Starting a Freelance Writing Career- Part 1
56How do YOU freelance?
First, I just want to put it out there that I'd love to get feedback on this topic. I've been freelancing successfully for over 3 years but I still feel like I have more questions than answers. In an industry with so many choices, paths, and just "ways of doing things" I am constantly wondering if I could be doing it better or differently.
When I started freelancing, I was thinking: short stories. magazine articles. But while I was pursuing these endeavors (and working at a coffee shop), I was approached by an acquaintance to write copy for his start-up business. The money was almost too good to be true. Without any formal experience writing copy, or even a Bachelor's degree, I made over fifteen hundred dollars in a weekend. I was stunned. Excited. Motivated.
After that I became completely obsessed with making it as a freelance writer. Without any funds, I started researching the copywriting business online. I started with the content writing sites.
Associatedcontent.com
See, now this is the type of thing I'd love to hear feedback on. Does anyone make money from Associated Content? Like, enough to make it worthwhile? I believe they've changed their systems a bit since I first started using it, but I don't think I ever made enough money from the site to make it worth my time. I used it when I was first starting out and got anywhere from $4-12 an article. I think I made $12 only once and the average was around $6. What was annoying also was that every time the editors approve a piece they write a little comment like, "It would have been great for you to go into more detail about so and so..." For $6? Come on. On a more(?) positive note, I do receive about $10 a month from them for a recipe article I wrote that gets a ton of hits on their site. But would I be making more money a month on ads, etc. if I published it on my own on say, HubPages? These are things I'd like to know.
Anyhoo, back to my story. After being quite unsuccessful on the content writing sites, but still making good money from my one copy client, I invested in a few books on freelancing. A few of which were life changing.
Next on Starting a Freelance Writing Career:
Peter Bowerman's "The Well -Fed Writer"
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Hi Angie
I agree with the comment that moving towards a specialist niche or sub-market is sensible if you want to make good money from writing.
I once used a ghost writer who wasn't a subject matter expert. I chose him because I liked the style of the samples of his work that I read. I ended up re-writing the piece myself from scratch! Since that experience I have never used anyone else to write for me. However, this may not be the best use of my time!
I would also suggest that hubpages are a showcase for your work. So...please spell check this page immediately and correct the errors.
You have a nice lively style and I will read your other hubs.
Put samples of your work online at hubpages,wordpress, blogger--make the articles as professional as you possibly can; include pictures is you can. As you query editors, refer them to your work on these sites. I put different articles on different sites (travel, gardening,family) and add to them often to keep them available for Google to find.
Always looking for people to talk about writing!
Linda
I don't really care for the low fees of Associated Content. You must be slave labor to write there and that's no way to live. I just read an interesting article, can't remember which paper it was in as I followed a link from another link and so on. But anyway...it was talking about how these type of "writing sweat shops" cause a lot of stress and fatique.
The best way to make use of your time, inbetween writing gigs, is to hone your skills. You can do that by practicing writing tight via places like hubpages and your blog, by working on a book idea, by writing articles to promote your freelance business, and so forth.
thegreatwarrior 4 years ago
Angie,
Hello, like you, I'm a hubber, and an aspiring freelancer.
Yes, you can make it as a freelance writer, and that's what I aspire to do. Here are a few things I'm doing:
1. In order to prove that I'm good, I've written for free for a few businesses.
2. I've put out some of my own websites to illustrate that I can write good copy.
3. I intend to specialize toward a certain niche, or sub-market.