Interview with Beverley Boorer

These days, demand for online content is growing at an unprecedented rate. Yes, there are many people 'out there' who build and maintain their own websites, and write all the content - but there are many more who run websites (on all kinds of subjects) as a business venture.

These webmasters need content, and they need writers to create it. That's where you come in! Your main question is "How do writers find these webmasters?"

There are a number of websites that act as go-betweens for writers, artists, graphic designers, and IT consultants (to name a few of the in-demand skills on the Internet). In this article, we're going to focus on just one of them: Guru.com

Beverley Boorer has established a successful freelance writing business from work she has obtained through Guru.com. In this article, she responds to questions about how and why she did it - and gives you some tips on how YOU can do it, too!

Q: What made you interested in becoming a writer for guru.com?

A: It all started when I joined the private label website Infogoround.com to get some articles to put on my website. I had to only write one article a month for them to cover as my subscription. I thought: surely I can manage to write one article a month! I ended up writing over 100 a month - and editing some more for them that had been badly written. When that job ended I looked around for more work and found guru.com.

Q: What were your feelings about 'breaking in' when you first started out? Were you worried not having enough of a track record, or whether you'd be up against more experienced writers who might get all the work?

A: I never have a great deal of confidence in myself, so I didn't know if my articles were 'good' or not. Therefore I agreed to write for very small pay. That was a mistake, but another reason was that I didn't really know what I should have been asking. I just went along with what was offered. And yes, partly because I felt I didn't have much of a track record - in spite of writing those 100 articles per month! Then I realised that I had one thing that many people wanted and valued - my native language is English, and I'm good at grammar and spelling.

Q: Can you run us through the process of getting started with guru.com, and how you get paid?

A: All you need to do is subscribe to guru.com as a writer and they will start sending the relevant work to you by email.

• You choose the type of work you are interested in, e.g. writing, translating, graphic design, making websites etc.
  
• You can have a free subscription and get access to a few projects, or you can pay for one of two levels to get more and better-paid work.
  
• Log into guru.com to apply for the projects you want.
  
• Use their facilities such as the message boards and work room in case there is a dispute. I've never had one - most people seem really reasonable.
  
• Don't start work until escrow has been uploaded. This guarantees you will get paid.
  
• Choose your preferred method of payment. I find Paypal is easy to use.

Guru.com help by providing web space to put your profile and skills up where others can see them. Then there is a feedback section where satisfied customers can grade you, giving you a good reputation.

Q: How long do you think it would take someone to start getting paid work?

You can apply for paid work as soon as you are notified of a project that you are interested in and can do. But many other writers also apply, so your 'bid' may not be accepted. However, you can tip the odds in your favour by learning how to write a really relevant bid - guru.com has tips on that too. And when you first start off, you can agree to do a few projects for less than you should just to get some feedback and hence a good reputation. This encourages potential clients to view your bid more favourably. Hint: I feel the first three bids are viewed more favourably than others, so be prompt in applying.

If you want to do it for a hobby, or just part time, the free sub is fine, the only thing is you have to pay higher fees per project. If you really want to make better money the paid sub. gives you many more chances and since you've paid for the subscription, you don't pay as much in the way of fees.

Q: How many hours a week do you think someone would have to put in to start building a part-time income with guru.com?

Like many things, when you start off, you need to learn a few things such as how the website works, so that is going to take longer. Once you can use it confidently things go along much more quickly and smoothly, cutting back on time spent applying for projects.

You would probably need to put in a couple of days per week, depending on how much work you wanted to do. Really though, the more time you spend applying for projects, the more likely you are to be successful. You might spend two hours applying for several projects and not get any, or you might get all of them and find you have to refuse some. Then, once you win a project you have to put in the time to complete it. The project may be a long one or a short one - so the number of hours per week all depend on these various points.

Q: What examples of your work etc did you make available to clients to back up your bids for the work?

I felt unsure of showing them work I had done for others in case they used the articles for themselves, even though I always told them that the copyright did not belong to me. So I ended up writing a few articles especially to put on my (free) website and refer them to that. I also point out that they could see my bid was written in good English. It's amazing how many are not. At least, you cannot view other bids on guru.com, but on some similar websites you can, and it really shows when a person's native language is not English.

Q: Do you build up a relationship with certain clients, to make getting repeat work easier?

