My résumé claims that I'm a freelance writer and it must be true enough; I consistently get writing gigs from Craig's List and other job ad sites. I like to do creative writing, but the current demand is for SEO-oriented writing or keyword articles. The law of supply and demand is a hard one to break, so I've delivered accordingly. Between the parenting articles I write for a certain daily, the articles and stories I submit to different publications, and my regular daydream about writing my own book, there is a steady stream of ads for keyword articles I respond to. It's a real hoot. You get to write about a variety of topics you really have no business writing about, but thanks to the internet, you can easily affect expertise if you know how to research.
Basically, the job is like accomplishing a writing assignment for school. You are given the requirements and you meet them. Anybody who has a pretty good command of the English language can do it. Usually, you have the number of articles to write, a list of keywords, a deadline, and minimum number of words. It's up to you how you'll go about churning out the articles. You can spend as much time as you want writing the entire set, but since you've been given a rate per article, it's wise to make the entire process cost effective. Make sure that your article is grammatically sound. As for the actual content, some clients require that it be informative while some are more concerned about the placement of the keywords (every hundred words at most, but the rule of thumb here is: the more, the better, but keep it from sounding ridiculous) as the desired end is a boost in search engine rankings (search engines do not read messages, they merely perceive the frequency of the appearance of key phrases, so they're all about quantity, not quality when it comes to keywords - let's not go into search engine algorithms as it would be a case of the blind leading the blind).
I don't involve myself in posting, so the HTML layout and the question of whether meta tags are acknowledged or not are not my concern. I do have to come up with the title and it's all about phrasing once again: keyword and title formula, basically.
Two parting messages:
- Plagiarism is not only illegal, it also doesn't get you paid, so steer clear of copy-and-pasting. :)
- Don't sell your time and effort (let's not even mention talent) cheap. Job ads offering $3 per 500-word article is a blatant insult.
Basically, the job is like accomplishing a writing assignment for school. You are given the requirements and you meet them. Anybody who has a pretty good command of the English language can do it. Usually, you have the number of articles to write, a list of keywords, a deadline, and minimum number of words. It's up to you how you'll go about churning out the articles. You can spend as much time as you want writing the entire set, but since you've been given a rate per article, it's wise to make the entire process cost effective. Make sure that your article is grammatically sound. As for the actual content, some clients require that it be informative while some are more concerned about the placement of the keywords (every hundred words at most, but the rule of thumb here is: the more, the better, but keep it from sounding ridiculous) as the desired end is a boost in search engine rankings (search engines do not read messages, they merely perceive the frequency of the appearance of key phrases, so they're all about quantity, not quality when it comes to keywords - let's not go into search engine algorithms as it would be a case of the blind leading the blind).
I don't involve myself in posting, so the HTML layout and the question of whether meta tags are acknowledged or not are not my concern. I do have to come up with the title and it's all about phrasing once again: keyword and title formula, basically.
Two parting messages:
- Plagiarism is not only illegal, it also doesn't get you paid, so steer clear of copy-and-pasting. :)
- Don't sell your time and effort (let's not even mention talent) cheap. Job ads offering $3 per 500-word article is a blatant insult.
1 comment:
Thanks for the info. I'm looking to enhance my writing skills, as well as trying to obtain more paid posts. Will be stopping by again!
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