This is a guest post I specifically requested from Sharon Hurley Hall so that she could share her experience and knowledge with all of my readers who aspire to make a living from writing.
I’ve been teaching people about writing for about 11 years, offline at first, then, for the past 6 years, online through my writer mentoring blog. And there’s one consistent message that I’ve given throughout that time: getting paid to write (or getting paid to blog) is about more than just the writing. There are a lot of other factors that determine whether you get writing and blogging gigs and how successful you are, and you can stack the odds in your favour.
Develop Writing Skills
Let’s get the question of writing skills out of the way first, though. You may already be a great writer or you may have some way to go. I believe that anyone who is willing to put in the time to learn writing and self-editing skills can write competently. (Exquisitely is a different matter.) I’ve got the experience of teaching hundreds of journalism students to back up that belief. Find examples of good writing, learn the building blocks of the type of writing you want to do, discover how to structure articles, write appealing headlines and bring writing to life, and you stand a fair chance of doing well on paid writing gigs. But, since there are tens of thousands of writers worldwide, you need more …
Build A Professional Platform
One of the best pieces of advice I got was to get a website to showcase my writing. It’s a piece of advice I’ve passed on often over the years. A domain name doesn’t cost much, and there are plenty of options online for creating a free website mapped to that domain. Trust me, it will be the best $10 (or less) you ever spent. Make sure your site says who you are. (If you have the money, spring for a professionally crafted about page). Ensure that it lists your skills, provides a portfolio, states rates (if you want) and has an easy way for potential clients to contact you. My very first professional writer website started with four pages. It was basic, but it had enough info to win me some clients. You need clients if you are going to get paid to write. If you’re targeting offline clients, then get yourself a business card from Vistaprint or somewhere similar.
Use SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for two reasons. First, it will help potential clients to find your writer platform. Second, it’s a service you can offer to clients to help improve traffic to their business. Let me be clear: I don’t mean keyword stuffing and spammy link building. I’m talking about including helpful terms in your content. Think of SEO as Match.com for writers and clients – it brings them together by using common terms. Learn where to place your keyword phrases for maximum effect and use research tools like the Google Keyword tool to identify relevant keywords. SEO could be a whole post on its own, but check out this knol by Aaron Wall for the basics. And if you want to build links, remember that it’s about building trust first.
Market and Promote Your Writing
When you start out as a new writer or blogger, only your family and friends know you’re there. No-one else, and it’s up to you to change that. That’s where marketing and promotion come in. There are dozens of ways you can promote yourself, both online and offline, but here’s what’s worked for me:
- Social media – when I started freelancing, this wasn’t even on the radar, but I now consider it an essential part of running my writing business. The people I interact with on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are friends, a supportive community and professional contacts all rolled into one. We share writing and blogging opportunities with each other, help answer technical questions and provide listening ears for triumphs and tribulations. My key tip for using social media to make your presence felt is: be present. Don’t be afraid to communicate and share – that’s what makes it social. Some of my contacts have brought me work, but that wasn’t how it started.
- Referrals & Testimonials – be obsessive about collecting feedback for your work and promote that feedback on your site and wherever it will do you most good. I have a testimonials tag on my professional blog and that’s linked in the navigation menu. When clients visit my site, they can see the last 7 pieces of feedback I got from clients. That does more to sell my writing services than anything else. I also encourage clients to pass my name on to others, which has brought me lots of new business over the years.
Choose Opportunities Wisely
When you’ve done all this, and have clients banging on the door, the final step is to be selective about what you do. Work out how much money you need to earn (make sure to keep track of it as it comes in) and which areas you feel comfortable writing about. The freelance writing community disagrees about how writers should get into writing. Some believe that you have to take low paid jobs and work your way up; others that you start as you mean to go on. I’ve done both and getting paid more is definitely better. But – and it’s a big but – if you have no experience, no one will pay you big money unless you can show you have the necessary writing skills. That’s where a professional platform and good marketing really pay off, bringing us full circle.
Over To You
I could talk about this all day, but I’ll stop here and ask you: what are your questions about getting paid to write and blog. Ask me in the comments; I promise to answer. 🙂
Sharon Hurley Hall has almost 25 years of experience writing professionally – as a journalist, an academic writer, a blogger, a ghost writer and an online copy writer. She is the author of a Kindle ebook titled Getting Started in Blogging and has been running Get Paid To Write Online since 2005 to help other writers improve and build sustainable and successful writing careers. You can also find Sharon on Twitter and Facebook.
Sharon Hurley Hall
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Awesome! Thank you for taking time posting this blog. It gives everyone some tips and encourage them to take every opportunities to earn.
There’s some really helpful tips here Sharo. Thank you for sharing. I’ve been writing SEO content for the last two years or so, but I still have to work on building a private client base and I’m sure the tips mentioned here will help me do that.
Fantastic post.
