Freelance Progress Report: October 2009

As you have probably noticed, I haven't been around much lately. It has been a crazy month with trying to balance everything. However, my class ends this week and I only have a couple weeks of clinicals left. Hopefully after those two things are out of the way I can have a little more time.

On a good note, October has been a month of firsts for me. I sold my first article. I met my income goal halfway through the month. I also hit $10 on Ehow so I can finally get a payout. It has also been my best month to date. I made $497.64. Considering all I have going on right now, I can't believe I did it.

No writing for Associated Content, Ecopywriters or Text Broker this month. Although I did get my PV bonus from AC.

The Breakdown
September PV bonus-$2.06
Total to date-$123.79


Ehow continues to earn for me. I finally made enough this month to reach payout, but still didn't write anything for them.

The Breakdown
October PV earnings-$3.21
Earnings to date-$11.90


NAA continues to be my big earner. I got lucky and participated in a "push" over the first weekend of the month. For those not familiar with NAA, a "push" is where they pay extra on articles for a specified amount of time in order to clear older jobs from the assignment board. I ended up doing 15 articles that paid $1.75 extra each, netting me an additional $26.25. The writing I did during the push as well as through the following week brought me my best week for writing income. $219.72, over half of my monthly goal.

I've also been earning tips this month.

I'm getting more article requests now. It is getting to where requests make up the bulk of my writing for NAA. This month two of my clients' orders somehow ended up with other writers. The two clients were not happy with the result and resubmitted the articles for me to do rather than accept the other writers' work. It's nice to be in demand.

The Breakdown
83 articles-$459.15
tips-$7.22
Total for month-$466.37
Total to date-$1205.37

This was my first month writing for Constant Content and I got off to a good start. My very first article sold exactly two weeks to the day I uploaded it.

The Breakdown
1 article-$40
Commission paid-$14
Total for month-$26

First Article Sold!

I joined Constant Content a while back, but got busy with my other writing sites and never did anything with it. For those who aren't familiar with the site, it's one in which you can upload articles to sell for usage, unique or full rights. You choose your price. You also have the option of entertaining offers.

If it sells, Constant Content takes a commission of 35% of the sale price. Provided you have made at least $5 for the month, you get paid on the following payday, which occurs the first week of every month.

Earlier this month, I finally got around to doing something with the site. I wrote an article in response to a request for content. The request was for a basic overview of tummy tucks, around 400 words. I uploaded my article and priced it at $40 for full rights.

Two weeks to the day it was uploaded, it sold. After Constant Content's commission, I netted $26. While losing 35% to commission smarted a bit, I can't complain too much. Even with paying commission, I still made 6.5 cent per word on the article.

Now that my first article went so well, I'm going to try to keep up the momentum. My goal is to upload an article or two per week, either in response to requests or as something I think might sell well.

*Photo by StockXchange user Rawkus.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

One thing I've found since starting my freelance writing career is that research is essential for many articles. Even if you know the subject enough to write off the top of your head, there are some sites that require you to document sources. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite research places.

If you need a study to back up a claim on something medical related, you can't go wrong with PubMed. A service of the US Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, PubMed allows users to search through literally millions of citations from medical and science journals. The search does include some foreign language journal and there are not always translations. In most cases, results of your search will give you abstracts and point you to wherever you need to go to read the full text. I have found PubMed especially helpful in writing articles on alternative health such as herbs. My clients have really liked having scientific studies to back up the claims. "In a 2004 study by British researchers, the herb was found to increase energy by 80%." is a lot more effective than "The herb increases energy."

If you want to look for information in books, but don't feel like wading through the offerings at your local library, Google Books can help. Just type in your search terms and it will search through its large library of books. Depending on the book, you may be able to read it online entirely, get a preview or, in some cases, get nothing more than the name of the book and author. If you're interested in those that do not offer full text, you can then check your library to see if they have a copy available.

The CIA World Factbook is a good jumping off point if you are writing about countries you are not familiar with. It gives information and statistics on the country's geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues. You can find out everything from the average life expectancy to how many cell phones there are in the country.

