Still, this blog is just one aspect of “me.” VioletWar.com is another. There, not only have I been able to share more news about THE QUEEN OF CROWS and what reviews it has gotten, but I’ve also recently started a journal there. It’s been a really fun creative outlet for me and something that supports my efforts for that world. At the same time, it’s beginning to get more personal than I had expected. I’m pretty private, but for whatever reason I’m having a blast just being me.

So, if you’re mildly curious about the world I have built and the novel I’ve been working on, that’s the place to drop by and explore. If not, stay tuned because I’ll definitely be blogging more about topical subjects that are meaningful to both you and me.

Thanks for reading!

No related posts.

One of the things that I’ve found is that a timer isn’t “enough” to discipline me to get off of social media or blogging channels to write, write, write. Why? Well, blogging requires one mindset for me; social media requires another. In many ways, blogging requires a “voice” which may vary depending upon the blog. Here? I typically use my “professional voice” which doesn’t include all the random creative bits that tend to float around in my head. I’m much more random when I use Twitter, partially because it doesn’t take me any time at all to shoot off a thought. Blogging, on the other hand, can take me a bit, especially if I’m feeling particularly coherent. Fiction is a lot different than blogging, because I try not to worry about that coherency as much when I’m writing the first draft. Rather, I’m more concerned with having a cohesive plot or consistent characters. Subsequently, I’ve learned that blogging + writing stories = a recipe for disaster. If I’m not careful, blogging can actually hurt my writing because I spend more time on the first draft than I normally do. Like every writer knows — you can’t edit a blank page.

This month, I started using a different method of assessing what projects I want to complete. As geeky as it may sound, I set up a project management plan and assigned blocks of time (Yes, just like you did when you were in college) to different writing styles. Then I prioritized these chunks into what I needed to get done first. What I’m finding, is that this prioritization method is helping my mindset stay where it needs to be. I don’t feel as pressured to get something done, because I’ve got a crystal clear picture of what is important to me based on its intrinsic or financial value. Obviously, paying gigs come first, which is one of the reasons why my novel revisions are a lower priority during the first half of this month. I also add in my free time, to ensure that I’m not killing myself with work, and I bump “new” or “unpaid” opportunities to the bottom of the list.

It may sound strange, but this form of organization is what is working for me on several levels because I know that I have to cater my language to the audience I’m writing to. To help keep me focused on where my priorities lie, I am becoming the mistress of mini-tasking which, in turn, is also helping me to pace myself and manage my work load.

It’s no secret that I’m working on a hefty round of revisions for a novel, but what you may not know is that I’m also planning ahead. “If” the novel sells and “if” I’m able to write another one, I’ll probably have to manage writing a new novel while working for my day job. In my mind, establishing discipline is really important to a writer’s life, regardless of how busy or how successful you are. This is just my way of doing just that.

What about you? How do you juggle blogging with social media and your writing?

Related posts:

1. Social Media Uses and Usefulness
2. What Social Media Means to Me and My Writing
3. Social Media for Beginners: 15 Tips to Consider

Here’s a quote from the article:

In today’s article, I’d like to share with you some tips to consider when you’re reviewing your current website or when you’re thinking about creating one. Let’s take a look at these tips for your website’s design and usability.

1. Structure Your Theme Around Your Update Frequency – First and foremost, I believe that you have to make a decision, up front, about how often you plan on updating your website. If you’re not going to blog or update very often, you can simply choose a different website theme that’s a little more static than a blog, but still attractive and professional. — SOURCE: Authors! 8 Tips For Your Website’s Usability and Design

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. New Guest Post at SFWA: Social Media and Your (Lack of) Privacy
2. Read my Guest Blog Post at Apex Books
3. Guest Blog on SFWA: Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword?

The online sales cycle is a very passive one for retailers, because no matter how much any store owner may try — the seller is not in control. The buyer is. At a convention, for example, organizers will help facilitate traffic and flow based on the physical layout of the hall. For any website, a reader can access that store from any page because of something called natural or organic search; not “just” the home page.– SOURCE: Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword? on the SFWA blog

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for SFWA for more articles and updates. My next guest post will be a “hit list” for authors about things to include on a website, so stay tuned.

