Want to Write about Weird Stuff and Get Paid? A Submissions Call for the Bizarre, Strange, and Funny.....

If that sounds like you, you just might like "Weird Worm". It's a site I ran across today that accepts articles from online contributors, and pays a flat $15 fee per article. I haven't experimented with it to find out all the ins and outs of submitting myself to the weird and bizarre...ahem.... but you can be sure I'll try. :D

Check out the morning find here:
Weird Worm

Submit Content to Weird Worm

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This week I've been playing with Associate Content a lot.  I've got to get back to eZine, Constant Content, AmTurk, and several others...lol The point of that is of course that the more you write, and the more places you use to share your work, the more likely you will be successful at freelance writing.

I'm becoming impressed with A.C. in ways I didn't expect. I had a major issue the other day when I discovered that another contributor had posted content of mine. The piece is something I wrote on amTurk, but it doesn't look like the contributor is the one who purchased the rights to it. Technically, it's not "stealing" my work, or plagiarism, if the person who bought the content was given full rights and sold them to someone else... but I'm not really sure what happened. What is certain is that on Associated content you are only supposed to post work you really wrote. Having the copyright to something does not give you the right to post something there that someone else wrote with your name on it. On one level it might not be plagiarism- but it is actually fraud, which is a felony. That person is now gaining "clout" because of writing that they did not originate. They can make money from the page views, and if the writing is good they could get and fraudulently accept job offers based on skills that aren't theirs.

This is making me edgy about using AmTurk, because to do well with it you have to accept lots of hits from many people who may have intentions and motivations that aren't disclosed. However, I did successfully make over a hundred dollars with amTurk in the last couple of weeks. It's also not something I just want to give up on yet.

What impressed me about Associate Content i that when I posted about it in the forum in a general way, I got a lot of helpful and encouraging responses from other writer's that use the service to publish and share their writing. There are many different ways to make money writing online, but this route also includes a nice community of other writers- which could be very useful. If you're trying freelance writing and haven't experimented with writing online with Associated Content, I encourage you to give this one a whirl. Click on the link below to sign up, and check out my articles when you have time! :-)

Promoting Yourself with Ezine Articles

For a budding freelance writer, getting involved with Ezine articles may be another good idea. Ezine does not pay you for your work, but sharing some of your work through Ezine gets a lot of exposure for some people. Authors post articles on whatever they would like, and a team of editors reviews the material to determine that it's quality work and follows their guidelines.

You'll probably remember having read someones article about something on Ezine at some point, and that's a good sign if you want people to read and be aware of your work. Ezine stores the articles shared there and makes them available, free of charge, to people who want content for their blogs and websites. People using content from Ezine can select up to 25 articles per year to share in their own projects. They are required to leave the name of the author on the article, publish as written without editing, and include the author's "resource box" with the article. In the resource box you can share links to information about your topic, links to your blog or website, and ways to contact you. Allowing others to share your work in this way gets it out there, and interested readers may find their way to your work elsewhere in this fashion. Whether you are trying to get clients for freelance gigs, or people to check out your web based business, this kind of exposure can ultimately lead to good press and new opportunities.

If you keep a blog or have a website, you may also be able to use good articles you find on Ezine, to add to your own unique pages. Sure, if your readers like what they see, they may go off and check out the writer's other haunts on the web- but that's not always a bad thing. If your site is that useful they'll be back, because they know you have fresh and helpful material. If it's not useful or interesting, well then, maybe you need to improve. *wink* Cross linking such articles can also give you an opportunity to befriend other writer's, -which often leads to link sharing, more traffic, and the joy of having people to chatter back and fourth with once in a while.

To start sharing articles on Ezine, simply go to their site and create a profile. You can link your blogs and website's to your author profile there, as well as share a short biography and other information. When you post your first article you'll learn more about what their rules for posting are. You will save yourself some time by reading and understanding the guidelines. For instance: it's okay to put a link in your author' resource box to a website that sells products and services in your own business. It's not however okay to write an article that is really a sales pitch for your products. You're limited on the number of links you can add, so pick wisely. At first, you can submit up to ten articles. If you're somewhat prolific and good at writing, the powers that be at Ezine will raise that- so make sure you share useful and well written material.

http://ezinearticles.com/

Have fun! If you stumble across this post and have Ezine articles you'd like to share, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

Constant Content: Writer's Market for Articles

Constant Content is an online resource for writer's and people who need written content to interface with each other. It is possible to buy and sell articles through constant content, and retain much of the control over who buys your work at what price. Options are available to sell licences for specific articles, and you retain the right to publish them elsewhere while making a few bucks by sharing your work. You can also sell unique rights to things you write, at which point the purchasing party can republish in any manner with or without your byline. A higher price can be charged for unique rights, although you'll find that the average amounts offered for good articles are more reasonable in favor of the author than some other services.

I am very new to trying Constant Content, and can already see a variety of great things about it, and a few potential pitfalls. I'll evaluate it further here as I experiment with it more. If you'd like to check the service out, here's a link:

Constant Content

Sidework on The Internet: Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a service provided by amazon to hook up people who need a lot of small online tasks to be completed, with people who would like to make a few bucks on the side. The little side jobs include things like: "classify this picture", "tell us what you think about this website'', "comment on this blog", "write an article about ...." .

Some jobs require simple tests to show the employer's that you have the skills to complete the activity they want. There are jobs that apply to writers, people who are computer literate, those who can code, and folks who do data entry- among other things.

The jobs and they pay amounts vary based on the employers. Some people who use Amazon Turk to get things done offer very low amounts of money for what they want, others are quite reasonable. Some offers may be on the scammish side, a big red flag for me is surveys that pay a high reward and lead you to sites which require that you give a lot of personal information and complete sponsor offers. I avoid those.

I have however been doing a lot of little articles through Mechanical Turk. I look at it as more of a writing exercise than as a way to make real money, although much to my surprise I've already racked up over a hundred dollars in amazon gift credit. My goal with it is to earn enough to get a nice new professional level laptop. Many "real" writers discourage this, as it can be kind of exploitative to sell your written work for between $1.00 and $5.00 for most articles. However, if you want an exercises that will prove you can write 300 words about anything, it may be good for you.

Read the directions carefully for each hit before accepting. Be aware that if you are writing articles, some companies want the full rights to the short article, so you can't publish it elsewhere. Others don't care if you also circulate what you write in other ways, particularly if you'll link back to their business. )

It can also be useful, as you interact with the employers on occasion and may be able to work yourself into better side jobs and short freelance writing gigs this way. It's working for me that way, mostly because it's leading me to other useful websites and services I didn't know about.

https://www.mturk.com/mturk/

( Exmples of this kind of writing can be seen on a private blog of mine, send me a message if you'd like to see. sassynolagal@yahoo.com )