You probably have a lot of friends that wish they could find the perfect part time job to add a little extra income to the family paycheck. You might know a stay at home mom who wishes that she could somehow find a part time job that is flexible enough to accommodate her strange hours. I think that becoming a freelance writer is an excellent way to generate a little extra cash for yourself when you just can’t seem to find the perfect traditional job to do it.
Becoming a freelancer is a rewarding process, especially for those of us who actually enjoy writing. Even people who don’t think they like writing ought to give it another shot. As we get older, our tastes change. I was never really that much into writing either. Freelance writing isn’t like writing in school. In this business you get to write about pretty much whatever you want to. You can make it as hard or as easy as you want to. Writing about things that you find interesting is a lot easier than you might think.
Freelance writing takes a long time to get good at though. Most of us don’t have any professional experience writing for major companies. We have to learn the ropes by generating our own material on a wide range of topics. Then we slowly learn how to write about things that people actually care about. Over time we develop a sense for knowing whether an article has a real shot at earning a decent amount of publicity.
When you first get into this business the money isn’t all that impressive. You are very unlikely to publish a great piece of work that is going to get picked up by a major news outlet. Chances are you are going to be earning a lot of nickels and dimes. This business pays compound interest though. If you get an article that generates nickels and dimes on a consistent basis, those coins start to add up. Once you have been doing it for about a year or so, you start to think that this really is worthwhile. You can look back at all the work you have done in the last year and see how you have matured as a writer.
You will see how much better you have become in the process. This business is a perfect testimonial for the premise that practice makes perfect. Perfect might not be the right word to use because I don’t know if your material is ever perfect. Still, your newest material is almost always substantially better than the old stuff you were cranking out.
Writing for income has certain benefits that aren’t always apparent at first. For one, you can do this kind of work according to whatever schedule you have available. You can set your own hours and work as little as you want or as much as you can handle. You are your own boss. There is nobody standing over your shoulder to make sure you are slaving away at this. You work at your own pace. The pace you decide to work at is fine by everybody. I find writing to be exceptionally therapeutic also. It feels great to be able to get your thoughts out on paper as if you were writing a diary. You get paid to write this one though.
For people seeking a quick replacement for an hourly wage kind of job, this line of work is probably not the best. For people who don’t need immediate cash though, this kind of work might be an almost perfect fit. You have to start somewhere and be willing to learn. If you are patient and persistent, the work will eventually start paying off. That is when you will realize that you have fallen into the perfect part time source of income. This is one of the greatest benefits the internet has given people like me.
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I can sooo absolutely relate to this. When I first started out, I was paid a dollar for each article and writing was extremely difficult. Four years later and I’m breezing through. Sure, it can be rewarding but only after years of hard work.
It definitely gets easier with time. As with all jobs, you start to get good at it after a while.
Sounds interesting, what options are there for copyrighting? I know Demand Studios and something 101 are a few different options. Where do you find the work?
For beginners I would recommend Demand Studios, Helium.com, Associated Content and Suite101. Ehow.com used to have their own payment system, but they are now managed by Demand Studios.
Also, if a beginner wants to try to make money with Adsense, they can publish articles at Hubpages or launch their own blog at some free host like Blogger.com. Those two choices are not the best long term options, but they will allow someone to get off the ground. Once the money starts coming in, they can reinvest that money in their own domain and private hosting.
Well, I do need immediate cash and this kind of work sounds perfect nonetheless. You did a great job of spelling it out … I would buy. ;-)
Thanks, Kathy!
Create some kind of information product for yourself. If it is any good I will promote the hell out of it for you free of charge.
There is big money in creating and promoting your own information products.
It’s true, the earnings are likely to be slim, but over time they do build up, especially if you write the kind of articles that are evergreen, in other words they keep on bringing in traffic, and therefore the pennies.
Hey Tony,
Glad to have you here. Anyone who reads this should check out Tony’s work. he is a great guy who is not afraid to help someone who needs it.
Earnings at those major article sites will be pretty slim, especially for beginners. But, if you are writing articles that you call “Evergreen” they will begin adding up. I think those places make a great stepping stone to more lucrative opportunities like writing for specific businesses or writing for your own niche websites.
I’m checking it out, thanks.
I have been working on my own since 4 years now and some times it becomes too monotonous but I will still never replace it for a position any where else.
I know what you mean Peter. Once you get a taste of freedom it is hard to imagine ever going back to the rat race.
Nice post! This will be a lot of help for those who have a lot of free time on their hands and as well for those who have a hybrid daily schedule. Also, it’s nice that you pointed out that this business is not instant, just like blogging, it takes time to build your reputation.
