by Deborah R.
This will age me, but when I was a child, I used to enjoy sitting down at my father’s old Royal typewriter and writing about my day. I’d make many mistakes and get frustrated when the keys didn’t go all the way to the paper, but it was important for me to write about my day, so I did this day after day, offering up anecdotes about my day under the olive tree, or the friend who was mean to me.
In that way, I suppose I was always a writer.
Career before kids
Prior to freelancing, I worked as a newspaper reporter. I didn’t major in journalism, but instead got my BA in English, thinking that an English degree would be more versatile to me than a journalism degree. This isn’t, in fact, the case, but I liked to think I was doing the right thing nonetheless.
My focus as a reporter was community journalism, because I believe that on the whole journalists are good about reporting world events, but a little less strong when it comes to telling us what’s going on in our backyards. I loved being a community journalist and telling the stories of the people who lived in the towns where I worked.
When I got pregnant with my son in 1996, I never imagined I wouldn’t return to work. In fact, when people asked me if I was going to come back, I was offended, appalled even, that they thought of me as the kind of woman who would stay home with her kids. “Of course I’m coming back,” I would snap.
Little did I know.
When my son was just two weeks old, my husband was transferred to a city about 45 minutes from where I worked. I still believed I’d go back to work, simply making a longer commute each day. But there were logistical problems, including the fact that my hours were inconsistent, my husband worked 16 hours a day, we didn’t have family nearby and I hated that 45-minute drive.
So, we decided I’d stay home. But only for a short time.
Believing my return to work was imminent, I began freelancing. I freelanced for the local business papers, a few larger metro papers and the Associated Press. All went well until my son began finding his voice and his legs. Once he was mobile and vocal, all bets were off. I couldn’t talk to people on the phone and sound even remotely like a professional person. So I stopped freelancing and didn’t return to work, now believing that home was the right place for me. That I could make this at-home mom thing work for me.
For the next seven years, I was a stay-at- home mom. It suited me more than I ever imagined and I was grateful each time I saw one of my children reach a milestone or when I was able to be there when they had a bad day or a particularly good one.
Once my daughter entered kindergarten, however, I knew I wanted to return to work.
A new career is born
I was reading the message boards at WAHM.com and came across “Moms who Write”. At first I ignored this part of the forum because I thought it referred to moms who wrote creatively and certainly they weren’t getting paid.
When I did venture into this part of the forum, I was stunned to find that these women were making a fulltime living by writing. They weren’t working in the “real world” as writers, but in this online world. I was scared, but intrigued. I had read about bidding sites and could tell that many moms were skeptical of them, but I liked the security they offered. Because this whole “online writing” thing was new to me, I liked the idea that the money would be placed in escrow so I could be assured I’d be paid for my work.
I signed up with Rentacoder.com (now Vworker.com) and began bidding. I had no idea what I was doing and since I had no online samples, I typed in articles I’d written for newspapers and sent those as samples. I won the third job I bid on. I don’t remember the exact specs, but it was something about celebrities. I remember having to write five celebrity profiles of about 1,000 words each. The profiles were basically a biography of each celebrity.
I bid $20 for the five profiles. My objective was to bid low so I could get that first job and then bid higher as time went on and once I had good feedback. That job must have taken me 10 hours or more. My hourly wage was ridiculous. But I loved writing again and knew I was onto something.
This was in 2006. For the first two years, I worked almost exclusively on RAC, securing dozens of jobs at varying rates. For those first two years, I didn’t really need the money, and I worked primarily for fun money for the family. I paid for a trip to Hawaii and dinners out.
But in 2008, the recession hit my husband’s job and our income took a direct (and substantial) hit. I now had to work for bills, to pay the mortgage and put clothes on our backs. Things had to change.
Since then, I have altered how I do work. That is, I need to make a fulltime income so I use Vworker, but also Freelancer.com (former Getafreelancer.com). I have signed up with Elance and have even been paying for a membership, but have never had any luck. I don’t give it much time, however, so my lack of success is likely a product of my lack of enthusiasm for Elance.
I have picked up jobs directly from clients who post on WAHM.com looking for writers, and I’ve worked for clients on Craigslist. One of my best paying jobs, in fact, was writing for a major travel website which paid a minimum of $1,000 a month (for about 20 hours of work). I found that job on Craigslist.
What do others say?
