If you’re a writer that frequents any writing boards you’ve likely seen the requests from writers that are looking for people to outsource their writing work to.  Well, I’m one of the writers that pick up those job.  There’s some controversy as to whether or not it is ethical to outsource your writing and I think that the answer lies in who originally commissioned it and how up front you are about it.

I know two writers on a non-board level (we were part of a larger community at one time and one of them became my mentor for a time) that outsource writing and both of them make it clear on their web sites that they have a team of writers that work with them.  I think this is the best way to go for those who want to outsource because it is up front and the clients know that their writing may be done by others.  On the other hand, I know that some writers just gather as much writing work as possible with the intention of having others write it at a lower fee and they don’t tell the client.  I don’t think this is agreeable as the client has hired them based on their writing skills – not someone elses.

I don’t have a problem picking up outsourced work when I know that the person doing the outsourcing is one of the writers that is public about having a team of writers.  And I find that the people that I pick up outsourced work from are generally a great group of people.  Will I do it again?  Absolutely.  It is a source of writing that writers should utilize.

Another advantage of picking up outsourced writing work is that the writers you’ve done work for are often willing to give you a reference.  I was quite happy to see that Sharon Hurley Hall gave me a glowing reference on my LinkedIn profile.  That’s a great advantage for me as I plan on using LinkedIn to get more writing work and to profile my experience.  Thanks Sharon.

So, I’m curious – do you pick up outsourced writing work?  If not, why?

If you’re a freelance writer you likely experience down time.  Everyone does.  So what do you do with it?  I used to put up articles at Bukisa but I haven’t been so thrilled with them lately.  I’m never really sure what my earnings actually are.  Oh well, you live and learn right?

I’m not fond of the other pay-per-view sites either.  So, I wanted to focus on writing articles that could be sold immediately.  I found Article Me and I think it has great potential.  They are a fairly new site and they’ve got a few really good reviews from other writers and from buyers as well.  And to get the word out they are using a contest to encourage anyone with a site to write about them.

Article Me has some great features:

from the site:

* Plagiarism check – Content submitted is automatically checked to ensure its uniqueness or previous uses. This ensures against the threat of copyright infringement.

* Review prior to purchase - Buyers may preview between 20 and 40 percent of the article to ensure quality and writing style.

* Content request – Buyers with specific needs may request such content in the format of their choice.

As the site builds, content buyers will be able to see the most recently added content on the first page (and yes, I plan to always be on that first page!) or they can click the Buy link and see the tags that are used and search for content that is of interest to them.

Writers can write on any topic that is of interest to them and they can offer it in several different ways.  They can offer Usage rights (meaning that the article will be sold multiple time), Unique rights (meaning the buyer has exclusive rights and it is only sold once, but they can’t redistribute it or sell it and they can’t remove links or the author’s byline), or Full Rights (meaning that the buyer can pretty much do anything they want with it).  For complete descriptions check out the description of content rights on the site.

Writers can also offer single articles or content packages.  I currently have a set of articles available about coffee but I have some great sets planned for the future.

Article Me launched on March 13, 2010 and along with their launch they started a contest.  The person with the best article about them will win $3000!  That’s a pretty nice prize in my opinion.  Not only is this a great way for them to get publicity and get lots of links back to their site but as a writer I feel like I actually have some influence on getting traffic to the site so that people can find the articles I have for sale!

As a writer, of course I’d love it if you purchased some of my content – which you can find here:  My Content But if I don’t have something you are interested in you can search the site or put in a request.

Whether you’re looking for content or want to sell your content, I think that Article Me may be the place to keep your eye on!

Some of you may already know that I work a day job.  I teach a course on being and Administrative Professional and Bookkeeper at Robertson College.  Administrative work is what I did before so it is something that is fairly easy for me.  Not the teaching, but talking about being an admin assistant.  But teaching is only part of my job.

Our school is really looking into the ways that we can make ourselves more visible online so when I suggested a blog they were very excited about the idea.  Thus, The Admin Professional was created.  This is a blog that is written and maintained by me and I write about all sorts of things that are of concern to those who are already admin assistants and to those who are interested in becoming one.  Sometimes I feature past students and other times I talk about the skills that are needed.

The other thing that we’ve been working on is article marketing.  Not every business realizes what an impact article marketing can have on their business.  But it can be very helpful in developing your business as an expert in your area.  If you look to the right you’ll see a button in the sidebar for Ezine Articles.  This is just one of the places where you can find my writing online.

So, if you want to see samples of my writing, I encourage you to check out the blog and check out some of my article marketing.  Then, if you think that my writing services could be of benefit to you, contact me and we can work together.