Writer’s Digest - 101 Best Websites for Writers 2009

Introducing our 11th annual 101 Best Websites for Writers. This year we sifted through more than 2,700 nominations and pulled the best of the bunch. The list, which features more blogs and free market listings than in years past, has been divided into eight sections: Creativity and Challenges, General Resources, Agent Blogs, Publishing Resources, Jobs and Markets, Writing Communities, Genres/Niches and Fun for Writers.

Strangely, no category for best online revenue sharing websites, although Helium gets a mention in the jobs market category.

How To Write Articles For Cracked.com and Get Paid

Now, you may, or may not, enjoy the scurrilous humour of Cracked.com. You may, indeed, have been blissfully unaware of what Cracked.com is. But if articles such as "5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pussy" or "7 Insane Ads That Have No Clue What They're Selling" sound hilarious then you too can ape this style and get yourself published on Cracked.

Cracked are always on the look-out for warped individuals who have not yet been institutionalized. So if you'd like to boost your online kudos or have nothing left to lose then take a look at how Cracked can give meaning to your life. There are a few hoops to jump over and lots of cracks to fall through but don't worry... just be yourself. Many on the forum try far too hard to be funny all the time, even when just logging in.

You may, or may not, have what it takes but... give it a crack!

Writers Wanted With a Background in the Auto Industry

Title: Looking For Writers Who Have a Background Within the Auto Industry

Description: Looking for writers who can assist with our aftermarket car parts online store, insixthgear.com or also known as ISG. We carry aftermarket parts for Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, and more. Our line
includes body kits, wheels, suspension kits, brakes, engine upgrades, and accessories.

Looking to pay .04 cents per word ($40 per 1,000 words) . This project is from the ground up so there is plenty of work to go around.

Subjects: Sample can be the the first body kit on our inventory list, which is the ABT Sportline.

URL: http://www.insixthgear.com/body-kits.htm

All content must be unique.

Other notes: Writer must be knowledgeable in what types of cars each body kit caters to. Some companies cater to Japanese, German or American cars.

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To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Articles Wanted on Aquarium Fish

Title:Fish Profile
Description:I want the structure of all articles to be the same. Here is how I want them:

1st paragraph: should talk about where the fish is from and what's is natural environment.

2nd paragraph: should describe the fish. This part is really important. People should be able to identify the fish after reading this.

3rd paragraph: Should talk about keeping this fish in the aquarium. Here are examples of what I am looking for: ideal setup, water parameter and best condition, aggressiveness, compatibility with other fish, feeding,
hardiness, minimum tank size and any other important fact about this fish.

I wrote over 600 saltwater fish profiles like this. If you know about aquarium fish and have some good references, writing this article should be quite easy.

I will buy full rights for this article.

Please contact me if you have any questions
Amount of articles:17
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:500 - 600
Subjects:Celestial goldfish
Ranchu goldfish
Lionhead goldfish
Pom-pon goldfish
Telescope-eye goldfish
Moor goldfish
Ryukin goldfish
Oranda goldfish
Pearlscale goldfish
Fantail goldfish
Jikin goldfish
Platy Fish
Oscar - (Astronotus spp.)
Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae
Moenkhausia pittieri
Hemigrammus bleheri
Date requested:2009-06-25

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To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Selling on Ebay Articles Wanted

Title:Ebay selling
Description:Just looking for 400-600 word articles about selling on ebay
Amount of articles:3
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:400-600

As three articles are needed by the publisher it may be prudent to ask what the focus should be. As Ebay continues to be popular, if your articles are not purchased by this particular publisher you can leave them on Constant Content priced to sell to other website and blog owners.

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To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Articles Wanted on Forex Trading

Title: Forex Articles
Description:Looking for someone who can write 15 articles about forex.
Some of the articles can be generic, others educational and a few
comparing various forex platform providers such as fxcm, dbfx and
forex.com.
Amount of articles:15
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:350
Subjects:forex
fx trading
forex platforms
Date requested:2009-06-01
Other notes:Need them all within 1 week


To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Articles Wanted on Natural Weight Loss

Title: Natural Weight Loss
Description:I am currently collecting articles related to Natural Weight
Loss, Fitness, and everything related. This is for a holistic web site and
therefore I will only be considering articles written with such an
audience in mind. I'm ONLY buying full-rights articles!
Amount of articles:100
Price per article:$20-30
Length of article:any
Subjects:Natural Weight Loss
Fitness
Exercise
Dangers of "Bad Dieting"
Anything else you think may apply.
Date requested:2009-05-21
Other notes:I am limited to paying $25 for an article, and will accept
ONLY full-rights articles. Please don't waste my time or yours submitting
anything else, it's very annoying and will get you nowhere.

