Web Writing Requires a Six Stage Process.

Writing articles for the web

Writing articles for the internet is a little different than writing articles for paper publication. There are multiple ways to make money writing online, and understanding keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques is part of stage three. Since freelance writer’s can be paid on number of clicks, typically called (PPVs) pay per views, or upfront payments, or both. Depending upon the article, and the web publishing company they choose to use, some of the metrics that a freelance writer would want to keep track of are: what is the average number of hits per article overall, and what categories get the most hits. Categories might be lifestyle, news, politics, recipes, and short stories, to name a few. Another area to track is rights. Determining what rights the author wants to relinquish will be part of the decision making as to where to publish that article. In some cases, the short term upfront payment may either be in addition to the long term PPVs or it might be the only payment. Authors want to track which articles they have relinquished so that they do not invoke future litigation and they will also want to track overall revenues. Promotion for individual articles can also vary. Tracking which promotional techniques are used, such as social networking resources in My Space, or Facebook, vs. using public feeds such as Diggit.com or Reddit.com can help fine tune future marketing plans based upon article type and potential readership.

Six Stages and multiple steps

Within the six macro stages of this writing process, there are several micro steps. In some cases the steps are parallel, and in other cases, they are serial. All of the work being done is via one operator. By tracking certain metrics related to the micro steps of the process, such as time spent marketing or writing an article, a freelance writer can proactively manage their actions and resources to maximize return on investment.

How web writers get paid

Web publishing companies such as Associated Verbalize will pay an author both upfront and PPVs, with a rate structure that is progressive based upon the overall number of hits of an author, in any given month. At the entrance level, an author makes $1.50 per 1,000 clicks. Once they hit 100,000 clicks, pay rates change to $1.75 per 1,000 clicks. Once an author hits 1 million clicks, they get paid $2.50 per 1,000 clicks. The more experienced author’s with a greater following, regain paid higher up fronts. A newbie will earn between $3-$4 depending upon the content and readability, quality and SEO. An experienced writer may command between $6 and $20.00 an article.

Other companies such as Textbroker, Constant Content, and Demand Content will provide topics requested by advertisers and have different payments scales based upon technicality and length of articles. All of these companies require some level of exclusivity, meaning the writer relinquishes some or all of their rights. Sometimes writer’s can hold the rights and publish in several different companies.

Search Engine Optimization

Part of writing for the web means that writer’s will write their content in a specific scheme. For example, in a Christmas article, a writer might use the words Christmases, Holidays, Jesus, and snowy white multiple times within the article, to improve the number of hits that their article receives. They call this technique clouding or keyword density, and it is a part of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Once an author finds the appropriate keywords to procedure more traffic that applies to their article, they edit their material one more time to improve its marketability by adjusting titles, headers, first and last paragraphs as well as replacing a word such as ‘It’ with ‘Christmas’ to improve density.

Marketing

There are many avenues to market articles after they are published and part of being a web writer includes marketing your material. Marketing includes developing a niche or specialization, as well as gaining fans and doing a good job at writing good timely content with strong SEO. Definite articles do better than others in different venues. For example, social stories do not do well on linkedin or the white house blog because these are forums for professionals. By experimenting and analyzing historic results, an author can see that Social stories do best in either People or News categories on digit, twitter and facebook than in the political forums. This information is pleasurable for determine what path a writer should follow for best financial results.

Understanding web writing performance

On a daily basis, professional web writer’s assess what their competition is doing, how well their past articles have done, and informally assess the time it is taking them to build certain sub tasks to help improve throughput and ROI. By formalizing this with a flow map, (seek picture) and metrics, they can assess if they are growing or losing readership. By fine tuning their sub process steps and honing in on finding a niche with specific keywords, they will inevitably grow a fan base for their specific explain, and be more successful at web writing. By understanding the process flow, the macro stages and micro steps, a writer can develop work habits that wait on them become more efficient and productive, channeling their energies in places where it matters the most.