Where to Find Latest Trends & Hot Topics
Looking for fresh ideas to write about? Want to know what is the latest buzz? Then, make it a habit of visiting these sites:
http://latest.is/ | http://www.drudgereport.com/ | https://www.buzzfeed.com
https://digg.com/ | https://www.reddit.com/ | https://news.google.com/
https://sidebar.io/ | Cover Stories on Flipboard | Medium | https://www.forbes.com | Digg | SmartBrief | Industry News & Newsletters | Trending on YouTube |
Tips on How-to Write Well
- Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well
- Stephen King’s Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Better WriterDumb Little Man Writing Tips
- Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don’t Want to Work at Writing
- Daily Writing Tips
- Write to Done
- Scribophile (for feedback on your writing)
Inspiration for Stories
Looking for story ideas? See what others are writing about
- Your Motivational Stories & Inspirational Short Stories | Values.com
- 17 Unique Places to Find Great Content to Share
- The Day’s Most Fascinating News with Dave Pell
- Share and Discover Knowledge on LinkedIn SlideShare
- How to Become a Writer
- Popular Quotes
- Story Generator | Plot Generator
Content Curation and Sharing
- The Ultimate List of Content Curation Tools and Platforms
- The-ultimate-guide-to-becoming-an-amazing-twitter-curator
Editing
Concerned about Grammar?
Not sure about ‘lay’ vs ‘lie’? Don’t know when to use ‘awhile’ vs ‘a while’? You can brush up your grammar trivia here
· ESL Cafe
Online Dictionaries – Thesaurus
- Merriam-Webster
- Dictionarycom
- The Free Dictionary
- One Look
- The reverse dictionary find a word by describing a concept or entering a definition.
- com
- Visuwords – Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts.
- WordHippo – Synonyms and antonyms
Paraphrasing
Software and Tools
- How to Make Your Publication Look Great – 3 min read
- Writer’s Blocks: Software for Writers
- Wizards for Authors
- Thirteen Great Tools That Will Make Your Writing Shine
Free / Alternate Software
· OpenOffice.org Download free and use instead of expensive office software
· SequencePublishing.com/TheSage (dictionary and thesaurus)
· Online help for brainstorming an idea
· Ticktok timer Simple, online, digital timer
· EZine Articles Free content available on different topics
· MailChimp – Free auto responder for your email campaigns
· Contently – Create a professional looking online portfolio
· Free PDF Convert – Convert documents to and from PDF
Images for Books and Book covers
· Usplash
· Social Media Images for Authors
· Lunapic (online photo editing)
· Canva (online image creation and editing)
· Place-it
· Free Digital Photos – for free images download
· Adobe Express – Create book covers, logos
· Pic Monkey – Free image editing online
If You Want to Outsource Writing
Other useful sites for writers
- Top websites for Writers
- Best Websites and Resources for Writers
- 30 Best Writing Websites
- 100 Best Websites for Writers – 2021
- Best Writing Websites for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Bloggers
- Dabble-Writer
Blogging Resources
· Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog
· Generate 100+ Blog Topic Ideas in Seconds
· 5 Intriguing Things – The Atlantic
· Sidebar
· The TOP 100 Must-Read Internet Marketing Blogs
· The world’s 50 most powerful blogs
· Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs
· The 10 Best Digital Marketing Blogs You Should Be Reading
Tips and Resources for Online Search
Using Meta-Search Engines
A metasearch engine is a search engine “aggregator”. It accumulates data from other major search engines and presents the aggregated results. It has a specific focus for the search results that are beneficial for different situations.
SOOVLE – is a great free tool for keyword search. This customizable engine combines the keyword suggestions from all the major providers in one place: Google, Bing, Amazon, Answers.com, Yahoo, Wikipedia, YouTube. Get all your inspirations for keywords on subject of interest.
Dogpile – Fetches results from Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, Bing, and other popular search engines, including audio and video content from as Yahoo!
DuckDuckGo – Gets its results from many sources and is known for focus on privacy. You can use it when you want search results without being tracked.
Carrot2 – Uses algorithms to organize search results into thematic folders.
Results are populated according to eTools and PubMed searches.
You can use it when you want search results that are organized into topics.
eTools is A Switzerland based international metasearch engine. It can be used when you want international search results from 15 different search engines in full privacy.
