This is my advice for writers starting out online. I’m no expert, but who is? Writing is an art form, and as such will be appreciated on a very individual basis by those that read your work. One person may enjoy your subject, content and style, while another may not. I am just one writer offering what I have learned to someone considering starting out. I hope it will be of help to you.

Writing for Fun and Recognition

If you’re writing just because you enjoy it, and are keen to get a little recognition and meet likeminded people, then there’s not too much to say. Go ahead and have fun. Make a few friends on whichever website you’ve chosen to use (there are many), join in the fun on the various discussion forums these sites have, and submit your work.

The only thing I will say, is that you must remember that there are people on these sites who can be very critical, some are well-intended critics, others are downright rude or simply bullies. Don’t react rashly. Take onboard any criticism you feel is fair, don’t take on any you don’t. If someone is just being downright rude. Then treat them like a naughty child and ignore the rude behaviour. They will soon go away.

Have fun with your writing and enjoy the company of others trying to do the same.

Writing for Money

Unless you are prepared to put a lot of work into this, you are unlikely to make any significant
income from writing online. The amount of effort required in producing good work, and promoting
and marketing that work successfully, is considerable. This is going to take a lot of time and effort. Yes, there are lucky individuals who make it quickly, but they are very, very, few and far between….

Who Else is Writing Online?

By far the majority of people you will initially encounter in the online writing websites are simply Joe or Joanna Bloggs, just like you. If you’re lucky enough to encounter successful writers, then use their comment and guidance to help you.

Establish a Routine

You already know that this is going to take time and effort, so be prepared for it and don’t underestimate it. Allocate a certain amount of time for each element of your writing day or week. For instance, maybe allot two days to writing, a day to promotion and marketing, and a day to reading other peoples articles. This is only a suggestion, but I find it’s working for me, and that I definitely need the routine to be able to keep on top of everything.

Preparing your Work

If you want people to take your work seriously, then present it well. Read it through and read it through again. Get someone else to read it through. Use your spell and grammar checkers. If you leave your work, then come back to it and make additions or changes, then run through the routine of reading through and spell/grammar checking again. Make sure it’s right before you submit. Poor spelling, grammar or presentation will put readers off.

Marketing

Think about your marketing in the very earliest stages. Try to include key words and phrases in your article, particularly in the ‘summary’ or ‘description’ section on the submission page of the site you’re submitting with. The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly it will attract certain types of advertising to be linked to your articles by the host website. If you want to make money, it’s better to attract very popular and profitable advertising companies. Secondly, search engines used by people looking for your type of article are more likely to direct them to your piece if your content is matched to their key word or key phrase search.

Submitting your Work

If the particular website you’re with has a preview facility for your articles, use it. It will help iron out any formatting issues, i.e. do you use one hard return or two for paragraphing? How will my text look online if I’ve added photographs or pictures to my article? It is important you are not disappointed by your article once it is submitted, so use the previews, as it will take extra work to submit a ‘fix’.

Promoting your Work

In order to make money, you need to promote substantial readership, and also for the work to attract good advertising. Attracting good advertising comes from being popular. It’s logical. If thousands of people are looking at your work, then advertisers would also like those thousands of people to see their ads and are more likely to attach their ads to your article than to articles attracting less readership.

Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket used to be the term. The modern term for this is maintaining multiple income streams. Submit your work to more than one writing website. You’ll learn which ones will only accept completely original work, and those that will accept your work even though it’s already published elsewhere.

Make friends on the sites that you submit to and get yourself known. Any reader is a good reader as far as making money is concerned, and even better if that reader happens to like your work, because not only will they come back to look at more, they may just recommend your work to others, thus becoming part of your promotion.

Promote your site by making it available to all the people who are surfing or searching the net. This is an area where I’m still learning, but I would suggest a good start is to familiarise yourself with and add your pages to the following two free promotion sites:

StumbleUpon.com: Join, add and promote your own pages

SubmitExpress.com: Get you site/page added to multiple popular search engines

Good Luck !!

Above all else, I wish you good luck. If your content and presentation are good, and you can promote yourself in the right arenas, then with your talent, dedication and effort, I’m sure you’ll do well. Enjoy the new experience and I hope that at least some of this advice has been of use to you.