Advice for New Online Writers

Writing web content is not a reliable way to make money

According to Indeed.com, the average annual salary of a web content writer is $56,000. Keep in mind this is just an average. When starting out, web content writers will make a lot less. You will be lucky to crack four figures. Web content writing is hard work with long hours for very little money. Treat a career in web content writing as a second job instead of relying on it as a main job.

When you do get work, act professionally. Get it done on time. Let your clients have at least two ways of getting in contact with you. Use good grammar, spelling and punctuation in your correspondence emails. Get a separate email account for your clients. If you do not have a PayPal account, get one. Many clients will only pay by PayPal.

Expect Scams

Finding paying clients that offer steady work is very difficult. This is a “feast or famine” type of career. You must take as much work as you can when it is offered in order to help you get through times of no paying writing jobs. Because there are so many online writers desperate for work, it will be inevitable that all web content writers will run into scammers.

Scammers will not give you a clear answer as to how much money you will make. They will ask for long articles as a “sample” of your work. Never send long articles as samples. It will wind up being stolen. Make a blog, webpage or LinkedIn page that shows off your best online clips. Send links to these pages as samples to potential clients.

Unpredictability

Never count on steady work from any client. Many online writers were making a good living writing for just one client, Demand Media. Google then launched the Panda algorithm in late 2011, which penalized Demand Media web sites. Demand Media dropped most of its writers and greatly slowed down the amount of writing jobs available for the few writers that was left.

Clients can come and go at the drop of a hat because of online trends, natural disasters or sudden bankruptcy. Never be satisfied with just one or two major clients. Get at least six clients so that if one client suddenly disappears you still have five other revenue streams. Economize whenever you can and bank your savings. Your savings should be used only in emergencies when you cannot find work.

Image: "Notebook and Pens" by Marco Verch for Wikimedia Commons