(Before you read today’s post, check out Yaro’s Blog Mastermind opening page. He reopens the program at 10 AM today. If you want to learn to make money blogging, sign up. You won’t regret it.)

If you want to make it as a writer, you’re going to have some bumps along the way.

Make no mistake about it. You’re going to have a client who drops off the face of the earth right after you send her $500 worth of work. You’re going to farm out some work to someone who proves to be unreliable. You’re going to lose a gig somewhere, not because you couldn’t land the client, but because you couldn’t find the damn order in the middle of your chaos.

In my freelance writing business, I’ve been going through some growing, although most of it hasn’t been painful. In the last three months I’ve landed several new clients and found cause to bring some other writers into the fold. I’ve even been able to bring my wife, Angie, on board to help me keep tabs on everything and to help get new clients.

Yes, there have been some dips and hurdles, but overall this growth is good.

I’d just like to say, while I’m here, that Angie is amazing. She’s got something like a 60% conversion rate when bidding projects already. We wondered at first if it was beginner’s luck, but the gigs keep on coming. Yeah, my portfolio is impressive. I do excellent work, and it speaks for itself. But she’s got the goods when it comes to hooking clients and getting them to really consider hiring us.

Along with this growth, I’ve had to modify my business plan. I’ve written many times about the need for both vision and flexibility in that vision. While you can’t guarantee that a given endeavor will or won’t succeed, you can adjust as needed to ride the unexpected waves.

What am I getting at with all of this? Just sharing my journey, folks. That’s what this blog is about, after all.

I’m curious about your stories, though. If you’re a freelancer, are you working solo? Have you had growing pains, and what sort? If you’re not yet making a living with your writing, what do you envision in the long term? Will it be just you, will you have a writing team, or will you just have support staff?

Can I rant for a minute? Yes? Good.

As you may know, I spent a good bit of time back in March and April doing an experiment with the article directory site Helium. I had some amazing success, earning more than $1000 writing part time over 40 days. The potential for residual income seemed to be high, as well, and if my Helium work continued to earn the same rate it had been earning, I’d have been looking at $100 a month or so in residual income.

I detailed my experiences here, and even wrote a few posts telling you how to do well in Helium contests. I even put together a report detailing my experiences and offering advice on how writers can make money at Helium.

Some of my readers joined Helium and experienced some success. At least one managed to sell an article in the Marketplace, and another won money in a writing contest.

So, why am I disappointed, frustrated and angry? Here’s why:

• The changes to Helium’s earnings policy have turned the potential $100 a month into around $3 a month. They’ve claimed to be making changes to the structure, but after several weeks of waiting I’ve not seen it.
• The rate of recursive income my recruits are getting is scary, if Helium is doing things the way it says it is. I’ve recruited nearly 40 writers, of which I should be getting a 5% bonus based on their earnings. To date, that’s been $.05. This means my 40 recruits have earned about $1 – total – between all of them.
• Helium claimed they were going to make changes to the article writing interface, offering more exposure to the author and possibly outbound links. This has yet to be done.
• The contest structure has been revamped, with about half the weekly amount of prizes.

I’ve been one of Helium’s most vocal advocates in the blogosphere, and have recruited a good number of writers. Helium’s changes and failure to follow through have made me look bad. The fact that my 40 recruits have earned $1 makes me look like a shill.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of Helium. I want it to work. I like the combination of the marketplace, contests, and residual earnings. I’m also a big advocate for the ratings system. Helium has the potential to be the greatest of all the article directories.

But I earned more money last month with five eHow articles that I wrote in January and February than I earned with the nearly-400 articles I have on Helium. My dozen or so Associated Content articles did about the same that Helium did.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t come up with a good excuse for that.

None.

So, what will change my mind, bring me back on board with Helium? There are three things Helium needs to do to regain credibility:

1. Restructure their payment formula to be at least within striking distance of other directories.
2. Offer at least one outbound “resource” link in each article.
3. Figure out what they’re doing with contests, both in terms of structure and rankings, and stick to it.

What will NOT help is the status quo.

