Reasons Freelancers Should Write For Free

Freelance writers want to get published and get paid for their writing, so they don't want to write for free. But freelance writers can get a lot of long-term benefits from so-called free articles. Here's what free articles can do for writers.

Hone Writing Skills

The more writers write, the better they get - and they faster they can produce articles that get published. New freelance writers may find it difficult to write one or two 400-word articles a day. Experienced freelance writers will be able to write five, six or more within a working day. The reason for this is practice, as well as the key skill of how to recycle content.

Example: I have researched a general article on surfing. Instead of using my research once, I use it several times to write articles with slightly different slants. Some articles are aimed at surfing enthusiasts, others at novices. I also use this material as part of other articles on sports and adrenalin junkies. Instead of writing one article, I have written four.

Writers can also change the slant of their articles depending on the audience they are writing for. The same article on surfing would be written differently for teenagers and silver surfers. Writing for article directories gives writers a chance to experiment with targeting their articles.

Let Editors Get To Know Writers

Ezine and website publishers are always looking for well written content. Article banks are a key resource for ezine editors and publishers looking for writing. Writers who have articles on article banks will get their work picked up by these editors and publishers. Although writers do not receive money for this, they do make contact with people who may pay for writing later.

For example, I wrote a book review of a children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. My article was picked up by a parenting site. The editor of the site then asked if I had any other suitable material. I have now made a contact that might provide paid work one day.

Raise A Writer's Profile

If writers want to get regular writing work, editors, publishers and potential employers have to be able to find them. If a writer's name keeps coming up on Google searches with links to articles s/he has written, that writer immediately has more credibility with editors and publishers. This makes it more likely that the writer will get published and get paid to write.

Where Can Writers Post Free Articles?

There are literally hundreds of article directories available. However, writers who want to raise their profile should stick to directories that rank highly in the search engines or have a high PageRank. I use EzineArticles.com as my primary article directory, as articles are indexed quickly by search engines. However, I also use GoArticles.com and ArticleBlast.com.

Writers can gain a lot of promotional benefits from writing articles for article directories. Although writers do not get paid in cash for these articles, the publicity writers get and the contacts writers make are invaluable. And if writers are getting publicity, they're not really writing for free, are they?