Online Writing Adventures

Is It Time for You to Write a Book Online?

2014-01-28T16:05:00.003-08:00

If you have a lot to say, but only want to write a bit at a time, one fun way to get started... write a book online.

You can start a free blog, like this one, or pay for your own domain and url - and write a page or chapter a day. Your readers can subscribe or just check back for updates - and you can get feedback which you can use to improve your book - or dismiss - as you like.

The format - while not a term you will hear frequently, is Blook, and it's a pretty simple concept...

blog + book = blook

Some authors use the format to upload daily installments to a site (self-developed) that allows readers to sign in as paid subscribers to read magazine-length updates while other authors opt to let readers decide how much they want to pay, and still other writers post the new segments for free as a fun way to express themselves and engage readers.

How about you? Have you ever considered writing your book online in the blook format?

Should You Try Online Writing Contests?

2014-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

It is unlikely that anyone will make a living participating in online writing contests, but that does not mean the experience has no value. These contests can provide a number of benefits to fledgling writers, including a chance to earn a few dollars, exposure, and professional critiquing of one's work.

Writing Contest Prizes

Prizes range from getting a piece of your work published (which actually falls under the exposure category, but some contests promote publication as a prize) to an enviable cash sum. Most fall somewhere in the middle, with a modest cash sum or small prize. Read the fine print carefully before entering to avoid surprises later.

Exposure

Winning contest entries are generally published on the website or in the publication hosting the contest. Before entering contests where the main prize is publication of your work, check to learn the readership of the contest before entering to get an idea of the exposure you can earn from winning.

Professional Critique

One advantage to entering contests such as these, is the chance to have a pro critique your work. Check to see if the organization holding the contest will provide feedback on entries. To be fair, most will not, but if you find one that does, it can be worth your time to submit just to learn where you might need to work on your writing skills.

How about you - have you ever entered writing contests online, or do you plan to? We would love to hear about your experience if you feel inclined to share.

3 Easy Ways to Build Your Online Writing Portfolio

2014-01-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Is our goal to be a professional Internet writer?

How to Publish a Book: Tutorial Video

2012-07-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Writing From a Mobile Device: On the Go Blog Posts

2012-07-08T10:17:00.002-07:00

Mobile device, pen, and tablet

Have you tried writing from your mobile device? If you have, how was the experience?

I have tried writing and posting short blog posts from my cell phone/smart phone, and I find it awkward. Pictures are super easy to upload from the phone, at least in Blogger, but writing the text to match it is a pain.

It takes a long time, for my non-texting fingers to write much of anything, and then the predictive text takes over and writes whatever the heck it wants to write instead of what I am trying to write.

Overall, for me, it seems better than not posting at all, but not as good as posting through the regular computer.

Online Writing and Mobile Technology

One way I have found my cell phone/smart phone useful for writing: I open the browser and confirm the title I have to write, do any quick research needed, and then write the rough draft of the article out longhand in a tablet. Then, when I get home I just have to enter the article in the computer and edit it before submitting or posting.

Web Writer's Hello

2012-07-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone reading this is getting their online writing career on the desired path. I've been keeping pretty busy, doing a lot for Skyword, a lot of little MTurk HITs,a little bit of blogging, and working on my fifth ebook.

If anyone has any particular information they are trying to find, feel free to leave a message or comment.

Can an Online Writing Community Advance Your Freelance Career?

2012-07-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Starting a freelance writing career is challenging if you do not know how to get started. So many online jobs turn out to be scams that solo writers can end up floundering around in a virtual sea of false leads. I you want to make money as an online writer, you do not want to waste time following false leads. An online writing community is a great place for a solo writer to turn. Members of a writing community help with experience-based career guidance, genuine job leads on paying jobs and a sense of friendship to break the monotony of working from home.

