Rejection…

I had my first rejection this week…I was turned down to write for WiseGEEK. This probably wasn’t the best time to apply, as I have the weight of summer semester on my shoulders while trying to learn a new writing style and produce high quality articles that meets very strict standards. However, I made it through the first round of testing, and thought I was going to be okay….

But I was wrong! After the second batch of articles, they decided that I hadn’t improved enough from the first batch, though I made sure not to make the same mistakes twice. I can still say they are a good company, as the review and payment times for both sets of articles were super fast. However, it’s definitely one of the first places you should apply to if you are just starting out as a freelance writer.

This was definitely a blow to my writing ego, but I am not taking it too bad. Honestly, I’m on with several other companies, and I’ve won numerous projects from job bidding sites, so getting one rejection can’t be too bad, right? If anything, it just keeps me grounded by not allowing me to think I am the best writer on the planet (though I never thought that to begin with! )

Readbud – Get Paid to Read Articles

I came across a new site today (probably not new, but new to me) which deals with articles and making money. The thing is, you don’t have to write the articles in order to make money…you just have to read them!

Readbud allows you to read articles that are about topics that interest you. Upon signing up, you can select up to 50 interests. I recommended choosing the entire 50, as you will get more articles to read this way. Once you’ve selected your interests, you will begin receiving articles to read. It only takes a couple minutes to read them, and to receive credit, you must give the article a rating.

Once you’ve submitted your rating, your account will be automatically updated with the few cents you earned. Readbud pays between 1 and 20 cents per article, depending on its length. Of course, this won’t get you rich, but if you work at it a few minutes each day, the pennies will start to add up.

I think this will be a good way to earn a few extra dollars while I’m taking a break from writing and browsing the internet. Not only will you make money with this, you can also learn a great deal about the topics you have selected…which could be inspirations for your own writing!

Switching Gears for a Bit – Going for Residual Income

I’m going to be taking a different route the next month or so of working online. I will be in college for the next 5 weeks, taking 2 classes. This will put me at school most of the day, Monday-Thursday, and have me doing homework on the weekends. This will leave little time to work on creating niche sites or meeting deadlines for writing clients.

Therefore, I am going to join a couple of residual income writing sites, and try my hand at those. Previously, I’ve only written for eHow, but now that it’s with Demand Studios, I believe it’s harder to get articles approved. I’m going to look into that, but I am also going to start submitting at Infobarrel and possibly Associated Content. I’ll be submitting sparingly, but hopefully it will start to add up. If I like what I see within in the next few weeks, I may continue writing for these sites or go back to solely working on niche sites and writing for clients. Either way, this will be another income stream…because it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket!