How to Work from Home Writing Articles

Working from home is something that more and more people are trying to achieve.  You get to work the hours that you want and can earn money in your pyjamas…right?  Well, yes and no.  If you’re considering earning a living by writing articles at home, read on…

How easy is it to find a job writing articles?

Actually, it’s harder than you might imagine.  If you do a Google search for Work From Home Writing Articles you will get a huge number of hits so it would appear that there is a lot of work available.  However, be very, very careful.  There are many sites which look extremely professional and are easy to sign up to.  But a lot of them are scams or very low paying at best.

Scam sites

Adsense Revenue Type Sites

These sites say that you can write about anything you like and post articles to their site as often as you like.  They will then put your article onto a website that matches its content and you get paid a percentage of the advertising revenue from that site.  You can build up a modest revenue over time.  For example, if you had 150 articles up, you could expect to earn around $1 per article per month.  To do well at this you would need to know a fair bit about SEO (search engine optimization) and be sure that your article contains the correct percentage of keywords.  Too many and the search engines will boot out your article – too few and it won’t get found.  Google offers a free keyword analyzer which is worth a look.  The good news is that once your articles are written and submitted, the money just keeps coming in.  The bad news is that it’s not great money.

Credit card scammers

As we said, be very, very careful what you sign up for.  There are other sites that entice you to write articles for them and they are easy to sign up to – just your email address and name.  Then when you click to register, a grey box pops up, offering you an amazing discount to join them and get the benefits of their membership club.  This discount price is usually around $2.95.  This obviously makes it very tempting to sign up to but please, don’t!  There is a box to tick to say that you have read the Terms and Conditions and in those T’s and C’s you will read that if you give them your credit card details, they will take a substantial sum each month.  We have seen amounts varying from $47 to $70.  A quick trawl of forums shows that some people were able to cancel after the first amount was taken but many were still frantically trying to get through on the ‘helpline’ number. 

So are there any real opportunities?  Yes, there are.  Here are a few of the better ones.

Craigs List

You could try Craigs List.  This looks like a very basic site but has a wealth of job opportunities for anyone who wants to write from home.  First, select your city from the list on the left of the page.  When the page has refreshed, look under jobs and scroll down to writing / editing.  Then simply browse the jobs by each area and when you find one that you like the look of, email the address at the top of the page.  Clicking on it will take you to Outlook or you can copy and paste it into another email provider such as Hotmail etc.  You still need to be careful as some of the scam sites do post on Craigs List which can be disappointing.  But as long as you don’t sign up for them, that’s all it is.  Look for jobs that don’t require you to be in a specific area and accept ‘telecommutes’ i.e. working from home.  You can browse every city which is broken down into towns.  This can be very time consuming but it is worth it as it won’t cost you anything to apply and you may get work from it.

Associated Content

AssociatedContent is free to sign up to and will pay an upfront payment ranging from $1 – $20 depending on the content of what you submit.  The average payment is $5.  They accept articles, as well as audio, slideshows and others.  You can either write whatever you wish or look for assignments.  These are articles which AssociatedContent wish to be written so it’s a good idea to go for these.  They also offer Performance Payments which pay $1.50 for every 1,000 page views your content receives.  It’s worth noting that if you’re not a resident of the United States, you can’t get upfront payments – you may only submit content for Performance Payments.

There is a lot to learn about how to get the best from this site so spend a good chunk of time reading their faq’s, their help pages and other people’s articles on what to do.  There is money to be made but you need to put a lot of work in to get started.

Elance

Elance is a site for professional freelancers and writing is among the skills that buyers are looking for.  You can signup for a basic free membership and get to work that way, although it can be slow to start with.  If you’re really committed, shell out for an Individual or Business membership which will display you higher in the search ranks when Buyers are looking for a writer.  You can also optimize your chances of success by filling out your Profile page and taking the free online tests that Elance provide to show Buyers your level of ability.

A Buyer will post a project.  They describe the job, how long they wish you to spend on it and how much they are willing to pay.  You then bid for the job, using a ‘connect’ to do so.  Each level of membership awards you a certain number of connects.  If you are awarded the job, it then goes into a ‘workroom’ where you and your buyer can Private Message each other if required.

Before bidding on a job, check out how many projects the Buyer has posted and how many they have accepted.  If a Buyer has posted several and not accepted any, it’s a good idea to pass – however tempting the job may sound.  You can also checkout the Buyer’s feedback and they can look at yours so make sure it’s good!  Elance displays your 6 monthly earnings, lifetime earnings and feedback score when you bid.  Payment is usually through Escrow and you can then transfer it into your bank account or PayPal.  Don’t forget that Elance takes a cut so add that to the price that you bid.  Be aware that there are many providers on Elance so the competition is fierce.  However, stick with it and if you are lucky, you may find a Buyer who posts repeat projects and invites you to bid for them.

Other bid sites

The other main sites where you bid for writing jobs are GetAFreelancer, Guru, and iFreelance.

Advice

This will sound obvious but it is something that many Freelancers don’t pay attention too, surprisingly.  Always remember that you are selling your writing, so first of all, make sure that your profile is filled in as comprehensively as possible.  Check the spelling and then check it again.  When you get a job, do it to the best of your ability, present it well and make sure it’s in on time.  And enjoy!  Good luck!