Freelance Progress Report: May 2009

Second month down and still going good with Associated Content. I slowed down a little on my writing for the site since I added Text Broker. Also, between dealing with my chronically ill husband's two hospital stays, babysitting my rambunctious nieces, and my great-grandmother passing on, I've had a busy month.

Anyway, I added another 13 articles, 10 of which were assignments. The 3 non-assignments were offered upfront payments.

I was pleasantly surprised by my Mother's Day article. Initially, I wasn't going to do one since the web is saturated with holiday content, but I finally came up with a niche. It has turned out to be my top-performing article so far, although my yoga poses for kids article is fast closing the gap. What really surprises me, though, is the fact that the article is still getting views despite Mother's Day being over.

The breakdown
13 articles
10 assignments-$33.75
3 offered upfront-$8.38
total for month-$42.13
total since start-$91.96

This month I joined a site called Text Broker. It's a bit different from Associated Content. You choose from the list of assignments in your rating or lower. Once the article is complete, the client has all the rights to it. I've written 10 articles so far and made $76.60. All of my articles have had high ratings from both the client and Text Broker.

Text Broker's FAQ says that if you consistently are rated high, you can request to be moved up to a higher rating. Since all mine have been high, I'm thinking about it. I'm rated a 4 right now and it's a decent jump in pay-from 1.6 cent to 5 cent a word-if I move up to a 5.

The Breakdown
8 articles in the 4 category-$64.40
2 articles in the 3 category-$11.20
bonus weekend-$1.00
Total made-$76.60

I'm happy with my progress so far, but if I want to make a career out of freelance writing, I need to buckle down. I'm going to have to work out a schedule for writing and find some other freelance writing gigs. While these sites are fine for now, I'm hoping to get to the point where I do my freelance writing directly for the client instead of a go-between.


*Photo by Matthew Bowden