Freelance writing

[Radiance]

I am researching and it seems you can make anything from 10c to $1 a word by submitting articles to magazines, newspapers, even private companies.

This is different than blogging...

There are several websites that explain how to get started, find markets and get published. As with many other opportunities the main cause of failure is just not trying hard enough.

What I like about this opportunity is that it can be done as a side job and grow it on a steady pace.

If you think you cannot write, there is a lot of help out there.

I am working to get published but I was thinking more in the lines of blogging. I believe writing for others, even while I do it for free will help me getting in the habit of writing and stablishing myself as an authority on my area.

What do you think? It seems 2k-7k a month is not unheard off.

[jeffrey]

Very difficult to make that kind of money as a freelancer until you put a lot of years into it. The problem with freelancing for a lot of people is that they believe it's simply writing when in fact you'll spend half your time pitching ideas and hustling for the next article. The writing part is appealing to most, but the pitching turns off many as it isn't nearly as much fun.

[Sonja]

The problem of freelance writing is... competition! Nearly every niche is already occupied by a group of professional experts, and it is very difficult to "stick in". You have to work hard to make the employer believe that you really know the ropes.

[Radiance]

How about publishing your own eBooks?
You would be a freelance writer, for yourself!

[PetMom]

I have heard of companies needing bloggers to blog for them. But it seems as if the blog market might be saturated now and companies are more interested in twitter and facebook. When companies hired for bloggers they wanted to view an established blog for examples of the writing and style.

Some bloggers make money from ads placed on their blogs but this tends to not pay as much as they thought.

And the high fee you mention that writers can make - is that quote from an online writing course?

You have to be cautious of what some schools or instuctors might claim you will make if you complete their course.

An e-book. I don't know about that - might be some software you purchase, you would have to know how to do the Paypal and credit card payments and you would be have to be alert to others taking your ebook and selling it as their own.

This would also require a lot of promoting your e book and getting buyers to your website.

I had noticed some people selling little instruction booklets as a part of ebay - an antique dealer selling an ebook on caring for antiques.

But some of the instruction ebay ebooks were free that somehow promoted their ebay business - such as how to make a certain item and the writer just happens to sell those items.

People are making some money writing on the internet - it is just very competitive and you have to be careful of not spending money on some program that is making it all sound lucrative and easy.

You might want to check out writers' forums for tips on how they are making money, writing technique and free tutorials.

[Radiance]

An e-book. I don't know about that - might be some software you purchase, you would have to know how to do the Paypal and credit card payments and you would be have to be alert to others taking your ebook and selling it as their own.

This would also require a lot of promoting your e book and getting buyers to your website

THis is correct, software, there are plenty of free software to convert documents to PDF which is the most popular format for ebooks.

Yes you need setup a credit card payment system.

Others steeling and selling my ebooks, as per my research, it is unavoidable. It comes with the territory.

Yes, it requires a lot of promotion, I am willing to do that too.

You might want to check out writers' forums for tips on how they are making money, writing technique and free tutorials.

Yes, I have been researching for months now. reputable SEO authors consider ebooks very lucrative, as long as you determine a need and can overdeliver to your customers.

I'll keep in reporting what I learned, if anybody has tried this, share away!

[gemologist]

Yeah, Get on Guru and then you can actually see what people pay for writing articles.
You CAN get paid alot for getting in magazines, but who do you know who works at/writes for them, because if the answer is nobody, chances are you arent going to get published there without a well-selling book or popular blog.

[Inkstain82]

There's never been a better time to freelance for newspapers. Newspapers are laying off reporters left and right, and as a result they find themselves short at times when they really need one. There might not be room in the budget for a $25k/year salaried reporter, but they can spare $50 a week for a stringer for a football game.

I'm a sports reporter for a small-town paper, and we are constantly looking for reliable stringers to cover prep football and basketball games for us. You don't need a lot of training, just the ability to follow directions. Time commitment is 4-5 hours, depending on how fast you can write, and the pay starts around $25 but goes up fast for reliable ones (and if you are willing to negotiate).

[Radiance]

Interesting,

My pediatrician has asked me to assist with content for his website.
He trusts me and likes how I write, but I am not a published/known author, so I plan to charge him $1 per 100 words. He will only pay if he likes it and use it on his site.