I am working on building up my writing career, so it is wonderful to see the useful steps in growing – and being able to check a few of those off! It helps to build confidence that I’m heading in the right direction. I look forward to reading more of your work and learning more about how I can actually get paid for doing what I love.
I just want to share that you can actually earn a lot of money at odesk.com if you write very well. You can be a freelancer writer and writer articles for SEO purposes.
Hey Sharon,
Great I just got your email, I will respond shortly. Thank you for the quick reply.
just a follow up because I just noticed the keyword name for the commentluv premium looked funny. I don’t “offer” Debt Settlement Scams 🙂 I warn consumers about them 🙂
Just wanted to be clear. ha ha
Damon Day would love you to read ..Credit Solutions of America sends me a Cease and Desist Letter
Hi Damon,
Thank you. I’m still trying to find the perfect wording to use and yours is the first one that REALLY doesn’t work with “who offers”. I wonder if “who covers” would work. I’ll be changing it.
growmap would love you to read ..Top Marketing Blogs on GrowMap Reading List
Hey Gail,
No worries, it actually made me laugh 🙂
Don’t change it on my account. Most of my key words would actually work like Debt Advice.
That just happened to be a specific one I did for my Friend Jeff Rose’s blog and wanted to promote it.
Damon would love you to read ..Freedom Debt Relief Reviews. Did they Mislead the FTC?
Great post! Very valuable information.
English is not my first language so I have to work on it a bit more.
But English is one of the easiest languages to master.
I would never write in Dutch (my mother language) because the grammar rules are so complicated, but not as complicated as French or even worse…German.
Thanks for all this great information. I am just beginning and haven’t even gotten my first client yet. I also write non-fiction stories and am developing a children’s book.
I am glad you mentioned about having a site referencing your writing. I still have to do this, but have been told how important it is.
Looking forward to reading more from your pen/computer. LOL Sally
Sally Brown would love you to read ..A Poem To Brighten Your Day!
I am new in this writing business. Its a good way to earn huge amount of money. Thanks a lot for sharing a nice piece of instruction.
I also look at a writer’s personality when I hire one. I believe that personality is directly proportional to the quality of work.
It’s funny, I used to write fiction, short stories etc. just for amusement. Then I started trying to build websites many years ago and failed miserably! The only part I liked was writing the articles. I joined an online agency and won some clients, and after a year had enough clients to earn a reasonable living. All of my clients are internet/affiliate/niche/network marketers and after building a relationship with them, they have all given me enough tips to start some successful blogs and sites of my own.
Being able to write fiction lets me think outside the box when I am writing on a difficult subject, as long as the keywords are in there enough times, my clients love my unusual approach to weird subjects.
As the internet gets bigger, there will be an increasing number of opportunities for good writers. If you want to work from home I find it the perfect occupation.
Karen would love you to read ..Need a Writer?
I don’t know that I have the skills to write on a professional level even though I can blog successfully. I would imagine I would have to get back to the basics and study a little bit. Either way, this sounds very interesting.
SandraG would love you to read ..Job Application for Mcdonalds – Apply the Smart Way
Sounds to me like you’re already half way there if you can blog, Sandra.
I’ve been writing for quite a few years, first as a technical writer and increasingly as an opinion writer. I’ve found that making a name for yourself as an author requires personality – and you have to get your personality to shine through so you can be recognised.
Personality certainly helps, James! 🙂
Sharon,
Thank you for the wisdom you are sharing. I have your ideas encapsulated in my notebook and will visit your blog shortly.
David Sneen
David Sneen would love you to read ..Coming Soon
Awesome! I’m totally new with this writing business, considering I’m just about to start college with a journalism major :D. I’m not saying I plan to write for a commission (at least not yet), but it’s inspiring to know that it’s available, especially as one gets better with his writing. I’ve actually been wanting to buy a domain name to begin the blogging experience, so this definitely has pushed me to do so in the next few days! Thanks for the tips, Sharon! They’re very much appreciated!
Reading through your guest post by Sharon Hurley Hall, I came across the writer mentoring blog. I am an amateur writer and was thinking of someone for tips for better writing. But now I don’t feel that I need to roam to many places and come across many people before I make my first write, as the points you have discussed in your blog has proved to be very fruitful for me. Thanks a ton again for such a wonderful article. I shall be obliged to you forever. Please update your blogs with more tips as I shall be regularly following them. Thanks once again.
I also believe that writing is not just writing because it is paired with inspiration and motivation too…Anyway, thanks for sharing this post to all the readers…
there is definitely a demand for quality writers and once you find one hold onto them.I am so blessed having a writer I can trust and can delivery quality.If your a writer, the work is out there. 🙂
jim would love you to read ..mindrisehypnosis.com
Hello Sharon…We all know that writing really requires persistence even in blogging…They have to be interesting and informative too…Writing is not just writing, I agree to that…
The soul of online business is contents writing and good contents are because of Good Writing Skill.Good writing skill is achieved by concentration and braining storming. When a writer writes in excellent way,its contents have potential of traffic as well as money.
