Crayon Writer

Recently I mentioned that I was writing articles for blogs who “bought” my services with credits from Entrecard. I gave it some thought, and decided against it. Why?

While Entrecard is great, and while Entrecredits can be used to “buy” advertising space on other blogs, Entrecredits aren’t worth enough for me to sell my services in exchange for them.

Some people have started selling ECs on Ebay, getting as much as $20 for 1000 EC, but often much lower. And I don’t remember high school economics that well, but I do believe there’s a reason the government limits the amount of money in circulation. If money keeps being created, the value of a dollar decreases. With Entrecard, you earn 1 EC whenever you drop a card, and 1 EC whenever someone drops you a card, and the only limit so far is in the number of cards you can drop each day.

All I know for sure is that ECs are not legal tender.

At this point I’ve decided it’s a better use of my time to write guest articles if the mood hits me, since guest blogging is a valuable form of advertising. But when I write in exchange for ECs I feel obligated to write, and I prefer to be paid real money for obligatory creativity.

One thing I learned from the Entrecard experience is that people are looking for great content. And they’re willing to pay something for it (of course, we all knew this anyway).

Let me direct your attention to my newest header tab: Article Writing Services. If you’re a blogger or website owner, and you simply don’t have the time to write lots of great articles, Crayon Writer is your new source for excellent web content.

Contact me so we can figure out your needs, and I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.

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I’ve written a few articles for Associated Content now, as I said I would in a previous post. I’m not thrilled, I must say. Sure, there’s a learning curve as to what they want, but I don’t know if I have the patience to figure it all out. Of the 7 or so articles I’ve submitted, two have been accepted for upfront payment for under $4.

Several others were declined for various reasons. One article was determined to be “humor,” which they don’t usually offer upfront payments for. Another had spelling “errors” (I disagree with their spellchecker, but I fixed the words their system “caught”), and another one or two just weren’t the types of articles they offer payments for (current events and articles that aren’t “in-depth” enough.

Luckily, I’ve been able to take some of the declined articles and sell them elsewhere instead. Otherwise I’m just leaving them as “Performance Paid” articles, and we’ll see what happens.

So check out my AC posts and my recent HubPages posts. Enjoy, and let me know what you think:

Training your cockatiel to whistle

Thinking of getting a pet cockatiel?

My first pet rat

Male or female rats?

Starting from scratch with a new laptop

Calming a toddler: Count to 20 method

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I’ve finally decided to try writing online articles for pay.

I’ve heard a lot about Associated Content, and I’m going to try a little experiment. My plan is to submit 50 articles, some exclusive and some I’ve already published. The point is to see if someone, namely me, can make a living from AC, or at least a nice side income. I got this idea from ChrisBlogging, a great freelance writing blog I just found out about.

One of the things that attracted me to AC is that I can write about whatever I want, and possibly get paid for it. Even though I call myself a freelance writer, I don’t spend a lot of time writing unless it’s for a client. This experiment should be a great way to exercise my writing (and typing) skills, and hopefully I’ll make some extra money at the same time.

Stay tuned for updates. Once I have at least 5 offers, I’ll let you know what’s going on. From my understanding it takes about two weeks for articles to be reviewed.

If you’ve tried Associated Content, what do you think about it?

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I’m back to writing and blogging with a vengeance.

My day job as a call center representative didn’t last very long. Who knew that talking too much could be bad for your health? My throat is still recovering, even after having taken a two-month leave.

So that’s over, and I’m relieved. I’m back to being a work-at-home-mom. Kind of scary (I was enjoying a paycheck every couple of weeks), but great too (I missed being with my daughter).

I obviously think staying at home with my daughter is the best thing for her.

So I was pleased to accidentally find an inspiring, heartwarming post about WAHMs at Making Sales Making Money, a site about home based business opportunities. I found it on MyBlogLog (join my community)!

The author is also sponsoring a cool sweepstakes. So he recognizes the importance of WAHMs, and he’s trying to put money in folks’ pockets. What a find!

Part of marketing is letting people know you’re in business. So, listen up. I’m back in business! If you need a writer, I’m your gal. I have samples here on my blog, and also on my main website.

Spread the word!

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Freelance writers are the answer to the question, How am I going to find the time to do this, too?
Maybe you can write the copy, you can proofread, and you can do layout without any outside help.

But do you have the time? Can you do everything quickly and well?
A freelance writer can step in and take at least one thing off of your To Do list.

The advantages:
1. Don’t worry about benefits, vacation time, taxes, etc.

Freelance writers take care of their own taxes, vacations, and insurance needs. You only pay for the service you need.

2. Hire a writer as-needed, rather than pay for down time.

When you have employees, you have to pay them even when they talk to their co-workers, surf the internet, take bathroom breaks, or just dawdle. Freelancers are paid only for the time-on-task.

3. Freelance writers are customer oriented.

Employees are not necessarily loyal to the employer, but you can bet business owners are loyal to their own businesses. As business owners, freelancers have a strong desire to do their best work for their clients. Happy customers are essential to a prosperous business.

4. Freelancers are committed to your project.

Freelancers are able to accept assignments they want to do. There’s no boss telling them they must do a particular project. That means your job is important to the  freelance writer, hand-picked, rather than just another assignment from an employer.

A freelance writer’s job is caring about your business as much as her own.

The question is, why wouldn’t you hire a freelancer?

If you need a freelance writer to help with web content, articles, blog writing, proofeading, or more, hire me!

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Thanks for all the wonderful comments about keeping the blogging romance alive.

I’m going to continue Crayon Writer for both fun and potential profit, but I won’t obsess over it anymore.

Crayon Writer is my first blogging baby, so I’ll make sure to keep writing however I see fit, without worrying about page rank, Technorati rank, or anything else. I won’t forget those things exist, but trying to monetize this blog became a full-time job…and I certainly don’t want to have three full-time jobs!

What else is on the horizon for me?

I’m accepting at least one blogging job. I’ll be writing for a company that hosts several blogs, and I’ll actually be paid for my posts (and I’ll receive part of the advertising revenue). I’ve seen several companies that offer income to authors solely from advertising money. So I appreciate having found one that pays per article.

When it goes live, I’ll definitely announce it and post links to my articles there. I’ll be writing about the care of certain pets, and possibly the city where I live.

Have any of you taken on blogging jobs? How is it working for you?

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I’ve been working on writing articles, and have submitted a couple to EzineArticles. com.

The first is Babies at Work? Of Course!, the second is Words that Sell, while the third is Starting a Copywriting Business as a Work-at-Home-Mother. The last two are posted on this blog, but please take a look at my other one.

I’ll be adding more articles to EzineArticles.com soon. It’s fun, and you get to see what kinds of writing I can do.

Enjoy!

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Writing and publishing articles is a good way to exercise your writing muscles. As a generalist, I need to be able to write about different topics, and write in different styles. Article writing is a good way to keep growing and strengthening.

Article publishing is also a way to let a larger audience know about your writing skills.

I’ve written and submitted a couple of articles to Ezinearticles.com recently. One has already been approved (Babies at Work? Of Course!) while the other is waiting to be approved.

Let me know what you think.

As always, I’m also a writer for hire. If you need quality writing, contact me so we can start working together.

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