Writing Online For Multiple Websites

If you are a freelance writer who enjoys writing for any, some or all of the various websites that enable you to publish your work online, you might find that it is a bit of a juggling act writing for these different sites. How do you balance your time? How much effort should you put into writing for each different site? How can you be sure you are sticking to each site's respective writing guidelines?

As you are probably aware, different writing websites have different requirements for their writers. For instance, if you write for eHow, you must write articles in the “How To” format exclusively. (There are other rules you need to follow, and you will want to review all of them prior to writing articles for this site. For instance, all of the steps listed must be “actionable” meaning that people must be able to act on these steps.) If you want to write other types of articles, that is, articles that are not written in a “How To” format, you will want to submit those pieces to alternative sites.

InfoBarrel, for instance, accepts articles written in a wide variety of different formats. You can write review articles of various products or services, for example. These types of articles provide a valuable service to readers who are looking for specific pros and cons about particular items (or services) that they are thinking about purchasing. You can also write “How To” articles for InfoBarrel, or video articles, or articles about anything whatsoever.

When writing for HubPages or Squidoo, you write capsules, or little sub-sections that are related to your introduction. These do not have to be in the How To format and you have quite a bit of freedom to include whatever you want (that is relevant to your main topic, of course).

Writing for a site like Xomba is a little different. You can write longer pieces (in any format). These are called Xombytes. Or you can write very short pieces called Xomblurbs that you then link to other pieces online (such as blog posts or articles or websites that are of interest to you).

When you are writing for a particular website, always keep that particular site’s rules, regulations and writing/publishing requirements in mind. After all, when you adhere to each website’s specific rules, you are showing your respect and you are also bound to remain a member in good standing. If you enjoy writing in a specific format, you might find yourself writing more for one or two sites than you write for the others.