Skyword is a writing platform that pays writers between $10 and $250 per article. They also pay you residual income, which means you can keep earning money long after you’ve written an article.
Plus, you get the opportunity to write for companies such as IBM, and The Wall Street Journal.
With the combination of upfront payment as well as pay-per-view residual income, the Skyword platform has opened up the best of both worlds to freelance writers.
The Skyword platform also offers something no other writing site offers in its SEO enhanced writing forms. You article will be evaluated for great SEO before you ever submit it and this translates to fast Google indexing and more views.
More views means a lot more money.
Joining Skyword
After you land on Skyword.com you will see the writer application. Fill it out and sign up. It’s after you sign up that the fun begins. Skyword is a hub of activity and contracts with many high value clients. Each of these clients is placed into what Skyword calls a ‘program’ and you will be selected for a program based on your profile.
Your Dashboard has a great layout. The top will give you the latest news on Skyword, including any holiday closings or technical down times for upgrades. After the headline area the screen is split into two columns. The left hand column has the list of programs you have been selected to join. The right side of the screen has the number or articles you have published as well as the page views and income. The Dashboard makes it easy to see at a glance what’s going on and how much money you have earned so far.
Getting Started with Skyword
Most people start with Gather News. Gather is a high profile newsgathering client of Google so it’s not unusual to see their articles indexed into the very top spot of Google. However if you have no interest in writing for any of the Gather subsections such as news, politics, entertainment and technology you will have to wait until you are selected for a program.
When you are selected for a program you will be notified on your Dashboard as well as by email.
You need to Follow Skyword on Twitter @skywriting. This is extremely important because they will often Tweet about writing opportunities that you can apply for directly.
Your Profile
Things have changed recently at Skyword and now your profile is more important than ever. This is how you are selected for the high dollar programs so you need to make sure your profile is filled out completely and is stellar.
Skyword Style Guide
Each program within the Skyword platform has its own style guide. While they are very similar to each other, it’s a good idea to read the guide when you are accepted into each writing program. This will help maximize your profits and get your work published much faster. One of the helpful aspects to Skyword is that in most cases the programs will point out specifics in their style guide. It’s not unusual to see this in the welcome email that you will be sent upon acceptance.
Skyword Programs
The Skyword programs that are open for writers change often. Not only are there frequently new programs but also older programs that expand. These companies are very well known in the marketplace and a byline on their site can really boost your overall income. Companies such as Lowe’s and Angie’s List have been known to recruit writers from Skyword. Skyword insists on transparency from these companies; they are one of the few writing sites that is on the side of the writers.
These individual programs often pay between $10 and $30 per article with some companies offering $250 per article. They also have their own pay rate for the pay-per-view aspect of the program. The Lifescript pay of $30 per article becomes $230 per article once you factor in the pay-per-view money. Most of the programs will select topics and often even give you the titles and then you supply the article.
The Gather News program does not offer an upfront payment. It also doesn’t offer topics or titles. It does give you a great per-view payment rate that allows many writers to make well over $100 a day.
Within the Gather News writing area there are several categories and the smart writer requests additional areas be opened to them as soon as possible. You never know when you are going to see a trending topic that would fit perfectly in another category.
Trending Topics
Another point in favor of Gather News: The Trending Topic Button. At the top of the writing page there is a button that generates the latest trending topics from Google searches. This is a great way to find a hot topic that is sure to generate a lot of page views in a short period of time.
I was writing for Gather News when the Trending Topic Button was introduced. Because I tend to write several television show recaps for them, I had written one for the Halloween show ‘Mockingbird Lane,’ a modern adaptation of the hit show of the 1960’s, ‘The Munsters.’ After the article went live, it started to get hits and got a lot of hits very quickly. I had 10,000 hits in less than an hour. It was then that I hit the Trending Topic button for the first time and sure enough, that show was the top trending search on Google.
Since then I use that button when I have downtime and am looking to put out a new article. It’s one of the best features of the Gather News program. Trending topics generate the most hits and therefore the most money. Use this button frequently.
Writing a Skyword Article
Every program in the Skyword platform uses its own writing page. You have the option of writing in Word and then copy and pasting it, but this is unnecessary. Skyword employs an automatic auto save so your writing is safe.
When you decide to write an article, you will see 3 distinct areas. The first one wants a keyword. The second wants the title of the article and the third asks you to choose which category the articles fits into. After this the right side of the screen will fill in with articles that may be similar to what you want to write. This is based on the keyword and title chosen, so look closely and be sure that you aren’t duplicating something already written. If you aren’t, then click on the check box that ensures originality and you will be taken to the summery area.
In the summery area you write a brief description of the article. You have 10 minutes to do this before the title and keyword are released. Click on the submit button and head to the writing area. You have 2 hours to write the article.
To the right of your writing area is a handy checklist. However the unique feature to the writing area is the evaluate button; you have to click this before a submit button becomes available. The automatic evaluation button will scan your article looking for spelling, grammar and SEO mistakes. It will then grade your article and allow you to fix the mistakes. After fixing the mistakes, evaluate it again. Once you have it to your liking, click the submit button.
For writers new to Internet writing, this single website is a goldmine. Not only are you paid to write articles, it teaches you the techniques of great SEO in a manner that will alter your writing habits. Within a few articles you will begin to automatically change how you write and before long when you hit the evaluate button you will be getting an ‘A+’ on SEO and be inclined to write this way on other writing sites.
After your article is accepted, you can easily promote the article to increase page hits. Skyword has this already set up so all you have to do is select where you want it promoted and you are done.
Skyword Editing
The editing process here is completely painless and the editors are a great bunch of people. There is a notes area at the bottom of articles so you can send a note to your editor. Because one of the recaps I do is for the show ‘Grimm’, I frequently let the editor know that the weird spellings have been double-checked and are accurate. If there is a problem, the editor will send it back telling you what that problem is and even offer suggestions on how to fix it.
Skyword Payment
Payment is on the 1st and 15th of each month and through Paypal. This is an absolute and it doesn’t matter what programs you are involved with because you are paid via Skyword.
Skyword Communities
Unlike most sites, Skyword has many community areas and forums to discuss everything under the sun. This is not just for writers; the general public is also there.