Career Guidance and Job Leads From an Online Writing Community

Career guidance and leads are possibly the most important things you get from joining with other writers in an online setting. Some communities connect inexperienced writers with mentors. Candid reviews of work provided by community members also help new writers advance to the next level while seasoned writers enjoy assistance polishing work, too. Job leads are another part of an online writing community that really helps writers. Online writers often share leads on writing sites that pay as well as information about which sites are actually scams.

Developing Friendships or Just Lurking in Online Writing Communities

As anyone who works from home can tell you, making a living as an online writer is a lonely business, and writing communities fill the need for friendship. Writers can either participate fully to get the most from the experience, or lurk in the forums and chat areas to read about other writer's experiences. Sometimes, just hearing about other writer's mistakes and problems provides both information and a sense of camaraderie.

Real Writing Jobs Review

2012-06-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

I probably shouldn't call this post a review of a paid writing site, because I didn't get past the second page of the sign up process, a Clickbank page where I was asked for $34.

The $34 supposedly gives writers access to gobs and gobs of paid writing work.

Does it?

I don't know.

I tend to look at any of these sites that offer to set writers up with paid writing jobs in exchange for a fee as scams. I compare them to those ads they used to put in the back of magazines; where you paid a couple hundred dollars to get a list of companies that hired people to work from home, then when you applied you either never heard back, or the company wrote back to tell you they didn't and had not ever hired people to work from home.

So, I cannot say one way or another if Real Writing Jobs is real or a scam, but I can say they claim to connect writers with clients, and they claim to have tons of work available.

Comments are welcome if anyone has anything, positive or negative, to say about their experience with Real Writing Jobs.

Information About iWriter

2012-03-26T08:36:00.002-07:00

I had never heard of this one before today, but a comment from a reader (thanks, Samatha) led me to the iWriter site.

While the writer reviews on the site's homepage are glowing, the per word earnings are pretty low. I believe it is actually the lowest paying of all the content sites I have checked out.

(I would love to hear from someone who actually writes there. If anyone is interested in doing a guest post here you can link back to your blog or website, just drop me a note through the comments, the forums, or the contact form.)

At approximately half a cent per word, according to the FAQ page, I would say this is a site that could benefit new writers and could possibly work out as a great place to build a portfolio, more than it would be for seasoned writers. However, seasoned writers could use it as a place to do fill-in work when higher paying work is slow.

The registration page says you can earn up to $15 per article, but at about half a cent per word, that would require sone LONG articles.

Copy Press/Blue Glass Information

2012-03-24T19:34:00.001-07:00

I almost hate to lead with this again, but this is another site I have no personal experience writing for, but I have heard good things about them, so here goes.

Photo credit: darrenhester from morguefile.com

How Many Articles and When Is Pay-Day?

CopyPress/BlueGlass writers are expected to be available to write ten articles per week, when needed. They pay twice a month, via PayPal.

Assignments and Copyright Ownership

Articles are assigned to writers, and according to the website, once submitted the work becomes the property of CopyPress/BlueGlass.

So, to what I have heard about them. I have heard they pay promptly on the dates promised and that the editors are very nice.

If you have an experience with CopyPress/Blue Glass you would like to share, I invite you to do so, and feel free to share a link to your website or blog if you share information about writing for CopyPress so my readers can visit your site if they like what you write.

Bye-Bye Factoidz: Hello Knoji

2012-03-21T07:20:00.001-07:00

Factoidz writers might have noticed that things seemed, well, slow over there for a couple of weeks, with few suggested articles provided. One possible reason for the slowness, they were preparing to undergo a big change.

Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan.

Factoidz Isn't Factoidz Anymore

The site's new name is Knoji. According to the announcement page, everything will be basically the same for writers, and the big change will be ease of use for non-writing site users.

Also, like a few other content sites, writers have been given their own author's URL's or subdomains.

Sorry this post is a bit short. If I notice any other big changes as I'm trying out the new format, I'll pop back to share.

Writer Access Writing Jobs

2012-03-19T19:57:00.001-07:00

Writer Access, from ideaLaunch, puts writers and editors together with websites looking for content.

