Article Read. You Can Find All Kind of Articles

Home | Search Article

Search

-- All Categories --Auto and TrucksEducationFamilyFood and DrinkGadgets and GizmosHealthHobbiesHome ImprovementKids and TeensLegal MattersParentingPets and AnimalsRecreation and SportsSite PromotionTravel and LeisureWeb DevelopmentWomenWriting
Advanced Search

• Auto and Trucks
• Education
• Family
• Food and Drink
• Gadgets and Gizmos
• Health
• Hobbies
• Home Improvement
• Kids and Teens
• Legal Matters
• Parenting
• Pets and Animals
• Recreation and Sports
• Site Promotion
• Travel and Leisure
• Web Development
• Women
• Writing

---

A beachcomber, the Internet reminds me of theislands of Hawaii, where there are constantvolcanic eruptions, paving the way for a landmassthat increases in size every day. In the same way,the ever-expanding Information Highways explosivegrowth keeps giving birth to new careers such asthose of Internet writers or Internet content providers.AOL Chairman CEO Steve Case argues that thebattle for content is the Nets biggest pre-occupationsince websites need to update their content prettymuch daily. That is why mergers and acquisitionswill continue to roll on, and we, the content providersare just as well-placed to harvest from this constantgrowth much like railroad workers during the cowboydays.Its never easy, though, and I am talking fromexperience. If you think that the opportunities willsimply knock on your door, youre living in a worldcalled Virtual Reality. For even as the InformationHighway expands under your feet like hot lava,being an Internet Writer is very much like walkingon a circus tightrope.Writers Digest claims that John Grisham used tosend out 26 query letters daily in betweenattending court hearings before he became afamous writer. That is also how I began to layclaim to the post of an Internet content provider.I am not famous yet, but like Grisham, I have aplan how to get there.Indeed, the road is fraught with rejections; but itis also a numbers game. In other words, themore pitches you make, the more the chancesof winning. Early on I decided to up the ante formyself, that is, 30 pitches a day, or more if Ihave the time! And I am still doing that everyday.For the fact is, not everyone will appreciate yourwares. I remember submitting a story to onefamous web site, only to be told that I shouldtake English lessons! And that, in spite of thefact that I checked my grammar, punctuationand spelling before submitting the piece; puttingmy best foot forward so-to-speak. But like adoor-to-door salesman, youll make it soon ifyou try hard enough and if I may add, yourereally good!I will leave the part about being a reallygood writer to you. I will concentrateinstead on the strategies and workhabits that I espoused to succeed.Right now I am fully dependent onmy freelance writing business with nonet under my feet! How did I do that?It didnt happen overnight. The firsttime I did my first pitch was about ayear ago, here at Inkspot. Theeditor did not approve of my storybut she did so graciously. Youdont find an editor like that everyday.As I said, I just kept trying, sending out thatendless stream of query letters. One day,I got a yes response and I couldnt believe it.I have been writing for more than a decade,but that was my first ever-successful forayinto Internet writing. I got paid only $20 fora 500-word piece, but I was happy with thatalready. The editor was surprised that Icharged him so little, he even wrote me anote with the check saying "are you sureyoure charging only $20 for this?" I guesshe had no idea at what stage I was in myInternet writing career! Nonetheless, thestrategy paid off. I figured that once youhad at least one published story on the Net,it wasnt going to be too hard to land thenext project and so on. By the way, I gotthat first project from a classified ad atInkspot!So my advice is just keep firing off thosequery letters, and capitalize on your workspublished on the Net, making sure youalways include those URLs in your pitches.It also helps to have your own web site,which contains your resume, contactinformation, and samples of work. Thatway, there is one convenient placewhere editors sizing you up can go.Mine was just a simple one, which Icrafted from a free HTML softwareand free webspace but it serves itspurpose.Now heres how $20 grew into $50 and$100 and then $200 per story. I just keptpitching as usual, like a good salesmanand my rate kept going up. Of course, Iwas still charging the same for, say, a500-word simple piece; but for morecomplicated ones like the Future ofTelecommunications I ought to