iWriter.com is a site that connects writers with websites that are looking to pay for content. If you have writing skills and are looking for extra paid work, this might be something to look into.
It looks like their pay is very much on the low end of the scale (it says you’ll earn up to $15 per article), but this might be a great opportunity to build your writing portfolio and experience, while also earning a little money, too.
Does anyone have experience working for this company? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Looking for more ways to make money writing? Here are three other articles to check out:
How to Make Money Writing for eHow.com
Earn Money Writing for Examiner.com
5 Ways to Use Your Blog as a Springboard to Earn Additional Income
Thanks, Work At Home Market!
Melissa,
I had forgotten about Hope Clark’s newsletter. It really is a good one. I lost track of it when I changed email addresses. Good advice all around.
Rose
The writing part is easy. But if you want to make money as a writer, you have to treat it like a business. I used to get up at 4:30 every day to write for 3 hours before my kids got up. I always invoiced clients on Friday and kept that day for any marketing of myself I needed to do. And I track my assignments via a simple spreadsheet that I made myself. I always know what’s been assigned and where it is in the pipeline (research stage, handed in but waiting for edits, published, and PAID.
And because this IS about saving money as well as making it…Do NOT go into debt buying books or outfitting a home office. For what it’s worth, I write for household name clients, and I still write at my dining room table most of the time. I finally got a smartphone a couple of months ago, because I needed to be able to email edits back to my clients on the fly. I will admit that having my own site (mine is just a very simple blog with my name as the domain) has been a factor in getting work, because it’s where I put my client list and publications. But it’s not mandatory if you’re just starting out.
I second what Melissa had to say :). I am also a WAHM, and I currently earn substantially more than what sites like iwriter.com offer by working with private clients. It may sound intimidating, but once you have a few great writing samples and you learn to market yourself it is easy to find high paying work.
Good luck to everyone! Freelance writing has given me the opportunity to raise my baby while still earning a very decent income.
Melissa: Thank you for sharing all of this encouragement and info. I need to get out of my comfort zone and try something like this.
I’m a mom of 3 small kids and a professional writer. I hate to think of a mom slaving to make $15 per article. This never quite pans out — the effort put in is so high compared to the benefit received, and time away from your family always has its price. Finally, there is something humiliating (and annoying) in asking your friends and family to sign up for yet another Internet Thing.
That said, I’m all for moms writing & making money!!! If you worry that your skills aren’t strong enough to run with the big wolves of publishing, don’t worry: there are tons of resources for smaller writing markets (many of them niche markets, trade mags, or even contests) that could return far more for your time, and you can actually parlay these into bigger and better things. Or, if you don’t have any clips to show, offer to write something on spec and send it in. Or barter with someone — I bartered writing services for decorating help once. Just get a real portfolio of writing built up. And so many businesses need a social media presence but are terrible writers. Be their solution!
Sites like The Renegade Writer, Funds For Writers, & Writers Weekly offer tips and tricks on how to pitch editors for work, how to improve as a writer, and how to find markets. A $50 investment in a Writer’s Market book can reap loads of info, too.
C.Hope Clark’s book “The Shy Writer” is mostly about book publicity for introverts, but she also has e-newsletters full of markets for work. I use her Small Markets newsletter to find homes for short pieces that are easy for me to turn around (sometimes using the bits of research that didn’t find a home in longer pieces), or for selling reprints of my previously published pieces.
Good plain writing and basic savvy (meet your deadlines, don’t forget to invoice, be nice to your editor, etc) are all you need. The books that were most helpful in jump-starting my writing career were the Renegade Writer books and the book “Writer Mama” by Christina Katz, who shows you how to take your mom expertise and turn it into strong ideas you can pitch. When I wanted to take things up a notch, Kelly James-Enger’s books on writing were life-changing, especially “Ready, Aim, Specialize!” and “The Six-Figure Writer.”