Writers are brought in and paid according to a rating system, ranging from a 2 Star rating for a newbie writer, and up to a 5 Star for published writers who have a strong website and effective SEO skills. Writers hired in with only 2 stars can work their way up to higher ratings by submitting well-written articles.

Photo credit: kahle from morguefile.com

Pay Scale Minimums

Level 2 orders pay at least 1.26 cents per word
Level 3 orders pay at least 2.38 cents per word
Level 4 orders pay at least 3.92 cents per word
Level 5 orders pay at least 5.11 cents per word

Writer Access writers with at least $10 coming are paid monthly, between the 7th and 9th of each month, via PayPal.

A Little About Know More Media

2012-03-19T05:16:00.001-07:00

Know More Media hires bloggers to share business information and news. In exchange for an average of one blog post per day, blog promotion and networking, bloggers can expect to earn a combination of base pay and traffic commission equaling out between $100 and $800 per month.

Photo credit: ronnieb from morguefile.com

Paid Blogging

The short-term advantage of taking on a paid blogging job instead of writing your own blog is, if they offer some amount upfront for each post and a portion of the revenue from page views or ad earnings, you see money coming in sooner than you would blogging for yourself. The disadvantage is, of course, in the long run you only end up with a portion of the earnings.

My thoughts when I heard about KMM, I'm already doing those things for my own blogs and websites, the only real difference is, no upfront payment (that part would be nice) and my earnings from blogging are not come out anywhere near $100 a month, much less $800. Though, to be fair, I don't post on any of my blogs every day.

I would rate Know More Media as a blogging job worth considering, because it combines short-term rewards and long-term, passive earnings - a win-win for many online writers.

If you have any experience with KMM, feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below or in the forums.

About Writing for About.com

2012-03-18T11:51:00.001-07:00

About.com has one of the best reputations around, for a content-style paid writing site. It's the kind of writing job that'll get you some virtual high-fives from other web writers when they hear you write there.

The web workers they look for are skilled in one of three areas:

Guide
Topic Writer
Video Producer

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

About.com Guides

After extensive training in the site's editorial style, a guide is expected to provide a minium of eight articles per month, a weekly newsletter, moderating a discussion forum in exchange for what is generally considered generous compensation for an Internet writer. Guides also receive extra PR and marketing support and, as part of the New York Times family, press access.

About.com Topic Writers

Topic Writers provide content that is described asmore specialized than that prepared by Guides, but they do not have the responsibility to prepare a newsletter or moderate a discussion forum. Topic Writers are expected to write between six and ten articles per month, with a flat fee payment for the first two years and according to page views thereafter.

About.com Video Producers

Video Producers create the site's videos in exchange for a flat fee of $250 per approved video. The Video Producer is responsible for paying talent and any other expenses incurred during the video shoots.

The only real down-side to writing for, or filming for, About.com: it can be hard to get in. They pay well. They have a good reputation. That means they get to be choosy. If you decide this site might be for you, and you apply and do not get in, you can always apply again, just choose another topic or area, and reapply.

Considering The Content Authority

2012-03-16T08:47:00.001-07:00

This is a reply to an email from J.C., but I thought some of my other readers might also be interested in this paid writing site, The Content Authority.

I have neither written for the site nor applied, but I have heard positive things about them, including:

They pay as promised
They are polite and treat writers well
Pay starts out low but advances as promised
You get paid every Monday as long as you have earned a minimum of $25

I also did a bit of digging around on the site to find their pay rates, because, no matter how much you love writing, income is important and often the first thing asked about when seeking information about a job. All writers start out at tier 1 and are reviewed for increases. This information about pay levels and writer's tiers is from the TCA site:

Tier Level ...........Rate Per Word
Tier 1 ...................$0.007
Tier 2 ...................$0.010
Tier 3................... $0.015
Tier 4 ...................$0.030

So, J.C. and everyone wlse who is interested, that's what I know about working for The Content Authority, if anyone would like to add their experience with the site, feel free to leave a comment.