Ask your local library if there is a state program that offers reference material. I'm not sure about other states, but I know in my home state of North Carolina, we have access to a large online database that links us to reference sites for all kinds of subjects from auto repair to science and technology. Many of the sites normally require membership fees, but by going through the state database, residents are able to access the information for free. All I had to do was give my local library a call and ask for the password for home access. If you are a freelance writer living in North Carolina, leave me a comment and I'll help you get set up.

Making the Leap to Private Clients

Since starting my journey to become a freelance writer in April, I have stuck to content sites. I have browsed the various freelance job sites, but haven't taken a chance on applying or bidding for anything. Considering how well suited I was to several, I'm kicking myself for letting fear of getting turned down stand in my way.

However, the last few weeks have shown me that if I can just get a client to let me do one article, they usually come back for more. Last month, I had several clients on NAA that liked my work so much that they put up additional articles for me to do. Today alone, I had messages from two NAA clients offering me more work on the basis of my original article. One offered 20 articles and the other offered 50.

To truly make a career out of freelance writing, I need to take the leap. While writing for content and ghostwriting sites has allowed me to get my feet wet and gain confidence, it's difficult to make a living on them alone. I did reach my income goal last month, but I also turned out a lot of writing, approximately 39,000 words, to do so. If I had did the same amount of writing at a slightly higher rate, say 3 cent a word, I would have made enough to cover most of my family's expenses. At 5 cent a word, I could have paid everything and had a little left to put into savings.

This month I'm taking that leap. I'm starting small with a commitment to apply for or bid on at least one freelance writing job per week. At the end of the month, I will have hopefully landed a private client.

Have you taken the leap yet?

*Photo by Jeff Hallam.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

If you accept Paypal payments from clients for your freelance writing, you may be getting a little less than expected from now on. While personal accounts used to be able to receive money for free, Paypal has now added fees for certain transfers. Check out Paypal Doubles Fees, Forgets to Tell Customers for more details. This move may mean less money in your pocket now, but keep in mind that payment processing fees can be deducted as business expenses on taxes.

Freelance Apple offers 17 tips and tricks for new freelancers. Check it out to make sure you're doing everything you can to get your freelance writing business off the ground.

If you plan for your blog to be a source of income and want to be sure it gets off to a good start, there is a blog post on Just Make Money Online to help you out. The post is called how to make money from blogs in the first 6 months and gives you a month by month breakdown of what you need to do.

Daily Writing Tips gives us the top 5 freelance mistakes to avoid.

Last, but certainly not least, Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs offers a little advice for finding work between jobs.

Pros and Cons of Writing Packages

Writing packages consist of multiple articles. Occasionally packages are for articles on related topics, but more often they cover the same topic. For the most part, I enjoy doing packages. However, there are some drawbacks.

Pros

• Research is faster. Instead of having to research each individual article, you can research the subject once and do all the writing from a single research session.
• Clients get to see more than one sample of your work. On content sites, work usually goes to the writer who claims it first. Unless you get lucky and snag multiple orders by the same client, you're left trying to make that one article convince the client you're the best writer for any future work. With a package, you have several opportunities.
• You gain skills in originality and creativity. This is especially true of packages in which the subject matter is very narrow. You may end up covering the same ground multiple times and each article needs to be unique.

Cons

• If you have trouble with one article in the package, you may have trouble with them all. This happened to me recently when I took on a writing package of five articles on a popular cosmetic procedure. When I first accepted the job, it seemed like it would be an easy one. However, once I started writing the first article, it quickly became apparent that meeting the client's needs and writing effectively was going to be difficult. With every subsequent article in the package, my frustration grew. While I did manage to complete the package, it was not a pleasant experience.
• You may get paid less. In a world with buy one get one free or other discounts promoted everywhere, clients may expect a discount for giving you multiple articles to do. While it may not seem much to offer a $0.50 per article discount, it can quickly add up. Over 100 articles, you'll make $50 less.

