Making money as a Freelance Writer is not always an easy road, and is really left to those who have the drive to properly set themselves up as great writiers. There are so many websites available now, that offer writers a chance to hone their skills and make some money while doing it, that even those who are not so great at writing, are making decent earnings online.
1. Get Online
Don’t get lost in the times now. You don’t have to send your resume to thousands of newspapers and magazines to get into freelance writing. In fact, it much better for your portfolio is you just start online in the first place. That why this Factoid is focused on Online Freelance Writing. Once you’ve been in and out of that scene, you will be a freelance writer and many new opportunities will open for you.
2. Get Paypal
Trust me, paypal is a superior tool to the freelance writer. Many online writing sites use paypal as a way to pay you what you earn. You can sign up at www.paypal.com and easily get going. Make sure you have a paypal account, so you can get paid easier for your work!
3. Build your portfolio
This is something that will take you a while. Now, how long that while lasts, is up to you. There are writers who have written up to 200 articles in just over a month, which is as easy as 5 articles a day. If each artilce is well written and in a high traffic topic, all of those 200 articles could be earning 2 to 3 dollars a month. Forever.
When you build up your portfolio using revenue sharing sites, you set yourself up for a residual income that just keeps on earning, as long as you keep writing. Not only that, but your huge array of articles, poems, letters, and other writing content will show companies you apply to later, that you have what it takes to pump out needed material when needed.
Here are some great sites you can use to start building your portfolio right now:
www.triond.com/users/unwrittenfate
www.hubpages.com/
www.ehow.com/
www.factoidz.com/
www.associateconent.com/
4. Blog
Blogging is an awesome avenue for any freelance writer. There are some blogs that will pay you, or give you a website, or share revenue, or a number of other options. There are also a bunch of blogging sites that don’t pay, but are still worth writing in and showing off. Myspace and facebook are very good places to blog about your everyday life and keep those writing muscles going. You can create an authors page on either of those sites. You can also use www.Yuwie.com which is like myspace, except that they don’t lie about marketing, and they offer you revenue sharing for how often people look at your page. Which is pretty awesome. You can make an authors page and get paid any time someone views it online.
Blogging tends to be a bit more personal, but it’s not so much about what you write, its about how often you write. Blogging has a unique way of logging when you write, and it can tell online advertisers looking for long term constant content, that you are always writing and creating. Use it as much as you can.
5. Get Your Legs Wet
Spending so much time on your writing, blogging and content creating can consume a lot of your time, and sometimes freelance writers forget that they are F-R-E-E to change directions, explore more, or get their legs wet!
When you have at least a few hundred articles under your belt, you might want to try exploring some of these sites.
www.textbroker.com a site that offers one time jobs with clients who need content for website, etc. You don’t get to keep any of your work, but you get paid almost instantly, and they are a great easy to navigate site.
www.elance.com is a site holds a bit more class, and is also ran a bit like ebay. Clients post jobs and writers or providers bid on them. You can make anywhere from $50 to $10,000 on a project, depending on your skills and experience. You can sign up free with a few credits, but after one job, it’s worth it to sign up for the 10 bucks a month to get more, so that you can big on jobs. They have all sorts of freelance work, from local work to telecommute. Ghostwriting, copywriting, or creative writing. Just about any category is covered and they use escrow to make sure you get paid and the client gets their conent. It’s a great site. Add me as your friend on there! I’m PlatinumWriter!
www.constantcontent.com is also a great site when you want to get into a bit more extensive writing. They would like previous samples and uphold great standards. Makes sure to devote some time to building your profile on this site.
www.ArticleIncome.com is another great site to get into for continuing to develop your portfolio. Make sure to check them out and write a couple of creative pieces for them!
6. Put Yourself Out There
Get the word out that you are a fantastic freelance writer, and let the world know that you are available to be paid for freelance work. If you can write resumes, create content, or research better than the best of them, than you have a useful skill that others don’t. Those who don’t have the skills or desire to write, will hire you! But only if they are able to find you.
Check out craigslist.org or head to www.genuinejobs.com and check out the job posting, then post your resume or an ad saying that you are available. You can also check out www.midneeds.com and look at their wanted ads. They are always looking for great writers, and you can post a need saying that you need work, or are looking to be employed for your writing.
