Time to face an important truth: in order to continue doing what you love, you need to earn money from freelance writing. When I first started out in this field, I was hoping that I would be writing a lot of articles on political events, humorous stories about my kids, opinion pieces, the really fun and interesting stuff. At this point in my career, I have realized that having opportunities to write about these things are few and far between. In order to earn money from freelance writing, I have to (often!) write on topics that don’t exactly stimulate my brain or bring joy to my heart.

Don’t give up your dream - and don’t work for slave wages

There are a couple of things that freelance writers, especially those in the beginning stages of their careers, are prone to. The first is to hang on to their pretension, believing that their art is far more important than making a living. What they don’t realize is that they can retain the parts of writing that they love without writing off, so to speak, the mundane tasks that put food on the table for the kids. You don’t have to give up your dream, you just have to realize that if you ever are going to “make it” in the way that you want, you are going to have to pay your dues.

The second mistake that freelance writers make is to devalue their services, to the point where they are basically working for slave wages. This is a chronic problem for writers both online and off, but I think that it is really exacerbated when someone starts a career by writing online. The amount of competition can make it very difficult to compete, and the temptation to earn money from freelance writing by being the lowest bid on the board can be hard to overcome.

How I started out

Before I go much further, I would like to say that in the beginning stages of my career, I took the lowball approach. I did this for a couple of reasons.

1. I knew I could still make a decent wage, comparatively speaking. I type fast, I process fast, and three 400 word, $5 pieces an hour meant $15 an hour, not a bad wage particularly from home.
2. I wanted to bulk up my feedback. In order to get the higher paying jobs, I needed to get some street cred, and in order to do that I needed some feedback. At the same time I could earn money from freelance writing.

I am not ashamed of taking this approach because it worked very well, but sometimes I wonder if I might have been able to bid at the prices I do now even though I was just starting out. If any of you are gutsy enough to try it, let me know because I would love to write about that.

Higher prices lead to more work

Even with this lowball approach, though, I found that I was able to raise my prices without too much time passing by. It was at that point that I made the conscious decision to make my proposals and bids based on quality, rather than the knowledge that if pressed I could pump out three to six articles in an hour. To my surprise and relief, business didn’t fall off at all; in fact, it increased! Not only was I making more money per article, but I was landing more jobs than I had previously.

The best example I can equate this to is in the world of real estate. Years ago, the parents of my best friend were trying to sell their house within a certain price bracket, and getting very few visits. Their natural reaction was to lower the asking price, but a friend suggested raising it instead. They took the advice somewhat skeptically, and put their house in the next price bracket up. To their surprise, the house had serious offers within a week and had sold within two. The buyers had been out there all the time, but obviously there was the perception that a low price meant low quality.

I get the impression from a few of the clients that I have talked to that it is much the same way in the world of freelance writing. Some pass over cheap bids because of the belief that a low price is hiding poor quality.

That’s good news for anyone who wants to earn money from freelance writing, because it means that if you deliver a quality product, people are willing to compensate you well for it.

Higher prices bring better clients

In addition, I have found that the clients who are willing to pay more for better quality work also tend to send more work my way. A year or so ago, I decided to try raising my prices yet again, just to see if I could make $20 for an article.

I was delighted when selected. And even more so when he sent me 10 more articles to do.

Since that time, I handle ten articles each week for that buyer; he is not interested in looking for someone who offers a lower price, he wants to stay with the writer who charges fairly and offers quality work in return.

If you want to earn money from freelance writing, you can’t be timid when it comes to charging what you are worth. The mentality of buyers and your own work will both support your decision to charge fairly, and you will probably find that your yearly earnings are equal to that of the average magazine and newspaper freelance writer in no time.

I have posted a range of projects for freelance writing work on bidding sites and worked with a few different writers. I often received great proposals with excellent samples from native English speakers. I was really excited to work with them. But their work was often below my expectations, because the topic was only researched and not filled with personal knowledge and first hand experience.

Now I only work with writers who live and breathe a particular topic. Research is useful for including the latest trends, but not to learn about a topic that you did not have any knowledge before. Whenever I see a profile of a writer that lists more than 10 topics that they feel well-versed in, I exclude them from any further consideration. And naturally even more so if they say that they will write on anything.

