Content Writing as a Service Sucks

I have been writing content for quite a long time now and it really does suck.

The jobs I usually get (because of necessity) are low paying, and expect high quality work (which again, I provide out of necessity).
The people posting the jobs are usually not the actual content owner, meaning they were hired, and need someone to provide the content.
Its a pain in the ..... to get someone who is actually will pay instead of just stealing the content and creating a new user.
Its also a pain to get more than a few recurring jobs from the same person (I understand that, especially if they keep robbing people for the content written, or the webmaster themselves do not have a lot of money yet).

I am to the point where I need to find a new outlet to find jobs. The last one I had wanted me to do the research for an article and expected me to hand it to them, when I knew full well that they were going to write it themselves and were looking for dupes online who were fluent in English.

The one before that asked for the following:

"$2 for hq englis 500 word article has SEO nd LSI keywords do point up to authorty site 1 keyword an inside point keyword html mockup in the artcle"

First off, that person probably used a translator to even get the English on the page, let alone writing it correctly.
Second, that kind of article where the entire article SEO and linking is done in the article (which means a webmaster is probably being lazy or wants someone to do it for them because they have no clue) is definitely not a $2 article.

That person probably took a series of "templates" and got the job from someone to write the article for around $5 to $8, and wants to make $3 to $5 off it.

Which is another thing, if you do not know English, but you are using templates to apply for, then respond to, a job for an English article, just don't.

I know you are trying to make $30 a day getting jobs and outsourcing them to those of us who actually use our brains to write the content in hopes that we will land a solid couple gigs and have work daily forever, but it sucks for us in the end.

There, done with my crappy rant.

Now I am going to search for some stuff that can help me do better on Fiverr or something.

I am also using 10 domains as of a few days ago to try riensteckers method with crakrevenue and dating gold (those are the ones I am using at the moment).

Hopefully that pans out.

If you're good writer,try textbroker.I use them a lot and I've made my own team of writers there which get consistent orders....

Good luck anyway

I've been writing content for years and years, for a number of supposedly reputable sites. I've even been published in research journals 3 times, as a primary researcher and author, not just an op-ed article. If you're hell bent on writing and making a livable income, you're better off cultivating relationships with a limited number of site owners who will use you periodically and who will pay you far better than $2 an article. You will, of course, have to prove your worth as a writer but instead of writing a new piece, have a portfolio of samples to send to prospective employers. Word of mouth does wonders for you in terms of finding work and doing so from individuals who won't rip you off.
As an aside, i'd suggest writing your content to earn an income for yourself, not others.

I will definitely check that out. I appreciate it.

mirrorer said:

If you're good writer,try textbroker.I use them a lot and I've made my own team of writers there which get consistent orders....

Good luck anyway

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I was thinking about what you were stating regarding developing a portfolio. I had many of those in the past and simply trashed them all one day.

Around 2 years ago I had a really solid set of site owners and for about 6 months everything was solid, but I didn't know how the hell I ended up with them (luck to be honest) so I had no clue how to duplicate that success when things started to fall off here and there.

I will definitely figure out a good way to turn this all around professionally. Your advice does give me something to chew on. I appreciate it.

JaxMan said:

I've been writing content for years and years, for a number of supposedly reputable sites. I've even been published in research journals 3 times, as a primary researcher and author, not just an op-ed article. If you're hell bent on writing and making a livable income, you're better off cultivating relationships with a limited number of site owners who will use you periodically and who will pay you far better than $2 an article. You will, of course, have to prove your worth as a writer but instead of writing a new piece, have a portfolio of samples to send to prospective employers. Word of mouth does wonders for you in terms of finding work and doing so from individuals who won't rip you off.
As an aside, i'd suggest writing your content to earn an income for yourself, not others.

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Personally I've focused my own writing efforts to serve higher paying customers (reputable marketers and actual businesses) and it's been great compared what I had when I started out (which is pretty much what you've described quest1426). I've got a lot more time to write for reputable online magazines and blogs and gain visibility.

Branding is the key here as well.

there are plenty things which are not good .... try the one which is working for you.

Great advice, if I may pry, what would you do if you had to start all over at this moment LostConnection?

LostConnection said:

Personally I've focused my own writing efforts to serve higher paying customers (reputable marketers and actual businesses) and it's been great compared what I had when I started out (which is pretty much what you've described quest1426). I've got a lot more time to write for reputable online magazines and blogs and gain visibility.

Branding is the key here as well.

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Thanks for the advice, I am trying to reanalyze, especially since there are you guys here giving solid advice I can learn from.

W9go said:

there are plenty things which are not good .... try the one which is working for you.

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You should focus 100% on affiliate projects my friend.

You aren't responsible for the product.

You don't deal with customer service.

Once the systems are in place you make re-occurring income.

Writing articles is rough. If you can make websites and promote well then just focus all your efforts into your own endeavors.

I was thinking about that apex1. I am trying to run 10 domains with reinsteckers method with crakrevenue and dating gold. It takes a while to start building traffic to anything though (unless I know zip about traffic which could be the issue) so while I do that, I have to keep an income going. But I definitely have that in mind. I have read a ton of stuff here and I figure I need to zone in on something and push on it, rather than jump around, but I didn't know where to start, so I am hoping that his method pays off (with a few ideas of my own here and there).

apex1 said:

You should focus 100% on affiliate projects my friend.

You aren't responsible for the product.

You don't deal with customer service.