When people ask what I do, I always hesitate to tell them. Former journalist friends are critical, implying that the writing online is far from the “valid” writing I did as a journalist, but the reality is that this is the new world. This is how we get information and we all need to understand that. Print journalism is dying. And a lot of people simply don’t understand the concept of writing for online markets.
One of my friends is now working online as a writer, and she makes what is probably a better income than me. She’s a single mom, so her income is all she can rely on. Like many who write for online markets, she never had experience writing professionally, but does come to this from a marketing background.
My mom recently quizzed me on what I do. I have explained it to her countless times, but I always knew she really didn’t “get it”. During a recent drive to the lake for a vacation, she quizzed me and really tried to understand what I do. Once I explained that every single web page she goes to includes some kind of content written by someone, I think the light went on.
I particularly like writing for websites (writing actual web pages rather than straight-up content) and this she understood. I was excited to see someone who is not that internet savvy and hardly willing to move with the times really “get” what I do.
I know several moms who work at home in some capacity and I sometimes get a little envious of their work. They can close it up at the end of the day and know they are free until the next day. Sometimes, they can take a couple of days off and nobody is the wiser. I have deadlines and clients that I have to answer to.
But one of my friends recently commented that she’s somewhat envious of me. While she simply keeps track of her clients’ money, she said, I get to actually produce something. That production turns into something that others can enjoy, learn from, and comment about.
Life as a fulltime freelance writer
Because I have kids and a full life, my experiences as a freelance writer are vastly different than some. I read blogs written by writers and I’m jealous of the time they can devote to a project, or the number of hours they can work in a day. The reality is I have to make work actually work in the context of my life and sometimes that’s difficult.
I’m usually up by 5 to walk the dog because writing is inactive and I worry about the effects of that; I’m at my desk by 6, checking emails and reading copy from the day before. Any copy due gets sent. I try to work from morning until afternoon, usually finishing right before my son gets home at 2:15. On rare occasions, I work into the evening or on the weekend, but if I must do that, it’s usually because I took a day off during the week or simply got overwhelmed with the volume of work I have.
Though I work better and faster at my desktop, I do bring a laptop with me to various activities so I can get in a bit of work while the kids are doing their thing. It’s not often that I have to do this, but I find that I couldn’t live without my laptop.
Earnings
As with most self-employed people, my earnings vary. There are some months I only bring in $1,000, but most months I make substantially more than that. Right now, it’s summer and my kids are underfoot, so keeping my earnings up is hard. Production suffers. But once things return to normal, and school is back in session, I can make significantly more than that. I rarely work more than 30 hours a week.
Tips
As more and more people discover this line of work, there will be more competition for jobs. It’s important that writers think like business people. Forget creative passion; this is a business and those who operate it like a business will succeed.
If I could give someone advice, I suppose I would keep it to five solid points:
- This isn’t a given. That is, many people bid on projects and say, “I’m a teacher” or “I have a degree in journalism” and assume they are simply in on those credentials. The reality is that writing for online markets is about understanding SEO, the internet audience and the specifics of what a client needs. A journalism degree or experience teaching children doesn’t make you naturally qualified for this.
Like all jobs, there’s a learning curve and the writers who are most successful are the ones who understand this and work hard to get themselves in the game. Your degree or experience might make you interesting to a potential client, but that won’t get you hired. You need to also convey a real understanding of what the client does and how you can help.
- Understand deadlines. Those coming from a journalism background have a natural understanding of what a deadline is and how to organize their time to meet it, but people from other industries and specialties often miss the finer points of a deadline and what it means to them. It’s best to not only meet deadlines, but to exceed them (by sending your work before the deadline).
- Write for yourself first. You need samples, and simply writing up a bunch of articles and sending them to the client probably won’t work. They want to see that you understand writing for the internet and will be happy to be sent a link to your work. Keep a blog or write for a site that gives you a byline (but little to no pay) like Yahoo Voices or similar sites.
- Learn about keyword usage and how to write for the internet. Both are a learned craft, so read up. There are plenty of sites that explain SEO writing and writing for the internet in general.
- Don’t take it too seriously. Email can be impersonal and sometimes our wires get crossed or we misunderstand what someone is saying. Some clients are jerks. Sometimes you’re in a mood and you might be the jerk. Though this is your business, it’s not life and death. Sometimes you will have a good day and sometimes a bad day. Don’t get so worked up over it that you can’t function well.
Make sure that in the context of all this desk sitting and email communication, you find plenty of things to keep you active outside of work, whether that’s family activities, home activities, hobbies, sports or an active social life.
