Are you an aspiring writer looking for experience and sick of writing for free?  The following publications are great for beginning freelancers looking to gain skills and earn a little bit of cash.  The pubs can also be great for experienced writers looking to hone their online skills and network with other writers and publishers.

Demand Studios

Demand Studios is a content distributor that produces content for sites such as livestrong.com, trails.com, and You Tube . I have written for demand studios since August 2009 and so far my experience here has been good – you get paid twice weekly and consistently via Paypal and the feedback from the editors and community has been helpful.  You choose the articles you want to write from a pool of titles and have a week to complete each article.  Assignments range from 150-500 words and payments range from $7.50-$20.

I can make about $20/hour writing for the site but can only realistically write these types of articles for an hour or two a day.    I do realize I am only making around $.02/word (YIKES) but I see this as a way to prolong draining my savings and get a lot of practice refining my voice and gathering research efficiently.

Advice for getting accepted as a Demand Studios writer:

• Browse the sites that Demand Studios provides content for and create your application highlighting your experience relevant for that site.
• I thought my writing and life experience best suited the trails.com site so I created a resume highlighting my hiking, backpacking, and rock climbing experience as well as providing relevant clips and got accepted the first time I applied.

Suite101

Content sites like Suite101 receive a lot of criticism, but I found my brief stint at Suite helpful for learning the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and networking with other writers.  Suite uses a residual income model meaning that your articles make money as long as they are on the site.  You earn a percentage of the income derived from people clicking ads while viewing your articles.

Advice for getting accepted as a Suite101 writer:

• Apply for topics that you have the most experience with.  Once you are accepted you can write about any subject that you would like, but start out by applying to topics that you already have published clips or a college degree.
• If your application is rejected – try, try again.  My first application was rejected and then I applied a second time using different writing samples and was accepted.

Examiner

Examiner is a newly launched site that focuses on content for local and category-specific topics.  Examiner covers more than 100 US cities and is just starting to branch out into Canada, the UK, and Australia.

I worked briefly for Examiner when the site was in its early stages.  I couldn’t really keep up with the 3 posts that they required weekly and also felt that I had enough experience to move past these type of content sites.  I know several people that have been happy with their experiences at Examiner and it seems like a great place to learn some online writing skills and make a little bit of cash.  Find out how to apply here.

Have any other suggestions for paid writing gigs that are great for beginner freelancers?

RELATED POSTS

Freelancing for Adventure Magazines: 5 Adventure Travel Publications Looking for Contributors

Freelancing for Travel Magazines: 10 Online and Print Publications That Want to Publish Your Work

I like beginnings and today is a very special one.  Not only is today the first day of September but it is my first day off of someone else’s payroll and my first day as a full-time writer.  Surprisingly I woke at 7 am eager to get to work.  For the last year I would work my 9 to 5, come home and maybe get some exercise or chill time, eat dinner, and then get back to work writing, reading about writing, and trying to find writing work.  Now today – I get to work and then actually have an evening to I don’t know – maybe experience some life so I have something to write about.  

I am really excited to give my plan a try, but I am a little curious as to how people stay motivated with all of this unstructured time on their hands. I know for a fact that morning is my best time to write – so I am reserving the morning for actual writing. I also know that from about 3-5 pm I am completely worthless – so that might be a good time for looking for work, social networking, marketing, or simply taking a nap. I also need some serious help with creating a work space but I guess the floor-couch-bed will have to work until I return from my 3-month stint in Colorado.  

In order to hold my self accountable for creating my new career I will often share the details of my day. Hopefully over time we will see an increase in the percentage of time writing and a decrease in time cruising the web looking for work and lusting over the lives of successful travel writers.  

Day 1

The Morning Pages – 7-7:30am

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity is a book for aspiring writers and artists organized as a 12-week course designed to get you in touch with your creative self. A friend of mine gave me this book 10 years ago and I have picked it up several times over the years and never made it past the third week. 

One of the basic tools of the Artist’s Way is to religiously complete the morning pages. The morning pages are three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing that you complete each morning before you do anything else. You are not suppose to reread the pages or judge your writing. I think the purpose of the pages is to spew out all the crap in your head so that you have room to think more freely the rest of the day. I am hoping that eventually my novel will flow effortlessly through the pages but for now I like the meditative aspect of the pages and they serve me well in organizing my day or venting and clearing my head.  

I highly recommend any aspiring (or successful) writer to pick up The Artist’s Way and try out some of the featured tasks and tools.

Editing First Assignment for Matador U – 7:30-8:30am

I recently enrolled in Matador U, an online travel course, and spent the early morning editing my first assignment and posting the links in the forum. I also spent a bit of time browsing the forums to see what I missed out on during my long weekend away from internet service. 

I only signed up for the course last week, but I am already thrilled about what I am going to get out of this program.

Writing Articles for Demand Studios – 9am – Noon

I currently write articles for a content distributor called Demand Studios.  So far my experience here has been good – you get paid weekly and consistently via Paypal and the feedback from the editors and community has been helpful   I do make about $20-30/hour writing for the site but can only realistically write these types of articles for 2-3 hours a day.  I do realize I am only making around $.02/word (YIKES) but I see this as a way to prolong draining my savings and get a lot of practice refining my voice and gathering research efficiently.  

Shower, Lunch, Etc – Noon – 1pm

Wow – I never expected my apartment to be this quiet during the day.  Oh how wonderful it is tackle the dishes when I need a break from my computer screen and to shower in the middle of the day.  I bet the novelty of all of this will soon wear off but I will revel in the newness for as long as it lasts.  I haven’t been too tempted by my heaps of laundry, piles of camping gear needing to be put away from the weekend, or the time wasting allure of facebook yet.  

Dinking with Blogs and Stuff – 1-2pm

I am not really sure how this whole monetizing the blog thing works.  I guess you have to first get traffic and then figure out some way to make some money.  A while back I inserted an Amazon.com link in Dirtbagger and kind of forgot about it.  Today I decided to log into the account and to my surprise 9 people have actually clicked on the link and one person actually bought the book earning me a certain amount of cents.  I figured since Dirtbagger has been seeing quite an increase in traffic these days that maybe I could benefit from a few added links.  I also spent sometime working on this blog post.

Reading and a Bit of Social Networking – 2-3pm

Lazed away the afternoon reading fellow Matador U students assignments and browsed the web for job leads.

Calling It a Day – 3pm

Off to take a well-deserved nap and then heading to the farmer’s market, followed by the rock climbing gym, and then a live listening of Bonnie Rait and Taj Mahal viewed from a top the knoll.