Deciding to become a freelancer can offer you many many advantages and benefits. A couple examples include being able to choose your own hours that you would like to work, the location that you would like to work, and ability to make much more money than you could in a 9 to 5. So, if you’re a writer, you can make money writing articles as a freelancer on your own time, whenever, wherever, as long as you have a stable internet connection.
So, in order to make money writing articles online, there are a few pieces of criteria that most companies require you to abide by:
- Create an account
- Go through some sort of an evaluation process (provide creds, writing samples, etc.)
- Get approved
- Choose your industry or subject
- Accept work
Skills Needed to Keep the Work Coming
Per an article on the ConstantContent website entitled “10 Skills Every Great Content Writer Needs”, the author states that the 10 skills that one would need to write great content are:
- Adaptability
- Strong Research Skills
- A Solid Understanding of SEO
- Organizational Skills
- The Ability to Get Focused
- The Ability to Meet Deadlines
- Communicate
- Editing
- Delivery Quality and
- Staying in Demand
These all are self explanatory and this is definitely not a definitive list, but these are great jump off points to keep the content train going to better guarantee more work flow coming your way.
Things to Look Out For
Content mills and burn out. These are common things that I always see surface when looking to make a decent amount of money by freelance writing through a number of different sites. It’s best to look for sites or jobs that pay at least .03 cents a word so that you get the most bag for you buck and you are not writing a ton of content for little money. It’s ok to be picky and choosy in the beginning of your freelance writing journey to weed out all of they low hanging, less profitable and time consuming work. But, every now and then, you may have to take a couple to get some experience or work.
Websites to Get Some Work
CLEARVOICE
Collaborate seamlessly as a freelancer with other in house teams to deliver your best work and to build your personal brand. By joining their network, you can get matched with assignments based on your expertise, you can select a range of payment based on the assignments that you would like to take and get paid quickly through PayPal when your assignment is approved.
CONTENTWRITERS
Sign up for free with their no obligation sign up process. There is no minimum to the amount of projects that you must complete nor a maximum or cap you just are required to give your best quality work and meet the intended deadlines when they are assigned. ContenWriters offers email and phone support if you have and questions and they send payments via PayPal on the 15th and 30th of each month.
FREELANCE WRITING
Freelance Writing is more so a Job board that allows you to filter through different writing jobs that are posted on a number of website like Indeed and BloggingPro. Make sure to do your research before applying for a job making sure that the source is known and the job fits your style and skill level.
HUBPAGES
HubPages generates income for you a “little” differently than all of the other websites listed here. Instead of paying you directly per word, they pay you through ad revenue. If you sign up for an account, you will be able to generate ad revenue through the Google Adsense program and other ad platforms when people click on the ads next to your article.
LISTVERSE
Listverse is a fun site that post list related articles that span a number of categories. They pay a flat rate of $100 if they select your article and they have several, obtainable requirements like the article must have at 10 item per list minimum, it must be an original work and link to credible references.
SCRIPTED
Scripted is a marketplace where you can find reliable jobs and work on your own schedule. To start, all you have to do is create a profile, add samples of your work to your profile, claims the jobs that you want, submit your work and get paid.
TEXTBROKER
Textbroker is a leading content marketplace that connects quality authors and content writers with paying clients all around the world and is a great place to make money writing articles. To start, all you have to do is register your account, submit a writing sample, get rated, complete your profile and start writing articles for cash.
VERBLIO
Verblio will help you find different agencies and business that need your writing skills to help them create good content. They have 1300 clients across 40 different types of industries so you can always find work. Starting out, you’ll have access to shorter form jobs, but by earning 5 star reviews, you’ll start to gain access to longer, higher paying jobs.
WRITERACCESS
Create content on demand for businesses and agencies that love to hire freelance writers with WriterAccess. Enjoy generous pay rates in which you can choose small or larger projects that suit your needs, and work any time by picking projects and orders that match you skill and payment requirements.
WRITING BUNNY
WritingBunny is a website that is suited for more refined writers that have skills due to having sufficient experience. It looks like per their website that they only select the cream of the crop and “less than 2% of all writers that apply make the cut.”. So, their process is similar to some other in that you would just apply to their program, get accepted, upload samples of your work and set your own rates, clients will book you, complete the work and get paid for completing the work.