Can moms make money by writing articles on the Internet: personal experience

It happens that mothers on maternity leave need a side job. Can they earn as authors of articles remotely? What you need to know and be able to succeed?

To begin with, I want to introduce myself: my name is Irina, I am married, I have a 6-month-old child, and, accordingly, I am on maternity leave. My husband, of course, works, but we still do not have enough money. For only one apartment (we rent housing) we have to pay 20 thousand rubles a month. Plus utilities, food, medicines, then ... Well, as they say, finances sing romances.

We have no other financial sources besides the husband’s salary. And so at the family council we decided that I needed to look for some work. However, it’s easy to say when I have a 6-month-old baby in my arms who, moreover, has no one to leave! There was no question of any full-fledged work. It was possible to speak only about a part-time job, and - about such a part-time job, when you do not need to leave home anywhere.

In such a situation, there was no point in thinking about anything other than remote work via the Internet. And I decided to try to find just such a job. Having walked for several nights on all kinds of Internet pages, sites, portals and forums, I decided to start writing articles. That is, to become a copywriter or rewriter (or both at the same time). I have a higher economic education, I always wrote competently and accurately, there are plenty of relevant ads on the Internet, and everything else, in my opinion, should have come with time and experience.

And I began to comprehend the basics of the craft of the author of articles on order on a remote basis. I had to work in fits and starts, sometimes at night. However, in a relatively short time I, by and large, comprehended the elementary wisdom of this profession. It turned out that this is not so difficult: it is enough to be able to express your thoughts in a concise and competent way, and everything else comes after you write several texts yourself. So if you want to earn extra money as a copywriter or rewriter, then you should not be afraid: this is far from the highest mathematics, here everything is much simpler and more understandable.

I would like to share my experience with the same, as I myself, “moms on maternity leave,” who, due to everyday circumstances, need a side job. What is it - the work of the author of articles on a remote basis, that is, when you are at home, and your employer is often literally on the other side of the world? What difficulties and traps are present here? What amounts can I earn? I will try to answer all these questions: maybe someone will come in handy.

We also read: A few words about working on maternity leave

Benefits

I will not talk about how rewriting differs from copywriting. Anyone who is interested can find such information on the Internet independently or in our articleabout making money writing articles. I’ll tell you about the advantages that are obvious when you write articles without leaving your home. There are many advantages in this case, and most of them are very important for moms on maternity leave:

• The most important advantage is the ability to work at home. No need to go to any office in the morning, and rush home in the evening to feed a child, and at the same time a husband;
• There is no boss near you;
• How do you work, you plan yourself. After working for an hour or two while your child is sleeping, you can then take up the awakened child or some other household chores. You can finish the article when you again have free time;
• No one asks about your education. For the customer, it’s usually not your diploma that matters, but how you write and how accurately and correctly you complete the technical tasks attached to the article. True, sometimes they may ask about your diploma. If, for example, you want to write texts on a medical or legal topic, then most likely your employer will ask if you have a special education and even may ask for a copy of your diploma;
• You can work anywhere: at home, in the queue at the clinic, in the park while walking with the child, at the mother-in-law at a party and other places convenient for you. I’ll run ahead, work and earn money, you can equally equally (depending on the quality of your texts) even if you live in Moscow, even in Thailand, even in a small village in the Novosibirsk region. Earnings depend directly on you;
• In order to start work, you do not need any preliminary cash investments. In addition to a laptop and internet charges. It happens, however, that some potential employers try to demand some advance payment from you. We will discuss in more detail below why they do this, and what you yourself must do in this case;
• You yourself choose the topics of the articles, as well as their number. It is clear that your earnings will largely depend on this, but with a child in her arms, a hungry husband and a bunch of household chores, this is a big advantage.

Another undoubted advantage of such work is the ability to stop it at any time. Suppose you have a child who is sick, or - you yourself are sick, or - you suddenly have some other unforeseen circumstances that prevent you from writing texts and delivering them at the appointed time. In this case, you notify the customer of the termination of cooperation (or its temporary suspension). Since you usually do not conclude any agreements and contracts with him, he is not entitled to present any punitive sanctions to you. True, in the future he may refuse to deal with you if you wish to resume cooperation, but much depends on the employer himself: if he considers you to be a “valuable person,” then it is possible that he will continue to do business with you.