So, what do you think? Was it a mistake for me to promote them to begin with? Am I being too harsh? What else could Helium do to restore credibility? How is Helium doing for you these days?

photo credit: Spigoo

Wow.

I’ve got to say that, if I’d have known where this project would take me, I probably wouldn’t have promised to give you all The Helium Report free.  What I thought would be a 10-page/2,000 word document quickly became a 30-page/5,500 word document!  As I went along, I realized there was more and more great information I wanted to share with you all.

But, honestly, I’m OK with it.  I’m a man of my word.  You can get The Helium Report today, free as promised.  If you find it useful, I’ve included a PayPal donation button on the download page.  Feel free to use it

Be sure to download your copy today.  I will likely begin charging for the report no sooner than May 30, 2008.

Here is the link:

http://www.writing-journey.com/the-helium-report

Enjoy, pass it around, and let me know what you think!

Hi folks.  Happy Niebuday!

Just wanted to give you an update on the Helium Report.  I’m putting the finishing touches on the report today, and will post it late tonight or, more likely, some time tomorrow.  I’ve discovered that I have a lot more to say about Helium than I thought at first.  The word count is over 5,000 at this point!  I’m thrilled to be passing along so much good info.

While you’re waiting, make sure to check out a couple of my favorite posts from the last few days.  Some are useful, some not so much.  I’ll let you decide which are which:

A Mother’s Gratitude

Should You Specialize in Website Content?

Why PoeWar?

Chris Brogan: est Social Media Advice From This Site

How to Get More Freelancing Work from Your Writing

I Am Not Useful. (And Why You Should Be Cool With That)

Should You Tattle On A Bad Client?

5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence

How To Stop Regretting The Past And Start Building Your Future

Are You Cut Out for Freelance Writing?

Have an awesome day, folks!

I have to admit, I occasionally worry about referring folks to Helium.  After all, the fact that I’ve had amazing success with it doesn’t mean that everyone will.  It’s not that I think I’m that good of a writer, but I’m much better putting my word behind something that won’t change (like the Freelance Rockstar eBook I recommended earlier in the week) than something that I can’t control, like Helium.

The results of this weeks contests, however, have made it worth it, and reminded me why it is I am comfortable recommending Helium.  One of my readers and my good friend Kameron won first place in one of the Helium contests this week.  Good form, Kam!

For myself, I only entered one contest, and placed 3rd.  This week could be especially fun, as there’s a “Writing Online” category.  I’m going to try that one, and It’ll be cool going up against some of the best and brightest and Helium (and maybe some of you!)

I have to say that the one area I’m most interested in right now on Helium is the marketplace.  I’m trying to score you all an interview with one of the big marketplace writers, and hope to post it next week, but we shall see.

———–

If you missed it earlier in the week, make sure to check out Eight Violent Truths About Freelancing – Part 1 and Eight Violent Truths About Freelancing – Part 2 over at Freelance Folder.

Enjoy your Friday evening, all!

photo credit: neurollero

All right, I’ve got so many different things rolling around in my head this morning, and none of them are working themselves into a full post.  Let me offer you, then, a potpourri of the things jumping between my synapses:

Niebu

Being an Internet writer (or any other sort of self-employed web worker) means several things.  It means sometimes working long or odd hours. It means having clients and colleagues that are, mostly, people you’ll never meet in person. Add the two together, and you wind up with “Niebu.”

How exactly does that work?  Simple. You take an Internet Writer like James. James wakes up one morning at 5 AM. He likes to get things done in the morning, before his kids are up. He starts the coffee pot. While he’s waiting for his “jet fuel,” he hops on Twitter to type “Morning” to greet his colleagues and followers.  Only problem is, both hands are shifted one key to the left. He types “Niebu” instead.

Two or three weeks later, Niebu is an Internet phenomenon.  James and his colleagues (and peers, friends and hangers-on) have their own little inside joke.  I think DebNg referred to it as “Men and their made-up words.” We use Niebu to mean “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Good Luck,” and even refer to Niebu as a sort of tribal Deity, as in “My Twitter is acting up.  Quick, sacrifice a virgin to Niebu.”