Small gig, I estimate 1000 words to start, but he might continue buying articles from me to keep the site fresh and it might be my way to break in.
I will also offer him to pay me in free visits.

Other than sports, in what other areas are newspapers looking for freelance writers?

[nicolasb86]

Nice post. I'm interested in Free Lance writing myself.

A free lance writing business is about 50% marketing, 30% discipline, and 20% writing.

It's not impossible and it's getting alot easier to do. I've seen lots of worthy books on Amazon.

I'm majoring in 'creative writing', and actually taking an online course right now on Advanced Composition.

I'm also doing Internet Marketing, and was homeschooled in High School. So a combination of discipline, marketing, and writing is generally my background, & is what everyone needs to succeed in this business.

[paymydebt]

I think though you do have to work hard and in some cases the pay is not that high. Article writing seems to be a big demand for bloggers and website owners too but looking at some of the rates they are offering on webmaster forums, it would be like working for minimum wage...unless you are quick in writing up a 500-word article like in about 5 to 10 minutes.

[efcussins]

I find that it is easy to write 200, 300, 400, words or more. It is a whole lot harder to sell them.

[junosama]

Ive worked with a lot of freelance writers before you can easily make anywhere from $10-$50 per article for all sports of websites. Blogs, websites needing articles, marketing people who need articles for submissions and content and so on.

Hit up forums, craigslist and try contacting sites or marketing people directly.

[bheem]

There are several sites where you can write and publish your articles and get a share of Ad revenue generated by your articles. eHow.com is one of them. All you have to do is to create a free account and sign up for their writers compensation program.

You can write "how to" articles and publish for free. When someone reads the articles, there will be Ads displayed along with articles. If they click on the Ads you make money. Minimum monthly payout is 10.00. Trust me, making 10 dollar a month is no big deal. More quality articles you write, more you can make.

I don't spend much time there still make some money every month. There are people who make over 1000.00 a month there.

-Bheem

[fivepennies]

I just landed a freelance gig with Sodahead.com. They are paying me $25 bucks a post.

Also, I have a friend that writes for Examiner.com and they are always recruiting writers. Let me know if you are interested and I can have her get into contact with you for more information. It's not much from what she tells me, but the exposure has definitely given her quite a few opportunities she otherwise would not have had. She was even approached by a sorority to do a public speaking gig and made $300 for a one hour gig.

If you are passionate about writing, you'll find the exposure invaluable. The money might now be flowing in now, but it definitely will down the road.

[Fern]

You're charging .10 a word so for the thousand word piece you'll get $10?? How many hours of your time will you spend on this?

Those are slave wages! If you are really any good, then please don't degrade yourself by working for peanuts.

[Saving_spree]

It is a good idea but you are wasting your time and energy.. Your creativity is used for others benefit... Use it for yourself and earn money... is what I would say.

[TheMoneyMan-Leo]

If you are looking for people looking for article writers, I’ve used freelance workers from elance.com, rentacoder.com and mturk.com .

Elance and RAC…it will probably take you some time to make money there…it’s a bidding process.

Mturk you can earn the money pretty quickly but it will be a small amount and not sure how often you get paid.

Monitor these places and you just might hook up with someone who needs a lot of articles written.

Best wishes,

Leo

[Credit Girl]

I've also heard of those sites as great sources available to freelance writers. This is a great way to make side money as you can make $10-$20 an article and you work on your own terms as well.

[Snippa]

I've been a freelance writer for over 30 years, currently full-time, though that's not always been the case. You can make VERY good money at it, but as mentioned here, there is a LOT of competition.

Many people from non-English speaking countries will write a 500 word article for $1-$2. If someone just wants content and doesn't care about quality (as in proper English grammar), they'll hire them. That's a major problem with trying to find work on a lot of the bid sites.

There are online places where you can sell articles for $5 each (I buy them myself). And there are other places online where you can sell them for more, such as Demand Studios. But they're difficult to work with at times... so it's a trade-off.

Freelance magazine writing requires an entirely different level of writing. At least to write for larger publications where the REAL money is. You can write for small mags and still do well, but that's where you get into query letters and a lot more research. You have to have MUCH better skills to write for print publication than for online markets, as a rule. Not set in stone, but typically.

All in all, there is definitely money to be made. I'm living proof. I make enough to justify working from home full-time and helping to support our household. That works for me.

Dee