Training Wheels for Writers

I’m big on referring other writers to oDesk. I like the setup here and I like the built in protections. But I find that many otherwise enthusiastic writers new to freelancing feel intimidated. They have a bit of trepidation about selling their ‘product’.Bound up in this anxiety is a fear that their writing isn’t good enough. They want to know if they have what it takes. They want training wheels and some way to find out if commercial writing will work for them. They need a confidence builder and an ego booster.

Trying on the writer’s hat.

Where can you go to try before you commit? Try content sites.

Sites where writers can post articles, have them rated, and sometimes earn a couple of dollars. The earning dollars part isn’t really where the value is. These sites are best used to get some practice writing articles for the net and some feedback.

The one I am most familiar with is Helium.com. I have to stress that it isn’t a good place to make steady money. It isn’t a brokered job site like oDesk and it is unlikely that you will build long-term relationships with any buyers.

That being said, it is a good place to write and submit articles in competition with other writers. Article titles are provided and multiple writers all write using the same title. Articles are rated against each other in a better/worse model. The nice thing here is a distinct lack of consequences if a particular article doesn’t do well. Here are some specifics about the site:

The community forum allows you to request help or a specific critique for an article you posted. That alone can be a major help for budding writers.
Members ‘pay’ for getting rated by rating others. You are expected to read and rate articles as well as write them.
There are enough subject areas and article titles available to write under that it isn’t difficult to find topics of interest. Failing that, members can start a new article title.
There is some money floating around, it’s generated from pay-per-click ads and revenue is based on views of articles you write. Don’t expect much though; in six months I’ve collected a whopping $2.07 in commissions.
Other ways to make money are contests and writing to titles provided by publishers. Unfortunately, competition keeps most writers from collecting much.

Content sites often have a bad reputation.

Freelancers and commercial writers of all types generally won’t write for content sites and often disparage them as rip-offs. In a sense, they are.

They don’t pay anything close to a living wage and sometimes promise more than they deliver. New writers who don’t know the difference between a site like Helium and one like oDesk might be completely turned away from freelancing because it’s nearly impossible to make any real money.

But, and it’s a big butt, as a place to just get some writing in, they are fine.

Bottom line

If you know a writer who just doesn’t feel ‘ready for primetime’ (or if you are that writer), encourage them to check out a content site like Helium as a way to build some writing muscles and some confidence.

Are there other content sites you can recommend as ‘training wheels’? Let me know.

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