I do believe in learning by doing. we should make more article about our niche constantly, so our writing skill will improve naturally. Write on paper is different with write in the net, because you have to make attention with SEO. Great writing but no SEO techniques in the net is like waiting godot. We can’t get more traffic to our sites.
@Raymond, @Sam – yes, writing is an important skill for many aspects of life. I feel lucky to be able to make my living from something I love so much. 🙂
I like your idea of the running feedback tab and am going to suggest it to my clients. Most construction companies have terribly outdated recent project completed lists.
Greg would love you to read ..Follow-up on your leads!
I find that with a lot of companies, Greg. Another option is to tweet your testimonials when you get them, not in full, but enough to let your fans know that someone else thought your work was great. It helps to establish your professional reputation and expertise.
I love the points that you said. However, I believe that to be a good writer a person should also be a wide reader. He should gain a lot of knowledge. Without that knowledge he would not be able to write about different stuffs. However, skills should also be developed. The words should be free flowing. The more persons that can relate to his writings, the more his readers will be.
It’s true that your articles should be SEO ready, but sometimes writers write for SEO too much. We should be remember that people are the ones who read our articles and shares them, not bots or crawlers. Nice points btw.
sanji would love you to read ..How to create a Push Button Effect in Photoshop and CSS
You are right. Getting paid to write is much more than just writing quality content … it is also about spreading the word about the quality of work one does. While the means and medium for spreading the word might be different, that is what distinguishes the top writers who get paid really well and those that have amazing talent but not the corresponding results.
Nice. It definitely seems like one should treat writing like a business if they want to be successful. But I guess ideal, it should be both enjoyable and economically fruitful. Thanks for posting this.
Writing is the much important part of any field in life for example if you are blogger then it’s very important, and other side if you are student then it’s also too much important for you because this is the only thing to impress examiner.
Sam would love you to read ..Summer Holidays in India, Tour Packages
“Use SEO” is the most important piece of advice in your article. I have learned this because I have personally found that organic search traffic is THE hottest traffic in terms of actually converting.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark would love you to read ..Looking To Learn How To Spin Articles?
Great sharing sharing! Have been writing blogs and not knowing SEO is so important to get traffic in. Learn a lot from your article and will start to pay a lot more attention on on page and off page SEO!
Hi Sharon,
It was a pleasure reading this post. I like your writing style because you keep it simple enough for any reader to understand. I never spend 2 minutes on a post which have flowery words because it annoys me to look up to thesaurus or a dictionary every two lines. Its time consuming! I have bookmarked your blog and will look forward to read more of your motivating articles.
Bravo Sharon! I’m glad to see that you are collaborating with Gail now and sharing your expertise with her audience too. You’re such an inspiration. I’ll be sure to share this. Thanks!
Ileane would love you to read ..Feedly – Better Feed Reading
If I am going back to school, I will definitely study writing, a very important skill in the online marketing world.
Excellent advice; marketing is a large slice of the work. Without it, you won’t have the market to write for.
You’re right, Stephen, you should never stop marketing. Even when the work looks solid, it’s good to have more coming in. After all, you can always outsource.
Lucky me to come across two of your articles in succession! Your articles are so informative and choc-full of tips and techniques. Thank you for sharing, Sharon. I can see how these tips can help people looking to make a living from writing.
Ana would love you to read ..Friday Tips for Keeps: A Tip That Might Help Your Guest Post Get Published
So glad you like my writing style, Ana. In a past life, I was a professor (of journalism, what else?) so that might account for the amount of info I cram in. 🙂
I second What Ana said. You’re gonna make me have to work harder. You know what I’m talking about 😉
Sharon and myself have been sort of collaborating for a while now and her experience in freelancing is second to none.
Thanks, Ivin. You do a great job of promotion, so you have nothing to worry about. 🙂
Hi Sharon,
I am so glad you wrote about this, cause writing articles and getting paid is a great way to earn some fast $ – I wrote about this a while back too. Because there are so many newbies who don’t know about this.
Thanks again.
Regards
John Cooper would love you to read ..IBS Diet Food
If you’re prepared to put in the time, then it is a great income source, John. And if you’re already blogging, you’ve got a head start on nailing the writing skills.
Love the SEO and match.com comparison. Funny but so true. I don’t think writers always take SEO into consideration but they need to!
Corey would love you to read ..Google+ and the War For Social Dominance
I’m sure that I am a better writer than a lot of people who get paid to do it, but I haven’t put the necessary time into marketing myself to get those gigs.
I think I’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment.
You are so right! There are some great tips in your article for beginners, but, in my opinion, the best way to to do a great job writing is for you to love doing it. If you have that, the article flows by itself. Of course, it’s also great to do some research before starting.