Is an online writing contest the Internet writer’s answer to the writing contests that you can find in trade magazines and in other places in the offline freelance world?

This type of contest, when based on a well known publication, can be of great benefit to the aspiring writer, but the same might not hold true online. In this article I will  outline some of my experiences with online writing contests (all two of them).

First, though, I will make some points about what I think the pros of entering a writing contest online COULD be.

Online writing contest pros

Basically, I think that entering a writing contest online has the same potential benefits as entering a contest for a print trade magazine such as Reader’s Digest. That is to say, if you win, you are probably in not only for some big bucks but you also receive a lot of exposure, and for the freelancer good exposure is everything.

The other advantage (and probably even more so) is to have your piece critiqued by other writers. Now granted, as writers we are all harsh and – let’s face it – competitive people, but every so often there are some good truths to be gleaned from the comments other people make about your stories.

Potential online writing contest cons

Of course, as writers we are also protective when it comes to our work, and this can be a big problem when it comes to publishing our pieces, or handing them to someone else to publish, online.

As I stated above I have entered two different online writing contests. I didn’t go in with many expectations, so I wasn’t exactly disappointed, but they didn’t really help me get anywhere either.

In both, I sent in my pieces and then never heard from the sites again (and I also forgot the URLs for the sites too, and I would caution everyone else to write that down somewhere, in retrospect). Were they good pieces? Well I think one in particular was very good.

On the Internet, content equals success

If you’ve done any kind of writing for the Internet, you have probably heard that content is king (and if you haven’t heard that, you’re in luck, because I have written an article all about that great news for aspiring freelance writers).

Briefly, what this means is that the more pieces a site can put up, the more likely it is to garner attention from the search engines. Better rankings from the search engines means more visitors, more visitors means more appeal, and more appeal means more advertising potential. The more potential, the higher the dollar amounts advertisers are likely to pay a specific site.

So what does this mean for the writer who enters a contest? Well, you might be submitting a piece that will work very well for the site in question, but won’t provide you with any sort of benefit in return. Your work will be generating income for someone else, but you will still be eating Mac and Cheese in your parents’ kitchen.

Really, that is just the paranoid writer in me coming out, and I am sure most of us who write for a living have this inner demon screaming out.

Online Writing Contests - Are they useful?

On the other hand, there are probably a few of you reading this who have had some success when it comes to entering online writing contests. If so, we would really like to hear about it.

Or do you think writing contests are a waste of time?

You have probably thought of being a freelance writer as a bit of a dream career, free of the mundane hassles that can plague the office worker. While it is true that as a writer you will have more variety in your life than at most jobs, you don’t always get to skip the less exciting aspects of a career.

And you certainly have to develop a specific mindset to succeed in the freelance writing job.

Most of the time you probably won’t make money writing about topics you particularly love or enjoy learning about, and many times a large part of your income won’t come from writing at all! And of course, there is always the money side of things; as a freelancer you are in charge of your own finances, from setting your budget month to month to calculating your own taxes.

For love AND money

In this section of the site, we are going to take a look at some areas you are going to have to concentrate on beyond writing in your career as a freelance writer. I have found a lot of these areas particularly troublesome.

I am not by any means a number cruncher, and I find that as I sit “filling out the books” I am not only calculating the money I’ve made and spent on the business, but also the hours I am using up making no money when I could be using the time finding more writing opportunities, checking out a new online writing contest, or just making money through writing. Still, it is a side of the business that has to get done.

Supplementing the writing side of the business

As my business has grown, I have realized that writing isn’t the only way to make money dealing with the written word on the Internet, even for a freelance writer. There are lots of different ways to add to your bottom line if you know what to look for, and some of them can be quite lucrative. We will be taking a look at finding proofreading jobs, editing jobs, and copywriting jobs on the Internet.

I have found that proofreading jobs and editing jobs in particular can be great for boosting up the end of the month money coming in for any writer, and you might even find you make more money per hour with this type of job than you do writing articles! Getting a few freelance editing jobs will not only get you some extra money, I have found that they usually lead to further writing opportunities as well.

Although writing is the defining part of a freelance writer’s life, writing careers are never about just writing. If you want to write for a living, particularly on the Internet, you need to be constantly on the lookout for supplemental income in the way of proofreading jobs, editing jobs, and copywriting jobs. You also need to understand the bookkeeping and mental side of the business, and we can help you out!