I know this is a derail. But writing for pay has allowed me to stay at home and spend time with my kids while developing myself, too. I’m a total introvert, super shy, and started out terrified, with no experience. I don’t have a journalism degree, either. My point is that moms can make more money and get clips they can parlay quickly into better writing jobs, by writing for more reputable publications, right from the beginning. I think most moms just don’t know where to start, or don’t have the confidence they can do it at all.
Melissa
Thank you Melissa! After having written for $15 a pop because I am introverted and not sure I could ever make more than that, I will be checking out those books. They sound like they are right up my ally!
Thank you so much for your post! I’m just starting to write for a company and we’re negotiating pay and other terms. I’ll check out the resources you listed because I am completely clueless right now!
I am also a freelance writer, though currently on a much smaller scale than Melissa currently. I do write for the Examiner, and yes, the pay is measly compared to other jobs but it is great for developing clips, discipline and online writing experience. Examiner.com also has good accountability and incentives for its writers, which increase the pay a bit.
For all you burgeoning writers out there, I understand where you’re coming from…something needs to be said about fear…the fear of rejection has hindered many a good writer and all I can say is:
Don’t let it stop you. Write! And learn how to pitch. The worst an editor can do is say “No”.
Some additional books for writing inspriation to check out would be “Just Write” by Susan Titus Osborn and “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott. Then go to the library and check out the Writer’s Market 2012 or the Christian Writer’s Market 2012 (for those interested in the Christian Market) along with freelance “how-to” books.
A good one for freelancing in general is “My So-Called Freelance Life”.
Lastly, DO consider investing in going to a writer’s conference–it will teach you valuable skills, jump-start your contacts, and put you in touch with other writers and publishers.
I have attended the Write-to-Publish Christian Writing Conference in Wheaton, IL, and found it to be inspiring. (http://www.writetopublish.com/)
This year’s conference is May 30-June 2, at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL.
And if you can’t make it to a writer’s conference, check out the writing/publishing classes at your local library or park district. Many a writer has gotten started this way.
Finally, write. Write about what you know and hone your craft. Good writing is what they will hire you for.
It’s easy to be prolific with advice when you are procrastinating on a hard assignment! 🙂
Good luck, all… Just send out that first query and it all gets better. The first step is the hardest!
I’ve written for iWriter.com. Some of the clients are aboveboard and honest. Others may reject good work simply because they don’t want to pay. (At one time, the owners used that as a selling point to attract more clients to their site.) If an article is rejected by a client, you as a writer have no recourse. There is no “rewrite” option and there is no way to get assistance from the site itself. There are good clients, but you have to be choosy to find the right ones. Many clients expect a lot of work for what they are willing to pay. Make sure you read all of the special instructions before accepting an order and check the client’s rejection percentage to get an idea what you may be getting into.
I’ve been looking into writing articles for a source of income, but I am so good at proofreading. I would love to be hired to proofread websites, documents, etc. Does anyone have any experience or information that could help me get into that field? Thanks!
Do you have any qualifications for copyediting? Demand Studios and Textbroker.com hire copyeditors.
That’s exactly what I love doing, though I have never used that term until today. I took business admin classes in college that led me to a 3-year job as a legal assistant, where I created and edited many legal documents. I have always been good at finding grammatical and other errors in writing, and it bothers me to read novels or view websites with major errors. I’ll check out those sites. Thanks!
Also, you can try just finding websites in need of editing and email them! Some companies either don’t know or aren’t sure how to find someone (or just don’t have time to look for an editor). I would try just sending them an email listing your experience, then note a few mistakes you found on their site, mentioning that you found other mistakes as well;)
Deb, that is exactly what I was thinking of doing a few months ago, but I got stuck on knowing what to charge. I didn’t give up on the idea, but got distracted with daily homeschool life and my toddler. I am still trying to figure out how to work around the needs of my family, in order to make some money to meet the needs of my family.
