How to Make Money Freelance Writing

Now that you have started with your freelance writing career, it is important to look at how to make money from it. There are a few options available at your disposal but it depends on the platforms that you’re writing on.

Finding Clients

There are people all over the world that want content. Some will want blogs while others will want reviews. You can benefit from this by offering your services. Start advertising your talent – whether through social media or through online adverts – or start looking for writing jobs. There are a plenty of options available to you.

You need to set a pay rate for your writing. There was a time that you could charge a dollar per word, especially for print works. However, this is becoming harder to get so you will need to look at other rates. Many clients will state the rates that they’re willing to pay but you can counter that.

Start off by working out how much you want to be paid per hour - $10 per hour is reasonable for the work that you are going to put into the research and writing but in the end the rate is up to you. Next determine How many articles the client wants and how long they will take you to write – plan your breaks and the research into that. Now you have the amount you will charge.

Writing Your Own Blog

If you have your own blog that you write on then you need to look for ways to monetize it. There are two options that people will go for: Advertising revenue and affiliate marketing.

Advertising Revenue

This is through the use of a program like Google Adsense. You sign up for a free account and link it to your blog. The program will generate adverts that are linked to the content that you write. This is one of the most effect ways to make money on your blog, especially if your visitors come from search engines.

Affiliate Marketing

You sign up to be an affiliate of companies and help to promote their products and place links on your blog posts. For your work, you gain a share of the profits made from purchases through your links. There are pros and cons to using this but it can help you earn more money than revenue.

Websites that Pay

If you are just starting out with your writing, it is likely that you are looking for websites that pay. Some will pay upfront while others will pay a revenue share. There are pros and cons to each one of them, which I will go through in detail in a later post.

You need to shop around for websites that pay and always stick to the general rule of “never put all your eggs in the same basket”. Take some time to try out as many sites as you can and devote your time equally to each one.

How to Become a Writer

So you have the skills and the passion to become a writer; that's great. Now all you need is the know how to accomplish it. Finding out how to become a writer can be the hardest and most nerve-wracking part so by finding yourself here you're accomplishing something.

The problem is with writing that writing is only part of the job. You'll also need to spend a lot of time promoting yourself and sharing your talents as well as staying up to date with all the current writing platforms and types of publishing available. As long as you're willing to spend some time and effort learning all this, you've got what it takes.

This is part of a series of lenses, which will cover the basics of becoming a writer and how to deal with the common problems that writing has.

Stop Talking and Just Do It!

As Nike Would Say

Talking about it and saying that you're trying to be a writer will do nothing for you. You need to say that you are a writer and start writing. It doesn't matter what you write about or where you write; just do it! There are plenty of online sites that will give you the ability to get started, including Squidoo. You can write about whatever you want and can still earn money from it, which is one of the best parts of these online sites.

While you're writing, make sure you learn more about writing in general. If you write online, you'll need to learn more about SEO and the use of back links. If you're more into print writing or novels, you'll need to learn that style. Talk to other writers on forums; most will be happy to help you with your new steps.

You'll also need to start gaining clients, which you can do by joining freelance writing sites. There are plenty of them kicking about on the Internet. Please watch out for the scams though; anything that is asking you to pay upfront for, walk away from.

Build Your Writing Portfolio

Show Off Your Talents

The only way that you can show off your talents is by writing more. Your online sites can help you with creating an online portfolio that you can supply the link for clients. You'll also need to think about your print clients, if they want you to mail samples of your work, and your other styles of writing; most online sites won't let you post fiction or poetry. I'll cover the best ways to create your portfolio in a later lens.

You also need to start promoting yourself. There are lots of options available, which I'll cover in a later lens. You'll need to spend a lot of time marketing, although make sure you spend just as much time writing new content and staying on top of your deadlines.

Take Courses

While you don't need a degree to help you with your writing, some courses definitely won't do you any harm. There are different types of writing courses that you can take, depending on the type of writing that you want to do.

If you want to make it in journalism, a degree will definitely help you. There are some jobs that will require some type of further education, so you'll need to look out for these. Even a marketing or business degree could help you to succeed if you are working freelance.

Always be prepared for rejection. It can be harsh at times, but you need to be prepared for it. There will be people who won't like your work or will ask you to make a few corrections here and there. Either way, you need to have a thick skin for it so you can develop your work and then resubmit it.

Get Books that will Help You

Sites like Amazon are always full of books that can help you start out with your writing career. Many are now E-books which you can download for free or next to nothing. Make sure you utilize all of your options as much as possible and follow anything for your style of writing.

You'll be surprised what you can learn from a book, especially those that are written on experience. However, you will need to get into the writing world because you'll need to start making your own mistakes and build on your own experience; that will be better than any book can tell you.