To find out full details please click on one of the links above. This freelance job is being offered by a third party and is listed here On Writing Online for the benefit of writers wishing to earn an income from contract writing. Please do not contact me directly as I have no further details. Thanks and good luck!

Articles Wanted on Affiliate Marketing

Title:Affiliate Marketing Blog Post
Description:I am looking for folks with knowledge of affiliate marketing
to write blog posts on the subject. I am looking for exclusive rights to
this content under the unique content category. Again I want to be able
to have some go to writers I can rely on consistently.
Amount of articles:ongoing
Price per article:$40-50
Length of article:500-800
Subjects:The subject again is affiliate marketing and I'm looking for
quality content. I want to be able to review the article in full before
purchase.
Date requested:2009-05-18

Please note, this job is available at Constant Content; to see full details just click on the links and sign up. This is published here for the benefit of readers of On Writing Online and to show that there are freelance opportunities beyond revenue sharing websites, but please do not email me about this as the work is offered by a third party. Thanks.

The Statusphere for Writers and Journalists

When Walt Mossberg was asked, "are newspapers worth saving?" the WSJ journalist replied,"It’s the wrong question to ask. The real question we should ask is if whether or not we can save good journalism.” He continued, “Think about it. Of the hundreds, thousands, of newspapers around the country, there are really only a few that matter. Good journalism and journalists, on the other hand, are worth saving.”

Seems like yet another traditional profession is going through a tech-tonic shift caused by the internet. When distribution costs are minimal and income streams at the mercy of advertising revenues, what does the future hold for journalists? To be fair, there have always been freelance journalists and perhaps their numbers will just increase. What the successful ones are embracing - and what their publishers should also be concentrating upon - is the growth in social media.

This all sounds like more hype for social networking, blogging and community building, but these movements are not going to go away any time soon. As publishers experiment with social media tools they are at the same time locked into their traditional way of thinking as they also test out micro-charging systems and other payment methods. After all, consumers are there to consume, not to just interact then flutter away to the next social buzz.

But journalists and their publishers are now up against bloggers and blogging networks that have had to survive and thrive under the new rules. Marketing people love to talk about brands, but in the case of written content I'd rather call it a voice. Columnists who have personality, insights and engage with their public across the social media networks are creating their own voice. If they were to move to a different site I'd bet many users would follow them. The dedication is to another human voice, not to the corporate brand they may be flying under.

However, all of this means extra work for the writer who wants to succeed. Your personal voice, or brand, has to be created through your own energies and dedication. As in so many other areas, the freedom to freelance comes with an obligation to do all those other tasks that were the responsibility of the publishers, such as marketing, advertising and distribution.

The Statusphere is another of these ugly hybrid words designed to conjure up this new world of fast-moving social interactions. In contrast to the blogosphere, the statusphere is the sum of interactions and contacts that can form across multiple social media websites. However, in all the hype it is easy to forget that this statusphere has no memory - the interactions are ephemeral and what remains are the connections formed. For this reason alone I very much doubt the death of blogs or websites as repositories of histories.

However, one thing that the statusphere is changing is the direction of information flow. Once it was quite simply from publishers to readers, with a trickle of feedback. Now, any article that has the good fortune to spread virally has also spread out of control of the original author. This is good for voice recognition but has already become unwieldy keeping track of one's own influence as so much discussion can happen off-site, or off-blog. It is common to see discussion on a social bookmarking site being far more active than at the site of the original article. People read what they read where they read it and comment where they are - there is no protocol to go back and comment on the source.

Keeping track of all this is surely the task of automated scripts - that do not yet exist and are sorely needed. If all of this gives you a sense of statusfear then just concentrate on your most successful social arenas and let the rest of the network take the strain and bring to you those well-deserved new readers. As this blog is for general writers rather than specifically for journalists, how does all this affect you?

