Word of the Day: January 28, 2012

“Professional Writer”

 

(Pro-phesh-shin-all-Wrye-terr)

 

1) What the majority of unpaid bloggers who can’t even make money at “article mills” more often than not refer to themselves as.

"I'se imp'oh'tant!

2) Those select few people who make a better than living wage writing. (see “novelist” or  “New York Bestsellers List”)

 

 

Subject to change without notice. Words may appear closer in a mirror than they actually are. 9 out of 10 librarians are mousey introverts, 19 times out of 20, yet still manage to appear to be sexy. This site is not endorsed by the SPCB (the second SPC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty) in the phone book – the SPCA (Animals) hogged the first spot on me again! Those brutes!) the apathetic and appallingly apropos “Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Bloggers” (donations accepted and suggested).

Can Online Article Writers Earn a Living Wage?

You Call This Living?

For the first few years that article collection and distribution sites, otherwise known as article mills were paying writers for knowledge based articles, many writers were finding that they could, indeed, make over $500 a week writing constantly, as long as they were writing quality content. If you could post 2 articles an hour, and receive $15 per article plus revenue share (RS), and that RS then earning you another $10 to $25 per article per month, after having a few thousand articles in your portfolio you could start making really good money. Problem was that the word got out (the sites advertised).

Steadily, his bank account rose by pennies a day.

Thousands upon thousands of new “writers” join up. Content gets crappier. More good writers leave in disgust. Shareholders shiver in sheer fear. New owners get confused, decide to offer $1 upfront payment for some articles, half of what used to be offered. But with a major decline in monthly revenue share income, the beginning of the end for good writers supplying writing sites with quality content is at hand.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Hold on, I’m getting there.

Why did these article mills have to go and advertise that if you could write, you could earn a great, sustainable income? All of a sudden the ranks of writers swelled, and the quality of content tanked. Writers who were making a few hundred a month were now making a few bucks a month, and the exodus began. Now, most of these sites are filled with sup-par writers, and the few writers who need the money so bad that they just hang in there, taking whatever they can get.

But, on the flip-side of this coin, there are writers at Helium who earn over $50,000 a year! Gads, wish I were one of them!

Is it just the plummeting revenues that causes many writers to leave these article mills, or are there other reasons? There are many people on social networking sites that have nothing but bad things to say about these sites and the writers, newbies and hobbyists who submit content to said sites. With over 300,000 writers at Helium.com alone, there is obviously a place for these sites on the internet and in society. Instead of bad mouthing the sites and contributors endlessly, why these people don’t just move on and get on with their sorry little lives is beyond this contributor.

Live and let live, write and let write.

But, with the quality of the content on these writing sites tanking, mostly due to the influx of people looking for ways to supplement their sub-living wage incomes, the better writers are now in position to earn more money on these sites. When publishers look for filler material for the magazines, e-books, websites and whatnot, and they find a few good writers who can write what they require, those writers are gobbled up by the publishers to submit content on a regular basis to them directly.

Can a writer earn a living wage doing this? Most definitely. But, be aware that only those writers who can submit quality content on a regular basis are earning more than a few pennies a day, on a portfolio of over 1,000 articles.