In reality, Niebu means Community. Niebu is the grand community of web workers and their friends, followers, and anyone else who wants in; it’s not exclusive. Niebu means, in some ways, I get up at 5 AM to work my a$$ off all day so that I can have the afternoon to watch my kid’s Kindergarten play.  It means The soul-sucking corporate environment is eating away at my soul.  I need a way to escape.

Niebu to you all today, my friends.

For another take on it, check out Dave Navarro’s perspective on What Does Niebu Mean?

Helium Contests

I told you all last time how you can go about earning money on Helium by writing for contests, and I wanted to follow up by pointing you to this week’s writing contest topics.  They are as follows:

• 2008 Elections
• Hawaii
• Terrorism
• Antiques
• Online Business
• Trucks & SUVs
• Arthritis
• PC Support
• Christian Teens
• Role-Playing Games

I won’t be writing in the Role-Playing Games contest this week, as I’m the “sub-channel steward” for RPGs.  “What’s a channel sub-steward?” you ask?  I’ll cover the steward program in more detail at another time, but the basic principle is this:  Helium utilizes a community-based system of quality assurance, in a similar fashion to Wikipedia. For each content area, there are stewards.  There are sub-channel stewards for the very tiny portions of each content area, and I’m it for RPGs and Wargames.  I’ve just really started doing this, though, as my focus up until the last couple of weeks at Helium had been the Reward-athon.

At any rate, good luck to those of you who decide to give the contests a shot.  I’m thinking of writing in “Online Business” and probably “PC Support” this week.

Good luck to everyone who gives it a shot this week!

Twitter

 
If you’ve not jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon yet, you should really consider it. My understanding is that there is some social networking/marketing value in it, but really I think it’s just a nice little way to blow off steam for 3 to 5 minutes at a time, several times a day.  It is, for me, what the water cooler was when I worked in the corporate world.

Follow me on Twitter here.

 ———-

Have a great weekend, everyone. If you get a chance to see Iron Man this weekend, you should take it.  Make sure you stay through the credits, though.  I promise a totally geeking-out moment for any comic-book fanboy who does.  It’s great stuff.

I told you all the other day about how I made a bunch of money writing just a couple of hours a day over at Helium.  While I’m not going to go into all of the ways I made my money writing at Helium until the free report comes out, I do want to tease you all a little bit today.

One of the ways I made money writing at Helium was in the weekly contests. Every week, Helium features contests in 10 different content areas. Contest topics range from Roleplaying Games to Visiting Canada (I’m not making this up. A contest is ending tonight on “Visiting Canada.”) Within each topic there are 25 different article titles. Helium members compete by writing to any number of these titles.

Contests run from Thursday through Wednesday.You don’t have to write to all of the titles, and you are awarded points based on how your articles are rated after the fact.  First Place in each content area gets $75, Second Place gets $25, Third gets $10, and three Fourth Place winners each get $5.

I know you’ve got questions. What is the ratings system at Helium? What about plagiarism? Is there a way to cheat? Is it a level playing field? Here again, I’ll cover these questions as time goes on. Suffice it to say for today that I’m confident in the ratings system.

So, how can you make $750 in a week writing at Helium?  Win every one of the contests, of course.

What’s that?  You have other work to do?  You can’t write 250 articles in a week and still maintain a high degree of quality?  You’re not willing to risk your income on the chance that you’ll win every contest?

And you call yourself a writer.

No, it’s not likely that you’ll enter and win all 10 contests in a given week.  I get that.  I’ve not done it.  I do believe it could be done.  I’ve thought about blocking out 20 hours in a single week to devote to Helium to test the theory, and I may do it in time.  Maybe one of you will beat me to it, though.  If you do, just remember who pointed you in that direction.