What are your thoughts on article packages? Are they worth it?

Scheduling Writing Jobs

When I first started taking assignments, I would write them down in my planner on the due date and time and would often actually write the article the same day it was due.

However, with everything I have going on in my life, I realized that odds were something was going to happen to prevent me from finishing my work on time. I started scheduling jobs a day or two before they were truly due in order to give myself a cushion.

This week, the odds were not in my favor. My husband was supposed to be home for the day on Friday so I scheduled a bunch of work to do that day. At 9 AM Friday morning, he got a call about a tile job. Since he's building his own business at the moment, he had to take the job. So I was left with a slew of work to be done while taking care of our sick three year old. I ended up only getting half of the work done that I had planned for the day.

Thankfully, my new system for scheduling saved me. Although I had scheduled the work to be done Friday, it was actually due over the next few days. I was able to complete all my jobs and get them turned in to the client by the real deadline.

How do you schedule your writing?

*Photo by Uffe Nielse.

Promoting Your Writing

If you write for content sites that pay for page views such as Ehow or Associated Content, getting traffic to your writing is important if you want it to earn money. While SEO (search engine optimization) and good writing may attract some traffic, promoting your writing exposes more people to your work.

RedGage is one method of promoting your writing. After registering for free, users can upload their photos, videos, blog posts and links to their work. Other RedGage users view your content, sometimes rating or commenting on it, and you earn cash for each view. While RedGage promotes the potential to earn, my goal for the site is simply to drive more traffic to my writing. It's paying off. In just a couple weeks, I've managed to gain over 200 views.

Twitter is another option. If you have a lot of followers, tweeting links to your articles can gain some views. However, be careful not to overwhelm your followers with links as this is considered by many to be spamming. I would suggest breaking up link tweets with conversation or only tweeting links that would interest your followers. For instance, if many of your followers are parents, a link to an article on how to get permanent marker off a hardwood floor would probably be a welcome tweet.

You can also post links on your Myspace or Facebook profile. Again, you want to be careful not to overwhelm with links. A few well-chosen links will do. If your readers enjoy your writing, they will go looking for more of your work.

If you're a member of a forum, linking to an article or your profile on a content site may be an option. On the WAHM forum I frequent, it's not unusual to see members with links to their Ehow or Associated Content profiles in their signature. Answering a post in a niche forum with a link to your work may also be a way of getting views. For instance, if you're a member of a crafting forum and a member has posted asking about free patterns, you may be able to link to your article on finding free patterns.

Advice sites such as Yahoo Answers may send some traffic to your writing. Don't be afraid to link to your writing if it's relevant to the question.

As a final option, your blog may be a way of promoting your writing. While you should not plaster your blog with links to every article you've ever written, occasionally referencing an article in a blog post or putting a feed of recent articles in a sidebar can bring traffic to your writing, especially if your blog has a high volume of traffic.

*Picture by Yamamoto Ortiz.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

No one wants to put a lot of work into applying for a writing job only to find out that it's a scam. James of Men With Pens shares three scams freelancers face and how to avoid them. It is an older post (September 2007), but many of these scams are still in use today.

If you're writing content for the web, search engine optimization, often referred to as SEO, is something you need to know about. Check out this great list of free SEO tools. If you're writing for a share of ad revenue, you'll definitely want to check out the keyword tools.

Unless you plan to stay with content sites, odds are you're going to start looking for your own clients at some point in the future. Daily Writing Tips gives us 5 tips when bidding for freelance work.

Freelance Parent gives us 67 freelance niche writing markets you may have never considered.

Busy, but Productive

Last week was very busy, but also quite productive for me. I finally hit my writing groove and managed to knock out almost $100 in articles. I'm well on my way to my August goal of $400 in writing income. I may even end up surpassing my goal. The addition of two more sites at the end of last month definitely helped as I have more options for income.

My new system for writing has helped a lot. Originally, I was grabbing an article or two, doing them and then looking for more work. Now, I sit down once a day and grab several articles with varying due dates. I spend less time looking for work and have work lined up several days out. What's your system for writing?