Check what people are paying a fulltime copyeditor. If it’s 40k a year, you should charge $20 an hour. If you charge by the job, make sure you know the terms of the job so you don’t get shafted on that hourly rate. You shouldn’t make less money for being efficient! And editing legal info is different from editing a smoothie brochure. Harder work deserves better pay. Maybe you could have tiers:
– $30/hr to edit legal briefs or highly technical work
– $ 25/hr for easier edits that include substantial rewriting
– $20/hr for edits that are more of a grammar review
Glance at the copy first and let the client know where he falls. It’s all about setting expectations for the client and managing changes as they come. NEVER begin work unless you have a signed (or emailed) confirmation of payment terms, etc. — Send a simple email that states deliverables, rates, and that any changes to this contract will be charged at a rate of $X/hr. They must respond to this email agreeing to your estimate!
For example:
– You will edit 10 legal pages for XYZ Legal Firm
– Estimated time: 10 hrs @ $30/hr = $300, with any additional work charged at the same hourly rate
– Date you will get work; date you will hand revisions back to them (and to whom)
– IMPORTANT: Date by which, if they have not responded, your revisions will be deemed “accepted” and the client will be invoiced for the work.
Thank you, Melissa, for your thorough advice. Based on your comment, I assume you have some experience in the field, or at least a similar field, and I appreciate your assistance. I encourages me that I might be able to make something good happen for my family.
I’ve never written for this company, but I thought I’d check it out. Unfortunately, it seems to be pretty difficult for very little pay. You get rated based on each article, and you get moved up to higher levels based on how you are rated. The catch is that for the first level you only get paid about $2.00 per article, and it takes many articles to move up to a higher level.
I’d also like to know more about someone who’s worked for them. I write for Demand Studios (eHow and Livestrong) and for Examiner.com.
Examiner.com is easy to write for, but the pay is pitiful. I do get to do some product reviews which are fun. The only real way to make money on Examiner is to refer a bunch of people (you get $50 per referral, which nobody noted in the link above but they should have for ethical reasons!). I haven’t made any referrals. I write on 5 Examiner topics and get about $100 per month from writing there. I’ve reviewed products from Omaha Steaks to children’s dancewear to prank gift items!
Writing for Demand Studios is more difficult. You need to prove expertise in a field by either having a lot of experience working as a professional (like as a carpenter) or have an advanced degree. Your article needs to be 400-500 words, referenced, you have to give the exact references and you get rated. Rewrites and rejects are fairly common. I get about 20% rewrite and about 1% reject there. I’ve written about 1,300 articles there and had about 10 rejects. Some editors are pickier than others. Some rewrite requests are ridiculous and you can let it expire if you don’t want to deal with it.
Thanks for the info on Demand Studios and Examiner.
Also, Crystal didn’t note that it was an affiliate link above because it isn’t – it just takes you to their plain website. She is always so careful about noting her affiliate links that before you accuse her of being unethical about something, you should probably actually click the link and find out.
I think Jessica was referring to the person who wrote the original article/email about examiner.com for Crystal, not that she was accusing Crystal herself. That’s how I understood her comment.
My mistake – thanks!
If you sign up for Examiner.com using that lady’s name as a referral, that lady gets $50. She should have mentioned that she would get the $50 reward for each sign up. Crystal would probably not have been aware and no kickback would go to Crystal.
Thank you so much for letting me know. I was completely unaware of that and will update the post accordingly.
We wrote for Demand Studios for about 9 months and made pretty good money, but it dried up around November of last year. If you don’t have permission for one of their special sections, there are zero articles to write. And the requirements for getting permissions are a bit extreme considering they pay $15-$25/article.
It sure did dry up. I’m not in “First Look” so I haven’t had a Livestrong article since September of last year, and I have a Masters of Public Health + 8 years of professional experience in the field. My research score is above 4 but my grammar is 3.9 so I don’t qualify for it.
Not only are the permissions extreme but so are some of the rewrite requests I’ve received. The editors seem to have more leeway than the writers in interpreting the intent of a title.