Make More with Bukisa

I signed up with Bukisa awhile back. At the time I was just looked for writing sites that will build up my writing resume and adding a few passive income sites was a great way to do just that. However, I recently came across a post on Twitter where a writer has made a couple of thousand dollars in the past couple of months on Bukisa a lot of writer do well with passive income, but this lasy only had 10 published articles! It really got me thinking about how I want to work on passive income and how easy it can be if you pick the right topics.

Her topics weren't articles that were going to be high earners for years and years, but they were topics that people would be searching for now. While she used video game information, you can use any topic you want, as long as it's a hot topic. I have been thinking about this for a few days now and plan to use this strategy to increase my monthly passive income. Bukisa is a site where you can publish any type of article you choose; therefore, I will be writing at least one article per week there for the next few months and hopefully, we will see my income raise from pennies to dollars!

Read more...

Passive Sentences Versus Active Sentences

When I decided that it was time to quit my office job and become a full-time freelance writer, I also discovered that I was in serious need of a refresher course in English. I enrolled in college classes, read everything I could get my hands on and reviewed various websites in my quest to re-discover proper grammar. While trying to get various writing styles down, I discovered that many content sites wanted writers to write articles using an "active" voice as opposed to a "passive" voice. (Maybe I'm not the smartest tool in the shed, but I'm sure I'm not the first one who had no idea what this meant. After all, high school, for me, was a million years ago.) This is why it's important for beginning writers to take a step back in time and revisit their high school English course. Back then, sentence structure wasn't the most important thing in the world, what with parties to attend, friends to socialize with and all of the gossip going around.


Simply put, in a sentence constructed with an active voice, the subject acts. Mike swung the bat. This sentence is cuts to the point and the tells the reader what is happening. What did Mike do? He swung the bat, that much is obvious, but when the same sentence is written in a passive voice the author tends to sound unsure of Mike's actions. The bat was swung by Mike. Timid writers will use a passive voice, because to most people constructing a sentence in a passive voice makes them "sound" more intelligent. In fact, the opposite is true. Passive sentences tend to sound awkward and contain words that are unnecessary. When a writer writes in a passive voice, the subject isn't taking action, instead the subject has something done to it or is simply in a state of being. (As is poor Mike when the bat was swung by him.)

Active Sentence:

The cat scratched the boy.

Passive Sentence:

The boy was scratched by the cat.

There are instances when a passive voice should be used, (The robbery was committed at 10 PM. In this case, the subject of the sentence is unknown and a passive voice is necessary.) but in most cases and active voice is preferred. Companies want writers to master this skill. Not only does writing in an active voice make the writer sound more knowledgeable in the subject they are writing about, but it engages the reader and holds their interest longer. Master this skill; you will be glad you did.

Still unsure about your skills? Review what the sites below have to say and try your hand at some of the activities they list.

Choosing between Active and Passive Voice Verbs when Writing

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips

Read more...

Review: Stephen King's On Writing

My creative writing class starts next week. It's just one of the many English classes I need to take to obtain my BA in English. The required book for this class is a book written by Stephen King, titled On Writing. While the book covers fiction writing, I have found the book itself very intriguing. (maybe I will start a novel of my own.)

The book begins by Stephen sharing various bits of his life dating back to his childhood. Within each mini-story, you find a tidbit about how that moment helped develop his skills and made him the succesful writier he is today. While the stories are interesting, you will not find a step-by-step guide to writing a novel. (Of course, I don't thik even the best of writers could give a step-by-step account that will tell the average Joe how to write a book.)

Even writers who are interested in the more technical aspects of writing will enjoy this book. There are many basic aspects to the art of writing and Stephen King does his best to explain them in terms that even a bad writer would understand. Needless to say, while the topic of fiction writing won't help most of us who endeavor to succeed in writing non-fiction articles, the book is extremely well-written, will easily hold the aspiring wirters interest and may very well teach you something that you didn't know.

P.S. While I am not a huge Stephen King fan, (in fact, I was disappointed when I picked up the book at the college bookstore) I couldn't put this book down.

Read more...

