Online Writing Jobs: How I Started as an Online Writer

Going back almost 6 years ago, I can still remember my struggles to find a decent part time job to supplement my income. I had a growing baby and I need to earn a little more to ensure that I can save despite the ballooning expenses.

I tried a couple of rackets gimmicks including:

• Online selling on eBay and Multiply
• Blogging (Mommy Cotz and Teloyski), and
• Online Job Markets (Odesk and Freelancer)

Starting from scratch truly is frustrating and depressing especially if you don't see any results at all. I earn a little by selling used stuff, but blogging was another story. I was overwhelmed by some of the technical stuff (page rankings, back links, SEO and a lot more). I keep a personal blog and ruled out monetizing it and just proceeded with online job markets where I also failed to make some income. The competition was tough and many other nationalities offer really low prices for their services.

I was lucky enough to be offered a  writing assignment by a local client. I was referred to her by one of my office mates and for the next 3 years my writing world revolved around the assignments she sends me.

I wrote different types of content - press releases, short articles, SEO articles and more. I wrote about different topics - freelance writing, shoes, bags, health, fitness, solar and wind energy and many others. I learned about writing original content, keyword placement and densities. I loved what I do and I was happy to earn and learn with my writing.

But at one point, I also went through what many would call a "writer's block." I felt I could no longer write - I struggle with words, much more in composing articles. Nothing comes out of my brain anymore and I wasn't satisfied with my writing. It lasted for a year, may be more.

I got my vibe back slowly and painstakingly. I started activating my blog once again and wrote little by little. Travel and spending more time with my son provided motivation and ideas for writing. I started applying on local online markets - Craiglist, Sulit.ph and eBay for content writer and got another local client with a good pay. It was a good motivation as well - money.

Soon I thought about having direct clients and tried one more time with Odesk. I elaborated on my extensive writing experience and provided some of my works. I also created a portfolio for clients to check. And this time I succeeded in getting more clients and assignments. I also got an overwhelming number of invitations for interviews and some of clients re-hire me with an upgraded contract.




But since I consider writing as a hobby and not as a primary source of income, I learned to choose my assignments and dealt only with topics that I like and I want to write about. This way I was able to give it my best and provide quality, creative and value-for-money services.