I have one of two responses when I hear someone saying they are not doing something for the money. One, is to call them a straight out liar, or two, think they are some idiot living off parents, spouse or significant other, who doesn't get that someone is paying for their ability to "play."

No where is this "not doing it for the money" thinking so apparent then in writing circles. Yes, I get it, it's your passion, blah, blah, blah. However, if you REALLY did not want to get paid for said writing, you wouldn't submit it to places to get paid. There are these things called blogs. So, now that we have eliminated that first lie, lets move on.

Two, if you have put all your eggs (writing income) in one basket which has changed their payout and you just lap it up like a dog, you are not a business person. Over the last two years the online writing world has changed significantly, but it is clear some think they are being the "good guy" to just roll with the punches and not adjust.

At some point, if a person is doing something for pay where they have to consider the return on investment (ROI). Meaning, if you are spending two hours writing a researched article for $5, which no one reads, that's a waste of time and effort. It might help get other opportunities, but it depends on the credibility of the outlet. For example, If you wrote for Forbes for free vs a content farm, there is a HUGE difference in how an author will be viewed.

There are lots of writing outlets which have moved to payment based on views. This really only works for credible outlets (Forbes) and writers who have an audience and know how to market their work through social media avenues. If you don't have one or the other, the odds are that you will never see a payout since no one will be reading your work.

The bottom line is write for outlets which help you get to where you want to be. If you want to be considered an expert then choose an outlet where there is a built in audience and they are respected. You could do your own blog of course, but it takes time to make it profitable (ROI).

Wanting to write for your passion is noble, but if you need that income to live, then be wise and write for outlets who are willing to pay for your work or have an audience large enough where you will gain exposure which you can leverage.

 

Writers

Of Course it's the Money, Duh!

I have one of two responses when I hear someone saying they are not doing something for the money. One, is to call them a straight out liar, or two, think they are some idiot living off parents, spouse or significant other, who doesn't get that someone is paying for their ability to "play."

No where is this "not doing it for the money" thinking so apparent then in writing circles. Yes, I get it, it's your passion, blah, blah, blah. However, if you REALLY did not want to get paid for said writing, you wouldn't submit it to places to get paid. There are these things called blogs. So, now that we have eliminated that first lie, lets move on.

Two, if you have put all your eggs (writing income) in one basket which has changed their payout and you just lap it up like a dog, you are not a business person. Over the last two years the online writing world has changed significantly, but it is clear some think they are being the "good guy" to just roll with the punches and not adjust.

At some point, if a person is doing something for pay where they have to consider the return on investment (ROI). Meaning, if you are spending two hours writing a researched article for $5, which no one reads, that's a waste of time and effort. It might help get other opportunities, but it depends on the credibility of the outlet. For example, If you wrote for Forbes for free vs a content farm, there is a HUGE difference in how an author will be viewed.

There are lots of writing outlets which have moved to payment based on views. This really only works for credible outlets (Forbes) and writers who have an audience and know how to market their work through social media avenues. If you don't have one or the other, the odds are that you will never see a payout since no one will be reading your work.

The bottom line is write for outlets which help you get to where you want to be. If you want to be considered an expert then choose an outlet where there is a built in audience and they are respected. You could do your own blog of course, but it takes time to make it profitable (ROI).

Wanting to write for your passion is noble, but if you need that income to live, then be wise and write for outlets who are willing to pay for your work or have an audience large enough where you will gain exposure which you can leverage.

 

Writing online today is not as rosy as in the old days, thanks to journalist who didn't like the change the Internet brought about. In days gone by writers were paid for their work, but then some old school journalist decided that if they didn't want to write a particular kind of content, then no one should, so they started calling some sites "content farms" and bashing those who wrote for them. In some cases their criticism was justified, but not for the most part. OK, even I admit "How to place a body in a casket" is beyond a stupid title to write about, but even more creepy was that someone had searched for it. You see, the whole basis of a GOOD content farm is to give the people what they want. So, they found out what people were searching for and handed out assignments to willing writers, paying them $15. Well, again, the "real" journalist got upset because the other farmers were getting paid for that. They thought a writer should be paid hundreds of dollars for that article which was a quick read. So they made enough of a stir that Google pretty much slammed content farms, and almost made them go away. So now you only see a piece by some card carrying member of the press corps, or rather, you can see the syndicated column of one person on a ton of sites. It should be noticed that the main plagiarizers online have been by traditional journalist, since content farms required all content to go through a Copyscape type program. Demand Studios threw their loyal writers under the bus and other sites have either shut down or now require "unique" (not available anywhere else) content to be posted for FREE or for the promise of "exposure." So, card carrying journalist won sort of, but in a way they didn't since you have sites like HuffingtonPost and Forbes.com with free writers and requiring those writers to bring in readers. Oddly enough, journalist also had issues with bloggers too, but bloggers (the good ones) have been able to live past the changes and have audiences that can rival some of the best news sites, ie, Mashable.

Content Farms· Journalism· Writers

Journalist Caused the Demise of the Content Farm Writer

Writing online today is not as rosy as in the old days, thanks to journalist who didn't like the change the Internet brought about. In days gone by writers were paid for their work, but then some old school journalist decided that if they didn't want to write a particular kind of content, then no one should, so they started calling some sites "content farms" and bashing those who wrote for them. In some cases their criticism was justified, but not for the most part. OK, even I admit "How to place a body in a casket" is beyond a stupid title to write about, but even more creepy was that someone had searched for it. You see, the whole basis of a GOOD content farm is to give the people what they want. So, they found out what people were searching for and handed out assignments to willing writers, paying them $15. Well, again, the "real" journalist got upset because the other farmers were getting paid for that. They thought a writer should be paid hundreds of dollars for that article which was a quick read. So they made enough of a stir that Google pretty much slammed content farms, and almost made them go away. So now you only see a piece by some card carrying member of the press corps, or rather, you can see the syndicated column of one person on a ton of sites. It should be noticed that the main plagiarizers online have been by traditional journalist, since content farms required all content to go through a Copyscape type program. Demand Studios threw their loyal writers under the bus and other sites have either shut down or now require "unique" (not available anywhere else) content to be posted for FREE or for the promise of "exposure." So, card carrying journalist won sort of, but in a way they didn't since you have sites like HuffingtonPost and Forbes.com with free writers and requiring those writers to bring in readers. Oddly enough, journalist also had issues with bloggers too, but bloggers (the good ones) have been able to live past the changes and have audiences that can rival some of the best news sites, ie, Mashable.