Can you make money by writing short messages yourself?

At the beginning of 2003, people learned about a new occupation-SMS writer through the media. This new profession, which was born with the prosperity of mobile phone short messages, attracted many "literary youths" to enter the profession in a hurry with the high salary of "5,000 yuan per month" and "8 to 65,438+10,000 yuan per year" when it was first presented to the public through the media. But after less than two years, people began to find that they rarely received fresh and interesting text messages. A former short message writer sighed helplessly: "Full-time writers can't support themselves at all." I only paid 2000 a month when I tried my best.

Come out. "

A monthly salary of 5000 yuan is just ideal.

In the "golden age" of short messages, the price of writing a short message was 10 yuan to 30 yuan, and a full-time writer was about 2,000 yuan a month.

"If you just write short messages, I'm afraid you can only eat instant noodles every day every month." Xiao Peng (pseudonym), who completely quit the full-time short message writer industry eight months ago, speaks of short messages with strong dissatisfaction. "Eight months ago, I was a full-time SMS writer, and now I don't even want to work part-time. When I first started as a full-time writer, I wrote more than 200 short messages a month at most and provided them to several websites at the same time, but less than half of them were really selected by websites, earning more than 2,200 yuan, and the least one was only 700 yuan a month. Now, I have returned to the original magazine as an editor, with at least 3000 yuan a month. At least my life is guaranteed. "

Xiao Peng calculated an account for the reporter. Even in the "golden age" of SMS, the price of an ordinary SMS writer is only between 10 yuan and 30 yuan. Like Dai Pengfei, the first short message writer, a short message sold in 60 yuan is a "rare animal". Full-time writers who write 200 short messages a month have basically reached a "critical state". "Writing short messages is inspiring and interesting, but if you regard it as a career, it will be very painful. Writing an average of 50 short messages a week is even more interesting, and you will feel that the whole person has been hollowed out, exhausted and can't think of anything. On average, a full-time writer writes more than 100 articles a month. If it is all adopted by the website, it will earn up to 3000 yuan, but the possibility of all is almost zero. Sohu, Sina, 263 and other websites collected short messages on a large scale last year. At that time, text messages were still relatively easy to sell, and the days of text message writers were very sad after the gust. "

Since you can only earn 2000 yuan a month at most, why do you earn 5000 yuan a month and 65438+ 10,000 yuan a year? In this regard, the reporter found a well-known website with a monthly salary of 5,000 to 6,000. Relevant personnel of the website told reporters that the estimated monthly salary of 5,000 yuan is actually calculated according to the "highest ideal", and people who cooperate with the website can't get such a high monthly salary. It has long been an indisputable fact that SMS writers have low wages. Even if the former SMS writers didn't quit, they began to turn to other emerging businesses, such as MMS and CRBT.

10 yuan buys at a high price.

Some websites have stopped charging short message fees, and some websites' short messages are adapted by website editors.

According to the website operator, a full-time writer like Dai Pengfei is not the main contribution source of SMS, but a part-time writer is the backbone to supplement new SMS. However, in the interview, the reporter found that except Dai Pengfei and some writers who are willing to face the media, the vast majority of part-time SMS writers are "only seeing their articles, but not their people". Including Dai Pengfei, who has been "eager to find a colleague to exchange experiences", all "don't know any full-time or part-time writers".

During the interview, the reporter tried to find a part-time writer who still insisted on writing short messages through several websites, but they were all rejected on the grounds of "protecting writers". Sohu.com, who once publicly solicited short messages in the form of "Sohu SMS Alliance" and promised to pay "25% of the proceeds" to the creators when users clicked to buy a short message, said that at present, the website has stopped soliciting short messages for free. "Sohu used to collect short messages on a large scale, and now there are more than 65438+ 10,000 short messages in the short message database, which can fully meet the needs of users and does not need to collect new short messages." It also collects short messages on a large scale like Sohu, and Sina.com, which has set up a short message channel, basically no longer absorbs new short messages. "We mainly collect short messages through QQ or email. Now even if writers provide short messages, the quality is not high and it is difficult to be selected."

