a .doc attachment (no other attachment types will be opened).


Writing Competition Prizes:

First Prize: A banner link for one week on WriteNonsense, thereafter converting into a permanent link AND your article featured in the post after the close of the competition AND a neat little GIF saying you won the prize!
2nd Prize: A permanent link in my "Author's Resources" box and a 2nd prize GIF
3rd Prize: A reciprocal link and a 3rd prize GIF


Article Submission Guidelines:

There is no strict guideline as to content. Write about anything you like. Tell me a story, make a point, make me believe something. If you make me laugh, that'll go a long way. There are a few rules to keep the whole thing relevant and fair. Here they are:

Rules:

• Competition closes on Sunday 19th August, midnight GMT+2 (Paris Time)
  
• Articles to be between 400-600 words.
  
• No outbound links in articles
• No self-promotion or deliberate product advertising (you can mention products though)
  
• No websites will be linked to! Only blog owners need apply.
• To qualify your blog must have at least SOME relevance to writing, freelance writing, SEO, SEO articles, blogs and blogging etc.
• The 3rd prize winner will get a link as soon as I verify that a link to WriteNonsense is active
  
• All winners will have links to their submissions on their own pages published in the post announcing the end of the competition, in addition to other prizes.
• Articles, winning and non-winning, will not be used for any purposes other than this competition, and all rights will remain with the author.
  

Tell your friends about my competition - I want to see how many entries I can get!

Writing Competitions at Technorati

Write for Money at Helium

For those of you who haven't tried writing for Helium, I would definitely suggest you give it a bash. This site is different from a lot of freelance writing sites, in that you write articles that they want to publish, and they pay you for them!

All you have to do to get started is pick your categories and subcategories, and start writing. When you article is approved your account will be credited - simple as that. It's also a place where you can read articles on just about anything, so if you want to look something up, this is the place.

It's good to see a new generation of paid article sites coming up, and I really hope this one does well. It's about time people started making good money for writing about things they care about. Forget about those sites that pay you 50c per post, the best way to make money writing articles without going out and finding clients is on Helium.

Related Technorati Tags

Freelance Writing Site Review

I was recommended to a freelance writing site today that has totally blown my mind. Writer Lance is very much along the same lines as the much-more-famous GetAFreelancer but it is far broader in its scope of media.

Where GAF focuses on web content, ebooks, web developing and technical work, this is primarily a place for writers. The writing jobs on this site are mostly web content, but there is a lot of print media work available as well. What makes this site cool is that a lot of the writing work looks quite fun. There are a lot of humour pieces, jokes, poetry projects, writing competitions and such and such.

I know I focus mainly on SEO writing jobs, but this site has something for just about every kind of writer. I would say that if writing fast, easy web content for easy money is your thing, go to GetAFreelancer. If you want to write slightly more labour-intensive pieces that are a bit more gratifying, I would definitely suggest looking for writing jobs at WriterLance.

Freelance Writing Resources

Writing World - Review

To better serve my visitors who are looking for writing work I have decided to start regular reviews of freelance writing sites. The first on this list is www.writingworld.org.

I stumbled across this site by accident, and I notice that it's a little different from a lot of freelance writing sites out there. There is no signup, and you don't make any account. There is just a big job board where people post advertisements for writing jobs.

This works a lot like a classified ads paper. You have to send in your resume (or at least a professional email) to the company listing the writing jobs, and then they will respond privately. If you want to find a regular client who will give you constant writing jobs, this is the place to go.

It differs from GetAFreeLancer in that this puts you directly in contact with the original clients. The writing jobs up for grabs are pretty much permanent or semi-permanent positions, or they are large single projects like scripts or screenplays.

I always have a "why not" approach to applying for writing jobs, so I will keep an eye on this one. If you see something good on this board, by all means apply for it - the worst they can do is not hire you. There are several good jobs up at the moment, and I think this is a good site to find a single long term client to work for.

writing jobs

Why I Use Google for Damn Near Everything

Google has really come a long way since its inception. Most people still think of Google as a search engine, but to me the G-Men have a lot more to offer. For starters you might have noticed their little acquisition of a website called YouTube, which made instant multi-billionaires out of two punks just like yourself.

This has little effect on users of YouTube and Google, but the guys at Google have a lot more to offer. For starters, I use Gmail. This is the starting point most people use to create their Google accounts, and it gives you access to the best online email system by far, and all of the other cool G-stuff.

Next up, I use the iGoogle homepage as my script aggregator. If you subscribe to any feeds or posts using bloglines, technorati, digg or anything like that you can do it all easier and better on iGoogle. On my front page is my email, a currency converter, a to-do list a Wikipedia search bar, the weather and a George Bush quote generator, because he makes me laugh.