This will age me, but when I was a child, I used to enjoy sitting down at my father’s old Royal typewriter and writing about my day. I’d make many mistakes and get frustrated when the keys didn’t go all the way to the paper, but it was important for me to write about my day, so I did this day after day, offering up anecdotes about my day under the olive tree, or the friend who was mean to me.
In that way, I suppose I was always a writer.
Career before kids
Prior to freelancing, I worked as a newspaper reporter. I didn’t major in journalism, but instead got my BA in English, thinking that an English degree would be more versatile to me than a journalism degree. This isn’t, in fact, the case, but I liked to think I was doing the right thing nonetheless.
My focus as a reporter was community journalism, because I believe that on the whole journalists are good about reporting world events, but a little less strong when it comes to telling us what’s going on in our backyards. I loved being a community journalist and telling the stories of the people who lived in the towns where I worked.
When I got pregnant with my son in 1996, I never imagined I wouldn’t return to work. In fact, when people asked me if I was going to come back, I was offended, appalled even, that they thought of me as the kind of woman who would stay home with her kids. “Of course I’m coming back,” I would snap.
Little did I know.
When my son was just two weeks old, my husband was transferred to a city about 45 minutes from where I worked. I still believed I’d go back to work, simply making a longer commute each day. But there were logistical problems, including the fact that my hours were inconsistent, my husband worked 16 hours a day, we didn’t have family nearby and I hated that 45-minute drive.
So, we decided I’d stay home. But only for a short time.
Believing my return to work was imminent, I began freelancing. I freelanced for the local business papers, a few larger metro papers and the Associated Press. All went well until my son began finding his voice and his legs. Once he was mobile and vocal, all bets were off. I couldn’t talk to people on the phone and sound even remotely like a professional person. So I stopped freelancing and didn’t return to work, now believing that home was the right place for me. That I could make this at-home mom thing work for me.
For the next seven years, I was a stay-at- home mom. It suited me more than I ever imagined and I was grateful each time I saw one of my children reach a milestone or when I was able to be there when they had a bad day or a particularly good one.
Once my daughter entered kindergarten, however, I knew I wanted to return to work.
A new career is born
I was reading the message boards at WAHM.com and came across “Moms who Write”. At first I ignored this part of the forum because I thought it referred to moms who wrote creatively and certainly they weren’t getting paid.
When I did venture into this part of the forum, I was stunned to find that these women were making a fulltime living by writing. They weren’t working in the “real world” as writers, but in this online world. I was scared, but intrigued. I had read about bidding sites and could tell that many moms were skeptical of them, but I liked the security they offered. Because this whole “online writing” thing was new to me, I liked the idea that the money would be placed in escrow so I could be assured I’d be paid for my work.
I signed up with Rentacoder.com (now Vworker.com) and began bidding. I had no idea what I was doing and since I had no online samples, I typed in articles I’d written for newspapers and sent those as samples. I won the third job I bid on. I don’t remember the exact specs, but it was something about celebrities. I remember having to write five celebrity profiles of about 1,000 words each. The profiles were basically a biography of each celebrity.
I bid $20 for the five profiles. My objective was to bid low so I could get that first job and then bid higher as time went on and once I had good feedback. That job must have taken me 10 hours or more. My hourly wage was ridiculous. But I loved writing again and knew I was onto something.
This was in 2006. For the first two years, I worked almost exclusively on RAC, securing dozens of jobs at varying rates. For those first two years, I didn’t really need the money, and I worked primarily for fun money for the family. I paid for a trip to Hawaii and dinners out.
But in 2008, the recession hit my husband’s job and our income took a direct (and substantial) hit. I now had to work for bills, to pay the mortgage and put clothes on our backs.Things had to change.
Since then, I have altered how I do work. That is, I need to make a fulltime income so I use Vworker, but also Freelancer.com (former Getafreelancer.com). I have signed up with Elance and have even been paying for a membership, but have never had any luck. I don’t give it much time, however, so my lack of success is likely a product of my lack of enthusiasm for Elance.
I have picked up jobs directly from clients who post on WAHM.com looking for writers, and I’ve worked for clients on Craigslist. One of my best paying jobs, in fact, was writing for a major travel website which paid a minimum of $1,000 a month (for about 20 hours of work). I found that job on Craigslist.
What do others say?