Related posts:

1. Guest SFWA Blog Post on Website Usability and Design
2. New on the SFWA Blog: Online Reputation vs. Writer’s Platform
3. New Guest Post at SFWA: Social Media and Your (Lack of) Privacy

There’s been a lot of chatter the past few days about the FTC’s “new” ruling regarding a website’s or blog’s disclosure about endorsements and testimonials. Unfortunately, there has also been a lot of misinformation circulating as well. I’d like to point out that as of October 5, 2009, the FTC hasn’t published the Guides concerning this issue. In their recent release, FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials, the FTC states that:

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.–SOURCE: FTC.gov

If you notice, the guides were last updated in 1980, which was well before the internet or advanced cell phone technology even existed. As I’ve mentioned many times before, we’re still in the wild, wild west days of the internet. The technology has been changing so rapidly, that the government and the law haven’t had the chance to get caught up yet. I’m sure we’ll see more enhancements to existing guidelines and new laws develop within the next, few years.

When the FTC does publish their new Guide, I’ll be sure to offer a link here on my blog. The ruling goes into effect December 1st, but please don’t panic. The reason why the FTC started working on this was because of fake testimonials from the weight loss industry. Chances are, if you have a personal blog, you wouldn’t be effected by this. If you do review a restaurant or a product, I’d simply state where you bought it from or if you got it for a review.

Hope that helps!

No related posts.

As a writer, the reverse is often true, especially if you’re writing for the internet.

The Associated Press released a press release late last week dubbed, “Associated Press to build news registry to protect content.” Additionally, they’re also charging a sliding scale of $2.50 per word for a quote from one of their articles per this Mashable article entitled, “Quote 5 Words from the Associated Press? That’ll Be $12.50.”

In an earlier post, I talked about the Top Five Writer Misconceptions about Online Publishing. You might recall Misconception #2: My article will only be found on the site where I published it. The recent decision by the AP supports that misconception, by even charging for what I would call “fair and reputable” by offering commentary and then quoting and linking to the AP article’s original online source.

Most of the internet’s content is structured in that way. You have original content which is then spread via social media and blogging; people often take a critical or an editorial approach to the content and build around it. Many of the web’s most popular sites, for example, are primarily aggregators that pull in content from other sources or find links on the web and talk about them. (Boing Boing, the Huffington Post, the Drudge Report just to name a few.)

Between potentially getting sued for libel and now this new action by the Associated Press, I believe it is now (more than ever) vitally important to protect yourself as a writer and ask permission when you’re quoting an article. When I wrote my article for SFWA about personalization, I contacted the authors directly and asked them for a quote. Why? Two reasons. One, I wanted to offer personal examples of SFWA members to support my opinion. In order to do that, I felt I needed to ask permission because I was talking about someone’s online presence, which may (or may not) support their platform or reputation as a writer. Two, asking for permission gave me the chance to touch base with these authors and ensure that I was acting professionally. Did I need to ask them permission? Absolutely!

Asking permission to quote someone’s article can also help you network, too. I understand that you may be on a deadline (Read my latest post about the Hazards of Getting There First) but as I’ve mentioned several times before, there is a lot on the internet that is still uncharted and unexplored. Internet law is not set in stone. By establishing good, professional practices you can protect your reputation and the reputation of the source you are quoting.

No matter what I may think of the AP’s recent practices, I feel that this will not be the first (nor the last) major publisher/company to go this route. Content on the web has been published unchecked for so long; the rabbit is already out of the hat. As a result, the potential for bad PR is huge because content providers and readers both have years of established expectations for consuming and producing content which is, in many cases, “free.”

Regardless, as a writer I will continue to ask permission, even if I have personal opinions about whether or not a particular ruling is a good one.

Related posts:

1. Top Five Writer Misconceptions about Online Publishing
2. New on the SFWA Blog: Online Reputation vs. Writer’s Platform
3. Beware the Self-Titled “Expert”

Taken from the perspective that writers should “charge by the word,” I’ve run into the challenge of explaining not only “what” blogging is to some of my fellow writers, but how much they can expect to get paid. One example of this, is that I forwarded a job listing for freelancing to a writer who was looking for work. The job was pretty decent: $10-15 per 300-500 word post on a regular basis. The writer responded by telling me that the company obviously couldn’t afford them, even though they had never blogged before.

This isn’t the first time I’ve run into this scenario. However, I’ve also run into the situation where some writers fundamentally disagree with me when it comes to blogging. It is my belief that blogging is a different form of writing, therefore — the pay scale would be different. I do believe that bloggers are writers, even if they do not have a traditional background in publishing. Not every writer shares my thoughts on the subject. But if a writer does embrace blogging, how much is too much to charge? What do bloggers typically get paid?