If you are earning from freelance contract work, then perhaps very little. If, however, you are writing for third party websites such as revenue sharing networks then you already have some help in distribution and marketing. But to really spread your own voice you will need to manage this statusphere in the best way you can. The bookmarking and interactions are all your responsibility. The bookmarking is rarely done automatically, although some have added semi-automatic scripts to speed up the process for you. Experiment with spreading your wings and just clip those websites that are not pulling in new readers. At the same time don't forget to engage with those that do show genuine interest or the network will flow elsewhere. Decide where "home" is, set the wheels in motion and let the network do the work.

Freelance Writing Jobs at Textbroker

Textbroker is a mediator between writers and content clients. Anybody living in America can register as an author at Textbroker. There are only few exceptions to this which can be looked up in our Terms of Service.

After a short application text you will receive your first quality classification. You can then directly view and accept client orders (OpenOrders). Often there are more than hundreds of orders to choose from.
Also, there is the possibility of you specifically being requested by a client. This order type is called a "DirectOrder". DirectOrders are usually assigned when a client is pleased with an author's previous work, or if an author stands out because of his excellent profile.

Payment is made by Paypal once a minimum of $10 is earnt and a payout request is made. As they use Paypal rather than sending cheques it seems odd they insist on US residency, but there you go!

For everybody else in the world the site has one useful page which is how much money they pay writers. Their sliding scale goes from $3.50 up to $25 for a 500 word article.

This is a similar service to Elance, but if you're just starting out and find Elance complicated then Textbroker can help build your portfolio of work before launching towards more lucrative contracts.

Articles Wanted on Breast Augmentation Surgery

Title: Breast augmentation surgery
Description:I am looking for three articles, one on breast augmentation
asurgery in general, one on the two types of implants (silicone vs
saline)and the safety of the implants, and finally an article about the
different incisional patterns that can be used, namely periareolar,
inframamary, or transaxillary. The purpose of the articles is to be put
on a plastic surgeon's web site and be informative
Amount of articles:3
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:150

Go to Constant Content for full details and to submit your article.

Reviews of Forex Software Wanted

Title: Reviews of forex software
Description:I need honest reviews of forex software written in the first
person. One article per software, needs to be a fairly well known
software.
Amount of articles:5
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:500
Subjects:signal software
charting software
trading software

Go to Constant Content for full details and to submit articles.

Articles Wanted on Dating Websites, Advice and Tips

Title:Urgent Article Request
Description:We urgently require 500 word + articles using the following
keyword phrases: -

fresh new dating sites
dating profile tricks
how to be a sugardaddy
rich women looking for men
newest dating sites
internet dating vs modern dating
newest dating site
dating tips
dating advice
rich men in america
professional matchmakers
new dating sites
dating your friends ex
meet rich sugar daddies
dating advice for women
best online dating sites
latest dating site
online dating tips
dating tips for men
latest dating sites
dating ideas
best dating sites
wealthy women dating
rich men dating sites
dating professional women
online dating advice
top dating sites
internet dating sites
dating older men
meet friends online
meet rich men
dating older women
dating younger men
new online dating sites
single dating sites
dating agencies professionals
singles dating websites
best dating websites
best dating site
dating sites in uk
dating site wealthy man
new dating site
online dating websites
wealthy dating sites
dating web sites
matchmakers
how to meet women
best online dating site
best online dating
dating single women
uk dating websites
matchmaking sites
date a millionaire
uk online dating agency
best dating website
singles and dating sites
how to find a sugar daddy
dating sites online
singles dating sites
internet dating tips
dating single
match making sites
match making services
on line dating websites
top online dating sites
sugar daddy dating sites
Amount of articles:As shown
Price per article:$10-20
Length of article:500 words

To see full details and to submit articles click here.

Articles Wanted on Pregnancy and Baby Development Calendars

Two articles needed, as described below.

Title:Pregnancy Calendar
Description:I am looking for content for a weekly pregnancy calendar (from
conception to week 42). For each week there should be around 100-200 words
on how the baby is growing and another 100-200 words on what the mother
may be feeling and/or how her body is changing and/or how her life is
changing.
Amount of articles:1
Price per article:$250+
Length of article:9,000 - 15,000
Subjects:Pregnancy, foetus development

Title:Baby Development Calendar
Description:I am looking for content for a weekly/monthly baby development
calendar (from newborn to age 3).
- From newborn to age 1: weekly entries (so 52 entries)
- From age 1 to 3: monthly entries (so 24 in total)
Each entry should have about 100 words on the stage of development of the
baby.
Amount of articles:1
Price per article:$250+
Length of article:7500
Subjects:Baby development

Both articles have been requested by the same publisher. To see full details then login to Constant Content.