So to get you started toward your $750 week writing part time, here’s what I’ve learned about winning the writing contests at Helium:

1. It takes 7-12 articles in a category to score enough points to win.  Fewer articles makes it less likely that you’ll place, as does writing more articles.  If you can get your Helium rate down to 15 minutes apiece, you can write these articles in 20 hours or so.
2. Bullet-point list-style articles (using asterisks because Helium doesn’t allow HTML) will almost always get rated higher than articles that don’t have bullet points.
3. An interesting opening paragraph and a solid concluding one will push your ratings higher.
4. There are often plagiarists in the contests.  Check the top three or four writers in the contest on Tuesday.  Spend 15 minutes or so googling random phrases from their articles.  This doesn’t take long, and it’s almost always worth it. Don’t let that scare you off, by the way.  Helium deals with these folks quickly and harshly – again, more on that later.
5. Article ratings will often sit steadily until after a contest closes.  You might have the lowest-rated article on Wednesday and it will be the highest on Friday when winners are announced.
6. Use the leapfrog tool late in the contest for low-rated articles in topics with a large number of articles.  This will often give you a boost going into the final stretch.
7. Even the best and most prolific writers at Helium, who often win contests, can be beaten.  I know, because I’ve done it on more than one occasion.

Now, I’ll be honest with you.  There are other things I can tell you about how to win contests at Helium.  Com back on May 12 to download my free report, which will contain those contest-winning tactics as well as other strategies you can use to make money writing on Helium.

I like article directories.  Why?  Several reasons:

• Article directories can drive traffic to a website like nobody’s business, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey  and Brian Clark of Copy Blogger released a free report back in 2006 on the use of article marketing as a traffic generation strategy.
• Article directories give you the chance to play around in a niche you otherwise wouldn’t write in.  For example, I’ve written articles on things as diverse as starting a running exercise program to American Idol to avoiding work-at-home scams.
• Article directories give you a sandbox in which to test various techniques such as SEO and formatting before you use them on your production site.

Why do I mention article directories, and what do they have to do with a Helium SpongeBob and Powerpuff Girl balloons?  Or is that just another one of Bob’s seemingly-random image selections?

Well, you might remember that, back on March 1, I decided to do an experiment.  The experiment involved the article directory Helium and their Reward-athon promotion.  Essentially, I wanted to see how much I could make on Helium in the 45 remaining days of the promotion. 

I also invited readers to compete with me, and offered a prize to anyone who could top me.  The Writing Journey was but a few days old at the time, and my readership was in the low double-digits.  I got a few takers, but no one that really seemed to enjoy Helium as much as I did.

At any rate, I made $1,044.28 at Helium during the 45-day Helium experiment.  I wrote for about two hours each day - around 33 work days. That works out to about $15 an hour.  That’s not great, but there are other benefits.  I’ve gained several regular readers (and some friends) along the way.  I’ve had about 150 or so incoming hits from my Helium About page.  (That’s nowhere near the hits I get from EzineArticles, but EzineArticles doesn’t pay me, either.) 

What’s exciting to me is the residual income potential of the experiment.  I’ve continued to earn about $2 a day on my articles.  Given that most of my topics are timeless, I should continue to earn that $2 as long as Helium maintains or increases its popularity.  Over a year’s time, that’ll raise my hourly rate by $11.  In five years, Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, it will be $70 an hour.  In reality I expect that to be higher; Helium, I predict, will go gangbusters before too long.  It will not surprise me if, by January 1, 2009, That $2 a day is more like $10 a day.  Even if Helium only maintains, $70 an hour isn’t too bad.

So, I consider the experiment a shining success.  In fact, it was so successful that I’m turning the experience into a free report.  I expect to release on May 12, so watch for it if you’re interested.

In the meantime, since you all have so such varied backgrounds and differing stories about how you got started writing, I’m curious: What do you all think of article directories?  Do you use them?  If so, how do you use them?  If not, why not?

Photo by Nadia308

We talked some the other day about how there is a perception among some writers and among many non-writing folk about how Internet writing isn’t “real” writing, and how Internet writers are perceived as somehow being second-tier.  I told you then that I didn’t agree with the analysis, and that there are specific benefits of Internet writing over print writing.  Today, I want to explore some of those benefits in more detail.  Why is Internet writing better than print writing?

photo credit: Mr. Wright

Internet writing has better odds.

Everyone who’s ever tried to have something published in print knows that you don’t win them all.  In fact, when it comes to print publications, even the best writers don’t win many.  There are exceptions.  Once you hit a certain level in your niche, you can pretty much get anything published.  Take my favorite fantasy author, Ed Greenwood, for example.  Ed can write as many novels as he likes, and almost guarantee that someone will pick them up.  Same for Stephen King.  In the nonfiction world, the same would apply to folks like Seth Godin or Deepak Chopra. 

I’m a decent writer;  if I weren’t, I couldn’t make a living doing it.  But the ratio of what I’ve written to what I’ve published when it comes to print is about 10 to 1.  On a good day.  And that number doesn’t even take into the account that most of my print writing doesn’t get published on the first submission;  its usually the third or fourth.  And my numbers are, as near as I can tell, very much in the average category.

Contrast this to my Internet writing.  Everything I write for the Internet can be published.  It might be for a client, or it might be on my blog, but it can be published.  If I have an article topic I want to write that a client isn’t interested in, I can still write the dang thing and find a place to publish it with little effort.  As an Internet writer, the odds of rejection are so small as to be insignificant.

photo credit: cassandra michelle

Internet writers make more per word than typical print writers.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Bob, you’re full of crap.”

You’d be right.  Only, not about this particular statement. 

See, I’ve got a good number of steady Internet writing clients.  My rate, while not as high as some, is sufficient to make the writing worth my time.  And my clients give me specific writing assignments, which I complete, and get paid for.  Every damn one of them.  And, I’ve done the math:  based on my rate of print publication, I make about twice as much per word written (not per word published, of course) on the Internet than I do with print.  If you can get all of your print writing published, I’m sure it’s more lucrative.  Bravo.  Maybe you are a real writer and I’m not.  But I can get all, or nearly all, of my Internet writing published, and I’m going to make money on it, even if I have to publish it myself. 

See, I can write an article, maybe on a topic like common Internet writing mistakes, for this blog right here.  In time, that article makes me money through contextual ads, affiliate sales, direct advertising and, eventually, my mentoring program.  I can also spend about an extra 20 minutes rewriting that article or portions of that article three different ways, posting it to an article directory to make some additional pageview revenue and generate traffic back to my blog.  The article directory income is relatively insignificant for a given article, but if you can get a thousand or so articles up on four different paying sites, you’ve got a healthy little supplemental income going on.  I’m not all the way there, yet, but I’m making progress on that part of my journey, to be sure.

photo credit: Point-Shoot-Edit

Internet writers can have full editorial and marketing control over their writing.

Obviously I’m not talking about pen-for-hire work here.  But anything that you self-publish on the Internet can have your own personal editorial stamp, and can be marketed as you see fit. 

Does this create more work?  of course.

Internet writing can be somewhat challenging because it forces you to learn to edit your own writing, and some folks can never seem to really master this concept.  It also means you’ve got to develop an eye for design and know something about markets and marketing.  But it also gives you a heck of a lot of latitude.  The fact of the matter is that editors, in the print world, have different agendas than writers.  I’m not saying they aren’t useful or even necessary;  I’m just saying that it is nice to be able to rise or fall on your own merits, rather than on whether an editor makes you change something that really shouldn’t be changed.  It also is nice to maintain some integrity when it comes to the marketing process, rather than leaving your integrity to an advertising agency.

—–

So, what do you all think?  Based on the responses last time, many of you believe Internet writing is indeed better than print writing.  What other reasons have we missed?

Since we’re just at the start of the Helium Experiment, I thought I’d offer you all some Helium-specific advice this morning.  Many of you have asked for referrals, and I expect all 50 of my allotted referrals to be gone by the end of this week, maybe sooner.  There’s still time to get in on Helium’s reward-athon, and to try to get a couple of free books from me.

For those who don’t write on Helium.com this advice may be less useful.  I do like to think that there are some principles below that apply pretty much to all article submission sites as well as to Internet writing in general.  So, here’s what I’ve discovered so far in my experiment with Helium:

Volume = earnings. 

Volume is the key to success on Helium (and most article submission sites).  Many writers who join Helium get discouraged after writing a few articles and earning a few cents (or less). My advice? Get a few hundred articles up, and then we can talk about making some money. That’s a start. Get a few thousand up, and we can talk about having a reliable source of residual income that doesn’t require much maintenance.

Content area matters. 

