1. My first post on WordPress – how a blog was born. My old blog site crashed and I lost everything, but valiantly committed to rebuilding. I made sure i posted regularly and the content was worth something to freelancers.
2. The post most fun to write – An interview with Chicago-based mystery writer Libby Hellmann. I so liked talking with her. She gave great advice.
3. Readers contributed to this one – a young writer complained loudly about how the industry failed to accommodate her. Writers rang in and a discussion ensued on LinkedIn.
4. An article on ghosting I wish I had written – It’s worth your time.
5. A title that said it all – I chimed in on the raging battle of why writers shouldn’t have to settle for a pittance.
6. I wish more people had read this three-part series – I felt it was worthwhile to learn about how U.S. copyrighting protects your work. The cool part? You needn’t spend a dime to be protected.

Thanks for browsing. What’s your favorite post at OnText. What do you need to know to get your career super-charged?

Content mills and farms can be good for writers

I’ve written for Suite101 and other content mill farms in various iterations on and off for about 10 years and have seldom been a fan of how they treat writers. But let me say this: Suite101’s newest management team, seems to have a better path.

There have been a confusing number of shake ups there, but now they may have put together a group that understands both the make-money and the treat-writers-with-dignity points-of-view.

How much do writers get paid, and is it on time?

First off, know that Suite101 always pays writers as agreed and on time through Paypal. Like clockwork. Every month. Can’t argue that. Some content  mills don’t pay consistently.

The amount of pay at all content mills if you don’t know how to work the system is minuscule at best. We all know that. Yes, Suite101 touts occasional writers who make “thousands.” Money depends on the topic, the section, and your writing (quality and quantity), PLUS promoting your articles effectively. But thousands? Rare.

As far as residuals, I make enough per month, without writing anything else for Suite101, to cover a nice car payment. Get that – no work, and I cover a car payment. I have about 125 articles up in carefully selected topic areas. My traffic is steady as a clock, no spikes, no dips. If you read my ebook, Writing for Content Mills, you’ll learn how to create a passive revenue stream that can really work — as a stream, not a river.

How Suite101 is fixing some things

Suite101 may, however, be heading in a direction that will increase writers’ rewards. And I don’t mean their contests, which are basically, sophomoric and not very helpful.

What they’ve done right, to my way of thinking, is dumped some of their arrogant, unprofessional, unskilled “editors” in favor of people who at least have experience within the Suite101 environment. The quotas for writers are reasonable. The exposure, no matter what nay-sayers say, is significant if you are in a trending topic. You must be savvy enough to know what topics are trending.

They pay residuals on existing articles, which many, many mills have stopped doing. Examiner, though they promised forever residuals, stopped paying them about a year ago. Suite101 just inked a deal with Google to feed Google News with Suite101 news articles from certain writers. This could mean traffic spikes and more money for certain news topics. Inquiring about writing news features is worthwhile.

How writers can win

Decide what your goal is and what YOU need to advance your freelance business. If you are looking for a way to make a living, look elsewhere. If you seek steady streams of modest revenue, consider Suite101.

I’ll keep you posted on how things progress. This company may end up being a good place for SOME writers.  If you want to know more, post a question here or browse Ontext.com

Other terrific articles:

Make real money as a freelancer

Can writers find jobs at Facebook, Twitter, and social media?

Where do you write blogs?

I use WordPress, having tried other content management systems and sites. WordPress has a learning curve (I use the self-hosted side at WordPress.org). Having your own url is essential if you want the blog to grow, propagate, and be sustainable in the long run. I think Blogger and WordPress.com also allows you to use your own domain (url).  There are many plug and play blogging sites like blogger.com or blogspot.com – have a look and see what looks good to you. They’re all pretty easy.

While there were once all kinds of SEO tricks to get a blog or site noticed fast, Google and other engines are moving away from that model because all that happened was entities with big budgets floated to the top of the rankings and quality wasn’t an issue. Now, quality content, relevant to your topic will make your blog stand out.

How do you promote blogs?

As far as promoting it, social networks really work. Spend 15 minutes a day commenting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, SheWrites, Redroom, and forums that match your topic. I also have great success with Yahoo Answers and whatever Amazon’s equivalent community is. It’s more effective to make conversational comments, be a gentle expert voice, rather than out rightly promote your blog.

Put your blog’s url on your business cards, letterhead, and anywhere else you put your name – if you post to any groups or forums, include your url in your signature. That creates links back to your blog – a good thing. Tell everyone you know how to find your blog. Encourage comments on every post and put links at the bottom of every post to other posts within your blog. Always.

My strongest advice is to add some writing every day, multiple times a day if you can, until you have 100 articles up. They can be short. But they need to be excellent, fascinating, and readable. On your front page, include a place for readers to subscribe easily – both RSS and email. Visit Feedburner.com to read about how easy it is to add those elements.

When you write a particularly valuable post, put a review up on Stumbleupon (I get a ton of traffic from that group) or any of the other social bookmarking sites. Once you get your first hundred entries up, drop to a level that works for you, or, as has been said, you won’t continue the blog if it feels too much like work.

How should your blog look?

Make sure your theme or design is appealing but not overwhelming. Use a readable font, not  anything out of the ordinary. Add images and fill out the identification data on the images, including the alt or alternate text since those play in search engines. Make sure your images are copyright safe or you credit the image maker. Use unusual and clever pictures to draw attention.

Blogging is fun, especially when you’re writing about your passions, but there is a work side to it if you want your blog to endure, and especially if you want to use it as a platform.

Read more:

Make real money with your freelance writing

Bloggers need a platform to sell writing

Impress an editor or agent