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Can you benefit from historic changes in the writing business?ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Published: July 13, 2010  Kay B. Day
Newspapers are having a hard time of things, so hard that the Federal Trade Commission recently held a public workshop, ‘How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?’
But even as some traditional outlets are challenged, others prosper. Google and Facebook come to mind, and so do specialty magazines.
Many independent writers, as opposed to writers under contract to large publishers, are seeing fees decline or stay stagnant, however. And it’s not uncommon to see startups fold after a few issues. So what’s a writer to do?
Many opt to self-publish, and the first thing writers think about may be a book. But there are other self-publishing options on the Web with virtually no startup costs. It’s simple to establish a free blog and place third party advertising from companies like Google or Amazon. It’s not so simple to make meaningful money by this means, however, without a great deal of hard work. The goal is to attract as many readers as possible, but the bigger goal is to attract as many backlinks as possible. Because those backlinks earn you a higher spot in search engine rankings, and that is key to bringing new readers to your door.
Attracting the backlinks will take more time and come harder than attracting the readers. In my opinion, a blogger must stick with the program for at least two years, posting quality content at least once a day. Meanwhile, that blogger will also need to promote her site by any means possible. That will bring in some third party revenue, but more importantly, it will help build a platform.
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 The Electro Department at the New York Herald c. 1902. From the George Grantham Bain Collection, US Library of Congress.
Aside from
freelance sales and ad revenue, that successful blog can also open
doors to interviews with celebrities or experts in a field.
One
of the most useful commodities a writer can sell today is information,
and the more unique the information, the higher the value.
I see
this at play if I write about a topic that is both newsworthy and
unique. Recently within a 30-minute span, 2,000 new readers showed up
on my website simply because I had a hot story with an angle no one
else had thought of.
Traditional freelance work is as much in
demand as it ever has been. It’s become a little more technical in some
ways, particularly if you’re writing for a web client rather than a
print publication. But the old tried and true methods still work.
One
thing that has resulted in sales for me is the letter to the editor.
Several times I’ve written an editor to round out information in an
article I read or simply to correct information. That begins a dialog
and before you know it, you’ll be pitching that editor who will
recognize you and that is a definite plus.
Other tried and true
methods for finding work are market listings such as those here at The
Writer. I’ve sold work in that manner and I’ve also won a few contests.
It’s easy to dismiss what we might call a cold lead, but plenty of work
still gets sold that way.
In-person networking is also still
useful—select writers’ conferences, trade association meetings within
the industry, and even general social functions can lead to work. I’ve
mentioned the story in a past column about the editor I sold a contract
to as we rode together on an elevator.
It’s also important to
note the emerging power of non-profit organizations in the business.
I’ve had a number of non-profit clients over the years and they tend to
be very stable. There’s such an organization for every interest area,
so check those in your own city to see if they need writing services.
The
industry is changing, but in truth, nothing remains static. There has
never been as much opportunity as there is now for a writer to publish
and be paid. The amount you publish depends on the amount of time and
effort you invest.
It’s easy to imagine the wonder on faces
centuries ago as technology enabled the printing of a book in a
radically new manner. Here we are facing the same sort of wonders with
new technology becoming available at every turn. And it’s useful to
remind ourselves that all phenomena have such a cycle—the veritable
reinvention of a faster, smoother wheel. There are benefits to be had
if we are willing to explore and develop the opportunities. |
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Florida journalist Kay B. Day has won awards for poetry, nonfiction and fiction. The author of two books, she has written for The Christian Science Monitor, United Press International, The Florida Times-Union and Sky News. To learn more about Kay Day, see www.kayday.com. To read Kay's other Web Savvy columns about writing for the Web, click here. |
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