Once the systems are in place you make re-occurring income.

Writing articles is rough. If you can make websites and promote well then just focus all your efforts into your own endeavors.

Click to expand...

quest1426 said:

Great advice, if I may pry, what would you do if you had to start all over at this moment LostConnection?

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If I had to start over again now, I'd start while having a job (I started while studying which was far from ideal money-wise) and building up my brand on the side. F*ck the cheap clients and go for getting published if you've got what it takes.

And besides, if you aren't a good enough writer to get published on, say, Entrepreneur Magazine or Huffington Post, then hire yourself an excellent editor and get your message and name out there regardless of the typos (which your editor will fix though).

After that, the world is your oyster, because you've gotten published and you can basically pick your clients. Just got to know how to do it well, which is why I could start from there now, but it's definitely not the easiest route to take.

apex1 said:

You should focus 100% on affiliate projects my friend.

You aren't responsible for the product.

You don't deal with customer service.

Once the systems are in place you make re-occurring income.

Writing articles is rough. If you can make websites and promote well then just focus all your efforts into your own endeavors.

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THIS! I absolutely agree.

Awesome addition. I think right now I am looking at voice. I have had consistent feedback that basically states it sounds like I am writing a term paper. And others that say that the reading level needs to decrease and so I use kincaid for that. I suppose it is difficult to write for a 6th grader (the average readability necessary for the US population... really?).

I am going to look into getting published immediately. That is something I had not thought before and sounds like it could boost my brand from the gate. I can develop websites and I understand SEO to a degree (meaning I am no expert but I have a good foundation) so I can start there.

I still have an issue with traffic though, like not knowing where to start with it once I have my basic SEO in place and make sure search engines know it exists. Forget paying for adwords until I have a larger cash flow.

This whole thread is appreciated. Thanks LostConnection.

LostConnection said:

If I had to start over again now, I'd start while having a job (I started while studying which was far from ideal money-wise) and building up my brand on the side. F*ck the cheap clients and go for getting published if you've got what it takes.

And besides, if you aren't a good enough writer to get published on, say, Entrepreneur Magazine or Huffington Post, then hire yourself an excellent editor and get your message and name out there regardless of the typos (which your editor will fix though).

After that, the world is your oyster, because you've gotten published and you can basically pick your clients. Just got to know how to do it well, which is why I could start from there now, but it's definitely not the easiest route to take.

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I know, a lot of people are great at affiliate marketing and I haven't found the right way to do that yet. I think it is because of establishing traffic to anything that is my issue. It's like Greek to me right now.

I just purchased that xvideosjazz bot to work with reinstecker's method here (as an additional traffic source) so I am definitely trying to get my head wrapped around social media pushing and incoming traffic (I also bought the tumblr bot, a total of $144 invested hoping it pays off, but I have less knowledge of tumblr than I do rocket science).

So that is where I am starting I suppose.

JaxMan said:

THIS! I absolutely agree.

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Forget bots and multiple sites.

By using bots you're increasing the learning curve and trying to take shortcuts.

By making multiple sites you're spreading yourself too thin.

IMHO put all your effort into making one good review site in a HOT evergreen niche (weight loss, loans, health products etc just sort and find high gravity clickbank offers)

Next once your review site is done start driving traffic the easy way..

Use Animoto (or another program) to create youtube videos, use your writing skills to engage people through blog and forum comments, use google alerts to find areas you can get traffic.

Once you're making money you can start fooling around with more complex methods.

Hope the helps!

Hello mate,

I am almost in the same position as you. I do make between 300-600$ from writing, but getting work is getting harder and harder.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I will definitely start with a good domain and just build up from the bottom.

I suppose using animoto is for the purpose of making things easy for video development. I used to use after effects before those types of programs popped up everywhere. It was a long process from recording audio, developing all the elements and then putting them all together on the timelines and animating them.

Regarding commenting, I have had scrapebox for roughly 4 years, but still have yet to learn scraping for commenting, would that be something to put an effort into for traffic driving?

Thanks everyone for continuing this conversation. Though I have been working exclusively online in pieces of everything, I have yet to actually put a lot into effect. Now that I was fed up with sitting around writing tons of content for $2, that is when I started thinking of putting something else into action.

apex1 said:

Forget bots and multiple sites.

By using bots you're increasing the learning curve and trying to take shortcuts.

By making multiple sites you're spreading yourself too thin.

IMHO put all your effort into making one good review site in a HOT evergreen niche (weight loss, loans, health products etc just sort and find high gravity clickbank offers)

Next once your review site is done start driving traffic the easy way..

Use Animoto (or another program) to create youtube videos, use your writing skills to engage people through blog and forum comments, use google alerts to find areas you can get traffic.

Once you're making money you can start fooling around with more complex methods.

Hope the helps!

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How is your Fiverr account going? How often do you get work, how many gigs do you offer, how many reviews do you have, do you buy fake ones, how much impressions do you have on your main gigs?

If I may ask, of course!

You have been freelancing for "quite a long time now" and you don't have a portfolio yet? Joking? Hiring a new writer is a risk in itself. If you don't have samples, there's no way anyone can see your skill and be willing to take a risk on anything but bottom-of-the-barrel pricing. When I'm hiring writers I only ask for a portfolio of samples and I instantly delete anything that doesn't include that. You should also set your own prices and never sway from them - everyone ordering content is looking to get the most for the least. You have to be the one setting the rules.