In addition to writing, I've been helping my husband with his business. After four years of subcontracting pretty much exclusively for one company, he decided to go in a new direction. He went into partnership with a friend. Since they're basically starting a new business from the ground up, they can't afford someone to handle the phones, bookkeeping, advertising and setting up their online presence. That all landed on my plate. I can't say that I mind too much, though, as they've already landed several nice jobs.

With everything going on, my time management skills are getting quite a workout. I'd be lost without my planner. I write down everything on it-due dates for articles, when I need to request payouts, doctor appointments, my classes, etc. Then I block out periods of times to do each thing. I try to take writing assignments on similar subjects so I only have to research once.

One thing I'm considering is setting up an additional monitor on my computer. I spend a lot of time going back and forth between my sources and my word processing program. Adding another monitor would enable me to have my research on one screen and my article up on another. This should reduce the amount of time I spend writing an article, in turn increasing my productivity. Do you have more than one monitor? If you do, has it increased your productivity?

*Photo by Joe Zlomek.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

A few more good resources this week. If you know of any that may be helpful to me or other readers, please comment and let me know.

If you're looking for information on how to monitor for content theft or how to deal with it if you find it, you need to check out Hey That Blogger Stole My Content at Blog World Expo.

If you're constantly fighting distraction, then check out 155 ways to work at home without distractions. There's lots of great tips from people that work from home.

Twitter has become the new social media. Learn 62 ways to use Twitter for business.

Ever wonder why you are not more productive? Check these 6 reasons on Dumb Little Man and learn how to get past them.

Your bio is an important part of how client's perceive you. Learn how to write a killer bio that lets clients see who you are and what you have to offer them.

How to Create a Freelance Writer's Resume

As in a lot of other jobs, freelance writers sometimes find themselves in need of a resume in order to apply for a desired position. While a traditional resume will sometimes suffice, a writer's resume is a better choice. A writers resume focuses on your writing skills and experience. Any training related to either writing or the type of writing you will be doing should also be included.

If you're unsure of what to include on your writers resume, hiring a professional resume writer is an option. However, you should keep in mind that you may need several variations of your resume depending on the type of writing position you're applying for. That is why many freelancers choose to build their own writers resume.

A writer's resume begins like a traditional one with your name and contact information. Use discretion when deciding how much personal information to share. While many legitimate freelance writing positions do request a resume, spammers sometimes use the ruse to gain information.

Next is the objective. This is an often debated part of a resume. There are many that believe that no resume is complete without an objective. There are an equal amount of people who believe that the objective is useless. If you do decide to include an objective, make sure it's personalized to the job. A generic "position to utilize my writing skills" should be avoided.

Skills are next. While you may be tempted to include all your writing skills, it's best to list the ones that are relevant to the position. Remember hiring managers generally only spend 15 to 30 seconds reviewing a resume.

Experience follows. Focus on your writing experience. However, if you've held a non-writing position that can relate to the position you're applying for, it may be worthwhile to include that experience on your writers resume. For instance, if you're applying for a position as a medical writer and have ten years experience as a nurse, you would include your nursing experience because it lets the potential client know that you have a medical background.

Education should also be included. School name, location, degree, year of graduation is a common format. Even if you didn't graduate with a degree, it may be helpful to include relevant classes or activities that you did well in.

That is a basic format for the writer's resume. Don't be afraid to reorder the parts to play up your strong points. If you have little experience, but a Master's degree in Journalism, definitely move the Education section.

As you can see, a writer's resume isn't much different than one for any other job. The key is in highlighting your writing skills.

*Photo courtesy Microsoft ClipArt.

The Weekly Resource Round Up

This week's round up has a few more goodies for you. If you have good resource or tool to share, let me know by commenting.

If you're feeling frazzled, stop by and check out Will Write for Chocolate for a laugh break. The comics never fail to make me smile.

Are you in personal branding prison? James Chartrand of Men With Pens offers some great advice about branding on a Copyblogger guest post.

