I am 26 years old and I write for a living. Google knows this, and my targeted ads reflect it. They are forever recommending that I enlist my soul to massive content farms clearly hungry to suck me in, as if Google is some kind of twisted, unconscionable madame for scams of industry.

This is the most targeted ad I have ever received:

The ad pitches a platform called Contenta, which functions to connect freelancers with people who will pay for their content. Except, surprise surprise: it costs $500 to sign up.

These kinds of scams and for-profit schemes are everywhere, ready to prey on the avid creative energy of eager young professionals, and ready to prey on the desperation borne of that creative energy sadly juxtaposed with a society that has no place for it. Your writing matters. So, PSA to my fellow freelancers.

1. You should never have to pay to get your writing published.

Submission fees for a literary journal are one thing, but for an online platform? Especially one which plans to monetize your content, and promises you things in non-concrete ways? They are not making you money, they are making money off of you. There are innumerable business models trying to capitalize on the inexperienced writer’s overconfidence about the value of her own work.

Good, sustainable platforms are created, and borne naturally from a content’s worth and relevance to its audience. You can’t buy that kind of readership, that kind of experience, and that kind of respect. And no quality publisher would ever ask you to.

Your writing is work. It is an economic good. Ask yourself, what is the economic good in this transaction? If it’s not the quality of your writing- watch out.

2. Separate ‘Writing for Money’ from your own personal creative work.

If the success of your work is determined in terms of likes, shares, and user engagements- which is a fact difficult to avoid in any kind of monetized creative platform- it will not be conducive to creative success.

Your most interesting pieces will not make you money. Your most quality pieces will not be the ones that people read. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched my soul die slowly as I get 11.4k user engagements on a listicle comprised of celebrity GIFs, and almost none on an extremely well-researched, well-written, provocative piece I take pride in.

If you are lucky enough to have the freedom to determine the focus of your own content- and that is a big if- you will quickly learn that your most lowbrow, low-effort pieces greatly outperform the pieces you really feel proud of. It is humiliating, and soul-deadening, to realize how much money you can make from a low-effort piece that generates clicks, whereas quality work is difficult to monetize.

You will quickly learn that your most lowbrow, low-effort pieces greatly outperform the pieces you really feel proud of.

Is it okay to write low-effort content and get paid for it? Of course it is- actually, it’s brilliant- and good for you for getting paid to write literally anything (which is a feat in and of itself.) But, if you are in this position, and find yourself hit by the realization that, when it comes to your most well thought-out journalism, the internet simply does not care- you need to reflect on where you are professionally before committing a life to this.

If this makes you feel dead inside, and you’re trying to pay your bills with your writing- realize that the internet’s taste for consumable content will not change, and it’s not because what you’ve written isn’t good. It’s because digital media is a platform that lends itself to bite-sized journalism, and people want to click on content that doesn’t require a ton of mental work.

This is fine, and you can even integrate this realization into the way you present your meaningful content in the future in a way so your audience will hear and understand it. But should you sacrifice your creative integrity for a penny change paycheck cashed on a listicle comprised of celebrity GIFs, a creative work that makes you feel embarrassed and disenchanted with the state of the world as a whole? No, you should never sacrifice your passion for something like that- and you should never confuse ‘Something Shareworthy’ with ‘Something That Matters.’

Learn the difference between thinking, “I guess my work sucks,” vs. “I guess this isn’t what my audience was looking for right now,” vs. “I guess this isn’t what their publication was trying to do right now.”

Keep writing- this is important. Never stop doing the kind of writing that makes you feel alive. Never sell your creativity for money. Your creativity keeps you alive. It is all you have. If you do choose to lease it, it can be quite lucrative- but do so consciously. Don’t expect your groundbreaking, earth-shattering ideas to gain traction in the court of the Almighty Click that delineates human meaning into a six-point scale of Likes, Loves, Hahas, Wows, Sads, or Angrys.

The meaning of your work can’t be summed up by an engagement button on social media.

Find a place to continue your own creative pursuits. Never sacrifice them at the expense of Writing For Money. Remember that your inspiration, your own most inspired breath, is your most reliable, longstanding client. Whichever corporation you perform monkey-jabber keyboard work for in the moment is secondary. So be aware of the kind of content your platform values. Be aware of the kind of content you value, personally. Understand the different places where this content thrives. Don’t expect them to be the same.

