Forum Moderators: not2easy
Here are some of the questions I have:
- How does writing website content compare to other types of writing (say for magazines)? What’s the upside versus the downside, in your personal experience?
- What is a reasonable expectation in terms of pay (I know this will vary greatly, but what is the middle range)?
- How difficult is it to land writing assignments, and where should I start to look?
Let me briefly describe my situation in order to provide some context for these questions. My background is in journalism; I’ve written for local newspapers, freelanced for national magazines, and edited a local business magazine. The past six years I’ve been an editor at a small publishing house, but I left that position to take care of my kids at home (ages two and four). I had a 10 hour/week editing position for a while but was recently laid off due to downsizing. I’d be totally focused on raising the kids if we could afford it, but we need a little extra income (around 10k/year) to get by. I’m trying to figure out a way to do that on a flexible, at-home basis around 10 – 15 hours per week. I’ve spent the past six months developing a small content-focused website running Adsense, but obviously that alone isn’t going to cut it.
All of which is to say that I have a solid writing background and I am pretty familiar with basic website issues (SEO et al). I’m wondering whether my background and expectations make website content development a possibility that’s worth pursuing. Any thoughts?
BTW, I’ve been learning from the folks at Webmasterworld for some time, and have the highest regard for the regular contributors’ expertise, professionalism, ethics, and basic friendliness. It’s heartening to find those qualities so consistently here when the web often seems to be drowning in –- well, you know. I’m looking forward to being able to contribute something back to the community here!
In general it seems like your immediate goals are modest enough to be fairly easily met.
And don't write off the adsense aspect to quickly. You might well make considerable strides with that by consistently adding your work to a site, or sites, of your own. This could fit well between writing assignments from others.
Copywriting is not the same as journalism, but your background is an excellent foundation. The pay is quite good (sticky me for details) - once you get going, pay is far better than journalism. You must, however, be willing to go out and get the business. For me, 75% of my business comes from networking locally. About 15% is from referrals, and 10% from direct mail. The referrals have been steadily increasing, and I expect in another couple of years to get a significant percentage of business that way. I am only working a 20-hour week, and from that I'm earning enough to pay for private school tuition for four children and pay the loan on a retirement property. That's with working 20 hours, and only 1/3 of that is billable hours. As I get more referrals, I'll spend less time marketing myself, more time writing, and bill more.
If you are willing to work hard, market yourself, and continually study other forms of writing, you will do well. It's a great life, and I highly recommend it.
On the topic of people grabbing others' writing -- my wife is a college professor and this habit is rampant among students turning in papers. Thanks to Google, most of them get caught, but it says something about the culture, doesn't it (or at least the culture's lack of respect for working writers)?
I can see the trouble with writers. The advantage for cartoonists, such as me, is that I can at least put a watermark in some of the images and try to keep track of it. (But still it's tough) I can see how it is impossible for writer's to keep track of information.
At least people see the value of hiring a writer and pay them. Cartoonists still get the short end of the stick, even though comic strips are the most read section of most newspapers, and the attention they would bring to a website is just as great.
Jason Nocera
sticky me for an opportunity..
gotta be the only person faster on the draw in the face of an oppertunity than Shak