You could also put your card on a bulletin board in a grocery store. The idea is that you get yourself out there, so that people are aware of your skills and possibly interested in hiring you to use them
7. Devote Specific Amounts of Time to Writing
If you want to be like the many who put out 150 or more articles in a month, then you have to discipline yourself and set aside time to do just that. There are many things that can distract you, and they will all come more then once a day. If you are trying to build a supplimental income, sometimes you need to put aside everything else, and just do it. Once your base has been built, it’s way to simple to just add to it and prune it here or there over the time after.
Now, a good article of any general topic, is between 300 and 750 words, depending on who wants it and what they want you to write about. It takes a moderately skilled writer around an hour per article. To someone who can type and/or think faster, it could take much less time. To another, it could take hours per piece. It doesn’t matter what type of writer you are, and there is no one who is better than another, it just changes your devotion time.
If you can write and edit a decent 500 word article in 30 minutes, more power to ya. Can you write 5 a day that are each different from each other, creative and attention grabbing? I find that slower writers tend to be more meaningful. So if it takes you 100 minutes to write your article, there is nothing wrong with that, you will probably create another piece of gold by the time you are done editing all your articles of the day. If you are still getting used to that key board, lower your article amount per day, and work up. You can do just 2 or 3 a day and have a steady income building up in a couple of months.
Whether you are devoting 2.5 hours, or 5 to 6 hours, just make sure you do it. Take some time on each site that you have, find questions that have been asked in forums or on the sites and answer the ones you know. Find articles or content that needs to be written and research the answer. The more you learn as a writer, the more you are able to work with later when you need to be creative.
Devote some time to your writing and don’t let anything get in your way!
8. Hot Topics
Whether you are a copywriter, ghostwriter, freelancer, creative content creator, or any other form of writer, you are going to have to learn what societies hot topics are. Then you going to have to keep up with trends in order to stay in the Hot Topic writer section.
Sure, it’s okay if you want to write articles that talk about dung beatles in an old town in italy that still speaks latin, but you might not get very many people who want to read it. If you learn what the hot topics are around you, you will have a much easier time earning an income, and keeping those articles from getting to stale.
Here are some current Hot Topics that tend to stay pretty trendy in writing circles:
*Health *Business
*Technology *Positive Thinking
*Dating *Relationships
*Marriage *Divorce
*Pregnancy *Drugs
*Politics *Gaming
*Reviews *Events
*Hair/Fashion *Excercise/Dieting
*Stocks *Current Trends
9. Write an Ebook
This is a really great time in a writers life. Ebooks are really simple to write, they don’t take years of study to develop and they can be about any topic imaginable. Just as people are diverse, so are their reading preferences, and with all the people on the internet, you are sure to have some who want to read what you write.
The idea is to write an informative, creative and ingaging book that other can easily buy and download to their computers. It costs much less than creating one in print, and if you write a decent one for the right price, you could could start to earn a nice little income from an ebook.
Most ebooks are between 30 to 100 pages, but can be as small as 15 pages, or as big as 600 or more. Generally, ebooks are written about non-fictional topics, which makes them easier to create. Just pick something you love to do, find out the right name for it, do a little bit of research and write your heart out.
Try to keep it as organized as you can. Make sure you have an intro that explains why you wrote the book, and what it can do for the reader. Then have a table of contents that shows the chapters. Then make sure all your spelling and grammer is correct and when your done spend some time formatting the book so that it looks clean and attractive.
Use a font that is 14 or more, and make use of your Bold and Italic tools to emphasize what you are writing about. Read the book yourself, and if you have another set of eyes handy, let them wonder over your book and give it their approval. Then you can find sites that will let you self publish yourself into the wonderful world of authordome.
Ebooks can take some time to really get a knack for, and I would like to warn any beginners that your first book will probably be your worst, so just write it and get it over with. Publish it and then laugh about it later. Your second and third and fourth should peak more interest, as long as you keep at it.
10. Write, Write and Write Some More
This is key. Even when you get board of it, or tired, or things come up, you need to write. Especially if you are trying to be a great freelancer who wants to be offered good jobs down the road. Keep at it, take a break when your eyes are tired, and then get back at it. If you get a mental block, switch gears and write about something new or different.