3. Contracts are your friend.

You are the ideal candidate for getting ripped off. You don’t have an established company culture that promises to uphold certain ethical standards in its treatment of you. You are working in a non-physical space- mostly through private chains of correspondence which leave little public accountability- and if you were to get ripped off by a client that never pays, it is unlikely that that client would ever see consequences of any kind.

You are, therefore, putting yourself at risk of potentially getting ripped off by trusting a stranger on the internet to do what they say in exchange for a service (side note: you can often trust friends even less in this regard). This being said, your client is also putting themselves at risk by trusting a friend on the internet. You could rip them off too, and it is likely no one would ever notice. When you promise someone that you will create content for them, they are trusting you. They are relying on you to do what you say. And your professional integrity is at risk when it comes to how you treat your client’s trust when no one is watching. If you teach them they can trust you and depend on you to be reliable and trustworthy, to do what you say, and to consistently to deliver quality, useable content, that will pay off in a big way. And if you violate that trust, that will also pay off in a big way.

For both your sake and your client’s, a contract is your best friend. A contract doesn’t have to be official. All it has to do is draw up some basic standards of consent, expectations, and agreed-upon means of exchange- and it’s a framework that makes it much less complicated to navigate a professional relationship. Also, it makes you look like an experienced, super-professional pro- even when you’re not.

4. Build your portfolio.

This is cliche advice, but it’s true. While it’s obviously preferable to have published work in your portfolio, if you don’t have a lot of published work yet, that’s okay.

What kind of writer do you want to be? Open a Google doc, and draw up a few samples. Envision your dream assignment. Write that. Show your clients what you’re capable of. Don’t expect them to believe it without proof. You know you’re capable. Put that in writing.

5. Learn SEO.

It is a fact that, if you want to make bank (let’s be honest- make anything) in the world of content writing, you need to create content that meets your client’s needs. Virtually every client shares one goal: they want people to read the content on their site. This means they want it to appear on search results. That’s where Search Engine Optimization comes in.

Your writing skill alone won’t ensure your survival. You have to adapt to the technology of the digital age. This means teaching yourself new skills- and doing so regularly. This will boost your credibility, and make you more versatile as a freelancer. It will also satisfy your clients. They are far more likely to keep working with you if you go above and beyond in meeting their needs.

Since graduating college, I have found my undergrad education to be tragically inadequate when it comes to meeting the myriad skills required for jobs in my field. This is due in huge part to emerging technology that’s so new and trade-specific that it doesn’t make it into the academic curriculum. The needs of the job market are always changing, fast. So I’ve made it a personal mission to teach myself these skills, so I can actually be qualified for the jobs I’m applying to. It also makes you a better candidate for hiring, and gives you an arsenal of technical skills you can use in any digital gig that can boost your income and your resume. Be literate in the language and technical knowledge of your field.

If you really want to shine when it comes to content writing (don’t get discouraged, embrace it as a challenge), there are a few things you should learn to at least understand: Google Analytics; Google Adwords; SEO (Search Engine Optimization); SEM (Search Engine Marketing); ROI (Return On Investment); and content strategy are just a few.

The Content Marketing Institute and Google Education Portal provide countless resources for learning these skills- and all for free. With the Google portal, you can also get certified- for free- which is an awesome thing to add to your resume.

I know these things don’t sound like writing, but if you’re doing freelance work for the internet, these are skills your clients will expect you to have. They are skills you will need, unless you’re freelancing for a company that prefers you write on parchment with quill and ink. (I would love a gig like that, but I’ve heard the market is down post-1777.)

6. Understand how you’re getting paid.

Some gigs or writing platforms will pay you a flat fee for your work if it is published. I, personally, prefer this, because it means I will get paid for my work no matter what, so long as it meets the needs of my client.

However, some platforms- these are mostly gigs that allow you to write whatever you want- will pay you based on engagements and performance. Engagement is, in short, how many people interact with your post. This includes how many views it gets, how many people click on it, how many people share it on social media, and how many people comment on the piece.