Ecosia – It is an eco-friendly search tool, that uses ad revenue from user searches to plant trees where needed. It donates 80% or more of its profits from ad revenue to nonprofit organizations that focus on reforestation.
WolframAlpha It is known as a free online computational knowledge engine. You can use it when for help with searches related to math, science, culture, and more.
Million Short
It allows you to filter your search results (include or remove certain types of results). You can use it when you want to filter your search results for specific types of sites or content.
Peekier
It doesn’t save or identify their users’ IP addresses, browser user agents, unique IDs, or search history. You can use it when you want to make private searches.
Gigablast
It is a retro-style, open-source search engine with its own Spell Check. You can use it when you want an old school search engine that isn’t owned by a mega corporation.
BoardReader
You can gather search results from community forums.
TinEye
Using TinEye, you can search by image – to find out where it came from.
Quant
It categorizes your search results into general results, news, and social search results. You can use it when you want to use a privacy-based search engine with specialization in in music.
Infinity Search
It offers ability to customize attributes like font size and family. They also use a form of search monetization called Coil which allows users to directly support the sites that they visit
Oscobo
It encrypts all of its traffic, provides anonymous search results without tracking of any kind and no website cookies and IP addresses.
SwissCows
It uses semantic information recognition to offer intuitive answers and shows other queries, using color to differentiate topics and size. You can use it when you want private search results with an interactive and informative visual presentation.
Disconnect Search
It allows you to conduct anonymous search queries on Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo. You can use it when you want to guarantee an anonymous search on another search engine.
Lukol
It is a simple search engine with the same powerful results offered by Google’s search engine. You can use it when you want a truly anonymous search, as powerful as Google.
Search Encrypt
It uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. You can use it when you don’t want your location or past searches to influence your search results.
Gibiru
It secures searches by sending them through a proxy IP address. You can use it when you want to ensure the privacy of your searches through use of a proxy.
Media Aggregators
Social Mention allows you to search across multiple types of networks including blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, and more.
Use Buzzsumo if you have a topic in mind and want to see which articles on the web were most shared for that particular search. There is a paid version that can give you access to more tools for each topic.
Creative Commons Search will allow you to look through multiple sources including Flickr, Google Images, Wikimedia, and YouTube.
Wikimedia Commons has over 12 million files in their database of freely usable images, sound bites, and videos. Use the search box or browse by categories for different types of media.
Yahoo Video Search allows you to search through video content from their own network plus YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Myspace, Hulu, and other online video providers for videos on any topic.
Sidereel allows you to go beyond YouTube to find shows on dozens of streaming platforms like HBO and Hulu. If you’re looking for streaming videos, you’ll likely find it here.
Google Video Search will enable you to search for videos on any topic and filter your results by duration, date when uploaded, video source
Google Advanced Book Search will help you find search queries in books. You can also find entire books published online that might be available to download via PDF (when in the public domain).
Writing as a Source of Income
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep,
you will work until you die.” – Warren Buffet
There are many different income streams you can build from your writing. Most of these can turn into sources of passive income.
You can treat your books and blogs like income generating assets that keep bringing in money long after the initial creation and publishing efforts were made. Such ‘set and forget’ passive income streams would be making you money even when you are sleeping, traveling or pursuing other hobbies.
Another benefit is that you can enjoy flexible timings during your writing work and can enjoy a great life style with work-life balance.
Here are some ideas on how to make money with your writing:
- Self-publish a book / e-book
One obvious way to make money as a writer is to sell books and e-books.
Selling books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo is common way for writers to make an income.
Books will give you credibility as an expert and help to grow a tribe of loyal readers. Self-publishing an e-book can have low start-up costs and still pay off big over time.
Whom to write for? Well, people are looking for advice on wide range of topics, from how to manage their money to advice on training their pet. There is endless need for information that people are willing to pay for.
Using topic-specific knowledge that you may already have, you can write, publish, and sell these informative or entertaining books. You can turn one of your interests or skills into a book and earn royalties for as long as it sells.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are you good at and are passionate about?
- Do people often ask you about something that you have to explain over and over again?
- Do you have an idea that has been lingering in your head for years?
- Do people often say to you “you should write a book!”
Those are your leads to what you can easily write about.
There are lots of guides about writing and publishing e-books and about the publishing platforms. You can also watch a lot of video guides on YouTube about how self-publish e-books.
