Writing Articles for Freelancer.com

karenstoner

I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who has had a go at this, as I don't really know what's involved, or whether it's possible to make any money at it. I've had a look through the freelancer site, there seem to be lots of offers of work for people who can write short articles very quickly - sometimes they're asking for 20 articles a day which seems impossible. What is all this about really? Why don't they tell you what the articles are about? Where are these articles going to appear? How are you supposed to fully research a topic, plan the piece, draft it and write it within such a short time? I am puzzled.

SandP_2

Hi,

I did some articles through Elance a few years ago. If this is SEO linked, which I guess it is, then typically what they want is a short piece (400-600 words) within which you have to incorporate a particular word or phrase a certain numbers of time.

The reason they don't say up front what they want is probably because they don't know, they're simply contracting out work that they are picking up themselves.

Some of the articles I wrote -

Specific DeWalt Products
Patent Searches
Selling a House in the US
Underwater Cameras

No real research just a case of searches on the internet and then rewriting what you discover.

Doesn't work out as a good deal if you convert time to an hourly rate but if you write anything halfway decent there is a chance (albeit slim) that you'll be given more interesting/better paid work.

I ended up writing 'proper' articles with real research on music for a US site, and subsequently a UK site, at a decent rate.

Hope this helps (and that my ramblings make sense!)

dp525

Look up a site called 'associated content'. They have a request area for articles and you can often get paid around £10 per article. As mentioned it is all SEO related and you have to have a 2-3% keyword density. There's free tools online to check it and there is moderate money to be made.

GavB79

Just to elaborate in case you don't know what SEO is, which is quite possible, it is Search Engine Optimisation.
People who own websites want visitors to their websites. So you write an article and they either put it on their website which ranks in Google for the keywords you have written it around, or they submit it to an article directory with links leading back to their website which they hope people click.

*Star06*

Assocaiated Content are only for the US if you want to make money:

"You must be 18 years old and a citizen or legal resident of the United States to earn money on the Yahoo! Contributor Network"

But there are many other good content sites out there, plus blogging, and finding your own private clients. There is good money to be made in writing, but you have to be good enough, know SEO and be able to do the research fast.

karenstoner

Thanks for all the comments - very helpful. I'd heard of SEO, but hadn't quite realised how it worked. I'll probably give it a try, although it's not exactly going to be Shakespeare if you're having to use the same phrase every other sentence!

dp525

It isn't a long phrase all the time - keyword density is onlt 2-3% so in 500 words you'd have it 10-15 times. Keywords are stuff like "free ipad" or "how to train your dog". You have to make it blend in nicely as well. Takes a bit of practice but it's definitely worth a try.
Apologies for posting AC, I forgot it was US only (although you can get around that). I read a few days ago on a different site about higher paying articles so thought i'd mention it.

SandP_2

PM me if you want to see any examples of my previous efforts before committing yourself.

Elixiress

I have been writing articles with an employer from Freelancer for over a month now, however I have only worked for one person in that time. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

I currently write 5/6 articles with a word count of 520 + 15%. Some days I get asked to write shorter articles such as 110 word FAQs and get about 25 to 30 of these a day. I get paid $2 per 520 word article (the person I am working for is American hence the dollars) it converts to about £1.25 an article at the moment.

If you want to find out more about a particular job then just ask the person auctioning the job. Most will be happy to give you more information. Some people will ask you to write a trial article to make sure you are up to their standard, especially if you haven't done any of the "exams" on Freelancer.

My hours at work were cut, so I am currently only working 7am til 11am on a Saturday and Sunday therefore I have plenty of time to write the articles. It prevents me spending money that I do not have

DS4215

I've been doing it for a couple of months for about .75-1c a word - so $4-5 per 500 word article. 2-3 a day for a month works out at about £300 ($450), but you should pay tax on that. Its a decent way to bring in extra money in your spare time, but you would struggle to live on it as a primary source of income. (1 article per hour - 8 hours per day = 40$/day = $1200/month = £800 before tax).

GavB79

$2 per article is a disgrace, you need to raise your prices! $5 is the going rate, and that's only because people in poorer countries can work for that amount and make a living.
If you have a good command of English and a portfolio or work behind you, which I assume you do, $10 per 500 word article is not unachievable