Yes, and in fact I still write for two clients who I got work with in the early stages. They even agreed to a pay rise - twice. And once trust is established - that is, they know and trust my work and I know I'll get paid promptly - we then work outside of guru.com to save time and fees.

Q: What sort of projects (a) do you bid on and (b) have you written?

I often allow myself the luxury of choosing my favourite topics - gardening, health and pets.  I did a 7-page report on training your dog to lead, for a guy in the USA complete with pics from istockphoto.com. He said it was outstanding and paid me accordingly.

I am doing regular monthly gardening articles for a client in the Netherlands. A UK client wanted a report on the benefits of sports massage. And I am in the middle of writing an e-book: How to Grow Potatoes, for another client in the UK. They're just a few of the projects I've done.

For my regular Sydney client I write short articles on such topics as finance, dental health, home renovations, child care, 'green' issues and many more.

Q: What tips can you offer someone who is starting out as a writer for guru.com?

• Don't give up, but persevere until you get your first writing gig.
  
• Only apply for projects you know you can do well.
  
• Don't apply for those projects where the client offers work for as little pay as possible - like $1.50 for a 700-word article!
  
• There are gems in there (e.g. regular work for decent pay) and you'll dig one up eventually.
  
• Remember you are doing good work and deserve decent pay for it.
  
• Set up an account with Paypal to facilitate payment.
  
• Use the escrow facility to ensure payment.
  
• You can also use your digital camera to good advantage for some projects.
  

NOTE FROM MARG: Bev mentions the importance of being a writer with a good command of English, and how this makes a difference to clients. I'm going to show you one example of an article written by someone who does NOT have good English grammar skills, so you can see for yourself the kind of samples clients are getting from some writers. You will easily understand how some well-written articles put up on the free web space provided by Guru.com will make you more appealing to clients. Here's the article. (I downloaded it as part of a multi-article pack on blogging. Clients do NOT want an article like this - it takes too much editing to make it good enough to use on a site)  

EXAMPLE OF POORLY WRITTEN CONTENT

Blogging Popup -- Why People Hate them!

Couples of years ago, blogs were not mainly used for web sites to promote their stuffs. It is quite unimpressive to find out that blogs are taken advantage of by the online marketers. However, we cannot take control of that because its everyone's freedom to post anything they want on their own web blogs

Much worse, blogging popup is everywhere and it is uncontrollable. Whether you like it or not, they will pop on your screen and try to point you anywhere. Some of them may be useless while some may not be useful at all.

Blogs were originally used by kids in keeping diaries or everyday journal. This had been a good alternative to writing down handwritten diaries so that their parents could not find it. Anyone can easily access or have his or her own web blog. It's as easy as signing up and in a few seconds, you can start managing and posting your own blogs.

Although blogs may be useful, others don't seem to like it because of the blogging popup as they call it. When you are in the middle of a serious research in the web, a lot of blogging popup sites will come up and you might lose all your patience.

You can always close or minimize the blogging popup but after a few minutes, another one will show up. This is the reason why blogs earn disdain and people discourage the use of it.

If you are using blogs as a journal or a diary, you need to keep it personal if you don't want other people to read it. Although there are still chances that other people might find it, they will not know whose blog is it.

When you suddenly find blogging popup, you might get attracted to the ad and the message it displays. Some blogging popups will let you fall into a pit or point you to other websites which have no relevance at all.

Blogging popup is used by some online marketers especially those who are new to it. They make popups to get heard and increase traffic to the sites they are promoting. Although web blog hosts are preventing this from happening, still, some of the blog sites find a way to get through with the use of some strategies.

Blogging popup is considered spamming. Blogs may contain several and numerous links that point to a certain site. Some of the bloggers who maintain the postings of the blogs are the ones who write the content. When you read through the article, you will find out that the content does not have any relevance to the theme of the site.

What these blogging popup contains are keywords which have links. You will also notice that some of the contents are duplicated or repeated so that it will look like a long article.

Some of the blogging popups are called mini web sites because it contains information and links and other related websites that you can jump to. Most of the related websites are considered as cousins because they all point to a single website or a place where you can find the same information.

You might have heard of someone getting freaked out when blogging popups are all over but you can never really do anything about it.

Okay - are you now convinced that you're in there with a chance???