Corporate blogs

So far, this is the most promising area of writing I've found. The Teacher Training organisation I blog for keep asking to me to blog on more and more topics, and I now write 2 blogs a week on Modern Languages, Psychology, Current Affairs and Classroom Management.

Skeptical friends have commented, "But you don't know anything about psychology or classroom management!"

TIP: It's amazing what subjects you can blog on if 1) you want to make it as a writer and 2) you're being paid to do it. All the information is out there on the net. All you need to do is read it, understand most of it and then re-package it in your own style.

Until last month, I'd never written a book review. The same Teacher Training site asked me to start reviewing e-books on classroom management. Reviewing the books is fun, I get paid to do it, AND it provides me with lots of material for my Classroom Management blog. Double bubble!

TIP: Lots of business sites now run Corporate Blogs. Approach sites for whom you think you could provide content. They'll probably ask for some free blogs to start with, but if your content and style are good, you'll then be in a position to talk money...

Money's the tricky one! Many blogging so-called 'jobs' promise a share of Adsense revenue. I'm on this deal with a couple of sites I've written for, and so far, the income has been risible. It may improve in time, but right now, I'm inclined to ask for hard cash upfront for my writing.

I wrote a series of guides to France on a revenue-sharing basis. The revenue has been disappointing. They liked my writing and asked me to write for another site, on the same basis. I asked for hard cash instead. They agreed.

TIP: Agree to revenue-share, just to get started. If clients like your writing enough, they'll soon find the money. Because you're worth it.

Recycle your college essays!

Oboulo.com will PAY for your old college essays! That's right, PAY. Only $10 per essay, mind, but still, if you've got 20 quality college essays or dissertations lying around in digital format, then you can make yourself an easy $200. The deal seems to be, you create an account for yourself at Oboulo.com, submit your essays, and if Oboulo deem them to be of sufficient quality and interest, they'll pay you and offer them for re-sale to interested parties.

Now, I haven't tried this myself, so can't vouch for it personally. I haven't tried it for two reasons: 1. I think all my old college essays are still in my parents' loft. 2. I'm so OLD that all my essays were written in ink on paper. This was a quaint, old-fashioned custom, discontinued in the early 1990s, which meant that you couldn't just copy-and-paste huge chunks of other people's work. You could, of course, copy from books or from other students but, cunningly, it was actually harder work to hand-copy than to write original material. I wonder why they did away with it?

So $10 to type up each of my college essays probably isn't worth the candle for me. If you've got stuff in digital format, though, give it a try. Let me know how you get on.

Ooops!

I promised back in May, Gentle Reader, that I'd let you know how I got on with some of my early finding-writing-jobs ideas,and then omitted to do so (that should probably be 'so to do'.) My 3 schemes back then were:
1. submitting unsolicited articles to magazines
2. proofreading college dissertations
3. starting a personal blog

#1 unsolicited articles
Well, I wrote a blinder on the medieval history of my local town and sent it to the editor of my local rag. (I'd pitched it to them as an idea, and received no response, so decided to write the article to make life easier for them.) After two weeks, still no response, so I sent a polite email asking if they'd received it. Still no reply. I re-sent it a week later and eventually received the curt reply from the Editor, "You've sent this several times now. Please stop sending it." I replied, still politely, that a courteous "Thanks, but no thanks" would have done nicely. I know editors are busy people, but surely a standard "No Thanks" email would cost them little effort and be better PR?

So that, in my admittedly limited experience, is what you get from submitting unsolicited articles. I had, however, made a simple mistake: whilst my material was locally relevant to the paper, my style was not. My preferred writing style is humorous/surreal, and, now I come to think of it, I've never in 20 years read anything remotely humorous in my local paper. Pearls before swine? Luckily, I'm not bitter, and recycled the article on one of my paid blogs.

#2 proofreading college dissertations
Since receiving this tip for occasional writing work, I've discovered that this is actually an INDUSTRY. Foreign students, of limited academic ability, and often of limited English skills, are routinely admitted on degree and post-grad courses for the extra money they contribute to university coffers. There are websites offering to WRITE their degree assignments in return for filthy lucre. Rather than contribute to this travesty of academia, I've commented on it in another paid blog. This may sound prim of me, but I haven't sunk that low. Yet.

#3. personal blogs
I'm told there are X zillion new personal blogs started every day, and that those bloggers you hear about who have given up the day job started in 1997. So far, this blog has earnt me just $0.41 in advertising revenue, so the yacht will have to wait...

Too busy to blog!