That is purely from a buyer’s perspective. Naturally you have to make sure that your chosen niche has enough demand to pay the bills. If there is enough demand, you have the advantage that little research is necessary, so you can produce more freelance writing work in less time. The result: a higher hourly rate.

Quick, pick a topic that could be a piece of freelance writing work. Now go to a search engine and perform a query on that topic, and visit the first few pages that come up. I will bet that at least half of the time, you come across pages that have obviously been written by someone who either does not speak English as a first language, or who really can’t write at all. In these cases, the web site developers have decided to put up with poor freelance writing work, usually in order to lower the cost of getting the site up and running.

International competition

If you are looking for freelance writing work on the Internet, and in particular if you are using a bidding site or even just a classified style site where you respond to job postings, the odds are better than excellent that you will run into competition in the form of non-English speaking writers. Now, let’s make one thing clear: most of these writers speak English much better than I could ever speak another language, no matter where they are located, and I give them credit for that. Still, that does not mean that they can write good, convincing web site copy that is meant for the consumption of English speaking (and reading) audiences.

This regular occurrence is a big point in favor of any person who happens to be fluent in writing English. You will notice that I didn’t say speaking in English; many of these outsourced writers are quite capable in the language. The differences that stand out are only highlighted in their freelance writing work, but when that happens, it really does stand out.

You might wonder why it is that these writers pose serious competition to writers based in the UK, Canada, the US, Australia, or any other country where English is a “native” tongue. The reason is price. The cost of living in many countries is much lower than in the countries listed above, and as a result writers with access to the Internet can charge prices that are one third to one fifth of the average rate needed for another business or writer to survive. That’s quite a difference, and for many cost conscientious web site developers it’s too great to be passed up.

Side-stepping the price war

There are a couple of things that you can do to overcome this kind of competition. The first is to suffer in indignant silence, in the knowledge that the site developers will have a lot of proofreading on their hands in order to make those pieces readable, let alone convincing, to the average reader.

The second way to deal with this kind of competition for freelance writing work is to tackle it head on. This might not seem very nice or very politically correct, and really, it isn’t! One thing that comforts me is that in the majority of cases, the countries where these writers hail from don’t even translate the term politically correct. Another comfort is that this is business, and I need these jobs.

What this amounts to is a hard nosed campaign that flat out states why a buyer should use my freelance writing work instead of those offered by someone who just can’t write using proper English. I actually came to this point about a year ago, when I grew tired of watching the jobs I was bidding handed to a person who couldn’t even put a coherent proposal together, the project awarded on the basis of price alone.

To battle the competition, I rewrote my profile both on the sites I used and on my introductory letters and clearly stated that most of what we find on the Internet as far as “information” is just a bunch of words that when strung together, make no real sense. I now tell potential clients straight out that they can go for a much lower price if they want, but I can guarantee them that 80% of the time, they will end up paying at least double the cost they agreed to due to editing, or else lose time performing this vital task themselves.

I have also come across several situations where I have been hired as a proofreader, and after going through a confused jumble of words I point out to my client that what they essentially have on their hands is just a pile of junk, and no amount of proofreading can help it to make sense; the whole piece needs to be re-written. I have gained two of my steadiest clients in this way; frustrated with a continuous cycle of proofreading, they have decided to dump the extra costs and get it done right the first time.

Be bold about your skills

The world of freelance writing work is a competitive one, particularly on the Internet, but if you are willing to be bold about your skills and the weaknesses of the competition, you will be the one walking away with the jobs. It isn’t always nice, but in the end both you and your clients will be better off for it.

I should state in closing that one of my clients recently remarked to me that it wasn’t just writers who didn’t speak English as a first language who had problems writing copy. She figured that out of twenty different writers she had used since starting her online business, all but three just couldn’t get a piece together that made sense, and that included at least two university-educated freelance writers. If you have the skills to get the job done right, market them aggressively!

The offline writers market is the alternative to what a lot of the pages on this site talk about: how to win jobs and freelance writing assignments by bidding on the Internet. This section is all about landing freelance jobs without going through the bidding process.

Some people may find this is easier because you don’t have to worry about setting your prices too competitively. Others like to cut out the time it takes to place all those bids. Wherever you look, though, you are sure to find one thing: competition.

