Tip for Freelance Writers

Oh that's wonderful I have a mentor also - friend here on mylot, has helped to get me motivated and given me direction where I can go with my writing.

Hi scheng1 - the article I'm talking about has been on AC and helium for several months. Very true about blogs, I post my articles there but only for the networking from other bloggers. I hate to rewrite my work though - the best I do is the first time around and I just feel like I'm messing up my work if I re-do it.

Hi, seldom hear any article in AC sits for months without indexing.
Why not do a manual check? Copy the whole URL to google search page, but you need to delete those "?Cat=". Make sure the URL ends with just html
I check mine regularly, almost all articles are indexed within two weeks.
I'm not so sure about Helium, since the articles are in a group, and come under a common title, I dont worry so much. If one article in the pack was indexed long ago, the readers reading that article will likely click to read mine, if my article ranked among the top.

I've done that before but yea it will pull when you do that - but key is the common person typing in the yahoo or google search engine finding the page or article. My page was #1 on yahoo out of 30 some thousand... I like that:)

Hi Bifaithonly, actually when you have three exactly the same article in 3 different sites, search engine will show one, and ignored the rest.
That's why rewritting is important. And rewriting does not mean major rewrite, just change a few words here and there, so that search engine will think all three are original articles.
Probably you will see all three articles rank in the front page of the search.

Afraid I have to disagree with you on that one - easy way to check for plagerized articles or discussions here take a line from the writing, put it in quotes and stick it in a search box - engine will pull any page that has the same exact wording.
Example "Italian Seasoning is a combination of several different herbs" pulls my garden site, then the article on helium, then the one on AC, and also the 'clip' posted on my blog. It did also pull another helium article that had the same exact words (going to check that one out - I have found many articles on helium that were plagerized from other sites)

I don't so much think that the engines give priority to personal sites over business sites I think it may however have to do with these sites like AC and Helium the search engines know what they are doing, even myLot does it, collecting content to pull in searches. I'll continue to take my few dollars here and there from these sites but will certainly be spending more time publishing on my own site.

I know some people are making good money at AC and Helium both but they have 100s of articles posted and on 'hot topics'. I'm old and not up with the latest trends so don't have knowledge in that area. My article on 'step-mothers' is doing 'ok' on AC but all total 37 articles there has earned me a little over $75, 30 articles on Helium and I still haven't reached the $25 payout. I'm sure you would do better than me, current sports happenings seem to be popular.

I actually think I have a membership at Constant Content but have never done anything with it. I've never heard of textbroker but will certainly check it out - I need to make as much money as I can with limited time to write, thanks for your tip.

I am pretty 'expert' on the search engines and content writing - published 5 e-books as a ghostwriter on internet marketing:) did a ton of research and testing for those jobs.

PS It does make you wonder about those sites, doesn't it? I wonder whose articles they are giving privy to or if they are still having search engine troubles. Either way, it doesn't make them look very good.

I actually did an 'exact word' search on yahoo and all 3 articles showed so know search engine is indexing them it's just obvious to me at least that the engines aren't giving them as much priority. Makes me feel good to see my article (page) pull #1 spot on yahoo though after only a week. Sure the others are there but buried who knows how many pages deep.

LOL. That's great your website is showing up with your article. Congrats! Most people have such a hard time getting traffic. You should write a how-to article about getting traffic. Actually, you have haven't you. I hope your articles are doing well on AC.

Yea it does feel good but it took work also. My site has actually been online for 9 years today (how long I've had the domain) but for the article to be picked up that quick was/is unusual. Also, yes have written it but after reading the responses from this discusson I am thinking it's time to write again this time under my own name:) I made good money as a ghostwritter and learned a lot along the way but to be honest I much prefer having my name 'in lights' or at least seeing that 'by line'.

Wow! That's good to even have a website that you have had for a while to still be active with. You probably should start writing directly to it, especially if it makes you more money. That's pretty incredible.

I love my web site and I have from the begining written on it although I do have a section where I've included those e-mails we all get from friends that have been passed around forever, author unknown. I do all my own graphics as well as am web master. At times it's 'work' but for the most part it's just a joy for me to share with others. There have been times I've thought I should be putting out the money but then a little voice tells me 'nope keep going' and I manage to scrape the money together.

I'm guessing at this point you are making more than enough money to cover the costs of the website? I don't know how that works because I have always used free websites. I didn't plan on making it a business or anything. Just a hobby.

Really not making as much money as I need or would like but the web site is my love so worth the cost - I could say I guess that myLot is paying for the web site:) 3 years I've been a member here I've made enough here to pay for the site. When I was ghostwriting I was paying all the bills with writing but my heart just wasn't in it. Now is time to move forward and get serious about my writing.

Wow! That's great. What websites did you use to Ghostwrite? I can't imagine making enough money to pay my bills and my bills aren't that much. LOL It's nice being able to do what you love to do and still make money while you do it. It also makes it easier to "work".

