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

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

How to Get Well Paid Writing Jobs

We all know they're out there: writing jobs that pay in excess of $50 per article. But how do you find article writing jobs like this? Well, the first thing you need to know is that $50 articles are not exactly all over the place. There is little chance of finding a regular supply of several of these articles a day, at least at first.

The best-paid articles are usually for magazines. These don't have to be famous magazines - I did one the other day on an auctioneer for a lesbian lifestyle magazine. And the best part is, you don't even have to go to the magazines to find the work.

All you have to do is find a client who can get this type of writing work. I found one at GetaFreelancer, but you could look on any of the other good writing jobs sites like WriterLance.

Of course, to get well paid writing jobs you have to prove you're worth the money. Find a client who says they are interested in doing magazine and high profile work, and then try to help them find it. Chances are they have a much better chance of getting the gig than you do as a beginner, and you get the experience and most of the money for your articles in the end.

If you want to try find the jobs yourself, have a look at Deborah Ng's writing jobs board - this is where I scout for high-priced jobs for my clients if I want more of this type of work.

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Remember to sign up with Agloco before the first quarter payout to get paid for your surfing hours in cash and shares of a large cap dot.com company!

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How to Get Into Internet Copywriting

There are a lot of ways to get into internet copywriting, but I'm going to tell you how I did it. It worked out pretty well if I don't say so myself.

Step 1 - Join GetAFreelancer

Once you have a bit of confidence, sign up to this site. If you have the chance, try to work for a local company or a friend first, so you can do as few or as many articles as you like to get practice.

I know there are a lot of other writing jobs boards out there, but this is pretty much the biggest. You have to sift through a lot of low-paid writing gigs, but there are some really good article writing jobs in there all the time.

Step 2 - Find a Client

Look for a job post that looks like the buyer is wanting a long-term relationship. Send them private messages, see if they sound like the kind of person you'd like to work for. Bid on their projects (how to bid) and charm the pants off them. Try to find 2 or 3 such people, but don't just accept any projects that come along.

Step 3 - Build a Relationship with your Client

Work hard for your clients, take on any projects they need you to, and sooner or later they will reward you with more highly paid writing jobs. I find that this is a sure fire way to get the best price for your articles without the resources to market yourself, and with little writing experience.

I guarantee that if you follow these steps within 2-3 months you will be commanding at least $5 per article, and from there's not much limit. There are articles out there waiting to be written that people will pay $50-$100, but you have to prove that your articles are worth that much first.

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SEO Copywriting - What is this stuff?

SEO Copywriting involves quite a few different things. People who offer SEO copywriting services offer more than just SEO articles that are written to feature certain keywords prominently. It can involve heading formatting, small descriptions etc. Large pages of text are simply not suitable for certain pages. So where do our SEO articles end up?

A lot of websites use SEO copywriting services to flesh out their pages, because text written with SEO guidelines in mind guarantees better search engine rankings. If a novice website owner wrote their own text without being aware of SEO writing techniques, they would end up without any rankings. Whereas many SEO techniques gain and lose effectiveness as search engines like Google change their algorithms, large pages of keyword optimized text always gets the same results.

Other times our articles wind up in an article directory. People pay good money for quality articles written with keywords in mind that link back to their site. These articles get a lot of traffic, and then so does their site. Writing these articles can sometimes be more difficult, but this kind of writing work will pay you well.

For those of us who make money writing SEO articles, it is important to find writing jobs that pay well. You can find good SEO writing work on GetAFreelancer or at RentACoder. At RentACoder you can find a LOT more writing jobs that pay well. Another good place to bid on writing jobs is WriterLance, which works similarly to GetAFreelancer.

If you want tips on how to get writing work that you will be well paid for, read my posts on how to find writing work on GetAFreelancer, and on how you can get paid for your writing online.

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

Writing Jobs at WriteNonsense

I have received several requests recently about writing jobs that I might have to offer. If anyone has noticed, I have two or three features on my blog that allow you to find writing jobs easily -- without shelling out any money first.

I have writing jobs available for my South African readers at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to offer projects to international writers soon, but I cannot give any time frame for this. My reason for this is that the rates I could offer overseas writers are not really worth the trouble. (Unless you live in India, or another country whose currency is weak against the dollar) You can email me to find out what writing jobs I have available at the moment.

For my international readers who really want to get started writing for money, I would suggest looking at the writing jobs on GetAFreelancer. These are the most recent internet copywriting jobs that have been posted. For information on how to join GetAFreelancer, bid on projects and win them, see my post here about how to do it.

If you want to get work through GetAFreelancer, you will need either a Moneybookers or a PayPal account so you can get money out of GAF. There are a lot of other internet copywriting job posts, but this is the one that comes most highly recommended. I use it and I can tell you it is a really easy way to get jobs. You usually end up getting long term clients who supply you with a comfortable flow of work, and that's your ideal situation as a freelance writer.

So, if anyone is looking for online writing work, drop me a line. If I can't help you out I can point you in the right direction. The "Helium needs you to write" ad on the right isn't kidding - they want writers and they pay you in perpetuity! So check it out, write some articles for them and watch your writing earn money!

Writing Jobs