Online writing Tips and analysis
Truth be told online writing is one of the most lucrative and attractive industries in Kenya right now. It has a low barrier to entry. This does not mean it is easy to get into .Writers are extremely sharp and geeky. They do handle orders in fields they have even never schooled and helped other student in different universities all over the world attain A’s and A++ (and some have not even graduated in Kenyan universities)
I got in this in 2011 and as many veterans will tell you to make it in this field is not a walk in the park. I have made many mistakes in the years I have been here and I have learned a few things which am willing to share. I will put this guide for free to help anyone who is willing to put in the work and learn.
I will cover
- Different levels of expertise and entry levels in this business
- Fundamental Awareness (basic knowledge)
- Novice level (limited experience)
- Intermediate level (practical application)
- Advanced level
- Expert (recognized authority)
- Challenges I experienced in each level.
- Tips on how to better yourself in each level
Fundamental Awareness (basic knowledge)
This are guys who are just learning about online writing (academic writing or article writing). Most of this group knows a successful writer somewhere (some guy or chick who is driving paying rent and taking care of other bills all this from home). They hear of this online way of doing assignment for other students for some mulla online and are sucked in by the idea.
Challenges
- Too much enthusiasm
- Less experience
- You will easily fall victim to scammers and cons
- High chances of losing your investment if you put money in this venture
Tips
This is online business. There is a ton of online material to research on. Take a week or two to research on
Writing styles
- Expository writing
- Narrative writing
- Descriptive writing
- Persuasive writing
Plagiarism
This is an extremely important skill to acquire. Familiarize yourself of ways of avoiding plagiarism. Invest in a plagiarism check tool like turnitin .You can pull resources with a few buddies and buy one if you are just starting and hard on cash.
Note: it does not matter which level you are operating on, this is a buzz killer if you don’t know how to navigate it. It can cost you dearly; you can lose your job, an account or even a direct client (DC)
Good thing is you only need to master it once and you are good to go
- Be available on phone at all times in case there is a revision.
Citation and citation styles
Citation: is a way of giving credit to individuals for their creative and intellectual works that you utilized to support your research. It can also be used to locate particular sources and combat plagiarism. Typically, a citation can include the author’s name, date, and location of the publishing company, journal title, or DOI (Digital Object Identifer)
Learn how cite your work both in text citations and bibliographies
- MLA
- APA
- Harvard
- Chicago/Turabian
You can learn all this by yourself online. Or you can look for a trainer around you to take you through. Good thing writers are now spread all over Kenya and not just in KAHAWA .
Note:
- For this level I advice people to deal with people they personally know or at least on site.
- Be humble, and if your trainer asks for lunch or a bottle of beer, nunua. This skills will be worth it in the future. Corporate world asks for 5 years experience to pay around 20k a month tulia
Novice and intermediate
By this time you will have completed a few orders. If you have a good employer they will mould you and take you through the ropes.
Challenges
- You will often feel overworked (way too many revisions and sometime you will have to even have to change the whole content from scratch)
- Some people do bite more than they can chew.
- Overconfidence
TIPS
- Be patient and take your time to learn more skills
- Avoid orders with short deadlines
- Treat your employer like a boss. This way you get to learn more and acquire more skills.
- Don’t shy from asking. This will help you in the future.
- Expand your expertise. Start learning how to handle technical orders( graphs and the works)it will come in handy in the future when you have an account of your own…
- Be available on phone at all times in case there is a revision.
Note;
Most guys in this level are in campus or just cleared college. Maliza small bills. Invest in a good computer, reliable internet and move into a good neighborhood. And get your own keja while you are at it.
Advanced level
By this level you will have handled all type of order. By this time you will know your strengths and weakness, the right kind of orders to pick and not. Your typing speeds will be way better and you can handle urgent orders.
Challenges
- Sometime you will be paid at the same rate with the newbies. Which is kinda frustrating.
- You will probably deal with a crappy client.
- By this time you will probably have fallen victim to a crappy employer. You hand in a good papers and they pull and Houdini on you time ya payment
Tips
- Provide quality work. Offer quality work and your employer will eat from your hand.
- Look for good employer and stick to them. Even guys in the formal employment don’t work for many employers. Dedicate your time to them and be available on short notice if possible.
- Be available on phone at all times in case there is a revision.
Note
- Invest in all minor and major softwares, that is, buy your own plagiarism checker, grammar check software, and bibiliography tools like mendeley or EndNote etc
- Start shopping for your own account.
- Observe your employer. Improve on his/her shortcomings and more importantly improve on his strengths.
- Concentrate more on what the clients on what clients want.
Expert level
By now you will have been in the business for a couple of years. You know the dos and don’ts of the industry. By now you should be able to comfortably own your own account(s) from the many writing companies in the market (without being conned)
Challenges
- Finding a profitable account to own within your budget.
- Having good writers at a moment’s notice. It is frustrating to spent the night biding for an order only to pick it and you realize hakuna writer wa kuifanya. Worse you give some quack online who does a sub standard job on POD termsn(you still have to work on it or pay an editor to fine tune the work), they won’t do the revisions and wore un to you if you don’t pay it. Unaanikwa all over as con.
- Account closure or demotion due to late delivery, plagiarism or sub standard work.
Tips
- Research on the best accounts to buy within your budget. All this companies are online. Perform some analysis on them, know their payment rates, modes of payment and payment schedules before you buy them. Get fundamental information before you start shopping for one (no one just shows up in a car dealership to buy car without researching first, unless you have unlimited resources)
- Get all personal information needed to secure your account, all passwords(primary and secondary)
- Secure the mode of payment, eg skrill, PayPal, payoneer etc
- Train and retain your own writers. Mentor a newbie or an intermediate writer. This way you make sure they are committed to you. You don’t want to get an urgent order and be hanging.
- Be a good boss to your writers. Remember they have bills to pay too, teach them where they are not good. (Capacity building of your writers is as important as your account. Give bonuses where possible and now and then buy lunch to your writers).Even multinational companies take their employees for team building and end of year parties. Don’t be stingy)
Note
- Invest in other industries. Buy a ka plot somewhere, tafuta a partner and nunulia wazazi something
- Learn what your employer is doing. Perfect your interactions with your clients.
- learn how to own your own website and getting direct clients
THE BOSS
By now you have enough budget to own your own academic writing website. You can learn how to built one for free or invest in a programmer to built you one.
- 30k will get a decent website on WordPress or WIX
- Invest on SEO (search engine optimization)(set aside 100k to make your website visible on search engines)
- Read my article on Search engine optimization.
- Keyword research
- Competitor analysis
- LSI research
- Do link building
Note
Diversify your portfolio
Get into other online hustles eg Amazon affiliate marketing,clickbank, walmart affiliate programe etc
Invest in other industries eg land, agri business etc