Laura Spencer at Freelance Folder gives us ten tips to stay motivated even when you really don't feel like working.

If you need a refresher on punctuation, grammar or AP style, be sure to check out News University's course Cleaning Your Copy. The course is free. You just have to register with NewsU to take it.

Stock XChng is a good source for free photos to use in articles and blogs. Be sure to check the restrictions when using photos. Some require permission to use in a public work or ask that you give them a photo credit. Even if they have no requirements to use the photo, I always credit the photographer and leave a note letting them know where I used it.

The Weekly Resource Round Up

Note to readers: The Weekly Resource Round Up is a new feature and will appear every Wednesday. I spend a couple hours each week browsing the internet in search of information related to freelance writing. I'm constantly coming across some great information and tools and wanted to share them with you to help you in your own journey.

Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs shares 50 Places that Hire Freelance Writers. Be sure to check out her freelance writing job leads as well.

Mira's List offers a large frequently updated list of grants, fellowships and residencies for individuals working in the arts. A number of these are specifically for freelance writers.

You can check the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of your headlines at the Advanced Marketing Institute. The free Headline Analyzer is an excellent tool for finding a headline that make an impact on your readers.

Web Doctus offers tips on using twitter to find freelance writing jobs.

Writing for Magazines

Lately, I've been considering getting into writing for magazines. The idea appeals to me for several reasons. First is the exposure. With so much writing online, it's easy to get overlooked. Writing for a popular magazine gets my name and work in front of millions of people. Second is the clips I can use in my freelance writing portfolio. An article on Associated Content or the like is okay, but can't hold a candle to an article published in a magazine read by millions. Third is the pay. Writing for content sites I make pennies per word. Writing for a magazine I can make a dollar or more a word. It adds up.

When the idea initially occurred to me, I assumed it would be difficult to find magazines willing to take on a freelance writer. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many welcome unsolicited articles and queries. You can usually find the submission guidelines and contact information by going to the magazine's website and clicking on the “about us” or “contact us” tab. Not every magazine will indicate their rates upfront, but many do.

The one downside I've found to freelance writing for magazines is the wait time to get paid. Because articles are generally scheduled months in advance of their publication date, you may find yourself waiting a long time before you receive a check for your work. However, I feel like the higher rate of pay, not to mention the exposure, is well worth the wait.

Have you written for a magazine? If not, would you consider magazine writing? What magazines would you choose?

*Photo by R. Young.

Writer's Block

I've had writer's block lately. It's a frustrating condition, especially for a freelancer on a deadline. No one wants the dreaded label of "writer who misses deadlines." So how does a writer break through writer's block and get the words flowing again?

I did some research to find out what other writers do and came across an interesting post by Matt at Signal vs Noise. In his blog post Writer's Block is Sometimes Just Typer's Block, he theorizes that we have the words we need, but our fingers fail to follow through. He recommends speaking the words, then going back and transcribing what you recorded. In theory, this allows you to bypass your fingers, allowing your words to shine as they're meant to.

It actually makes perfect sense. I spend so much time struggling to get the typed words to match the words in my head that I end up cluttering them up, rendering my writing incomprehensible. By speaking the words naturally and then going back and typing, I skipped all the extra words by fingers were trying to add and managed to complete my article.

What's your method for dealing with writer's block?

*Photo by Robert Linder.

Pros and Cons of Freelance Writing

As with most things, freelance writing has its pros and cons. While the pros are what draw most of us to a career as a freelance writer, it's important to explore the cons as well. Many can be overcome, but if you find you have difficulty dealing with one of the cons, it may be time to do some serious thinking about whether freelance writing is really the best career option for you.

Pros

• You can work just about anywhere. I've worked from a hospital waiting room while my husband had a procedure and the backyard while my daughter played.
  