Some topics are just more profitable than others.  Test out the various topic areas that you’re interested in, and see which ones pay off.  I can write all day long about Dungeons and Dragons and make nothing or next to nothing. However, I might write one good article about artificial insemination and suddenly you’ve made $2 in a week on that one article.  Multiply that by a thousand quality articles and you’re talking about a nice lifestyle improvement.

Immediate income vs. long-term residual income. 

Immediate income is important; you can’t buy gasoline with the $500 that you’ll earn three months from now.  That is why contests, the Marketplace, and promotions like the reward-athon are so important to today.  However, if you want to use Helium.com to improve your lifestyle tomorrow, you’re going to have to write for more than just those areas.

Rating and content quality. 

Finally, the fact is that your higher-rated articles are going to be seen by more readers, and therefore make more money. Be meticulous about spelling, grammar, formatting and the like, so that you can consistently hit the higher ratings.  Ratings have less to do with good ideas than with good method.

More competitive topics will produce lower ratings on average.

The more competition there is for a given topic, the more likely you are to see ratings that you’re not happy with.  For many (not all) of my articles, I stick to smaller topics.  If you can write an amazing article on a given topic and get it to number 1 out of 50 or 100, then you should definitely do it, but don’t be discouraged when you can’t seem to get in the top few.  Keeping in the top 25% is all you really need for success.

There you have it.  Follow those keys and you’ll find you’re on your way to making some good money at Helium.com. 

No, this isn’t a post about the colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert monatomic chemical element that heads the noble gas series in the periodic table and whose atomic number is 2 (thank you, Wikipedia!)

This is about helium.com, one of the newer article repository web sites, and about how I intend to make a bunch of money writing there in the next 45 days.

 I hope that doesn’t put you off.  Making money by writing on the Internet is how I buy Pop Tarts for my daughters, pay my electric bill, and buy dog food.  I’m not particularly greedy or materialistic, but I’m also not ashamed to say, “My writing has value.  You can use it, but you should pay me for it.”  If you are skittish about wanting to make money from your writing, you should choose another profession.

Don’t skip this paragraph.  It might cost you.

 Before I provide you with links or more information, let me mention that Helium.com does have a referral program.  If you do think you’d like to write for Helium, please send me an e-mail with the words ”Helium referral” in the subject line.  I will send you a sign-up email as soon as possible.  Helium.com only allows referrals via their own e-mail referral system, and they limit each writer to 50 referrals.  If you’re interested, let me know as soon as possible before my referral emails are all gone.  See below for more reasons to sign up via a referral from me.

The Helium.com Reward-athon

Helium.com is currently running a promotion designed to increase the size of their article repository.  This promotion runs until April 15, 2008.  At the end of the day on April 15, Helium.com will tally up the number of articles that you submit between January 7 and April 14.  You will receive, in your PayPal account on April 15, up to $3 per article submitted. 

This bonus payment is in addition to any revenues you accumulate due to page views, which is normally how Helium.com pays its writers.  It is also in addition to any revenues generated by placing in the top of a Helium.com contest.

There are specific guidelines that determine how much you will receive per article, and those are available at the Reward-athon page on Helium.

How I am going to make a bunch of cold hard cash.

So, how am going to earn a bunch of money?  I’m going to do the following:

• Write a minimum of 12 articles each day for submission between now and April 14.  I’ve already got 30 articles at helium.com, so that will put me well above the 500 articles that I need to qualify for a “5-star rating.”
• Rate at least 5 times each day.
• Participate in at least 1 contest every week.
• Spend 20 minutes each day browsing the site or reading the forums trying to identify what sorts of things provide higher ratings at Helium.com.

Why you should try to make some cash, too.

Also, as I love a good competition, I have my own reward for anyone who:

• Signs up for Helium.com via my referral, 
• Signs up for The Writing Journey updates via email and is still signed up on April 15, and
• Submits a minimum of 400 articles to Helium.com between March 1 (today) and April 14.

If you meet all three of these criteria, I will send you a copy of Jane Strauss‘ Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (see below).  This book is indispensable for any writer.  I am pen pals with Jane, and I can tell you that she has put a lot of work and devotion into this book.  I can also tell you that this book has made me money by helping me keep my writing at the top of its game.

