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Freelance writing and blogging are two of the most preferred options for making money online by working from home. If you are planning to begin your career as an FW or a blogger, go through the below pros/cons of these two career options.
Pros of Freelance Writing
Better reputation: If authority sites like Huffington post, BGR, TechCrunch are publishing your articles, 1000s of people might know you. You are likely to have a good fan following.
Lesser worries: Once you have established yourself as a freelance writer, money will keep flowing. The firm will pay you 50 to 100 USD for a single article. Writers have to focus only on the content. They don’t have to worry about SEO, marketing, etc.
Cons of freelance writing
Not rewarding: As a freelance writer, some blogger, company or an SEO firm will hire you. The website for which you’ll write articles will benefit from your work. Consider the below example:
Example.com has hired you for USD 10 per article. The company asks you to complete 50 articles. You finish this job within 2 months and the company pays you $500. As you’re a writer, the articles will be grammar free and the website will benefit from this.
Google finds the content you have a writer for the website is up to the mark and starts ranking them on the 1st or 2nd page of its search pages. The website’s revenue increases and the $500 the site owner paid you are covered within 3 months. The site will earn more than $500 i.e. more money that you got for writing the article.
Pros of Blogging:
More money: Once your blog starts getting visitors from search engines or social networks, you can monetize it with different income streams.
Fun: As a blogger, you will learn many new things. People will seek your help. They’ll post queries via comment form. If you want to upgrade your skills or want to interact with plenty of people, blogging is for you.
Cons of blogging
Initial days are difficult: Unless you are a high profile person known by thousands of people, your blog will not get visitors for the first 6 to 7 months. You will have to work extremely hard on the content. Many bloggers don’t earn a penny for many months. This leads to frustration and you start hating yourself. A blogger should be patient else he’ll never enjoy success.
Conclusion: I don’t want to hurt the sentiments of freelance writers. I believe that blogging is a better career to pursue than freelance writing. If you’re working as an FW on Elance or any other site, give 50% time on your blog/site. Sign up for shared hosting from Bluehost or Hostgator. You can easily start a blog with them. It is easy to become an FW but difficult to become a successful blogger.
