Make Money Writing Articles Online in Kenya

Content writing was my first online job, and it is still one of my favorite ways of making money online. I was able to pick up and start earning from article writing within a week. This makes article or content writing one of the easiest online jobs that everyone with basic English writing skills, Microsoft office/word knowledge, and with a computer that has an internet connection can do part-time or for a living. In this post, I will highlight:

• What is Article Writing
• How to do Article Writing/Requirements
• Where to Find Article Writing Jobs
• Services/Sites that will Make You a Better Content Writer

Other online jobs that I recommend include academic writing, blogging, and transcription.

What is Article/Content Writing?

Content writing has to be one of the most in-demand freelancing job. In fact, most of all the other online jobs tend to involve some form of content writing. Content writing involves writing up articles that will be used on blogs such as Biashara Insight, websites, newsletters, mailing lists, and ebooks. There are thousands of websites and blogs that need to be often updated.

The best part about content writing is that it covers a very diverse range of topics. While working as a content writer, I was able to provide content for law firm sites, construction blogs, health sites, freelancing sites, sports pages, betting forums, etc.

How to do Article Writing

I often recommend article writing to new freelancers, because I believe it always opens doors to more rewarding freelancing opportunities. Plus, it is the easiest online job that you can make a living from. Unlike in academic writing, you don’t need any special training to start working as a content writer. However, there are a few basics that you have to know to start working as a content writer. Plus you need to have a computer with internet access.

1. Keyword

The keyword is one of the important terms that you need to understand if you want to start working as a content writer. Since most of the articles you write will be posted on the internet, web owners often rely on keywords to draw internet traffic. For instance, if you are writing an article about ‘Top Internet providers’ then the keyword for the article will likely be internet providers or top internet providers depending on the internet traffic targeted by the site owner. The Keyword often describes the main topic covered/discussed.

2. Keyword Density
3. UAW
4. SEO
5. SEO writing
6. Plagiarism

The keyword density describes the number of times the keyword of an article appears within the text. To figure out the keyword density of an article, multiply the number of times your keyword or keyword phrases appear in your article, divide that number by the word count. Thus if you write a 500-word article in which the keyword appears five times, then the keyword density is 1%.

SEO articles should have a keyword density between 1 – 4 %. Although this is an outdated method SEO writing practice, some site owners still insist on following strict keyword densities. This is a type of content writing job where you are required to write one original article along with two rewrites of the original article. SEO in full is Search Engine optimization.

This refers to the process of improving the visibility of websites to search engines such as Google. Google and other search engines use factors such as keyword density to determine the ranking of websites. This is a type of writing that is primarily aimed at increasing the search engine ranking of a website. Plagiarism is the use of another author’s work without their consent.

In article writing plagiarism occurs when you directly copy and paste content from another website into your article. Plagiarism is greatly frowned upon in content writing since Google usually punishes websites that post plagiarized content. Find out how to avoid and check for plagiarism on this post.

7. Ebook
8. Article spinning

An ebook is a book in a digital format. This refers to the use of computer programs to reword articles using synonyms and other methods to remove plagiarism from content. Once you are cognizant with the terms listed above, you are ready to start article writing. However, just like other online freelancing jobs it takes patience and practice to perfect article writing.

Where to Find Article Writing Jobs

In addition to being easy to learn, it can be even easier to find a steady flow of article writing jobs.

1. iWriter
2. Upwork
3. Fiverr
4. Freelancer
5. Textbroker

I have highlighted a more in-depth article that shows you all the sites where you can find article writing jobs.

Services/Sites that will Make you a Better Content Writer

Here are some websites that I personally use to improve my content writing skill.

1. Grammarly – Grammarly always sits on top of my list for requirements as an online freelancer, irrespective of your online job. Grammarly accurately corrects all English writing errors in your work.
2. Typingmaster – Speed is an indispensable skill in almost all online writing jobs. The only way you can be a fast typist is through learning touch typing – typing without looking at the keyboard. This site will teach you to touch type for free.
3. Copyscape – As I highlighted earlier, plagiarism is a very major mistake in freelancing, and nothing will make you lose your online article writing job faster than blatant plagiarism. Copyscape is the industry standard plagiarism checker. You can find out how to avoid plagiarism along with a list of over 20 plagiarism checkers on this post.
4. Spinbot – A good article spinner.