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At the time of writing we're deep into Week Three, and I'm no nearer figuring out the best strategy for Writing to Win.

I've done okay so far, bagging $20 in Week One and $5 in Week Two. This week I'm bobbing up and down between the $20 and $5 mark, so anything could happen (except probably shooting up to the top three, but hey ho, we live and learn).

The contest has encouraged me to both write and rate more, and indeed to rate more carefully, especially when the two articles presented are of similar quality. But how to do better in the ratings? Well...

In Week One, I wrote a lot of articles early on, which probably helped. I didn't get an early start in Week Two, so I was never really in a good position to try and bag $20. This week I got my claws in early, but given the article subjects there are only a few areas I feel qualified to write about well enough to submit a good article on. And yet I have been hovering around the 12 to 15 placing mark... only to drop down to the mid twenties during today.

So there is definitely an element of luck involved each week. Get started as early as you can - especially now there seems to be more interest in the competition. Week One was a little slow to get started, I think. Now, everyone's all in right from the start.

Figure out which topics you can really contribute well to. I was delighted to see the writing section in Week Two, yet I won the better prize in Week One, when there wasn't a single section that stood out as being a good one to concentrate on.

I'm curious to see how my writing and earnings will develop over the twelve weeks though. I've noticed some of my competition answers netting over a dollar a day EACH in normal earnings - never mind anything else I've won. So contributing to the competition in itself increases your earnings beyond what you may have got before, regardless of where you rank in the final standings.

Well, there's more to rate and write, so let's all get to it and hopefully I will see you on that winner's list...

Learn more about this author, Allison Whitehead.
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