To answer this question, I turned first to Michael Martine who is a blog consultant and the author of WordPress SEO Secrets. Michael confirmed that $15 to $20 per post is about right, especially at 300 words. However, he had also shared with me that there is a difference between a “proven” and an “unproven” blogger which factors into the rates that you may charge for blogging.

If a blogger is doing a good job, she can charge more and expect to get it. Doing a good job doesn’t mean the writing is “good.” It means the post gets comments, gets traffic, gets backlinks, gets social media attention. In other words, the blogger has to be able to deliver traffic.

A blogger who can deliver the goods can charge more, and the blogger has to be able to show she can get results, which means that this information needs to appear on the “services” or “hire me” page of a blog.

Bloggers new to paid blogging can expect to spend a little time “in the trenches” at first.

Once a pro blogger has proven she’s no longer a commodity, then there is no standard. You charge whatever you can get away with, whatever your clients will pay. The better gigs are the more permanent ones for bigger blogs. If you’re going to get into pro blogging, be prepared to treat it as a business and modify your blog accordingly so you’re easy to hire. –Quote from Michael Martine, blog consultant

From Michael’s perspective, the rates that you should charge depend upon what your post effectively delivers. This is an important distinction for writers to consider, because in my experience not all blog assignments are the same. Some blog assignments may come your way because a company is looking to establish their brand; others may be necessary for search engine optimization purposes as a fast way of getting content on a client’s website. Charging based on what you can deliver is important, but it also comes down to knowing what you can deliver based on your expertise and experience. If you’re looking to establish yourself as a premiere blogger, Michael Martine’s role is to help you get there. On the other hand, if you’re looking for blogging as a freelancer, you might want to hear what fellow copywriter maven Meryl Evans has to say.

She mentioned that thinking of blogging in terms of a “per word” rate is off-target, and that $10 to $25 per post was more reasonable. Meryl writes that:

Blogging is not lucrative in terms of posting blog entries. Only owners of very
popular blogs get good money — mostly from sponsors. Sometimes you can get paid per hour depending on the client. I work with a client and do more than just blog for them, so I get paid per hour.

To make the most of the “low” pay — write fast. Just throw up content and then iron it out. It takes practice. If you don’t know the subject well — then you’re more likely not to do it fast. –Quote from Meryl Evans, Copywriter

You can see here that getting paid to blog can often range from lucrative, premier blogging positions to getting paid per post. Since your experiences are unique to you, you might want to consider finding like-minded bloggers and asking what they charge. Regardless, charging by word is not common and may alienate you from getting a position.

The key take-a-way here? Like any other field in writing, there are commonalities within any segment of the market for pay and for level of service. Besides doing your own research, ask yourself not only what you want to write right now, but where you want to go in the future. I’ve found that that helps a lot when you’re looking for work and negotiating pay.

You might want to check out different blogging services like Associated Content or Demand Studios. I’d also like to add a few blog posts that cover a lot more resources for you to check out. When you are checking out blogging networks, don’t be afraid to do a little homework and find out more about their reputation, too.

• 26 Sites that Pay You to Blog
• How Blog Networks Pay Bloggers (Be sure to read the comments, too!)
• How to Get Paid to Blog — Paid Blogging Networks

Agree? Disagree? Love to hear your thoughts?

Related posts:

1. Does Blogging take Writers away from Writing?
2. Google’s Blogger: Pros and Cons for Freelancers
3. How I Use Google Analytics for my Blog

How I Use Social Media Tools

How do I use social media tools? Simple! I use the tools to integrate my online content and help keep my friends, readers and network up-to-date. My Twitter account feeds into my Facebook and LiveJournal accounts. I’m also currently looking into a plug-in that will update my Twitter account when I post here, on my blog. For Facebook and LiveJournal, I have email notifications set up for things that are important to me, so I know when someone is trying to get a hold of me. From all outside appearances it looks like I am extremely active in the “social media” space, spending hours upon hours on these networks.

I use social media to stay on top of trends, knowledge and people for my professional position during the day, and for promoting my writing at night. I do not use it for creating content or for wasting time. Yes, my tweets can get a bit random, but that’s also because it’s a great way to keep links you find in one place and share them instantly with other people.

What is Social Media?

While my story about how I use social media is not a very glamorous one — other people may have a different take on what social media is and how the tools apply to their lives. The key word here is “tool.” Although social media is about being social, it’s also about how different people interact with the tools. Make a social media tool that allows for better interaction with other people, and you’ll get more people using it. Which is one of the reasons why Facebook continues to do better than MySpace.

On Facebook, a user can more easily get involved with a niche community by helping others on a particular topic, and making e-friends organically – instead of simply spamming the entire Facebook universe. “Fan” pages have created a great way for businesses or products to setup a way for users to keep up-to-date on related events. All-in-all, Facebook is a much more usable TOOL, which has caused people to migrate.– Quote by Elliott Kosmicki, GoodPlum.com

As Elliott had pointed out, Facebook is more usable than MySpace, which is why people are flocking to the tool. I haven’t logged in to Facebook in weeks, yet because it acts as a content aggregator for me (i.e. Allowing me to add all my RSS feeds and other social media tools) it appears as if I’m on Facebook hours each day.

Just like author’s intent matters, whatever your intent is for using a tool matters because it’s your preferred method to connect with the world at large. It’s what “personalization” is all about.

Social Media Opinions Run Rampant

The drawback of this personalization, is that there are thousands of opinions out there about social media and what it may or may not be. Like this prediction Twitter will die in 2009. Put the idea of monetizing social media aside for a second, because that’s a whole ‘nother conversation. This writer has a few beliefs that I’d like to share with you, and my counter-points.

# Content – “If ‘content is king,’ as even entry-level marketers know, then Twitter’s limit of 140 characters doesn’t even get you started. It’s not possible to present an emotionally compelling story in just one or two sentences,” Garber notes.

MLV: I have a hard time understanding how anyone would think Twitter would be used to create meaningful content, though writers have embraced Twitter as a new form of writing. Read How to Start a Twitter Novel to learn more.

Remember that you can, however, push out that great content you are writing to your network and the world at large. With one Tweet, you can update all of your friends and readers on MySpace, LiveJournal and Facebook at the same time!

# Rapport – Twitter doesn’t facilitate the bonding that’s needed to stand out among all the buying options in today’s marketplace. “Rapport comes from getting to know someone on a more intimate level than ‘Who likes chicken?’ or ‘I am the Lord of cats,’ and all the other inane comments that make up the lion’s share of communication on Twitter,” Garber argues.

MLV: Not sure I agree with this one, either. I’ve made several networking connections, made one-on-one connections with our customers via Twitter and have found that “rapport” has more to do with “intent.” I’ve heard this criticism before, usually spoken by someone who doesn’t use the tool and has just heard about it anecdotally.

# Trust – Effective marketing happens when rapport develops into relationships. “With skepticism at an all-time high, it’s critical to focus on credibility and believability,” says Garber. “This requires sharing meaningful information and having dialogue over time. The trivialities shared on Twitter do not build into anything else.”

MLV: Twitter has been used to promote acts of giving like Tweetsgiving, contests from companies that have included Starbucks, ThinkGeek and HARO guru Peter Shankman, deal-of-the-day announcements from places like Amazon.com and in my case, exclusive coupons.

I absolutely agree that trust is important for branding, but in my opinion trust is a luxury that many companies may not have right now because of the economy. Why is it Walmart and Amazon.com had their best retail holiday ever while dozens of other stores are feeling the pinch? (Hint: Perhaps it’s because Amazon.com offers both new and used products and Walmart is “known” for low, low prices?)

Is social media a tool to build trust in a company or a brand? Potentially, but it again depends upon what the tool is used for and when it is being used. Social media can be a very effective, timely tool but — like attracting visitors to your blog or website — it takes time to build a network and it doesn’t happen overnight. In our case, social media is one aspect that we are building for our overall marketing approach online. Creating great content is just as important as reaching out to people for us; social media allows us to share our content and interact with others.

In the end, social media is really all about you. What do you want to get out of it? How do you need to use it? It can be very powerful but — like attracting visitors to your blog or website — it takes time to build and it doesn’t happen overnight.

When it comes to social media, it is hard to get a clear and direct view regarding its future because (as I mentioned earlier) some of these tools are “free.” One of the reasons why MySpace ended up extremely ad-heavy is because MySpace needed to pay for what it was offering. As any developer will tell you, hosting, maintaining, developing, and promoting a social media platform isn’t cheap.

My prediction for 2009 is this: social media tools that are able to monetize their efforts wisely and can keep on top of web development trends without alienating users will be the social media tools that will come out on top.

Agree? Disagree? Love to hear your comments and ideas.

