Why I write
Careful! This post is looking a little old and could be inaccurate in many, many ways
In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of guest posts published first on Onextrapixel and then on Six Revisions and damn it’s hard. I think I both love and hate writing in equal measure and here’s why:
Love
There are a few benefits to writing a guest article for sites like these. In some instances a site will pay you for the article, the extra money is always great but in truth the payment is nominal next to what I could earn freelance over the same time.
But money isn’t my primary goal for writing articles, it’s simply a nice gesture. The main benefits can come from the increased exposure you receive that can lead to increased twitter followers, increased site traffic and possibly more freelance work. The last of which can clearly bring you more money if this is your primary concern.
Hate
The simple reason I hate writing is it just takes me so damn long, instead of writing something once and declaring it done I will rewrite stuff time and time again, restructuring things, shortening others and generally just trying to ensure the point comes across. Hell I’ll even have rewritten and reread this post at least 3 times before it got published. And all this only comes after you’ve actually had to think up the idea for what to write. Sure I find enough ideas for my own site but writing here is different to writing for someone else’s.
Neutral
The above quite nicely cancel each other out in my eyes, leaving what is a fairly neutral stance on whether or not I write for these sites. But there is something I have so far missed out that tips the scales and this is the responses I receive from an article. Those people that are kind enough to leave a positive comment saying the post has been helpful or that it’s well written are what makes the hard work bearable. I am one of those people that enjoys receiving positive feedback about the things I do. But also I like the fact that something I’m doing could actually teach and help someone. Sure I’m not curing cancer here but helping people, even in a small way, gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside.