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How To Start An Article Writing Service

If you love to write, enjoy learning, are good at research, and can write quickly, starting your own article writing service is an ideal business. This type of business allows you to work from the comfort of your home, or the beach or wherever you have a computer and an internet connection. And it can provide a supplemental income or complete financial freedom depending on your goals. Sound interesting?

Here are 5 Steps to Get started.

Step #1 Decide if you’re going to focus on a specific industry or if you’re interested in writing articles on a broad variety of topics. There are benefits to both. If you focus on a specific industry, say parenting, then you can position yourself as an expert on that topic and target business owners in that industry for clients.

Additionally, it makes marketing and positioning your company a bit easier. However, if you enjoy writing on a broad variety of topics and are quick to become bored sticking with one industry, then you can simply market yourself as a skilled writer. You can also boost your credibility by positioning yourself as an SEO writer, fast turnaround writer, and so on.

Step #2 Start writing. Even as you’re working through the subsequent steps. You’ll want to be writing articles to promote your business. For example, if you’ve positioned yourself as an expert extreme sports writer, then you’re going to want to start writing articles on that subject.

You can publish them in article directories, submit them to magazines and publish them on your website, which we’ll get to in the next step. In order to start an article writing service you’re going to need samples of your work and there’s no time like the present to get started.

Step #3 Get your website up. A blog is actually a really friendly and easy way to get a website up and running and it permits you the advantage of blogging, adding content, on a regular basis so your customers can find you quickly and they can see examples of your writing style immediately. Blogs, WordPress is an intuitive and cost effective solution, enable you to create a static homepage just like a website.

You can also add additional static pages to post your rates, your ‘about me’ page and so on. Before you toss a website online, spend some time researching websites you like and analyzing what works and what doesn’t. Visit the websites of other writers to see what they’re doing and then plan your website out on a piece of paper.

A website doesn’t have to cost much at all so don’t think you have to spend $1000 to get up and running. The basis costs will include a domain name, website hosting, and potentially a small redirect fee if you’re using WordPress. Not to worry if this all sounds complicated. There are how to articles here on Internet Based Moms and WordPress and other website hosting solutions usually have user friendly tutorials. You don’t have to be technologically savvy to create a great business website.

Step #4 The legal and financial aspects of starting an article writing service. You’ll want to register your business with your local government. You’ll also want to decide how you’re going to accept payments, invoice, and track your finances. And of course you’ll want to determine how much you’re going to charge for your services.

Remember, this isn’t locked in stone, you can change your rates as you grow and your services become in demand. Finally, you’ll probably want to find a work for hire agreement that meets your needs. These are simple documents that outline the work you’re doing for your client and the specifics like when it’s going to be delivered and how you’re going to get paid.

You can find them online easily enough or you can hire an attorney to draft a basic document that lets you fill in the blanks.

Step #5 Create a marketing strategy. Who is going to use your article writing service? How are they going to find you? There are many questions to ask and marketing tactics to take advantage of. As a writer, one of your most powerful tools once you get up and running will be word of mouth.

People are quick to share the news when they’ve found a good writer and you can offer referral incentives, like a discount on their next article order, to motivate referrals. Until you get up and running, and maybe even after, you can use advertising, guest blogging, press releases, article marketing, social networking and a whole host of powerful marketing strategies to draw attention to your business.

Create a plan, set a budget, an then test and track your results so you know where to repeat your efforts and which marketing tactics to let go of.

Step #6 Consider, making a few sacrifices. While everyone has different opinions on the subject, freelance job sites like Elance, shelancers and guru can be a good way to gain experience. The downside is that the jobs rarely pay well however you’ll be getting valuable writing experience and they can put money in your pocket while you’re building your business.

You can also write for free and publish articles on article directories and on relevant websites. Always include a link to your website when you publish under your own name. You’re marketing your business with your content and prospects need to know where to find you.

Starting your own article writing service can be a tremendously fulfilling and financially rewarding experience. The key to success is to set goals and plan how you’re going to achieve them. If you want to work 10 or so hours a week for a supplemental income you can do it. If you want to earn six figures and really establish yourself as a premier writer, you can do it! The choice, and the rewards, are yours for the taking.

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