Related posts:

1. Remember, Social Media is about Being Social
2. What Social Media Means to Me and My Writing
3. Social Media for Beginners: 15 Tips to Consider

As writers, we all know how important content is for a blog. If it isn’t written in a language readable to humans, it probably won’t attract us (or Google, for that matter). Besides being well written, good content also means having something that is sooooooooo cool, so fabulous that people will gape in awe.

Finding that amazing content is a lot harder than it looks — especially for a writing blog — because a lot of sites make their money by being cool, almost like the Ripley’s Believe it or Not phenomenon for the blogosphere. Boing Boing, TechCrunch and ThinkGeek immediately come to my mind, but there are others. That’s not to say that your blog can’t get attention by “repurposing” or “pointing out” cool content (Search Engine Optimization, anyone?).

Enter the comments. The writer side in us loves the appeal of having people comment on what we write, because it’s like a teeny tiny “thank you” for taking the time to write a post. Yeah, don’t hold your breath. Just because it’s published online–even on a place where people are reading your work–there is no guarantee you’re going to get people interacting and commenting.

Here’s my take on why:

Why Readers Don’t Comment on Blogs

Your Comment System Needs Improvement: From complicated log-ins to “yet another password,” overly complicated means of commenting can be a turn-off. One of the ways I want to improve my comment system is to figure out the “direct reply” WordPress plug-in, so that I can directly reply better to people who comment. (Here’s the Wordpress Thread Comment plug-in from Wordpress.org.)

Timing, Timing, Timing: In my experience, comments can depend on when you post a topic and how long that topic is visible on your front page. They can also depend upon whether or not your content is hitting the reader when they have time to comment. If they’re at work, for example, maybe they physically can’t comment.

Doesn’t Grab the Reader: If the content isn’t spectacular, and doesn’t hit the reader in that sweet spot, then they’re not going to post a comment. Comments require an emotional commitment on the part of the reader — they have to have a legitimate reason to want to post.

Your Readers are RSS Feeders: RSS feeds are such a time saver, but they are also a barrier to commenting. I view RSS readers to be a lot like window shoppers; they can read headlines and snippets of your content, but they don’t have to click through. That “click” is their commitment to your blog. Asking them to comment as well requires another step toward reader-writer commitment, so you had better be ready to offer them something good.

The Tone of Your Content isn’t Genuine: Blogs have the trouble of sounding too authoritative, because everybody is an instant expert. Something I struggled with when I started my blog, I try to go the route of “this is my opinion and your experiences may differ,” and that’s what has worked for me. Readers aren’t stupid, so if your content sounds too much like a sales pitch or talking down to them, then chances are your blog might get ignored.

Web Analytics Can Help you Prove your Theories

Anyone can make inferences as to why people aren’t commenting on their blog, but to get into the specifics you’ll want to check your web analytics toolkit and figure out “why.” For example, a post I did about two free fiction submission sites you don’t want to miss received a lot of attention and more comments than I usually get. Why? Someone thought the post was worthwhile enough to use StumbleUpon, causing it to be my highest-trafficked post on my blog.

From abandonment to click-through rates for RSS feeds, you can find out a lot of information about your reader’s behavior to ensure that you’re writing great content that they’ll want to read (and you’ll want to write). The same can be said for commenting, in my opinion, because they are somewhat related. I like to think about it like a party. Before you can ask people to have a conversation, you have to invite them to your party. Before you can invite them to your party, you should probably get to know them and engage them, to find the right group of friends that will stick around.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Admittedly, I don’t always practice what I preach due to time constraints (and a touch of procrastination, too), but commenting is a good way to build community and to get other people familiar with your own work and personality. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I have to find some blogs to go comment on today! Have a great one!

Related posts:

1. Why I Heart Feedburner
2. Announcing the “Help me Design a Contest” Contest
3. Help me Out Here: What Industry RSS Feeds/Blogs/Sites are you Reading?

Misconceptions about online publishing form because many writers have years of experience with print media, which is more static than the ever-changing world of online publishing. In the world of print publishing, writers typically have more control over content and often benefit from built-in circulations for whatever print media they are going with. Since print publishing is more static than online publishing, and if writers aren’t familiar with how online publishing works — they can often end up with hurt feelings and huge misconceptions about how a publisher, blogger or reader feels about their work.

