Freelance Writing - Four Dangerous Things to Avoid As a Baby Web Writer

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Angela_Booth]Angela Booth

In days gone by, freelance writers started their writing career writing for magazines and newspapers.

This meant writing for months (and years, in some cases) collecting the proverbial shoebox full of rejection slips. I didn't collect a shoebox-full, because I started out as a romance novelist, so I sold the first magazine article I proposed, but I collected more than enough "not quite right for us..." rejection letters.

Time moves on and things change, but for new writers today aiming at a Web writing career they don't change for the better.

If anything, the situation offers dangers which make rejection slips look like kisses in comparison.

Let's look at four dangerous things you should avoid as a baby Web writer:

1. Low-Paying Gigs: They're Writer-Abuse

If you hope to make a career as a Web writer, avoid low-paying gigs. If you're not making more per hour writing than working at the golden arches, it's a low-paying gig. Run, don't walk to the golden arches. Asking "will you have fries with that?" is better for your self-respect.

$2 per article, $5 per article - avoid these gigs, unless you're using the gig as a promotional tool. By this I mean you've got a Web site, and you're promoting the site to other sites, by getting links.

2. Scammers Who Ask You to Write a Chapter or an Article or an Essay or Anything to "Test" Your Skills

It's just a scam. Move on.

3. Freelance Writer Job Ads on the Web

Yes, avoid ALL freelance writer job ads on the Web. Does this sound harsh?

OK, consider that genuine writing markets don't need to advertise. Genuine markets have a publication, or a business, and alert freelance writers approach them with proposals and queries. Sometimes (not always) they have a "writer's guidelines" page on their Web site.

A genuine market for writers hasn't got the staff to read/ respond to 400 neophyte writers who answered an ad. If they've got the staff to handle 400 responses to their ad, they have an ulterior motive.

4. Web Writing Jobs Which Pay on a Revenue-Sharing Model

Revenue-sharing sites advertise for writers. They add your articles to their site, and then place ads on the articles that you write. You get a share of the revenue these ads generate.

However, revenue-sharing assumes that there's some revenue to share. There may well be a few cents, but a year of writing for a revenue-sharing site generally won't earn you more than a cup of coffee.

Want to build a well-paid writing career? You can, with Angela Booth's new Writing Hacker Web site at http://writinghacker.com/ - watch Angela's "Make money Writing: Write and sell Web articles - they're in hot demand" video.

For more writing tips, subscribe to Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/ezine/fab-freelance-writing-ezine.html and receive Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report. It's 21 pages packed with information to help you to develop a six-figure writing career, and it's completely free. Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Blog at http://fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/ brings you fresh writing tips several times a week.

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