Scripted Review

2012-03-14T08:20:00.018-07:00

I may be a bit off in titling this as a review, because my only experience with them has been going through the application process.

Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

How Is the Pay?

The pay looks about normal for web content writing work, maybe a touch higher than average. I have heard Scripted pays quickly but sometimes they let writers go with no explanation and no warning, after giving good rating scores on submissions.

Application Process
The application process was easy, with a writing sample requested. You have the option of allowing them to post your writing sample on their blog by checking a box, or not by leaving the box unchecked.

Sections

If your writing sample is accepted, you will be approved to write in the category you selected when you submitted the article.

Available Work
So far, over about two weeks, there has not been a single job available in the topic where the site has approved me to write. I could submit other writing samples, but am kind of in a wait and see mode based on the lukewarm reviews I have heard from other writers about the site.

If you have experience writing for the site, either positive or negative, feel free to share your experience or impressions either through the comments function or the forums.

Sharing on Pinterest

2012-03-13T07:00:00.002-07:00

Okay, Pinterest is fun. I avoided signing up when I first heard about it because, well, I just didn't get the concept. I finally gave in and signed up after hearing about it's SEO value as a page rank 6 website, but still didn't use it. It just felt awkward to me. Then, I finally gave in again and shared a link to, of all things, a messy desk covered with papers. It was so easy, and, for some reason I can't quite explain, fun. Then I started looking at other people's pins and repinned a couple of them. What a fun, friendly way to share!

Should You Pin It?

My advice to bloggers and website builders, ride this trend and have fun with it, but don't make it just about spamming your Pinterest followers.

Don't just pin your own work, share the love by pinning other websites and products you really like.
Add pictures to your site so there is something your readers can pin if they like your site.
Add a Pin It button to make it really easy for your readers to share your site.

I realize this site doesn't use many pictures, but I plan to start adding more, and when I figure out how to add a Pin It button, I'll pop back with how-to information you can use if you use a Blogger template.

Writing Shares Review

2012-03-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

I found this writing site, Writing Shares, through a Twitter friend and wanted to share it with you. I have to stress that I have no personal experience with this site.

It looks like a fairly new site and currently has a page rank of zero, but I love the profit-sharing concept the site owner has created, with each article receiving one lifetime share in the site's profits, unless you choose a topic from a recommended list, then you get five lifetime shares in the site's profits.

The site owner does impose a quota of 30 articles in the first 90 days, in order to make sure writers are serious about writing for Writing Shares and do not just present one or two articles. After the 90 day initiation period is successfully completed, the quota drops to one article per month.

The site also offers bonuses to the most prolific authors each month.

If you have experience writing for this site, we would love to hear what you think of it, feel free to leave a comment below or drop by the forums and share your thoughts there.

A Quick Note About Seed

2012-02-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

Seed is the site that has been creating content for AOL. I have heard good things about them but I have not spent enough time there to offer much of a review. I registered with them quite a while ago, and wrote a couple of articles for them. The pay would have been pretty good, but the articles weren't accepted so I used them elsewhere and moved on to other markets that did pay.

I didn't mention the site here before, because I didn't really have anything to share. That approach might be short-changing new writers who come here for tips on paying markets, though. After all, just because it didn't work out for me doesn't mean it won't work out for others.

So, today I popped in at Seed. The site is currently in a transitional phase, with no new articles assignments being posted until Seed 2.0 goes live. I didn't see a proposed date for the new site, but there is an email address for interrested writers to send their information in for consideration.

Here is the full text of the messagefrom the Seed homepage, with the email address included. "

We are in the process of reformatting Seed.com and new assignments are currently on hold. If you would like to sign up for the all-new Seed 2.0, please email seed2signup@seed.com."

I have several more sites like this, and will add them over the next few days so stop back for more information.