An industry insider revealed to reporters that the price of original text messages has dropped to the lowest point in history in the past six months. Even if there is a website to collect them, it is only a few dollars. If it can be sold to 10 yuan, it will be expensive. Because the price is extremely low, no one will take a short message writer as a career except some writers who "don't want to make money, but want to be interested". "Do you know why all the information you see feels deja vu? Because now the short messages of some websites are collected by website editors from various net posts and then adapted by themselves. So as long as you post interesting posts on the website, everyone may indirectly become a short message writer. "This edition of the article was written by Morning News reporter Zhang Ying.

"The First Writer" Rewrites Short Message Novels

Last year, I signed a contract with a website to provide 120 short messages every month, each 60 yuan, but not all of them can be used. At least 65,438+00 messages per month. Of course, what is not written off cannot be counted as money.

Compared with a full-time SMS writer with a monthly income of less than 3,000 yuan, Dai Pengfei, once known as the "No.1 SMS writer in China", is lucky because he is "full-time compared with other part-time writers, but he never expects SMS to eat. The salary of SMS writers is never safe. If you only rely on text messages, you can earn up to 10 thousand yuan a month and at least not a penny. On average, I will earn two or three thousand a month. Even in 2003, I mainly made money by opening columns in newspapers or planning TV programs. "

Supposedly, Dai Pengfei's name and fame were all "hyped" by the media, but in the past six months, he refused all media interviews. When the reporter found him, Dai Pengfei looked helpless: "I want to be alone. I used to be addicted to the sense of accomplishment of sudden inspiration, but now I want to do something else. I haven't written a text message in the past six months. To be honest, I have planned to fade out of the SMS writer industry because it is not an industry at all. "

"Actually, I'm not the first person to start texting. I decided to be a short message writer at the beginning of last year, which is related to learning from the media that the monthly salary of short message writers can reach 5000 yuan. When I became a writer, I found it impossible for me to reach that height. " Decided to fade out of the short message industry, Dai Pengfei felt that he could begin to talk about the difficulties of short message writers: "Being a short message writer has great psychological pressure, because when a writer signs a contract with SP (network operator), he will ask you to provide dozens of works every month or even within a few days, and create dozens of high-quality short messages within a few days, which is really tiring. I'm not in good health now, which has a lot to do with work pressure. As an online short message writer, you have no idea when and how much money you can earn from the short messages you hand in. I signed a contract with a website last year, and it asked me to provide it with 120 short messages every month, each 60 yuan. At that time, I was still calculating that I could earn at least six or seven thousand yuan a month, but I could hand in more than one hundred short messages, and only 10 was actually published. Of course, those that are not published cannot be counted as money. "

In fact, since the beginning of this year, writing short messages is no longer Dai Pengfei's main job, and short message novels and emerging color ring tones have become his new main direction. In addition to the two novels that have been published, he also "showed" the Q version of The Journey to the West series, a new work to be published at the end of the year, namely, The Eight Rings Darling, Wukong Gawk and Tang Priest Bad. "Writing novels and doing TV programs next year may be my direction. If no one asks me to write short messages, I will never write again. Even if someone does it, it depends on whether there is time. I am in poor health now, and it is certainly worthwhile to spend so much time working every day. "

Thin profit, no copyright.

When it comes to SMS writers, we have to mention the website "SMS writers' paradise". This website, which aims at "protecting the interests of short message writers and forming the industry norms of short message writers", has recently been replaced by a lottery network, which seems to indicate that short message writers will never have the expected benefits again.

The head of Sina. Com, which was the first to contact the short message industry, told reporters: "Peer-to-peer downloading of short messages costs a dime at a time. For the website, the profit margin of SMS is too low. The website develops short message platform only to attract users' attention and bring popularity, not to make money at all. Since you can't make money, the website will naturally not offer too high a price to SMS writers. Moreover, in China, short messages limited to 70 characters cannot be protected by copyright, and short messages posted on one website can easily be reproduced by other websites for free. Without interest and copyright, SMS writers are really not a good career for people to develop. "

The person in charge said: "If it's just a hobby, it's ok to be a part-time SMS writer. It is impossible to expect to earn money simply by writing short messages. Because the profit of each short message is very small, even if the short message industry develops in the future, short message writers will not become an industry. There is no future as a full-time SMS writer, and even the present life is hard to guarantee. Since a year ago, all the short message writers in the past have changed careers. It can only be said that because of life, they have become more rational in choosing a job. "