In fact the writers market is very competitive both on and offline, and it takes a good “hook” to get a potential client to use you for their writing needs. Here are a few things I have found that work really well when it comes to standing out among the crowd of wanna be writers, particularly on the Internet.

1. Spell checking!
   It should be common sense, but any time you approach a potential source of freelance writing work you need to be sure that you come across as an intelligent writer. I have had some ridiculous proposals float my way when looking to hire writers to help out when I am over loaded. Too many people rely on the spelling and grammar checks in their writing, and this can lead to some very embarrassing mistakes.
2. Good samples
   (If you are looking to land offline writing assignments, these are called “clips”.) Another important aspect of landing a freelance writing job is demonstrating that you can deliver the goods. Putting together a few good samples of articles which you have done in the past will do wonders for your presentation. The more relevant the samples, the better! I also like to include a bit of a summary of what the articles are about, and of course ALWAYS make sure that you proofread before you send those samples in!
3. References
   Even great samples can’t compare to some glowing references from clients with whom you have worked in the past. Make sure that every time you complete an assignment, you ask your client or the editor of the print publication for their name and contact information so you can use them as references when trying to land future jobs. When you approach a potential client, make sure to direct him or her to the website or publication that your reference had you work on; there are lots of ways to fake a reference, particularly on the Internet, and you want to make sure that a potential client knows you are 100% legitimate.
4. Meet all your obligations!
   It is a lot easier to keep an existing client than to look for a new one. For this reason, and of course for those handy references, it’s very important to fulfill all of the promises you make on every freelance writing assignment. This can be hard, particularly when you have a lot of work or when life plays one of its little mystery weeks (or months) when everything seems to fall wrong, but at least stay in communication and let your clients know what is going on.

Breaking into the writers market can be tough, because it is just so competitive. The way to succeed is to grab the attention of potential clients through your presentation, and then making sure that you keep that new client satisfied!

I think bidding sites on the Internet are the best freelance writing markets. No wonder, I have made most of my money from them and found my best clients there. However, there are plenty of other ways to find writing work both online and off; in this article we will take a look at a few of them.

Finding work offline

When it comes to freelance writing offline, you basically have two options: newspapers and magazines. This sounds pretty narrow but of course it isn’t: there are literally thousands of print publications all looking for people to write for them. The key, as always, is breaking into these freelance writing markets.

So how do you go about that? Well, I don’t really know. The only things I have ever had published offline were letters to the editor. Although I feel that they were very well written, I certainly didn’t make any money from them.

Of course my lack of success offline could be due to the fact that I am not very persistent when it comes to landing freelance work; I have only ever written one query letter to an editor, and that was Mel Rothenburger (yep, that’s his real last name) of our local paper, who has a bit of a reputation as a man who takes the medium sized fish in a small pond attitude to a whole new level. Also, the fact that he doesn’t see eye to eye with my dad (who is a local politician) might have something to do with the fact that I never heard back.

Personal grievances aside, I never really followed up on that letter, which is absolutely the opposite of anything I have ever read about breaking into offline freelance writing markets. Here are some pretty common guidelines that I have found, and if they work for you please let me know! I probably won’t give them a try but they would be great additions to the reference part of the site, for those who want to break into print without a lofty Bachelor of Journalism degree (I don’t think Mel has one)

• Start out locally; it’s a lot easier to tackle issues you are familiar with.
• Be both patient and persistent, without being pushy.

Not much to go on, is it? Still, you look at any freelance writing guide and people will swear that these approaches work, so long as you have some writing skill to go with it. For myself, I am pretty happy to leave the editors behind and use the freelance writing work that can be found on the Internet.

Freelance writing markets online

There is a bit more diversity when it comes to the freelance writing markets that can be found online. We go over bidding sites in depth in another section of this site, so here we are going to take a look at how to get your foot in the door outside of bidding for the opportunity to write.

1. Job listings
   There are dozens of sites online which list jobs for freelance writers. Craig’s List is one such site; there are new freelance writing markets listed every day on that Goliath. Similar sites include www.freelancewriting.com and www.writerswanted.com.
2. Query letters
   Yes, the same methods that work offline can also work online. I have landed a couple of great freelance jobs just by contacting sites and letting them know what I do. I usually do this after I arrive at a site and find very low quality articles and information; with only one exception, I started out as a proof reader and then ended up doing some of the writing as well.
3. Search engines
   One way to find freelance writing markets online is to just go to a search engine and type in “writers wanted”. There are always people looking for writers to add content to their site, so most of the time you will find opportunities by following the trail that Google paved.

Whether you are looking for freelance writing markets online or off, you need to realize right away that at first, you are going to receive more rejections (or just no answer at all) than opportunities. Don’t be discouraged; once you start landing a few jobs you will be able to establish a reputation that will (hopefully) lead to a much better percentage in terms of success.

While I have gained the bulk of my freelance writing jobs through bidding, there are more avenues for writing projects out there, beyond just bidding sites. In fact, the whole purpose of this site is to help you to see the potential in that underused and under publicized marketplace.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of bidding for jobs for whatever reason, then it’s useful to know about alternative freelance writing markets. In this section, we will take a look at other places where you can look for a freelance writing assignment; I break them down below to give you a brief overview of what other opportunities you can expect in the writers market.

Offline writing opportunities

The most well publicized, and therefore the most competitive, jobs in the freelance writing market are those in the print media. Trade magazines and newspapers are the places where most aspiring writers go to get their start, and this can be deadly competitive, and often the wages are not too great either! Still, there are a huge number of potential markets for your writing, and you do have the ability to apply for positions that cater to your strengths.

The person to get into contact with for these freelance writing jobs is the editor of the newspaper or magazine you want to write for. This is usually done by way of a query letter; we will go into those a bit more in a further article. The most important part of the process is patience; you will often hear nothing at all, and it might be some time before you can get your shot!

Becoming a web content writer

Wait a second; I bet you are thinking I said that we wouldn’t be talking about online writing jobs in this section, right? Well, not exactly. What we aren’t talking about is gaining a freelance job through a bidding site, but there are a lot more ways to get a job as a web content writer other than through winning a bid, and I have made some good money doing them.

The web content writer’s market is not yet so saturated that everyone who has developed a website can easily find a good writer. There are plenty of people out there who can’t write at all, and then there are those who prefer to cut and paste, who just disappear, and who can’t seem to keep a deadline.

For this reason, most web site developers are constantly watching for opportunities to hire web content writers in the freelance writing market, and in this section I will point out some ways you can get them to approach you without having to go through a bidding process.

The most important step: finding those freelance writing jobs available online. When I first started writing, it caused me a lot of stress that it was pretty obvious that freelance writing jobs were readily available.

After all, there were articles all over the Internet, books, magazine articles, newspaper freelancers, and somebody wrote all those little blurbs that appeared in descriptions and so on. Actually let’s face it: there is a world of print out there!

Not all writers are created equal

The second thing that was obvious was that not a lot of people could actually write. Those of you who CAN write and are reading this know that this is true; how many times have you come across some absolute crap and wondered how it was that the person who penned or typed it could have though it was worthy of being read?

Those of you with freelancing experience know this from an even more important source, as far as the money side of things go. How many clients have you had who have told you how very hard it is to find someone who can actually write, using proper and easy to understand English? For my part, I am pretty sure that this is why the clients I do have are willing to put up with the odd missed deadline and so on.

Making the connection

So what exactly was the stressful part? Well, it lay in connecting the dots between those freelance writing jobs available and the people who were hiring to fill them.

That’s what made me successful; I know where to find jobs on the Internet. I am hoping that sooner or later we can build a community here with writers from several backgrounds who can help to point novices in the right direction, but for now this will probably be my focus.

So, here are some of the places where you will be able to make that connection between the need between the freelance writing jobs available to you and the people hiring to fill them.

Where you can look

• Writing sites
  Here’s one link that I recently found: www.bluegrasssolutions.org. These guys are hiring writers right now and they aren’t the only company doing so either. Keep your ear to the ground and your wits about you and you can find some too.
• Bidding sites
  My bread and butter: Elance.com, Guru.com, ifreelance.com. There are at least half a dozen other sites where clients are offering any type of freelance writing job you could think of.
• Direct appeal
  Every once in a while I get a positive response when I dare to write a website suggesting that they beef up their writing a bit.