Suite Writer's Update for January 10, 2012

2012-01-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share this here, in case anyone who reads here hasn't checked in at Suite lately.

Suite is purging some articles from their system, about 50,000 articles according to the forums. So far, if any of your articles have been removed, a notice pops up in the message section of your "My Suite" page. As far as I know, email notifications have not been sent out.

The notice provides a link to view your deleted articles, but, so far, the page is blank. To find your deleted articles, you can hover your mouse over the view icon for each article. If the URL starts with an X instead of your regular sub-domain, there is a 95% chance that article has been deleted. Or, you can click on each article and see if it opens.

Just a thought: if you created a "web" of articles when that was recommended, you can end up with links that do not go anywhere.

2011 Year-End Online Writing Summary

2011-12-30T04:54:00.000-08:00

With 2011 drawing to a close, I find myself reflecting on the online writing experience of the past year - on my own online writing adventure. Online writers faced some big changes and upheavals in 2011. Some (now former) "cash cow" sites, where writing quick, easy articles brought in a livable wage, crashed. Search engine changes left many writers who counted on residual earnings based on page views or ad clicks wondering where the readers and the money went.

As part of saying "Goodbye" to an interesting and challenging year, I thought I would offer a review of my online writing experience of this past year.

Paid Surveys

While not actual writing work, I tried a couple of paid survey sites and found them very time intensive for very little pay. Then, with payout around $50 on the sites, I gave up without ever reaching payout. Two thumbs down - waste of time. (Though I did a few surveys on MTurk, and while still time-intensive for low pay, the pay actually came through quickly. So - my suggestion - if you want to do surveys, check out the surveys on MTurk Also, request permissions for the writing jobs, and transcription if you are a good typist. Finally, if you have other better- paying work, it makes sense to only spend fifteen or twenty minutes a day doing the extremely low-paying HITS offered until you get access to some of the higher-paying jobs. You won't get a shot at the higher paying tasks unless you do some, but if you can make more elsewhere it doesn't make sense to invest all of your time making 60 or 70 cents an hour either. Once you have over 100 HITS approved, they open up a few more options for you and over 1,000 even more tasks become available.)

Cloud Sourcing

For the most part, I am not a fan of cloud sourcing. The cloud sourcing sites I tried, MTurk, Cloud Croud, and Clickworker were all legitimate: all actually paid as promised. The problem was, for me, the wages worked out to be dismally low. I had the most success with MTurk after I was approved as a writer for one of their customers. At 2 cents a word, it wasn't getting rich, but the money was there quickly after approval, and so far, nothing has been returned for a rewrite and nothing has been rejected.

Wikio Experts to Overblog

Good while it lasted - current state - gone. The site owners have replaced Wikio with Overblog. Overblog did not hold my interest, but, since Wikio always paid honestly, Overblog is probably worth checking out for those interested in writing for residual-type earnings.

Factoidz

I don't have one bad thing to say about this one. It seems to still be going strong. The pay is not sky-high for general submissions but product reviews pay well, and for a site that pays for page views, the up front payments and activity bonuses are higher than average for an online content site.

Skyword

Another good one. Decent upfront payments. Good residual/page view paymets. Excellent editors. All around good experience. (No clue why I wrote that in non-sentences)

Demand Media Studios

Oh my! What a ride! I somehow managed to ride it out through all of the "layoffs" for lack of a better word, and I'm still writing for the site occasionally, but the titles are down to almost nothing and the editors seem to have upped the ante on unpredictability. They claim to have changes and new formats coming as well. It should be, at least, interesting to ride it out a little longer and see what they have to offer and what they ask.

