Recently, we got an email from a desperate writer. \u201cI need $200 this week, or I’m going to be homeless,\u201d he wrote. He was also recently deported back to Jamaica. He was in a desperate situation.<\/p>\n
Being a freelance writer is a great job but it does take some time to build up a list of clients. Sometimes you need money and can\u2019t wait for your client list to be built. That was the situation facing the Jamaican writer.<\/p>\n
He needed help and he needed it now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been reviewing various writing sites and I always include how often the site pays. Some are faster than others. I suggested that he immediately apply to Demand Media and Scripted, a site that will be reviewed next week.<\/p>\n
The exchange got us here at Freedom With Writing thinking. It can be difficult to get started. Not only is it a new world but also each site and each client want something different. For a seasoned writer, switching these hats is normal but when you are just starting out it can be stressful.<\/p>\n
Every new writer needs to decide how much money he or she needs; not wants. Once you have covered the need you can work on the want. Then you need to figure out when you need it. It\u2019s important for your own peace of mind to have reliable payments that you can count on being there.<\/p>\n
As you may recall, I reviewed Demand Media and went into detail on how they work. One of the points in their favor is their twice-weekly payment process. The other site that I directed that writer to also pays weekly. The two things you should always check as soon as you apply to a new site or take on a new client is how much they pay and when they pay. Many sites and many clients pay monthly or twice monthly. Some sites actually pay monthly but hold your first payment for a month. Freelance writers need to know this information to plan their finances as well as their schedule.<\/p>\n
Demand Media is a good starting point. Their application process is quick and so is their response time, usually within 24 hours. Once you have been accepted you write the articles and get paid on the next payday. The cut off for Tuesday payment is Sunday and for Friday it\u2019s Wednesday. Both cut off times are midnight California time. It\u2019s not difficult to write 10 to 15 articles a day, which can easily bring you $150 to $225 a day. One important factor to remember is that the articles have to be approved by editorial before the cut off time. I have found that the editing tends to be much quicker as the deadline approaches; the editors are also paid per article and at the same time as the writers.
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\nAnother great option for you to earn $200 this week is Scripted. At an average of $25 per article, meeting your financial goal shouldn\u2019t be difficult. The application process is simple but their response time can be a bit longer. There is no cut off time rather its on client approval. If the client doesn\u2019t get back to your completed article within 3 days it\u2019s automatically approved and you will be paid the following Friday. This rarely happens as Scripted urges clients to pay attention to deadlines.<\/p>\n
Writing articles is one thing and actually getting paid is another. I will absolutely never send anyone to a writing site that has issues with paying their writers. That is not to say that technical issues don\u2019t happen. Demand Media didn\u2019t pay one night and they always pay by 6 in the evening. Within 5 minutes Demand Media had a note up on their board that there was a server problem and they were working on it. It was fixed 15 minutes later. The problem was blamed on dancing monkeys. That is the only payment glitch they have ever had. None of the other writing sites I will review or I have reviewed have ever had a payment glitch.<\/p>\n
Beyond your immediate financial needs you are going to want to make enough money to live at least as well as you would if you worked for someone else. This is easily accomplished through a little bit of planning.<\/p>\n
Several sites allow you to earn money from page views. Skyword and Yahoo are both great sites for this. For long term residual income Yahoo is by far the best. I\u2019m still making money off of articles I wrote 5 years ago. Skyword, depending on the program that for which you write, limits the length of time that you can earn residual payments.<\/p>\n
While it is possible to make a living writing on Yahoo fulltime if you join several of their programs, it seems to work better as a place to send your articles that don\u2019t have another Internet home. The pay amounts for residual income are on a sliding scale from $1.40 to $2.00 per 1,000 views. The more views you get, the higher your rate will be and the more money you will get each month. Yahoo pays on the 10th<\/sup> of the month and I know several people, myself included, who make over $500 a month and we haven\u2019t added a new article in months! Most of us have been taught that being a self-promoter is bad. Strike that thinking! Self-promotion is the best thing you can do for your writing career. This is especially true in the beginning. You need to get your name and your writing out for the public to see. If they don\u2019t see it then they can\u2019t read it and you can\u2019t make money. There are three simple tricks for this.<\/p>\n 1-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Create a website. This is important because a writers website doubles as their resume. I recommend WordPress because it is simple to set up and it has easy indexing by the main search engines.<\/p>\n 2-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Join social networking sites. These are the best ways to quickly and easily get your articles in front of thousands and even millions of people. Most writing sites offer you the ability to promote your articles by clicking on a promote button. The most frequently listed social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Reddit.<\/p>\n 3-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Join Klout.com. Klout measures your influences across the social networking sites. The higher your Klout rating the more of an impact you are making. It\u2019s a great way to see where you stand on all the social media sites at a glance. This makes it easy to see what is working and what isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n One area you are going to want to build up is your independent clients list. While there are some good writing sites, they still amount to you working for an employer and those sites tend to keep a chunk of the money. If you are making $15 an article on Demand Media you can be certain that they are making at least that much if not more. The best money in freelance writing is going to be the independent clients you locate.<\/p>\n So how do you find these clients? The above promotion helps. Having your writing website indexed by Google helps a lot. But mostly you are going to have to actively solicit these clients. Where you do that is largely determined by the types of articles you write. How you do it is a pretty standard process. You locate someone that needs writers and you pitch them a story. A good pitch lands you the job. If you are lucky it turns into repeat business. I once wrote a snarky little comment on a social media site that landed me a great client. Which brings me to the three rules of working without a net.<\/p>\n 1-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make sure to set the parameters of your rate and when payment is due.<\/p>\n 2-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Save every email<\/p>\n 3-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Never allow a new client to go beyond a week without paying you.<\/p>\n Never put all of your eggs into one basket. Many new freelance writers will start working for a place like Demand or Scripted and quit looking for other clients and other sites. If you never listen to any other advice on this subject, listen now: Don\u2019t do it. If the site is sold, the owners quit or any of a thousand other things that could happen, you could find yourself without an income literally overnight. Write for several sites and clients. Your checking account will thank you.<\/p>\n Being a freelance writer means that your future is in your hands. This is both a short term and a long-term truth. You need to set up your writing income to come when you need it and that is easy to do when you pay attention to the parameters of each individual site. Most writers write for several sites so that they have an income spread out over the month. If that writer followed our suggestions then he should have been able to earn the $200 he needed plus a lot more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, we got an email from a desperate writer. \u201cI need $200 this week, or I’m going to be homeless,\u201d he wrote. He was also recently deported back to Jamaica. He was in a desperate situation. 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\n <\/p>\nPromotion, Promotion, Promotion<\/h3>\n
\u00a0Working without a net<\/h3>\n
Do not make this mistake<\/h3>\n