E-book business is a numbers game. The more books you write, the more potential passive income you’ll receive in the future. And if your books are written on evergreen topics (not temporary or seasonal fads), you could earn passive income for a long time.
- Blogging
A monetized blog is one of the most popular ways to earn passive income for writers. Blog posts last for years and can be an ongoing income source. For some writers, it is a full-time job.
You can place ads on your blog in more than one way. One popular way is Google AdSense. But there are many others that offer banner or link advertising. It’s not a lot of work. All you need to do is add some code to your site and then wait for the money to roll in.
You can sign up with an advertising network such as Google AdSense (https://www.google.com/adsense) or adBrite (https://www.adbrite.com) to display ads on your blog or website.
There are now publications such as PsychologyToday.com and Forbes.com that will give their writers the pay per click option. They pay you, say $5 per 1,000 clicks. Let’s assume you get 2,000 clicks a month. You can calculate how much money you can make in a year? In two years? In five years?
- Income from Content
There are hundreds of opportunities to write for online content providers, such as Textbroker (https://www.textbroker.com/) and True Lancer (https://www.truelancer.com/)
They pay per article, and pay is often dependent on the length of the article.
You may have the opportunity to forgo an initial payment in lieu of a revenue share that is based on the number of people who view your article.
- Ehow https://www.ehow.comIt’s a website that offers answers “how to” questions. Writers register with the site and either start writing their own articles or answering the articles that have been requested. Ehow articles should be written to answer ‘how to’ questions. Based on a points system, writers can become Enthusiasts or Authorities. Authorities will get more page views and prominence in featuring their articles.
You can also choose up to five articles to be featured regularly with any article you publish. By cycling through those five regularly, you can increase your page views and potential income.
- Medium (https://www.medium.com )is an example of the model where you write the stories and get paid based on readers’ responses. A portion of the reader’s monthly fee is shared with the author of the articles the reader likes.
- Article Writing
There are article sites (like https://ezinearticles.com/ willing to pay writers for web content on any subject. Most of these sites pay $4–15 per short article. Paid articles are an easy way to make some extra cash for research-oriented people with well-rounded background
- Audio Books
Audio is a popular way for people to consume content, while doing other work like driving or cooking. Turning your written content to audio allows you to offer different forms of content. You can take one piece of content and turn it into multiple streams of income. One example of such sites is https://www.audible.com/
- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves adding a particular type of link to your social media posts when you share a product or service. When people use that link to buy the thing you’re recommending, you earn a small commission (with no impact on the buyer). If you’re already producing some sort of content, adding affiliate marketing links is very easy and quick way to earn some extra cash.
You can also do one-on-one sponsorships with companies to plug their product or service. You can check with the companies for any service or product that you are already using to see if they have affiliate opportunities.
It will easy to for you to promote to your audience something you already like. For example, you can be an affiliate marketer for the software that you use, such as Grammarly for your blog posts and add its affiliate link for readers to click on. When readers click on affiliate links, they will be taken to each product page. If they decide to make a purchase, you can earn a sales commission.
- Ghost Writing
A lot of people don’t want public attention that writing can bring. You can be a ghost writer for them. You would be working with others to help them write texts (e.g., books or speeches). For this work you wouldn’t be publicly credited as the author. You could be working with celebrities or politicians, making a living from writing on their behalf.
- Copywriting
As the saying goes ‘Copywriting is salesmanship in print’. Mainly, copywriting is creating written content for a business that reflects their brand and products. As a copywriter, you could be writing content that will be seen by their customers and clients. You could be writing sales letters, ad copy, web copy, and many others. Good copywriters can make six or seven figures a year. This can become a long-term career option for you.
- Training Courses
If you are an expert on something, you can produce your own course about it. There are platforms like Skillshare and Udemy that allow you to produce, upload, and sell your own classes.
Writing training courses can generate you a lot more money per sale than a book. It may be difficult to sell a $500 book, but very much do-able with a valuable course.
- Social Media ManagementMany companies are willing to pay independent writers to take care of their social media postings. You may have written full Facebook and Instagram posts. You could charge for a single post, or charge by the bundle.
- Reviewing Books, Products, Films, Music
You can start making money by signing up for a few rewards websites, where you could be reviewing anything from gadgets to music to stationery.