Suite101

Suite and its writers have taken a really hard hit with the search engine changes this year. It should be interesting to watch as changes unfold over the next few months.

eBooks

eBook writing is moving to the forefront as one of the higher online writing niches. The two eBook publishers I can personally review are Amazon Kindle Direct and Smashwords. I have heard good things about Smashwords, though my own results were tepid. For me, Amazon KDP outperformed Smashwords by about double. My most recent eBook, released December 8th, 2011, is in KDP Select, so it's exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. In exchange they offer the use of some of their best promotional tools. If it proves worthwhile, I'll share more info on that later.

Smartphone Apps

I suspect smartphone app writing will pass eBook writing as the next big earning opportunity for online writers. Google has a drag and drop style app building program to help non-code-writers build their own apps.

Blogging

I really like blogging, but I tend to focus on other paying work rather than add content to my blogs. I know a lot of people make good money blogging, for me, probably because I don't invest enough time in it, the money is not there. I suspect blogs built around supporting or selling a product or membership are far more lucrative than blogs like this one, with occasional posts geared around providing information for writers and nothing actually for sale.

So, I'll close this post, along with the year 2011, by wishing everyone reading here a safe, happy, and prosperous new year.

For Craft How-To Writers

2011-11-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

If you are one of the many creatives who enjoy both crafting and writing, FW media (The Writer's Market parent company) is accepting queries from prospective writers.

The FW company website offers details as to what the query needs to contain in order to be considered, but does not mention pay rates - stating that they will contact writers with contract proposals if interested in their work.

Details about the requirements for Craft Book queries are located here.

For Sci-Fi Writers

2011-11-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

This will eventually be moved to the "Breaking Into Print" page, but for now, this paid writing opportunity (for science fiction writers) will be here, on the OWA home page.

Analog: Science Fiction and Fact accepts manuscript submissions though an online form on their website.

According to the Analog website, "Analog pays 6-8 cents per word for short stories up to 7,500 words, $450-600 for stories between 7,500 and 10,000 words, and 5-6 cents per word for longer material. We prefer lengths between 2,000 and 7,000 words for shorts, 10,000-20,000 words for novelettes, and 40,000-80,000 for serials. Fact articles are paid for at the rate of 6 cents per word."

If you check it out and have any luck, be sure to stop back here and motivate everyone by sharing your success.

Is it Contract Change Season?

2011-11-13T06:53:00.000-08:00

Heads up DMS writers who have not logged in at Demand this weekend: just a couple of days after Yahoo Contributor Network's contract change, Demand Media Studios is following on their heels.

While coercing workers into agreeing to a new contract under the threat of no longer being permitted to work hinges on the unethical under any circumstances, legal or not, at least in comparison to Examiner about a year ago and now YCN, DMS had the grace to give writers a heads-up so it would not be a total surprise when logging in.

They have an announcment up on the writer's dashboard stating that all writers are to log out Monday morning for site updates, after which it will be required that writers accept the new contract terms or they will not be able to access the dashboard.

In other words, if you don't agree, you're fired. I know they don't technically "hire" their writers, but since you have to apply and be accepted, then apply for each special project, and they offer insurance and benefits in the form of Demand Deals discounted merchandise, the terms hired and fired fit the situation.

In closing, I do plan to agree because I can't really foresee any reason not to "sign", since you sign away all rights to your work when DMS buys it anyway. As long as they pay the amount they offer on the day they say it will be there, I don't see what difference it makes; maybe if you wrote revshare articles for them, but as I understand they are not doing any eHow right now, so revshare would be off the table anyway.

Yahoo Contributor Network's New Contributor Contract

2011-11-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

I haven't logged in at YCN for a few days, and when I tried to log in tonight (November 10, 2011) I was greeted with a message about the new contributor contract. Basically - if contributors do not agree to the terms of the new contract, they can no longer log into their accounts.

Since I have not noticed this conversation anywhere else on the Internet yet, I thought I would post about it here.

The terms are in my opinion, as is customary for these user-generated sites, pretty one-sided. So, while not unusual, check them over closely before agreeing. You will be giving up some of your existing rights if you agree, but you will not be able to access your account if you do not agree. (My apologies for adding that part twice.)