charge moreand the editors of those sites did not complainsince I had to do more research.It helped that I was working as a CustomerService Specialist at Sprint Canada, one of thebig telephone companies in Canada, so I knew alot about telecommunications. How does thissituation apply to you? Well, capitalize on a topicwhere you know a great deal about, and impressthe editor with your knowledge!While you are regularly pitching, you also have tobe surfing the Net as much as possible for opportunities.My daily surfing task entails checking the status for myproject bids at OnVia.com, Ants.com, and ELance.comonce you set up a free account with these sites, you areregularly updated by email on the status of the projectsthat you applied for. Imagine how much time youll savewith these tools!You ought to keep surfing because youll never knowwhat turns up. My favorites are WriteforCash.com andthe freelance job opportunities at DotcomMommies.com,HomeWorkers.org, and WritersWeekly.com. Rememberthat these opportunities are gone instantly, so apply fast.If you dont, most likely therell be at least a hundred otherwriters ahead of you as a rule of thumb. It would also helpto have a well-crafted form letter for this purpose but I dontrecommend this approach for pitches.Finally, establish a way of tracking your deadlines in yourFilofax to maximize your billable hours. If, say, your targetis to earn $2,000 every month from freelancing, you haveto consider check cut off dates from the websites you workfor. WriteForCash.com, for example, pays the first weekof the next month after the month that you completed thework and they also have a 30-article limit.Making the most of these constraints mean that if yourepaid $20 for each of the 30 articles, the most that you canearn in a month is $600 (i.e., 30 x $20/article)which meansyou still have $1,400 to worry about for your monthlyfreelancing. Also consider that you wont get your $600check within the month that your articles got accepted.Here are more examples for anticipating your freelanceincome. If you write for WriteforCash.com its notimpossible to realize earnings of $400 per monthif you write efficiently.Always do the math and you can never go wrong.Never waste you time on non-revenue generatingactivities such as sites that either dont pay or payvery little unless you are doing this to help advertiseyour craft or you have extra time in your hands. Ifhowever, you cant find sites that will pay you $100per article or higher during any given month, aimyour guns towards the small fry for the time beingin order to cover your projected shortfall. You willnotice that no month is the same as you obtainyour earnings from many different sources, big and small.Of course, it never hurts to have some regulars up yoursleeves the likes of Sloot.com where I cover thetelecommunications beat. Though I am not allowed todiscuss my rate here per article, I must say its apretty good rate and the editor that I work with is soprofessional. Work on developing these contacts whichwill provide you with a regular income stream.How to get these regulars? I must say the strategyrequires a combination of good old detective work(translation: surf a lot) coupled with effective niching,which is concentrating on the kind of writing that youdo best (i.e., How Tos; poetry; Childrens books, etc.).You have more chances pitching for subject you arean expert at rather than a subject where you currentlyhave zero knowledge.Look carefully into the details of your pitch. Makeyour query letter look as professional as possible,which means you have to know the name of the editor;include your full contact information; and, make everyeffort to make your own voice come through(translation: your own style of writing, including theway you would express yourself if you wrote the articleyou are proposing).Let me end with what I consider the most importanttip in pitching. Do your homework; always look forthe writers submission guidelines found in nearlyevery site that needs help with their content. I learnedthis the hard way. Plus, always read sample articlesto familiarize you with the kind of content needed.If you write regularly, you do reach that point whereit feels like somebody is whispering you the wordsto write. But if you put a sense of strategy into thetask, you may be hitting the beaches in Hawaii moreoften than you think!

About the Author

Archie Sicat is a professional Internet contentprovider. He currently does webmastering forhttp://www.InternetMovieServer.com,http://www.CustomerServiceSchool.com and isconnected with http://www.ezinfocenter.com/2854390.