For example, on Slicethepie, you can earn cash from writing short reviews of fashion items and songs. Or, you can register to become a product tester or a paid survey site panel member and end up making money by reviewing products you otherwise pay to buy. Product testers are sometimes allowed to keep the items they review, or even sell them on to increase their earnings!
- Translations
There are a lot of businesses willing to pay you to translate text for them on a freelance basis. As your homework you can first look at sites like Fiverr to see how much freelance translators tend to charge, depending on the languages they speak.
22 Websites That Will Pay You – to Write for Them
- Cracked
You can submit articles on almost any topic to Cracked.com. They pay up to $200 per post and will allow you to mention your website in the bio section.
- International Living
will pay you up to $400 per article – if you can contribute articles on living/saving when retiring in a country other than the US. - Greater Good
Will pay up to $350 per article. They prefer science articles narrated in a story telling manner.
4. Be a Freelance Blogger Hold contests six times a year, for one guest blogger to win $100.
5. Strong Whispers This is a multi-topic site where they pay $50 a post.
- Pxleyes is a popular design blog that pays up to $200 for articles accepted
- Write Your Revolution
They accept guest posts from bloggers and freelance writers and could pay $50 per guest post when your article is published. The preferred length for content submission is 600 – 2,000 words. You will be allowed to link to your website in the guest post bio. You can find out more about the guest posting process here : https://writeyourrevolution.com/jobs-library/ - Transition Abroad (Travel)
It’s a top travel website that’ll pay from $50 – $150 for your travel articles. - Literary Traveler
You’ll be paid $50 per post to contribute your travel articles to Literary Traveler.
You’ll be paid $100 per post to contribute typically 1,500 – 2,000 words published articles. You’ll also be allowed to add a link to your website in your post bio.
- Global Comment
You will be paid to contribute articles on any subject to Global Comment.
- Listverse publishes list-style articles with at least ten list items (of around 1500 words total). You can submit ‘top ten’ lists on any subject They pay $100 per list.
- Funny Times
You can submit articles about any topic as long as it pokes fun at any major subject. It could be on politics, business, religion or anything, as long as it’s humor. - Writers Weekly Topics of interest include corporate writing, unique book marketing, and writing for specific genres. Feature article (600 words, $60) or Freelance Success Story (400 words, $40).
15. Craft Your Content
Write a guest post for CYC that “help our clients become excellent writers, and help them do so while retaining their unique voice and vision. Rate equals $50 – $150 per article
- Freedom with Writing – Write an article that helps writers get paid for their writing
List articles (featuring 7-50 publishers that pay writers), how-to articles/essays/case studies (with real world examples and amounts earned), or e-books (10,000 words)
$30 – $100 for list articles;
$30 – $150 for how-to articles/essays/case studies;
$500+ for e-books
- Make A Living Writing – Write a blog post that will help writers find better-paying gigs
Topics of interest include market reports, editor Q&As, productivity and writing craft. Approx. 500 words $75 – $150 per post Submit a pitch
Women writers can submit guest posts of “how-to” on a variety of writing and publishing topics.
Approx. 1000 – 3000 words – Approx. $50 – $75 per post
Write a post for Barefoot Writer Magazine, “committed to helping you learn to make money, work from home, and land freelance writing jobs to achieve your dream writer’s life.” Article categories include Monthly Motivator, Cool Tools and Become a Better Writer
Articles range from 400 – 900 words – $100 – $300 per post
- Write Naked – Write a guest blog post for Write Naked, “a writing life cut open”. Sections accepting posts include Interviews, Publishing Trends and Behind the Pen
450 – 650 words – $50 – $200 per post
- Funds for Writers
Write a guest post about earning a living as a writer
500 – 600 words – $50 for original unpublished articles;$15 for reprints.
22. Constant Content
Register as freelance writer and make money. It is one of the largest and most established platforms for facilitating connections between big brands and freelance writers online
Self-Publishing Tips
Currently Amazon Kindle is the leading publisher where you can upload your manuscript to publish books and sell on Amazon marketplace. But there many other sites as well.
Here are useful links about self-publishing sites
- Guide to ‘The 10 Best Self-Publishing Companies
- The 17 BEST Self-Publishing Companies of 2021
- Best Websites to SELF-PUBLISH Your Book in 2021