Posts that generate more user engagement are more useful to a site, because they make the site more money. This means that if a piece takes off on social media, you could make bank. However, the catch-22 here is that you most likely won’t. You can write an awesome piece, but if it doesn’t get shares, you’ll make nothing- or virtually nothing.

The downside of flat-fee work is that you won’t get compensated beyond that flat fee, no matter how much your piece takes off on social media. I, personally, find that that’s a sacrifice I’m generally willing to make, because performance-based pay is extremely unreliable, and most of the time, you’ll make scraps that pay far, far less than the alternative “flat fee,” and oftentimes your hard work will make you no money at all. Some platforms pay with a combination of both, and while this is ideal, it’s hard to find.

7. Understand your client’s needs.

This ties into number six, but this is probably the most important point on this list. If you want your work to be successful, and if you want your client to be happy, and if you want to be a good freelancer in general, you have to understand what your client wants so you can give it to them.

Read the other content on their site. Get familiar with their voice and tone. Your writing should match that voice and tone. Understand the topics on their site. Write about those topics. This is not your time to shine, because you’re not just writing for yourself. Someone else is paying you to write for them. If they have agreed to pay you for your work before you write it, then they are not paying you for the objective merit of your work alone, they are paying you with the trust that your work will meet their needs.

This also means you need to write at an appropriate reading level. You might have a graduate-level vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean you should use it. Most writing on the internet is around a fourth-grade reading level. This means that it’s easy for people to understand, it’s easy for them to scan, and it doesn’t consume their time. Some platforms welcome lengthy content with complex sentence structure and a rich vocabulary. But most platforms want their content to be readable to anyone. This means keep your sentences short, and keep them simple. The average user spends 7 seconds max on a web page. Most people who share a post don’t even click on the link. This brings me to my next point.

8. Use quality images.

If you want people to share your post, it needs to have a quality image. Understand the kind of images that your client’s site generally uses, and understand the kind of images people would want to share. As mentioned in number seven, most people won’t even click on the link to your story. This means your image counts. Look at the social media preview of your story. Would you share it on your profile? (Side note, fun fact: people share images with a person in them more.)

This also means that you honor copyright licenses. Does your client have access to Getty Images, or other stock photo subscriptions? It is a copyright violation to use an image without permission, and your client can get sued if you break this rule. If you don’t have a ton of images at your disposal, Pixabay.com has a glorious collection of royalty-free stock photos anyone can use.

9. Budget your time.

You can write quality pieces in under an hour, but it’s easy to get sucked in to a story and end up spending three hours on it. Remember how much you’re getting paid. If you’re getting paid $15 for 500 words, budget your time. If you spend three hours on a piece, that’s $5 an hour. It doesn’t matter how long you spend on a piece, you’re still getting paid a flat fee.

This doesn’t mean sacrificing quality. It means learning to synthesize creation with speed. This is a skill you can and will master. Remember your own Return On Investment, and if you invest a reasonable amount of time on a piece, you’ll feel fairly paid. If you spend hours on it, you’ll quickly feel overworked. But it’s your responsibility to budget your writing time, and that way you can gain control of your income and make the most of your working hours.

10. Understand your own goals as a freelancer.

Are you trying to make this your primary source of income? Treat it like a job. Wake up, make a cup of coffee, and go sit at your desk. Treat it like a nine to five job. You’re at work. Set a goal to write a certain number of pieces a day, and meet that goal. You’re done working when you’ve met that goal.

Or are you just doing this to make money on the side? That’s fine too, but don’t expect to make bank if you’re not willing to put in the work. Again, budget your time, and block off a few hours a night, or every other night, to work. This means being on board with how much content your client expects you to produce, and consistently meeting that goal.

Sometimes, this means writing when you don’t feel like it. It’s a job. That is the way jobs work. Learn to divorce creativity from income, and you will gradually find a way to synthesize the two while still making a living.

Courtesy of Oprah Lifestyle

It’s easy for freelancers to get discouraged or feel taken advantage of. But it’s your opportunity to be an awesome professional who’s literate in the nature of their trade. You are that already. You can do that.

Adhere to these commandments, understand your needs, and understand the nature of the job you’re doing. Be wary of scams. Do your research. Communicate with your clients. Ask as many questions as you need. And feel awesome about the fact that you are doing something you love while still making a living. You’re killing it.