Writing For Money Or Writing For Peanuts?

By Sue Kendrick

The unpalatable truth is they are beguiled by the lure of clever copy writers who promise thousands of visitors to their pages and the thrill of being instantly published on a glossy website! They intimate that once the article has been written and approved all they need to do is sit back and wait for the cash to come rolling in!

Sounds too good to be true? It is! It is an easy way out for the writer who desperately wants to write for money, but doesn't know how to make the best of the web opportunities which do offer a good return for effort.

So what am I actually talking about? Content contribution sites of course. The web demands a continuously updating stream of fresh content which if the owners had to pay for, would make their operating costs untenable.

The solution is to build a facility which allows everyone and anyone irrespective of ability to contribute articles on any subject. Of course people soon get tired of honour publishing, but this is over come by offering payment which of course is the big lure for cash strapped writers. Unfortunately when you take a close look at what the rates are you will soon hit a blank wall!

In almost all cases, there aren't any! Payment is determined either on a share of the advertising revenue, i.e. the ads that appear next to your articles, how many people read your articles or a combination of both!

Either way, after the initial day or two of publication which usually creates a few views from site users, if you want to earn a realistic fee for your work, you will be down to promoting your articles yourself and this is VERY TIME CONSUMING and to be really successful you need to have at least a basic knowledge of keywords and how search engines work!

In my experience, using content contribution sites to earn a realistic income from writing freelance articles, for most writers is a complete waste of time. At best you will earn a few dollars. (Payment is almost always in dollars which unless you have a Paypal account will make it very difficult for you to claim. UK banks typically charge you £10 per transaction!).

So where should you be directing your efforts? The short answer is at these very sites! I use content contributing sites extensively to promote my own and other people's products by writing useful and well written copy which include links to other websites where purchases can be made.

All these products, (unless they happen to be mine) have affiliate programmes attached which I join. Any sales made through my links earn me a share of the purchase price. As I seldom join a programme which pays less than £5 per sale and often a lot more, my articles generate a lot more revenue than the paltry 3 or 4 dollars earned from advertising clicks!

I call this system Bloglancing. The beauty of it is anyone can be successful at it provided they write good copy and stop wasting valuable time trying to persuade reluctant visitors to click on often inappropriate ads or read articles they are not interested in.

The good news is there is a vast amount of information around which will help you get started including [http://bit.ly/profitablebloglancing]Profitable Bloglancing For Freelance Writers which explains the whole process involved in affiliate marketing plus the added bonus of including free membership of a dedicated online creative writing community.

About the Author:If you need help with crafting an attention grabbing article, (vital if you are going to succeed in Bloglancing), you'll find FEE-lance Writing useful.