Top 5 Writer’s Misconceptions about Online Publishing

Here’s a list of my top five writer’s misconceptions about online publishing:

Misconception #1: If I publish an article on the web, people will read it regardless of where it’s located. Oh, how I wish this were true. One of the drawbacks to online publishing, is that there is a whole, giant library accessible to readers that they can read through in the blink of an eye. If they’re reading Poewar.com chances are they probably read Writer’s Weekly, too. If you want people to read your online article — unless it’s on a site with a large, built-in readership — you’ll have to do some word-of-mouth legwork and promote your stuff. This misconception is especially true with writers who start a blog, but then don’t bother to promote it anywhere else and neglect to track their traffic with a web analytics package.

Misconception #2: My article will only be found on the site where I published it. One of the ways to attain readers, is to encourage readers to have an RSS feed. A “really simple syndication” feed allows your “content” to be fed to other blogs, websites and publications — for the sole purpose of exposing your article to other audiences that may not normally visit the site where the article is hosted. Is this a violation of copyright? Nope. It’s simply a way of “feeding” your content, which is still hosted and cited on the original domain, to other sites.

I should mention that there are spammers and content scrapers that will take a portion of your content. There are ways to track that content down and then report them to the search engines for investigation. One way to find them is to set up a Google Alert to monitor your name (which is something you should do anyway), or use the tools accessible in your blogging platform.

Misconception #3: People need my permission to grab my RSS feed. First? Read this RSS feed tutorial. You’ll be glad you did. Second, have you checked to see whether or not you explicitly spelled out how people can use your feed? Third, are you providing a full version of your content through your feed or a summary? Have you indicated what your rights are in the feed settings?

A tricky misconception to have, the truth about RSS feeds and copyright is that it is still under debate. Here’s why the debate over RSS feeds and copyright is still going on — an RSS feed is there for people to syndicate your content, pointing back to your site, ensuring you still have the credit. It’s akin to someone mailing a newspaper clipping of your article to their friend in Boston, who shows it to ten of their friends. Except on a larger scale. Still, that doesn’t mean there are still issues over “fair use” and RSS Feeds, which do happen because of the way technology works. However, the steps I listed above are there to protect you — I strongly suggest you look at your RSS feed closely and use a tool like feedburner.

Misconception #4: I can write the same way for the web, as I do for print. Writing used to be all about engaging the reader; what combination of words and descriptions can I use to draw the reader into my article? For those of you with a newspaper background, you might remember the “triangle” methodology where the article begins with a few, blunt statements and gradually gets more and more descriptive as the article goes on. Writing for the web is still about engaging readers — but it’s also about organic search.

It may seem like copywriting has gotten more bland, but it really hasn’t — it’s evolved. In addition to writing the article, writers now have to keep in mind how an RSS feed headline might show up in other places; we’ve also had to infuse the work with more active tenses and keywords. Keywords that the reader will hone in on and the search engines will recognize. In many cases, we’ve had to shorten our articles, too, breaking them up into smaller series to get more exposure and help readers digest the themes.

Misconception #5: Only reputable blogs and websites pay writers for their contributions. I wish I had a dollar every time I heard a writer say this. It is very difficult to monetize a blog or a website — even with a decent amount of traffic — because finding the balance between advertising and spending efforts on great content is challenging for any website owner. Couple that with how Creative Commons has changed how content is viewed on the web, and you’ll find many spammers and scams taking advantage of writers who have this fundamental belief that they should get paid for everything they write.

There are ways to get paid for blogging (which is the most common form of writing for the web), typically on a pay-per-post basis. There are sites that pay you to blog, that I haven’t had the chance to fully check out, some of which charge $10 to $15 per post. Several newspapers and other articles might buy your work to publish in “both” their print version and their online version, so that is another way around it. Additionally, there are eCommerce sites that will hire freelancers to write copy specific to search engine optimization (just ask SEO Specialist Tim Gill).

When checking the reputation of the online community, website or blog that you’re posting in — don’t be afraid to do some Google searches of your own to make your assessment of whether or not your efforts are worth it. Having an article show up on a site that receives a decent amount of traffic and has been around for a while can be good for you. Additionally, remember you don’t ever have to disclose how much (or how little) you get paid for an assignment, so if the publication is good? Add it to your resume.

Do you agree? Disagree? What are your experiences with writers who misunderstand how online publishing works?

Related posts:

1. New on the SFWA Blog: Online Reputation vs. Writer’s Platform
2. Top 10 Misconceptions about Writers
3. AP’s New Pay-Per-Quote and the Power of Asking “Permission”