Apologies to any readers who've been waiting for the next instalment with bated breath. I've been too busy doing odd writing jobs to write my blog. Which is good, because the whole point of this blog was to share tips on finding work as a writer. So here's the promised progress report, warts-and-all.

#1 Estate Agents' property details
This still provides a small but steady stream of work. Each detail takes me about an hour and they pay me $20/£10. I could do them more quickly, but like to do some online research about the area and its history so that my copy stands out from the crowd (hopefully.) Obviously this isn't a great time for the property market, but you could try to persuade estate agents that this is PRECISELY the time they need good, original and different copy.

TIP: find an online property spec, rewrite it in your own unique style, send it to the agent and offer your services.

#2 Adsense revenue-share
I've completed my guides to the 24 regions of France. I'm on 60% share of Adsense revenue from these pages for the next two years. My first month's share was $13 and my second month's, $17, so the initial return has been disappointing. However, even if the revenue stayed at $13 for two years, that's $312/£168, which would just about pay for the time it took to write them. And if, as I hope, the revenue increases exponentially month-on-month, then I'll be too busy lazing by my private pool to write this blog.

TIP: find a site with Adsense ads, and the sort of copy you think you could improve on, rewrite it, send them your copy and ask for a share of Adsense revenue. Your superb original copy costs them nothing up-front and, being superb and original, will generate more traffic to their pages.

#3 Commissioned blogs.
This started small and has been growing steadily. I answered a small ad who needed someone to blog twice weekly on Modern Languages at $8/£4 a blog. After the first month, they asked me to blog in the General and Psychology sections as well. After the second month (they must like my stuff) they asked me to contribute to Classroom Management and Book Reviews. In case this sounds very specialist, I should point out that I knew nothing about psychology until I started blogging on it...

TIP: look out for 'bloggers wanted' ads.

More job tips for aspiring writers

Did you try any of those ideas? Oh good. Let me know how you get on.

Here are some more ideas I'm exploring.

#1 Submitting unsolicited articles to papers and magazines.
I'm currently writing a series of humorous guides to France. I sent links to some of my articles to my local paper and offered to write similar guides to my local area. After a brief email acknowledging receipt of my idea, I heard nothing. After 2 weeks, the silence was deafening. I decided to make life easier for them and WRITE a sample article. (Freelancers should always make it AS EASY AS POSSIBLE for people to employ them.) Now all they have to do is copy and paste. I'll let you know if it works.

#2 Proofreading college dissertations.
I haven't tried this yet, but a friend recommended contacting colleges with a large number of overseas students, who might want their dissertations rendered into less-broken English. Apparently a friend of hers has done it successfully for a number of years.

#3 This.
Blogging. There's no shortage of information out there about how to earn your first million by teatime through blogging. Unsurprisingly, there's usually an e-book or DVD you need to buy if you want to learn the true secrets. Some of the best FREE information I've found is at Problogger.
The number of do's and dont's is quite scary, but you've got to start somewhere, so I have. My other blog is about travel.

If I'm not a millionaire by teatime, I'll want to know the reason why.

Job ideas for freelance writers

Hello blogosphere.

I'm new to the freelance writing game. I also believe in Karma. So, in the spirit of 'My Name is Earl', I'm going to share some of my early successes with you, in the hope that they give you some ideas.

#1 Paid (PAID!) blog-writing:
I got this from a small ad on a local jobs site. I'm allowed to submit two weekly blogs here. The per-blog rate works out at slightly less than you'd get pulling pints ("serving beer" for those of you across the pond) BUT it's writing experience and builds up the online portfolio (you can direct potential clients there.) You could do worse than to approach similar companies/institutions with a blog and offer your services as a guest blogger.

#2 Estate agents' property details
This came from an ad on another local site. A UK estate agent was too busy to write up all his new property details and advertised for a freelance writer to turn the dry property specs ("living-room 20 sqm", etc etc) into elegant and entertaining prose. These take me about 30 minutes each, and pay about double what you get from pulling pints. Again, an email costs nothing, so you could approach estate agents and offer your services.

Having got 5 or 6 of my property details online, I sent links offering my services to about 30 other estate agents, and received not a single reply! Except for...

#3 Adsense revenue-share:
...one, who said he didn't want property details, but would I be interested in writing regional guides to France in return for a share of the Adsense revenue on my pages? I've since come across lots of sites that offer writers this deal, and I can't tell you whether it's worth it yet, because I haven't been given my first month's traffic figures. When I do, I'll let you know. Have a look. You might even enjoy the articles.