This is not the end, because I have 2 other tabs of feeds - one for blogs I like and have subscribed to, and another for tools like my instant .doc to .pdf converter (which is something I've been hunting after for a long time) and a few other gadgets that I use less often. It makes an excellent home page, and I can see what's going on in my little universe all of the time.

This is all pretty run of the mill stuff, but just go and check out the Google Products to see what they have available at the moment. It's all free and there is a lot of useful stuff. I would recommend the Google Pack (You can see a link to this on the right) if you want to protect your computer and keep everything running smoothly for free.

The most exciting bit of it all, though, is Google Labs. This is where they work on all of the cool stuff. Google Earth (the full 3D interactive map of the earth up to resolutions of a few centimeters) was one of the first graduates of the labs, but a lot of cool things are coming up. There is even a rumor of a complete Google Operating System coming being dreamed up, but this is unconfirmed.

I just have to say, you gotta love a company that gives its employees free foot massages and allows them to work on their own personal projects once a week, with full pay. You might love their search engine or hate it, but the cool stuff they are turning out is really worth a look.

Google Stuff

Write reviews like a Pro!

Review writing can be some of the most lucrative internet copywriting jobs you can find on GetAFreelancer, or anywhere else. Here are 5 tips on how to write reviews like a pro!

1. Know the required objectivity level

The client should specify this, but if not be sure to clarify how objective your review should be. If you are supposed to be plugging a site you obviously have to be nice about it and include the name of the site many times. If you can be totally objective, then it's time to have some fun...

2. Humour - the most powerful review writing tool

When you write reviews, try to make people laugh. Use funny comparisons like "The new iPhone's standard ringtones lack the charm of the elevator classics we all know and love..." If you don't know what a funny comparison sounds like, watch Top Gear.

3. Skip to the boring stuff

Don't waste time checking out all the cool features of whatever you are writing a review about. Scan through the FAQ and the terms and conditions. The FAQ will tell you about any problems users of that product, website etc experienced, and the T&C will tell you any hidden costs or snags that your readers should know about.

4. Bullet Points

According to my sources, bullet points are "back in". Use headings, numbered lists and bullet points to get important facts across, or to increase the impact of your jokes.

5. Be brief and give an opinion!

People read reviews to see what other people think about something they might buy or look at. State your case clearly in your review, and give a concise summary including your general opinion in the last paragraph.


So, if you use those five tips, your reviews should start earning you some good money. I currently make around $12 per 1000 review, but sometimes I get more. In terms of $/hour they are much more lucrative than SEO articles, but they require some actual constructive writing and thought.

If you think you are up to review writing, check out what review projects you can bid on at GetAFreelancer, or email me to see if I have any review work that you can get started on.


Read about review writing

Get paid for your writing

It sounds simple enough, but getting paid for your writing is not as easy as it sounds. Sending money by wire transfer internationally presents major headaches and significant costs, so most people make use of an online banking facility or "internet wallet". There are two free ones that stand out, and these are PayPal and Moneybookers.
Okay, so you've written your first SEO articles through GetAFreelancer, and your client wants to pay you. Chances are they will pay you straight into your GAF account, but they might offer to pay you via PayPal or Moneybookers. Either way, to withdraw money from your GAF account you must have one of these payment facilities.

I use Moneybookers for one main reason: they serve South Africa. Paypal is just as fast, and probably more widely supported, but they give you major hassles if you do not have a US bank account. You can check if your country is supported for withdrawals here. Moneybookers supports withdrawals wherever you are, and it is much easier to ad bank accounts, credit cards and debit cards than it is on PayPal. So to sum up the pros/cons of each:

Moneybookers - Withdraw wherever you are; easier to use/Used by fewer of your clients; slightly slower than PayPal.

PayPal - Used by almost everyone; instant/no withdrawals to many countries; more online merchant-oriented.

Both of these will take a few days, and charge a little bit (Moneybookers charges a flat rate of just over $2 per withdrawal) to send money to your local bank account, and both are more suited to spending money online than receiving it. Although, I find PayPal to be irritatingly consumer-driven while Moneybookers at least maintains the image of a professional financial service.

Things to remember:

1. Your first GAF transfer will take at least 15 days, and will go through on the Mon/Tues after this waiting period.
2. Withdrawals from Moneybookers/Paypal will take a few days, and cost some money. It's a financial service - learn to pay for these.
3. These facilities are entirely secure, and both of them are tighter than Fort Knox
4. You will need your bank's SWIFT code to add your account. Find your SWIFT code here.
5. GetAFreelancer will charge you $0.75 per withdrawal, and $5 per bid won - it's their cut and good for them for making money I say. Make sure you leave enough in your account to cover these fees or they will delay your payment until you have a positive balance!

Remember, be patient. It takes time to get started as a writer, and the money can be the most frustrating part in the beginning. My advice: don't start freelance writing with an empty bank account. It can take up to a month after completing your first project before you actually see the cash in your hand. Good luck and enjoy getting paid!

Read About Getting Paid