Reputation definitely helps if you want regular readers for your articles. That is more effective if you stick to one niche. Writing articles for money on those websites is more about volume. Assuming your writing is naturally of a decent quality standard, then it becomes all about volume. How much content can you produce? It also helps to have other writer friends who will vote for your articles and link to them.
started my blog only few months ago, so I’m still in the learning phase, I’ve read so much about how to blog those at the end I’ve decided to write about that.
The funny thing is that learning how to writing a blog for marketing purpose has became my passion, so I decided to start writing posts giving some marketing advices to beginners like me (actually I wrote only a post but I have many drafts in my mind :-)).
I hope to increase my knowledge so that a day I will be a writer as you suggest, because it seems the perfect work for me, writing is the only thing that makes my time fly.
Silvia,
If you are going to write about telling people how they should be doing things then you should wait till you actually have some experience and know what you are talking about. If you try to tell people how to do things without having any experience, it will show through quite easily. Then people will not like you and will not trust you.
Make sure you are not offering advice about things that you are a beginner in. If you insist on doing it, you should prequalify every article with a few senstences that tell everyone “I am brand new at this. So take my advice for what it is worth. In my opinion……………”
Great advice, and just like anything else, you will need to build your credibility as a freelance writer to get to the next level of higher payouts. There are just so many people willing to write just about anything for very little money that it can be frustrating. The rewarding part is that if you get yourself noticed, then it is possible to earn a decent income out of it. Another place where I found that could be an interesting marketplace for writers is oDesk. While it is not as specific as AC, or Helium, this is a reliable outlet for people looking for real jobs. It is worth the effort as it can be less frustrating than other content creation sites.
Good advice DiTesco. Thanks for adding to the value of the post.
oDesk is another legit source for a freelancer to find work.
Great advice there Kathy. I wish I had time to freelance.
You don’t need to freelance. You already have a successful blog you could profit from. In a way, that kind of does make you freelancer. You just freelance for yourself.
I’m not really seeing a profit. lol
Great article. I am a little interested in trying out some freelance writing every so often on the side. I have used helium for a bit so I am familiar with it. I have of course heard of the others you mentioned in your comments. How are they structured differently? Are some better than other for certain type of articles. Have you thought mayne of a follow up post delving into these topics deeper?
Steve,
I prefer the websites that you can get good organic rankings with. Therefore, I am a fan of Ehow.com and Associated Content. Those two have plenty of authority and can get articles in the top ten results on Google for a low competition keyword without having to build links for them.
Reading this has started me thinking about freelance writing, but how exactly would you get into that field? You say that at first the money rewards will not be great, but anyway what I was wondering as if certain areas were better to focus on than others? A blog post comparing writing for different ‘verticals’ would be something I would really like to read.
Getting into the field is extremely easy Owen. Just visit Associated Content or Helium and apply to be a writer. You will be approved pretty much instantly. Then just follow each site’s instructions for posting your own articles.
I might take you up on your suggestion to write about comparing different verticles within the industry. Thanks for the feedback.
In this year i started and stoped two times in blogging. Sometimes i don´t know what exactly do. I hope the third time is the charm.
I think that bloging in spanish is more difficult to promote than in english.
Persistence will pay off Samuel. Anything worthwhile in life will require some degree of persistence. Don’t be a quitter.
I’m a wanna be novelist and have lots of potential. I’m also a trained nurse. Right now I would like to start earning some money to help with our finances and would love to be able to do freelance writing but haven’t a clue where to begin.
I have written 3 unedited novels and I’m busy working to get the first one completed but time is limited with a 16 month old daughter. I need to earn a small income just to help ease my financial strain and would like to do this by writing for publication. Any help of where to start in this industry would be most appreciated.
You should begin by visitng a website like Ehow.com. There you will need to apply through Demand Studios to become an author.
Yes, being a freelance writer has a lot going for it. However, it’s harder to make money at it than several years ago. Since so many people are getting their information online for free, there are fewer paying markets. (There are still some there, though. They’re just a lot harder to find.)
This is why any writer just has to have a blog. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, as they say.
Blogs are great because they allow you to hone your writing, get known and accumulate content that you can put in a book, publish at little cost yourself and then sell online. (Actually, I think that this is the way most writers will go – as opposed to spending months trying to get their project picked up by a big publisher.)
Unless you are at the top of your field, you are going to find it difficult to make a lot of money freelancing for the major article directory websites like the ones I mentioned. The money you get from those sites will probably not be more than a couple hundred per month per site. In order to get to that level you are going to have to write an awful lot of articles targeting decent paying keywords.
The big money in freelance writing comes when you get steady work from corporate clients. You could make a full time living if you picked up a handful of the right clients.
Thanks for the support Kathy, i won’t quit. You’ll see.