Anyone who does the three things above AND tops my total number of articles submitted between March 1 and April 14 will also receive ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett which is scheduled for release on May 12, 2008.  No Internet writer, regardless of whether or not you blog, should be without this great book.  Like I said, I love a good competition, so be aware that I will do my best to top you if I can!

So, you’re a great writer.

Maybe even a terrific writer.

Probably even a better writer than I am.

But for some reason, you can’t seem to make any money doing it.  You go on, day by day, pounding away quality content on your keyboard, but you can’t seem to catch a break.  No one wants to hire you to write articles for their web sites, or your blog hovers at just a few readers.  Why is this?  Isn’t content king, when it comes to Internet writing?

Yes.  Content is King.  If you don’t write good content, no one will want to read it.  And as you know, readers means money, whether you’re writing content for someone else or for yourself.

But content isn’t alone in its role as making money.  Content may be king, but marketing is the queen of Internet writing.

So, how do you market your Internet writing?  The answer to that question is going to vary a little bit based on the type of Internet writing that you do.  However, there are several proven tactics that can help you get started on the right path. 

Tactic #1:  Use Web Site Marketing 

Create a web site or blog profiling yourself and your writing.  This technique is more reactive marketing, as opposed to proactive, but it is absolutely essential, especially if you are trying to land Internet writing contracts.  Keep this blog or web site professional.  Don’t put too much personal information and don’t treat it as a diary.  That might be fine for some other types of blogs, but you want to project an image of professionalism here.  Angela Booth has some further advice for building your web presence as a writer.

Tactic #2:  Sell Yourself

This tactic has worked well for me in the past.  When I was trying to find clients for my writing, I would search for web sites that had content or product related to the topic I wanted to write about.  I would then email the webmasters a sample article or two, along with a brief paragraph about the value that my writing would add to their site, and about how I could drive traffic to their web site using Search Engine Optimization.  I would close the e-mail asking for a sale.  In some cases, if I could see that the web site was run by a specific individual and they listed contact information, I might even give them a follow-up call in a couple of days to see if they got the e-mail, and if they had any questions.  This technique relies a lot on your personal charisma and sales ability, and you have to get used to being rejected a lot before you get some gigs from this technique.  However, I discovered 3 of my top 5 longest-lasting clients this way.

Tactic #3:  Leverage Your Existing Client Base

Success in Internet writing, as it is in many areas, is often more about who you know than what you know.  Once you have done some Internet writing for a given client and that client is happy with the work, you can use that client to help spread the word.  You might, after doing a few writing jobs for the client, ask if they would provide a link back to your portfolio web site.  You might ask them to be certain to let their peers and other business contacts know about your availability. 

The downside to this tactic is that, unless you’re an Internet writing phenom, this won’t happen by itself.  You usually have to ask someone for a recommendation.  Unfortunately, the opposite is also true:  if you screw up work for a client, it is likely that the news will spread like wildfire.  To avoid this, there are only two things you can do:  1)  don’t screw up, and 2) try to do damage control when you do screw up.

Tactic #4:  Use Article Directories

Most article directory web sites will provide you with a link back to your web site from within the article’s byline.  In other cases, the link will take you to an “About Me” type of a page on the article directory’s web site.  Put some time and energy into your “About Me” pages on article directory web sites in order to maximize their marketing potential.  But be careful here:  some article web sites stipulate that you are not to provide personal contact information or try to promote your own site in any way other than providing a link.

There you have it.  If you can master these 4 simple techniques, you will greatly increase your ability to market your Internet writing.

Not sure what all of the jargon on this Internet writing blog and other web sites means exactly?  Get a handle on it with this Internet Writing Glossary:

Article Directory

An article directory is an online depository of articles.  Think of an article directory as a library tucked away in one little corner of the Internet.  Article directories provide value to their readers by 1) providing information that the readers are interested in, and 2) providing resources that readers can use in other formats, such as eZines and newsletters.  Some article directories, such as Associated Content, pay Internet writers for their submissions, while others like eZineArticles don’t offer payment, but do provide links back to the Internet writer’s web site.  Interested in knowing more?  Check out my Directory of Internet Article Writing Sites.