The New Site on the Block: Seed.com, What's it About?

Some of the top gossip in the freelance writing world right now is about AOL's decision to launch a new content site. Seed.com is now up and running, but is it worth it to freelancers and can it stay competitive to some of our better paying sites?

The first thing that struck me as strange was the fact that I could sign up for an account without submitting any type of samples. Therefore, like many residual-income sites, anyone can join. Once you sign in, you will notice a wide variety of topics to choose from that quote a price of $25-$30 for araound 500 words. However, there is a catch. You can submit your article for approval, but so can countless others. Then the editor will choose which articles will be purchased. That's not really an idea I'm thrilled with if I'm going to spend time researching and writing an article, but I figured that if my article wasn't accepted I could always post it elsewhere to help generate passive income. Then I read a little further, the site states that the editor will choose which articles to buy. This can be one article or many; therefore if the payment is set for $30 and the editor chooses 6 articles, each person would recieve $5. This is the part of the site that I'm not okay with. I am willing to put my work up againast others, but I don't want to be forced to give the rights away to something I have worked hard on for hardly any money.

I did go through and claim a couple of topics. I have decided to put this stie to the test. (of course I'll keep a running tab on here for you all as well) Hopefully, AOL will eventually be able to compete with some of our more lucrative sites, but we will definitly have to wait and see.

Has anyone had an experience at Seed.com? If show share your experience and post a comment!

Read more...

New Years Resolutions

I have been planning for my New Year's Resolutions in both my personal and professional life. One thing for certain is that I normally set much goals too high and then get extremely stressed out when I am unable to meet them. Number one on my list is making and sticking to a set schedule.

I know I have talked about schedules time and time again, but I have still yet to stick to one myself. I came across something called Focus Booster recently thought and it has been helping me stay focused so I'm hoping that the schedule thing will work n the coming year. Needless to say here is a rough draft of my New Year's Resolutions:

1. Make a schedule and stick to it
2. Monetary goal: Start at $700 per week and work up to $1200 per week
3. Hit the gym three times per week
4. Go back on the South Beach diet and stick to it (I never seem to get past the no drinking at all for two weeks part)
5. Stop smoking (Making a dr. appt for this first thing next year!)

So, there's the start to mine, now let's here from you! What's your New Year's Resolution and how does it effect your writing?

Read more...

Long Time, No Post!

Okay, I know I haven't posted here in about a million years, but I have decided to resume blogging. Here's the thing, when you have a writing blog, it becomes tiring to post time after time about freelance writing. Honestly, I started to feel like other people's blog had information for writers that seemed to be a lot mor informative than I could ever post on here.

However, I really miss blogging. Blogging is kind of like therapy for people who have to sit at a computer all day long and type article after article. Therapy that I was missing out on. Besides, the fact is when it comes to my small world of writing friends, I tend to earn more than they do, so why not share my knowledge? There are many different types of writers out there and hopefully I can help a few.

Needless to say, I am back to posting here regularly, so if there are any topics that you would like to see covered shoot me an email!

Read more...

Being Successful With Content Sites

Writing for content sites is by far the easiest way to make some quick cash as a freelance writer, especially when you are first starting out. There are plenty of content sites out there that writers can apply to and most of them have a fairly steady amount of work. However, many people wonder just how successful you can be as a content writer.

Most content sites pay per article. The pay varies with the site and is normally anywhere between $5 and $15 per article. Technically, if you can land a position making $15 per article, you can write 10 articles a day, 5 days a week and make $750 per week. However, it doesn't always happen like that. The more the article is worth, the harder it is to write. Therefore, the $15 articles may take you a lot longer than an article you would be throwing together for $5.

Being a content writer is a numbers game. In order to be successful, you need to know how much money you would like to make each week. Then simply divide that amount by the amount you are paid per article. This will tell you how many articles need completed each week, in order to make your goal. Divide that amount by the number of days you want to work each week and you'll know how many articles will need completed each day. If your number turns out to be feasible, then you shouldn't have a problem being a successful content writer. In order to succeed, you simply need to set a goal and a schedule, then stick with it!

Read more...