This front page post by Darksyde discusses making a few dollars through your online writing.
I've never been able to generate any traffic to my blog, probably because I struggle with the fact that all of the people who I communicate with on facebook are horrified by my liberal views, and I don't promote my blog at all there, for fear of causing aunt so and so to have a stroke and die as a result of reading about my atheistic communist-fascist views.
Still, this week I made $70.92 for my writing. It's called corporate copywriting, or content creation, or giving away a little piece of your soul for a paycheck from the man.
I created a simple website, for which I pay 9$ per month (bought the domain for like 1.99), took advantage of google ads and facebook ads credits I received from godaddy.com when I bought the domain (25 google dollars and 50 facebook dollars I believe), and created a couple ads. "Copywriting and editing service, 1/2 standard rates, 1 hour free."
This week I wrote 4 web pages for a man across the country who runs an information technology services company, the scope of service for which I still do not understand one bit. Yet, I provided him with excellent copy. And he provided me with $70.92. That's $28/hour, but he got his first hour of work free.
Now, I have slight writing credentials. I'm a grad student in writing, and did and undergrad in creative writing. But my biggest credential, I think, was that I created a catchy and simple website, and I offered to do the work for literally 1/4 of standard rates, even though I only call it 1/2 standard rate so as not to look too undervalued. It's a recession. No small business owner will pay 100/hour for copywriting, even if I give her 10 reasons why it's worth the investment.
I'm sharing this because I thought darksyde's post was interesting, and because I think the dailykos community tend to be very good writers. Look at my diaries, and you'll see they are riddled with grammar errors and typos. You don't need to be perfect; in fact, you mostly need to know how to be creative (which is why I think poets make the best advertisers: concise, tight, creative writing that sends a memorable message). Many copywriting companies will not do small jobs, and many people are willing to shill out 50 bucks for a quick, 2 hour service. I marketed myself especially for quick, small jobs.
I bought and read a book by bob bly, allegedly copywriter extraordinaire (although I take his stuff with a grain of salt because I suspect he makes a lot more from selling books about copywriting and telling people how easy it is to make tons of money copywriting than he actually makes from, uh, copywriting), and it had some nice suggestions, paramount among them being essentially this:
There are a few types of clients for your new copywriting side job. 1/3 want 20 samples of exactly their needed work to prove you can do the job. 1/3 want you to have reasonable experience in copywriting. The last 1/3 just wants copy, and isn't going to even look at your experience. Your first client will be of the 3rd group, and your 1st 15 clients will be. Soon you break into the 2nd group. And by the time you can break into the 1st group, you will probably be to busy to deal with such uptight clients anyway.
I believe this. A cheap website allows you to attract the 3rd group. And from your first client on, you need to send requests for referrals, for testimonials for your site, and offer discounts to people they refer and kickbacks to the client in the form of discounted future work.
My idea was to offer 1 hour of free work, send them the results, and make sure they liked it before continuing on. What I've found (and you'll find) is that they like it. Even if they say then need a few things changed, they are ready to pay for the rest of the work. I send an invoice for half up front, then the other half at completion.
I expect to make a negligible amount of money over the next two years as I complete my masters degree, because I'll be too busy anyway. But I hope to gain several clients to use as references and testimonials so in a few years I can market myself as an experienced copywriter, and charge closer to the 50/hour that is really the bottom of the going rate.
Look into it. I know that most of the diarists I've read on here are good enough. We all study media enough to know how to craft messages, we write journals and think of catchy titles, we think of the best way to communicate our ideas to family and friends — we could, most of us, make a few bucks doing this.