Blog

A blog is short for “weblog.”  A Blog is a specific type of a web page with very unique characteristics that set it apart from other sorts of Internet web sites.  What are those unique characteristics?  Well, for one, blogs have a temporal (time-related) component to them.  The articles on a blog are typically listed in chronological order, beginning with the most recent article.  Blog archives tend to be arranged by date, and you can browse through a blog’s history in this manner.  second, blogs are unique in that they don’t require specialized knowledge to use.  Just about anyone who can use a word processor can set up a blog.  This principle has caused the “blogosphere” to explode in size in recent years.  This is important, because blogs allow individuals, like you, who have specialized knowledge or interests to have a way to share that knowledge or interest with the entire world.  Finally, blogs tend to have a very personal component to them.  While not every blog is a personal journal or diary, many blogs do tell personal stories.  This tends to be an especially effective method of communication.

eBook

An eBook is a book published in an electronic format.  Today, most eBooks are published in PDF format, and require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view them.  eBooks may be read on your computer, on a handheld device that supports eBooks, or on a portable eBook reader like the Kindle Wireless Reading Device.  eBooks can cover any topic that a traditional book can.  Often, eBooks will contain within them clickable links that can take the reader right to related web pages.

Freelance Writing

When I have told people in the past that I am a “Freelance Writer” I get one of two reactions:  puzzlement or curiosity.  I explain to them that, in the middle ages, a “Free Lance” was a knight with no allegiance to a particular lord.  Various nobles would, from time to time, hire a Free Lance to fight a battle, put down a peasant rebellion, or serve as personal bodyguards.  Today, a freelance writer is someone who uses his or her writing to serve someone (or a number of different someones) for a fee.  This might take the form of web content, eBook writing, article writing, or even paid blogging, as well as writing for various tradition print media.

Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting refers to writing that you do for someone else, to which your name is not attached in any way, shape, or form.  Generally speaking, ghostwriting means that you can never brag about what you’ve written, and that you won’t receive a byline.  On the other hand, ghostwriting tends to be more lucrative than other forms of Internet writing.

Niche

A niche is, simply put, a particular area of interest that you write about.  Finding a niche that is both interesting to you and that can make money can be a challenge.  The more narrow of a niche you use in your Internet writing, the less competition you will have, and the more marketable you may become.

Monetization

This is the Holy Grail of Internet writing.  Monetization is what you do to something to make money with it.  If you have a blog, you put up ads or affiliate links, or sell your own product.  If you write articles, you submit them to article directories for payment.  If you do contract writing for a specific client, you are monetizing your writing through that process, as well. 

Page Impressions

I include page impressions here because so many of the potential markets for Internet writing rely on it to determine exactly what the payout will be for the work.  Page impressions are the number of times that a page, with your writing on it, is loaded into someone’s browser.  The more page impressions your writing gets, the more money it is going to make through monetization.  This is true whether you are talking about an Article Directory like Associated Content that pays you a certain rate per 1,000 page impression, or whether you are talking about your own blog where you can use page impressions to gauge the popularity of your web site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO refers to the process that an Internet writer goes through in his or her writing to make that writing friendly to search engines like Google and Yahoo.  SEO can be tricky, because you don’t want to sacrifice readability so that the search engines can find you;  if you do, web visitors will simply search, arrive at your site, and then leave without adding to your monetization.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing refers to the process of publishing your writing, typically a book, without using a traditional publisher or press.  Self-publishing means that you alone are ultimately responsible for the marketing and distribution of your book.  There are a number of online services that can assist you with self-publishing your book.  Understand that, with self-publishing, you always pay up front for your printing costs, as opposed to getting a share of profits.  You don’t make any money self-publishing until you sell your writing. 

Web Content

Web content is nothing more than the words, pictures, sounds, and anything else that you see on any web page.  Internet writers provide web content to many web sites.  It is web content that webmasters use to draw traffic to their web sites through search engines.  Web content can cover any topic at all, and may or may not have profit in mind.  Writing web content for others is, very often, one of the most lucrative types of Internet writing that you can do.