When I was making good money I was working for a private company - when I first started writing for them there was the owner and I think 3 other writers. It grew but afraid as it grew so did the management and problems. It was great, they found the work and assigned it to available writers but lack of communication and so other issues I parted ways. I miss the money but to be honest enjoy writing under my own byline and on topics I choice much more.

It makes a difference when you are writing for yourself compared to the stress of a company putting deadlines and other problems on you. I think it's wonderful you are able to write on your terms instead of someone else's. I wish you much success.

Thank you so much dear for your well wishes on my success - at this point I have to say I may not become a Best Seller author but I do so love writing and figure if even just a few enjoy or gain something from my writing then I am a success.

I don't consider myself a professional writer because I've never been published. Not even by a newspaper. LOL I found out what it means to be a professional writer. I just got the biggest self satisfaction a non-published writer can get. My articles that I wrote for Associated Content are now all over the web, giving me credit. Websites I never new existed, picked up my articles to showcase. An optomology website is featuring one of my articles. An Ohio newspaper isn't featuring my article but an article in the newspaper has given reference to one of my articles and my byline. This is just as good as being published or famous. LOL

With that being said, I am sure you will accomplish anything you set your mind to. You are after all published.:-)

If you are even getting one view on your website then you are reaching someone. I think you are educating and entertaining more than just one person so you have reached your goal of one person enjoying your writing. Good luck.

Oh that is the ultimate compliment, when someone else uses your work, I got all excited one day when I found someone had refered to one of my web pages on Yahoo Answers - included the link and everything. I'm working right now on trying to find some local weekly papers I might be able to 'contribute' to.

That's wonderful. I haven't reached "reporter" status. I'm getting a thrill out of writing articles, the type that magazines would use, that are showing up outside the realm of AC. I think it's incredible anyone even thought about my work. LOL Personally, I love the editorial thing and I haven't done that for about a year so I might try that again once I get back from visiting family.

I don't want to be 'reporter' actually same as you looking towards magazine articles but was told best way to get published in those is to have your byline out there and local papers are a great place to start - will pay next to nothing or even nothing but a start.

That's a good way to start is to set a goal and have steps to get to the finished object. We all want money but no one outlines a plan to get it. It's certainly not going to fall from the sky. Although, that would be the easiest way to get it and we could hope. LOL I haven't thought much about what I want to do with my writing because my kids are still in elementary school, 1st and Pre-K. I have to see where their lives take them before I can even think of going back to work. My son is autistic so it's a wait and see game. I write on AC to make the most money during the time I have available during the day.

I have a friend here who has been 'mentoring' me on my writing direction and it has helped tremendously. Everything has told me has made since and I've seen where I've been wasting my time and talent as well as gotten pointers on how to get where I want to be. Has really made me set down and think rather than running here and there and getting no place. Right now I have a series of children's stories I'm working on - not sure they would be of the quality to warrent individual children's books but might run well in a children's magizine. There is still however that want and need to make some money but trying to focus more on the big picture rather than just what's in front of me right now.

That's terrific. I am just working to make money right now. Writing is a dream for me, almost fantasy. I don't expect to be "hired" because I don't have a college diploma, nor experience in writing. What I do at AC is enough for me and when the kids go in their directions or at least full days in school, I will probably go back to an office job, bookeeping or taxes. I hate the corporate taxes but that is unfortunately, where the money is at and I am good at.

Nice of you to give me "kudos". I have never done that with my discussions. Maybe I should.

One thing I think that accounts for it is the search engines know what they are doing, paying a few bucks for content. The big thing I think though is the wide wide variety of topics. It's taken me years but I have a 'reputation' my family friendly, christian based site doesn't have a lot of 'return links' but the majority of them are from similar sites - search engines love that. Also I have my site set up so such as this my 'garden' section links directly from my main domain page - spiders don't have to dig deep to find my pages.

You sound very meaningful. It is not easy to get organic traffic to your site. I think you are reasonably successful in it, hats off to you.

Keyword thing is certainly NOT a farse - search engines thrive on them. The secret is getting the right balance. If say you have a page that doesn't make any since just has the keyword a million times Yahoo will not list you (google is a lot more generous with that at least the last I knew). 1-5 keywords using at least one in each paragraph will pull best on the engines. Niches are good but you can still pull it off by 'grouping' as I have on my site Gardening, Family Tree, Christian, Graphics - each section has it's own main page linking to the articles or whatever related to that key topic. It's harder to do with a blog but you can still do it - make sure you use those keywords to 'tag' your article and have a list of those tags on the left hand panel of your blog if possible.

Want to know the most popular page on my site Natural Flee Control - I'm getting 900+ hits a week on that one page. How/why - keyword content right now most of my traffic is coming from google and ask.com

Thank you, I actually just finished writing an article on the topic of 'getting found on the search engines" and posted it to AC will be a few days at least before it's published. Then will search for a place for it on Helium. Then will post it on my web site - triple duty from one article.

I've heard that from a number of Indian writers - it's a shame there aren't sites similar to AC that are for just Indians where you could write in your native tonge. I'm sure your writing would be much better that way.