New Age and Holistic Health Articles Wanted

Title:New Age/Holistic Articles

Description:I need articles related to subjects in the field of New Age
health, holistic health, alternative medicine, and general wellness. FULL
RIGHTS articles only!
Amount of articles:10-20
Price per article:$20-30
Length of article:at least 500 words
Subjects:Anti-Aging, Women's Health
(holistic approach), Meditation, Yoga, Zen gardens, herbs, vitamins, feng
shui, and just about anything New Age or holistic-based will be
considered. Date requested:2009-03-31 18:57:14 Other notes:I will ONLY be
purchasing Full Rights articles. These must be unique and original and
never used anywhere else.

For full details click here.

iPhone Blogger Wanted

I'm looking for a blogger with an iPhone to write about iPhone related topics.

Most of the articles will consist of titles similar to "Top 10 apps you can't live without." I will provide the topic, you will look for the apps and write about 4 sentences for each app.

Other articles will be about recent news from the iPhone world. I will submit topics, maybe similar posts from other blogs and you will write either a summary or full story.

-Must have an iPhone
-Frequency will be 2-4 posts a week depending on demand
-Topic submissions from you are welcomed but not required

Go to the application details.

Freelance Home Writers Website

I was actually just browsing the About.com section on freelance writing and found this article about Freelance Home Writers. The general advice is... don't bother! More importantly, don't waste your money.

The FAQ on Freelance Home Writers has lots of vague statements but, surprisingly, nothing about how much the service costs. The service claims to provide members with regular job opportunities for freelance writers. That seems fine in itself but when you sign up you suddenly realise there is $2.95 "free" trial for one month. If you then back away and read their terms of service you realise that you will also be committing yourself to a recurring monthly membership fee of $47. When one can check Craigslist for free, and even signing up to Elance is free, $47 is a lot to pay for a service that doesn't even have direct contact with the jobs being advertised.

You can, of course, cancel the credit card direct debit but there have been online grumblings that this proves to be easier said than done. Avoid the grief, avoid Freelance Home Writers.

I also post writing job opportunities as I find them. The best thing to do is bookmark all the sites that post job openings for writers and, if possible, add them to your RSS reader so you can quickly see if there is anything interesting.

Freelance Writing Jobs Network Blog

There's more to freelance writing than just words. You need to know the business of freelance writing to have a satisfying, successful career. You've come to the right place.

At Freelance Writing Business Tips, you'll learn customer service tips, business tricks and financial advice to take your freelance writing career to new heights.

Freelance Writing Jobs began in May 2005 as a way to help other writers, especially Work at Home Moms, find decent paying jobs. More than three years later its succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We’ve expanded from being a little writing leads blog run by a “mommy blogger” to the number one online community for freelance writers.

OK, apart from the hype it's a pretty good site! Especially useful in making that step from earning pocket money as a part-time writer to going for it as a full-time freelance career.

Go to Freelance Writing Jobs.

Current Writing Jobs at About.com

You too can be a Guide at About.com. After the initial training there is a fixed monthly income plus bonuses based on traffic and popularity. Below are just a few of the opportunities currently available:

15-Minute Fashion
4-Wheel Drive
Baby's First Year
Digital Video Recording
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Stay-at-Home Moms

and a few more. Just go to About.com's Apply to Become a Guide page and make sure to read the FAQs.

Men with Pens - Helping Writers and Freelancers

Smokin' Business Tips

To Help Writer, Freelancers and Entrepreneurs
Make a Decent Living Online

We build sites, create designs and write copy that draw customers to your blog or business – because that's how it should be. Our years of experience, creative finesse, expert skills and killer business sense make sure we fit your needs just right.

As the sales pitch says, these guys are writers and web designers and want your business! There is, however, a lot of useful information for freelance writers. Not so much on the "where can I make money" theme, but rather in helping you get your mind around certain issues about being a freelancer. Very much in the work smarter camp rather than the work harder routine. Enjoy the site!

Go to Men with Pens.