We also read: 10 things to consider when working at home

Features

I will talk about some features of remote collaboration as an author of articles:

• Deadline This is a specific day and hour by which you must turn in the finished material. For many customers, deadline is extremely important. If you do not have time to submit an article by the deadline, for the first time, you may be forgiven. For the second time, they will look at you askance and displeasure. On the third - most likely, they will end their relationship with you;
• However, there are many such customers for whom the deadline is not of fundamental importance. For them, the quality of the article is more important. However, if you write a promised article for a whole week, and then give it up in a disheveled form, then in this case, most likely, the customer will not want to cooperate with you in the future;
• Relations with the employer. They can be different. In one case, your articles are accepted "with a bang" and without complaints, in the other - you constantly strive to send them for revision. There is probably no author who would be happy to revise his articles. Especially if the author is mom on maternity leave. Then the child’s stomach ached, the husband, as luck would have it, lingers at work, and you must convince the picky editor that all the commas placed by you are in their places, and the keywords are used for their intended purpose. You can, of course, refuse to cooperate with a fussy customer and look for another, but, firstly, try it out so easily, and secondly, there is no guarantee that the other employer will not be finicky.
• Almost every new employer asks about your portfolio. These are the texts you wrote earlier indicating the coordinates of the site on which they are posted. Portfolio is very important for the author, it says that you are not a beginner, you have already written texts and published you. The customer usually speaks with an experienced author much more readily than with a novice. It’s easiest to prove that you are an author with experience, thanks to the portfolio. Therefore, keep an eye on where the articles you have written are published and collect everything written in a special folder that you can present to your future employer at any time.

These are just those features that I experienced, as they say, “on my own skin”. I am sure that every copywriter could continue my list.

We also read:Working on maternity leave: helpful tips for moms

The main thing is the customer

However, everything that was mentioned above is trifles. Everything can be adapted. Organize your daily routine so that it always has a “window” for writing articles. Get used to the customer's comments regarding the revision of the texts. In other words, become a professional in the business that you do.

So let's talk about the most important thing. The most important thing is to find a good employer. What is a good employer? This is such a customer who regularly gives you tasks, and, more importantly, also regularly pays you for the work done.

Despite the seeming abundance of offers of remote work as the author of articles, finding a good employer is not easy. His search is, you can say, aerobatics for a copywriter. There are many misunderstandings and frank traps that an inexperienced copywriter may fall into. In addition, not every employer is suitable for such a specific performer as mom on maternity leave. Based on my own experience, I’ll tell you more about everything.

Copywriting Exchanges

Copywriting Internet exchanges are currently perhaps the most important potential customer of articles. There are more and more such exchanges every day. I will not talk in detail about how they are arranged: information about this is easy to find on the Internet.

I can only say that the exchange brings together customers and performers (article authors). The customer - exposes the topic of the article, the author - accepts it for execution, sends the finished article to the customer, the latter pays off with the author, and everyone is happy with it.

What the exchange is good for in the first place is that they will not deceive you there. Other customers may receive a finished article from you and not settle accounts with you; on the stock exchange, this is impossible. The exchange administration very carefully ensures that the relationship between the customer and the author is honest and legal: the author took the order and wrote an article, the customer paid for this article at the promised rates. In case of any misunderstanding between the author and the customer, the exchange acts as an arbitrator and usually decides everything in fairness.

Another feature of exchanges is that there are always a lot of customers and authors. The author always has plenty to choose from. In addition, authors working on the exchange communicate with each other.If you do not have enough experience as a copywriter, other, more experienced authors can always tell you what is needed and give good advice. And one more thing about the advantages: if you, as an author, managed to earn a high rating, then you can earn pretty well on the stock exchange: many authors earn 30 thousand a month, and 50 thousand, and even more than 100 thousand a month.

However, in practice, everything is not so simple: first you need to register on the exchange. On some exchanges, in order to be registered, you must first pass a literacy exam. This, however, is still alright: there is still a definite meaning. But on another exchange you will first be asked to answer a lot of the most diverse and extremely abstract questions that have nothing to do with the copywriting profession. The question is - why?