• You set your own hours. In a regular 9 to 5 job, you generally have to plan activities around your work schedule. One of the things that drew me to freelance writing is being able to take my daughter to the park in the middle of the day if we wanted to go.
• You can wear your bunny slippers to work and no one will laugh. Other than your spouse or kids anyway.
• If you don't feel like doing a specific job, you can turn it down.
• You don't have to tune out your coworkers chatter.
• Unless you're ghostwriting, it's your byline on the work you do.
  

Cons

• You have to find your own work. It doesn't matter if you're the best writer to ever attempt a freelance writing career. If you don't take the initiative to find work, odds are you won't survive as a freelance writer.
• You have to be organized. A freelance writer with a reputation for missing deadlines will find it difficult to find jobs. I use a combination of a day planner and reminder on my computer to ensure I don't miss a deadline.
  
• You're on your own with taxes. As an employee, taxes are automatically pulled out of your paycheck. When you freelance, you are responsible for paying the taxes yourself.
• You have to have a thick skin. In a perfect world, we'd always get every job we wanted. In the real world, the job often goes to the writer with more experience, a lower rate or simply a different style or writing. Freelance writers have to be able to handle rejection.
• It can be lonely.

What pros and cons have you found in your freelance writing career?

*Photo by Stephen Stacey.

Scheduling Time for Writing

One of the reasons I enjoy working from home is that I'm not stuck working in a schedule designed by someone else. I like the freedom of being able to run errands when I feel like it, rather than trying to squeeze it into my lunch break. Being able to take my daughter to the park when the mood strikes, rather than having to wait until I'm off work, is wonderful.

However, with my plan to add more content sites to write for, as well as hopefully finding some private clients in the near future, I see that some sort of schedule is going to be a necessity. My time is split in several directions-family, bookkeeping for my husband's business, taking care of our home, writing, and, starting next month, school.

Since the thought of a rigid schedule with every minute planned just makes me cringe, I'm going to try a more flexible one. That will allow me to adapt easily if something comes up or I just want to do something different that day.

If you're a stay at home parent, how do you schedule time for freelancing?

*Photo by Jenny W.

The Value of Your Freelance Writing

I have been debating about signing up with a freelance job site. To make a career out of freelance writing, I need to be able to find clients, rather than depend solely on content sites. After browsing my options, I signed up with one. I filled out my profile, did a couple tests to prove my abilities in my chosen categories, and then started looking through the jobs.

I'm finding that the pay isn't that great on many of the jobs. Either providers are bidding extremely low or the buyer is expecting professional quality work at outrageously low rates. The buyers know they can find providers at low rates so they have no incentive to pay a fair rate.

While I don't expect top dollar for my work when I'm still fairly new to freelance writing, I have a problem with working for rates that low. I just can't bring myself to work for $1-2 an hour or a fraction of a penny per word. I can make more money waitressing, babysitting or working fast food.

My husband is supportive of my writing and my desire to make a career of it. However, I can't see it going over well if he comes in from work to me announcing that I worked all day and made $8. He would ask me if I was out of my mind and I would have to agree with him.

As freelancers, I don't think we're helping ourselves by undervaluing our work. To make money working at substandard rates, you have to work faster, which often leads to a decline in the quality of work. Also, by agreeing to work for extremely low rates, we're teaching clients to expect high quality work at bargain basement prices.

What value do you put on your work? What are your time, skills and experience worth?

*Photo by Jack Tse.

Free Courses to Help with Your Freelancing Career

When it comes to being a freelance writer , you need skills in writing, marketing and business. However, as a stay at home managing our bills on one income, paying for classes on these subjects isn't an option. So I started searching the web for free online classes.

News University offers courses on subjects ranging from advertising sales to writing. While some of the courses do have a fee, there are several that are offered at no cost. You do have to sign up for a free account to take advantage of the courses.

Suite 101 offers a variety of courses. Be sure to check out the articles on starting and running a small business, professional writing, and writing well.

Writer 2 Writer has a few free courses. However, you should be aware that you will be automatically added to their ezine when you sign up for one of the free courses.

The business courses at Free-Ed will help you learn how to manage your freelance business.

*Photo by Sanja Gjenero