Another great place to look is with companies who specialize in Search Engine Optimization. Writing articles is a big part of this so most web site companies retain a writer or two to help out their various clients.

I bet you have said this out loud (or at least thought it): “It is not about writing fees or money, for me writing is about doing what I love!” That sentiment is all well and good, but at the end of the day passion isn’t going to put food on the table for you and your family, nor is it going to help you pay the rent (and if you are charging “love money”, rent is all you will be paying, because good luck buying a house!).

You have to remember that freelance writing is a business, although it is a form of art as well. This is particularly true when it comes to writing for the Internet for a living: most clients are not looking for you to write inspiring or humorous stories, they want content to help them compete with other sites for informational purposes or for Search Engine Optimization purposes (Whoops! If you haven’t heard that term before, we have the right section for you! Understanding SEO is a great way to land clients and show them you know what you’re about!), or for both.

Nothing will put you in a more business and less artistic frame of mind than writing a couple dozen articles on the advantages of buying a condominium in Toronto, and if you haven’t established a good criterion for determining your writing fees, you will certainly wish you had!

The Writer’s Market is a web site based on surveys completed by freelance writers all over the world, though mostly in the United States (don’t fret, the US market is a pretty good measuring stick for writers from developed, English speaking countries all over the world). You will find a wealth of information on the site, including how much the average freelance writer can expect to earn (usually between $35,000 and $50,000 per year) and a great break down of what individuals are charging for specific jobs.

That’s great for the brick and mortar freelance market, but how does one go about establishing writing fees for an Internet based writing business? This site wouldn’t be very helpful to you if I didn’t offer some recommendations in this area, so here are some of the ways that I have determined writing fees over the course of my career.

Charge low to build high.

On bidding sites particularly, you will find that there are “tiers” when it comes to potential clients. Some buyers are only looking for a lot of material to be banged out quickly, at the least possible cost. Higher paying clients want to see positive feedback and some quality samples before they take you on for a job. People brand new to the bidding market should probably set their great expectations aside for a while. My first couple of jobs paid $5 per article; not a lot, but I did them well and got great feedback, and within four months I was able to triple the rate, and still get jobs.

How quickly can you write?

One of the advantages I have is that I am able to process information and write it down very quickly. Even writing at $5 per article I was able to have a per hour wage that was competitive with the entry level jobs I might find around town.

Compare hourly rates based on your fees with those you could expect in a non-writing job.

I alluded to this above, and I will spell it out here. It is of no use charging low writing fees if you are making less than you could at another job. The jobs I was getting paid $5 per article for were 400 words or less, and I could complete between 3 and 6 of them in an hour. That translated to an hourly rate of $15-$30 (US, and in Canada at the time our dollar was about 1.10 on the exchange rate). This was either on par or double what I could expect at another job, so I was pretty happy with the writing fees I was charging.

Consider what you are writing about.

Now, if I was writing a 1000 word piece which compared recreational vehicles (that came later), I would not have been too happy with the writing fees I was charging. That topic would have taken me an hour or two to research and write, resulting in a very low hourly wage.

Once you get established, raise your rates!

I knew that $5 per article was coming in pretty low, and that eventually if I wanted to make a real living I would have to raise my rates. I couldn’t write four articles an hour for the rest of my life, and even more importantly, I found that the work was not filling a forty hour work week. After I had built up a solid reputation, I was able to raise my rates, and today I charge between $15 and $25 for a 500 word piece. Now a lot of writers used to magazine and newspaper writing may (or may not, I have never been able to get a straight answer on their writing fees out of them) scoff at even the higher fees I mentioned above, but I think the key it to be happy about them within yourself. At even $15 per piece, I am making an hourly wage that is equivalent to my wife, who is a Registered Nurse. It’s a wage that I am happy with, and one that my clients are willing to pay for the work that I put in.

People starting out on their freelance writing career might think the “ freelance writers wanted “ jobs hard to find. Landing those first few jobs can be really tough, even when it comes to bidding on Internet jobs for various site developers. One of the keys to landing Internet writing jobs is to understand that the advice of freelance writers is wanted. Armed with just the right information, you can present yourself as an expert when it comes to what people are looking for, and succeeding with, when they write for the Internet.

