Getting paid for hard work

If you're like me and write articles for a living, then you know that you need to be paid for your hard work. Payment can come from clients who have hired you to write, from pay-per-click advertising, or from banner or text ads that you place on your website alongside your articles. Regardless of how you go about it, a consistent and methodical plan is necessary to make a living from your hard work. Please read on for some helpful tips to help you survive in this highly competitive business.

Free submission.

Much of the work that is put online under my name is freely accessible. I am not paid for what I write. I view article marketing as a joint partnership between myself and the article directory. You receive my articles for further distribution and I get good backlinks to my website. In addition, the article directory can earn money with adverts that appear next to my articles, e.g. with Google AdSense or adverts from Yahoo! I also make my name known and can refer potential customers to the article directories to show them how productive I am as an author.

Submit together.

Some of the articles I have put online are intended for customers. They are labelled with my name, as my name is more visible than their name. I write as a "contributing writer", but I'm a freelancer, not an employer. I get paid for my work, and they get some decent links.

Write ghostwriting.

The overwhelming number of articles I write are ghostwritten articles. In 2005, I submitted 450 articles to article directories, but another 1200 or so went directly to my clients. When I submit articles jointly, I retain the rights to have my name on the articles. When I ghostwrite, my clients get what I write and retain full rights to the articles. Guess who pays me more? Bring it on!

Invoice immediately.

You can write like crazy for paying customers and still go broke. How do you do that? By not invoicing clients immediately. Whether you bill directly, use Paypal or hire an "agent" like Guru, you're penniless until the first invoice is paid. Come up with a plan to get your money as quickly as possible. You don't want to have to wait weeks, unless you're happy to be in the credit business!

Stick to marketing.

There are times when I have a lot to do and times when I have little to do. In the quiet times, I do my paperwork and I write. In the quiet times, I submit lots of articles to article directories to keep my name known. Regular submissions keep me in the spotlight and help improve search engine optimisation for my website. Yes, I have my own website www.thearticlewriter.com where most of my best articles can be found. Not every article, but the articles that I have full rights to and that I want to show my customers when they look at my portfolio.
So, that's it. Five simple tips to help you make a living from article marketing. If you're good at it, you'll make a good income writing for others. I doubt you'll get rich, unless article marketing becomes a stepping stone to something else - like writing your own Harry Potter-style book series!