When people ask what I do, I always hesitate to tell them. Former journalist friends are critical, implying that the writing online is far from the “valid” writing I did as a journalist, but the reality is that this is the new world. This is how we get information and we all need to understand that. Print journalism is dying. And a lot of people simply don’t understand the concept of writing for online markets.
One of my friends is now working online as a writer, and she makes what is probably a better income than me. She’s a single mom, so her income is all she can rely on. Like many who write for online markets, she never had experience writing professionally, but does come to this from a marketing background.
My mom recently quizzed me on what I do. I have explained it to her countless times, but I always knew she really didn’t “get it”. During a recent drive to the lake for a vacation, she quizzed me and really tried to understand what I do. Once I explained that every single web page she goes to includes some kind of content written by someone, I think the light went on.
I particularly like writing for websites (writing actual web pages rather than straight-up content) and this she understood. I was excited to see someone who is not that internet savvy and hardly willing to move with the times really “get” what I do.
I know several moms who work at home in some capacity and I sometimes get a little envious of their work. They can close it up at the end of the day and know they are free until the next day. Sometimes, they can take a couple of days off and nobody is the wiser. I have deadlines and clients that I have to answer to.
But one of my friends recently commented that she’s somewhat envious of me. While she simply keeps track of her clients’ money, she said, I get to actually produce something. That production turns into something that others can enjoy, learn from, and comment about.
Life as a fulltime freelance writer
Because I have kids and a full life, my experiences as a freelance writer are vastly different than some. I read blogs written by writers and I’m jealous of the time they can devote to a project, or the number of hours they can work in a day. The reality is I have to make work actually work in the context of my life and sometimes that’s difficult.
I’m usually up by 5 to walk the dog because writing is inactive and I worry about the effects of that; I’m at my desk by 6, checking emails and reading copy from the day before. Any copy due gets sent. I try to work from morning until afternoon, usually finishing right before my son gets home at 2:15. On rare occasions, I work into the evening or on the weekend, but if I must do that, it’s usually because I took a day off during the week or simply got overwhelmed with the volume of work I have.
Though I work better and faster at my desktop, I do bring a laptop with me to various activities so I can get in a bit of work while the kids are doing their thing. It’s not often that I have to do this, but I find that I couldn’t live without my laptop.
Earnings
As with most self-employed people, my earnings vary. There are some months I only bring in $1,000, but most months I make substantially more than that. Right now, it’s summer and my kids are underfoot, so keeping my earnings up is hard. Production suffers. But once things return to normal, and school is back in session, I can make significantly more than that. I rarely work more than 30 hours a week.
Tips
As more and more people discover this line of work, there will be more competition for jobs. It’s important that writers think like business people. Forget creative passion; this is a business and those who operate it like a business will succeed.
If I could give someone advice, I suppose I would keep it to five solid points:
- This isn’t a given. That is, many people bid on projects and say, “I’m a teacher” or “I have a degree in journalism” and assume they are simply in on those credentials. The reality is that writing for online markets is about understanding SEO, the internet audience and the specifics of what a client needs. A journalism degree or experience teaching children doesn’t make you naturally qualified for this.
Like all jobs, there’s a learning curve and the writers who are most successful are the ones who understand this and work hard to get themselves in the game. Your degree or experience might make you interesting to a potential client, but that won’t get you hired. You need to also convey a real understanding of what the client does and how you can help.
- Understand deadlines. Those coming from a journalism background have a natural understanding of what a deadline is and how to organize their time to meet it, but people from other industries and specialties often miss the finer points of a deadline and what it means to them. It’s best to not only meet deadlines, but to exceed them (by sending your work before the deadline).
- Write for yourself first. You need samples, and simply writing up a bunch of articles and sending them to the client probably won’t work. They want to see that you understand writing for the internet and will be happy to be sent a link to your work. Keep a blog or write for a site that gives you a byline (but little to no pay) like Associated Content or similar sites.
- Learn about keyword usage and how to write for the internet. Both are a learned craft, so read up. There are plenty of sites that explain SEO writing and writing for the internet in general.
- Don’t take it too seriously. Email can be impersonal and sometimes our wires get crossed or we misunderstand what someone is saying. Some clients are jerks. Sometimes you’re in a mood and you might be the jerk. Though this is your business, it’s not life and death. Sometimes you will have a good day and sometimes a bad day. Don’t get so worked up over it that you can’t function well.
Make sure that in the context of all this desk sitting and email communication, you find plenty of things to keep you active outside of work, whether that’s family activities, home activities, hobbies, sports or an active social life.