In this article, we are going to look at some ways in which you can sell yourself and your advice to a client or a potential client. It’s about knowledge and about the right presentation, and I have had some experience with both. Here is what I have learned.

A basic understanding of SEO can really get you in the door.

We develop a better understanding of search engine optimization in another section of this site, and I really can’t stress enough how much site developers love to work with a freelance writer who understands this web strategy. A client of mine, a web site developer herself, continually stresses the importance of SEO and sound marketing practices. Letting potential clients know that you have a working knowledge of this proven strategy will mean you are in the top tier of freelance writers wanted for their services.

Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.

Please, please understand what you are talking about before you make your SEO pitch. One of the best moves I ever made was purchasing Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. It really helped me gain an understanding of what the search engines were all about, and as a result I was not only able to land jobs, but also to point out to various clients areas in which they could improve. The quality of work combined with the extra help solidified many working relationships, and set up recurring sources of income, for me.

Don’t come off as a know it all!

If there is one thing that will send you to the bottom of the list of freelance writers wanted for their services, it’s acting like you know everything. You might know a great deal more than your client about the material or even developing a web site, but you have to remember that they have already decided on a method that they think will work for them. Never just come out and say what you think; couch your advice in questions and so on. It seems a little bit weird, but pride is a big factor when it comes to freelance writing jobs, and you have to be careful not to offend.

If a client asks for help, give it.

“What do you think?” This is my favorite question from a client, as they are deliberately soliciting my advice. I have a lot of great ideas and I tend not to offer an opinion unless I know what I am talking about (unless of course you happen to be my wife, but that’s a different story), so when this question gets asked the flood gates will open. I don’t expect all clients who ask this to use all my suggestions, but the ensuing discussion almost always helps both of us to further our knowledge of the Internet, web sites, writing, the reader, and most importantly our own working relationship.

Freelance Writers Wanted ads can be found easily. But the ask for more than just writing skills. It is the advice of freelance writers that is wanted, but you have to know how to deliver it. Moreover, you have to have the knowledge to back your statements up. If you are just blowing smoke at your client, they will eventually realize it, and then that is a client lost, possibly forever.

One of the main arguments that some writers will pose against landing freelance writing assignments on a bid site is that the competition is simply too steep. I have to say that part of the reason why I disagree with this theory is that really, competition is fierce in the freelance writing world in general, whether we are talking brick and mortar or online writing opportunities. In this article, I am going to use some information from clients past and present and sketch a bit of an outline on what people with freelance writing jobs are looking for in the writer that they hire.

Disclaimer: If you’ve read a few articles on this site you know that I hate ambiguity, unfortunately ghost writing assignments mean that most of the time you have to keep everything confidential, so I can’t give the names of the clients who provided this information to me.

Good Feedback

Almost every bidding site will have a feedback section where your former clients will rate your services. This is yet another complaint that many writers who claim to shun these sites have against the whole process, and again their point is accurate, but only carried so far. The bidding sites are notoriously unhelpful when you get a difficult client, who may actually be a competitor looking to screw over a better business. Still, if you are reliable, most of your feedback will be positive.

And that’s important, because 9 times out of 10 the feedback is the first thing that your potential clients will be looking at.

Samples

It is always a good idea to attach samples to your bid, even when they are not asked for. Make sure that they are as relevant as possible, and go over them two or ten times to get rid of any spelling or grammar errors; they can be hard to pick up but they will make a difference!

Price

Price will often make a difference in whether or not you get picked for a freelance writing assignment, but not always in the way a person who hasn’t used a bidding site expects. Some buyer – and most of mine are in this group – see a bid that is too low as reflecting poor quality, and they won’t pick that kind of bidder.

Portfolio

Finally, the way your portfolio is presented will also make a difference in whether or not your bid is picked. All bidding sites provide the opportunity for you to create a portfolio, and you need to take advantage of it and create the most straightforward profile that you possibly can.

I received a phone call from the United Kingdom a while ago, from a web site developer who had seen my portfolio on a site and had shortlisted me for his freelance writing assignments. One of the specific things that stood out about me in his mind was that I didn’t bother with some of the “sap” that many writers think will sell “writing is my life”, and so on. Remember, you’re setting up a business, and you need to think professionally not artistically!