But even if you have completed a successful registration, this does not mean that literally the next day you will start raking money with a shovel. Copywriting exchanges are quite complicated. First, you must get the due number of conditional points on them, that is, write so many articles at cheap prices, and only after that you can get access to high-paying orders. And cheap rates are a maximum of 30 rubles per 1000 characters. Do you think you will earn a lot?

Due to my inexperience, I started with the exchange. It seemed to me that gaining a set number of points is easy. I’ll write, they say, so many articles, I will post my portfolio on the stock exchange - these are the points. Of course, for those who have plenty of free time, this may not be a problem. But only - not for mothers on maternity leave, who have an eternal lack of free time, and therefore have to work in snatches.

On other exchanges, conditions may be different. But this does not mean that the best. Suppose, let’s say, on some exchange the customer has the topic of the article. You liked the topic, and you decided to take it to your work. But - ten of your competitors-rewriters decided to take this topic with you.

There is no certainty that the customer will choose you - even today, even tomorrow, even the day after tomorrow. And therefore I will say it again: copywriting exchanges, whatever they are, are not for mothers with their eternal employment and work from time to time. They are for those who have plenty of free time: after several months of writing cheap articles, you can really earn good money. But mothers usually need money immediately: it was because of their lack that you decided to work part-time.

We also read: Earnings for moms on maternity leave by writing or rewriting articles

Intermediaries

Disappointed to make money on copywriting exchanges, I decided to look for customers in other places. There are many pages on the Internet with announcements that some employer needs copywriters, rewriters and article authors on a remote basis. Initially, I thought that everything would be easier here than on the exchange. Just that it is necessary that you contact the advertiser, discuss the conditions - and write how much time and effort you have. And, accordingly, get honestly earned money.

But here everything turned out to be not so simple and rosy. At first, out of inexperience, I thought that the advertisers of the above ads are direct employers (I will tell you more about them below). But nothing happened. Yes, of course, among them there are direct customers, but most advertisers are intermediaries between the direct customer and the author-performer.

Usually they put most of the payment for the article you wrote in your pocket, and they strive to pay the author literally a penny. If you read in an announcement that an author is required, to whom the advertiser intends to pay 15, 20, 30, or even 40 rubles for 1000 characters, then know that this is not a direct customer, but an intermediary between him and you, the author. The direct customer usually pays more.I worked for a month with one of these intermediaries, who paid me 35 rubles for 1000 characters, and as a result I received about 4000 rubles. Do you think it is a lot or a little?

In addition, one should not hope that the intermediary will generally answer your offer of cooperation. My own experience suggests that only one of the fifteen, or even twenty of these guys condescends to some kind of answer to the author’s letter. And one more thing: most of this layer are young and usually amazingly illiterate people. “I invite authors who write on the topic of the Donetsk miner”, “I am looking for the author” - these are just a few of their verbal pearls. Working with a customer who is more illiterate than you is a torment for the author, and therefore avoid such employers, even if they promise you mountains of gold.

Scammers

Of course, intermediaries cannot be called scammers in the literal sense of the word: most of them pay you the promised pennies. However, some of them are outright crooks. Probably not a single copywriter who at least once had no dealings with Internet users trying to impersonate customers. Actually, the purpose of the crooks is the same: to try to convince you to work for it and not pay anything in the end. At the very beginning of my work as an author, I also encountered such scammers.

Once I found on the Internet an ad stating that a certain Moscow magazine, which was published earlier, then stopped publishing, then it was reborn again, authors who write on medical topics are needed. Moreover, the terms of cooperation were offered the most seductive. The topics were simple, the deadline was, but they promised not to blame the author for the delay, the salary was 45,000 rubles a month plus the addition for work on weekends, although for some reason they promised to pay no more than once a month. But then, so that the author would not have any doubts, they promised to conclude an employment contract with him.

How could you not peck at such a sweet bait? I pecked. And even - she wrote and sent to the specified email address several articles on the tasks given to me, after which they sent me an employment contract. After reading this contract, my husband and I fell into doubt.

Firstly, the contract was too general and slurred: you - write, and we will pay you, and nothing else appeared in the contract. Secondly, the customer details were missing. Thirdly, there was no exact legal address: only Shabolovka Street, the number was such and such, and that’s all. Neither office numbers, nor telephone numbers ...

But the most interesting was ahead. It turned out that the magazine on behalf of which the scammers acted ceased to appear in 2007. We could not get any information about its resumption: the Internet was silent in this regard. However, a special admiration aroused in us for the seal, with which the sent labor contract was sealed. On this stamp were listed the data of a completely different enterprise, namely the municipal library of one of the cities near Moscow.

Having gathered all the accumulated doubts and questions, I asked the crooks in writing. I didn’t wait for an answer. “This is what! - My girlfriend told me (also mom on maternity leave and also a remote copywriter). “You still got off easy!” I, too, fell into the clutches of such scammers! Believing them, I wrote articles for them for a month, and when it came time to pay off, they disappeared, and all their coordinates disappeared with them! ”

Subsequently, I have repeatedly come across this audience. During my work as a copywriter, I learned to recognize them, and therefore I want to share my experience so that you can recognize and expose them, if something happens:

• If the customer in the ad offers you too high a salary and incredibly attractive terms of cooperation - this is most likely a fraudster;
• If a potential employer promises to pay you once a month - this is also almost certainly a swindler. Decent customers pay with their authors either for each article, or weekly;
• Before you agree to cooperate with an employer that casts doubt on you, you need to carefully inquire about him: try to find information on the Internet, ask him clarifying questions. If, as a result of the inquiries and answers received, your doubts have not disappeared, it is better to stop any communication with the advertiser;
• If the prospective employer praises your articles too much and makes no comments, this is also most likely a scam. The logic of scammers here is clear: start scolding you and demanding amendments, you may be offended and do not want to write articles to them;
• There is one surefire way to make sure rogue is your potential customer or not. If he offers you payment once a month, put forward a counter offer to him - to pay for every article you write. A decent employer is likely to easily agree to this, a swindler will never;
• It also happens that some entity that introduces itself to you as your future customer requires you to start making a certain amount in exchange for access to highly paid orders. Know that this is one hundred percent fraud, and therefore immediately stop communicating with him.

Direct employers

My personal experience convinces me that you can really earn only when your employer is a direct customer. This may be the editorial board of a magazine, website, portal. I worked with several direct employers, and I have the most positive impressions of this collaboration. The direct employer values ​​his reputation, and therefore it is not beneficial for him to deceive you. In addition, the prices of direct employers are several times higher than those offered by intermediaries.

How to find such a customer? I cannot give an exact answer to this question. In all likelihood, no one can give it to you. Many magazines and sites have their own established team of authors, and they do not need anyone else. Those customers who need authors are welcome to choose from. In addition to your candidacy, there are usually many more applicants.

And still do not despair. In my opinion, the best option for finding a profitable (direct) customer is the so-called “poke method”. Write to all the editions you find on the Internet. If they need an author, they will answer you. And then, as they say, a matter of technology.

Personally, I just found a profitable and convenient customer. Before that, I probably wrote as many as fifty unsuccessful letters, and only in the fifty-first letter did I receive a positive answer. During the month of cooperation with the online magazine, with my constant lack of time and effort, I earned 27,000 rubles. Maybe this is not so much, but to pay for a rented apartment, my earnings were almost enough. And, then, this is already a lot.

Final tips

Well, in conclusion - once again about exchanges. Still, exchanges are promising. Even - if you have a small child in your arms, and there are no other nannies for him, except yourself. In the end, the child will grow up soon, he can be sent to kindergarten, and by then you will already have some experience working with exchanges and maybe even a more or less high rating. And that means you can make good money.

Of course, you should not go in cycles exclusively on exchanges. It will be reasonable, comprehending the exchange wisdom, in parallel with this, continue the search for direct customers. And even - to communicate with intermediaries: what if he comes across an option that suits you? After all, I come across. In general, being on maternity leave, making money by writing articles is quite possible. Try it, and success to you.

We also read:

• The story of how I made money on the Internet
• How copywriting became my only source of income
• Mom is a copywriter on maternity leave or is it realistic to make money on the Internet by writing texts
• Why did I start copywriting and what was I afraid of?
• Work at home for moms on maternity leave without fraud and investment - 8 best vacancies for 2018
• Ways to earn money on maternity leave