Are you wondering where the good-paying online writing gigs are hiding?

I get this question from a lot of freelance writers. When I ask them what they’re doing, the answer is usually the same. They’re answering a lot of online job ads, and not doing much else.

Here are a few quick tips on how you can break the cycle of low online pay:

1. Stop answering Craigslist ads that ask for free samples. Luke, it’s a trap!
   
2. Stop answering ads that say you can write about any topic you want. These never pay well. Never ever.
3. Find better ads. I like the kind where the employer has to pay to place the ad — say, like on LinkedIn. Or some professional association job boards.
4. Look beyond ads. The vast majority of available work is never advertised. Start proactively marketing your writing business and tapping the submerged part of the iceberg.
5. Get off Elance. And Guru, and all the rest. While the occasional gold nugget can be found in here, in general bidding sites put you in a race to the bottom. Unless you enjoy being the low-price leader, you want to get out of here.
6. Understand that most revenue-sharing offers are a pipe dream. Have you got time to drive millions of eyeballs to your pages? If not, you will earn pennies. And waste oodles of your precious, precious time.
7. Learn how to identify good-paying clients. Solid companies and publications that hire writers at professional rates are all around you. My starter tip: Look for companies that sell a real product or service in the real, offline world — ideally, ones that have been around since before the Internet.

It’s an anxious time for many online writers. Those writing at rock-bottom prices are finding the opportunities are drying up.

Demand Studios writers are up in arms because the number of $15 assignments has shriveled. Parent company Demand Media’s stock has plummeted since its IPO, and investors are skeptical about the company’s future prospects.

I heard from one writer in Freelance Writers Den recently who reports she has to write 350-450 pieces a month for another mill, just to scrape by financially. That’s the kind of virtual-sweatshop slavery story that led me to start this blog in the first place.

Writers used to commiserate about all the ways they could be exploited online by the Internet’s low-pay ‘opportunities.’ Now, some can’t even get that.

Meanwhile, over in other parts of the Internet, writers are earning professional rates. Getting $100 for quickie articles and blog posts, $1 a word for web content, and $2,000 for fully researched features. I know, because those are all rates I’ve earned in the past year.

How can you find the better jobs?

How can you tell if a site is really a scam?

How can you negotiate and get a good rate?

I’ve got a system for doing all that — and I’m going to be teaching it in a 4-week, live Webinar bootcamp in November — How to Make Good Money Writing Online. Here’s my planned outline for the class:

Week one: How to investigate websites, identify good payers, and negotiate a great deal with I.J. Schecter, author of 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less.

Week two: How to write query letters and letters of introduction for online markets that get you hired, with Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli

Week three: Essential elements of a pro writer website, with Angie Atkinson of WM Freelance Writers Connection

Week four: How to use social media marketing to connect with online editors and marketing managers, with Brandi Kajino, a social media expert with SOHO Solutionist.

Oh yeah — and there’s a bonus, 1-hour Story Idea Lab recording I created with Linda Formichelli that teaches you how to create ideas that get you assignments.

Five hours of instruction — four of them with live Q&A — to answer all your questions about how to move up and find better online writing markets.

Here’s the contest part:

What’s your question about how to find online writing gigs? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll try to offer some answers. Is there something missing from my outline?