Freelance Writer Road

I made three buttons and would like my readers to vote for their favorite. The button that gets the most votes by Friday September 3rd, will be the one I use to share all over the blogosphere, with a link to this site. Please use the comments section to place your vote for Button 1, Button 2 or Button 3.

The winning button will be sized appropriately and revealed during the first week of September. I will also select a random person that voted for the winning button and post a link to their site, both in the post and on my links section on the right side of the blog.

Now, go vote!!

Button 1

Button 2

Button 3

Thanks to my reader Deana over at Write Moms, I had a tutorial to help me create my buttons and it was a lot of fun! (I will share instructions in a later post)

I’m in the process of creating a button for this site, for people to share.  I’m going to start with this image:

And then I have to somehow add “Freelance Writer Road” to the bottom of the picture.  I don’t have PhotoShop.. so I’m on a mission to figure out how  to do it!

Happy Friday!  Let’s talk about rates today since a lot of people equate Friday with payday.

Do you have a minimum rate for your work? Does the time it takes you to complete an assignment come into play when you charge these rates or accept a job with a predetermined payment?

Of course we all want to earn as much money as we possibly can.  As a freelance writer becomes more experienced, they will typically charge higher amounts for their work.  Sometimes that work also takes longer to complete because as with any skill, harder jobs are typically done by more experienced people.

I just wanted to throw this out there to all of you: sometimes taking on a lesser paying job, that can be done quickly, will actually earn you more money!

As a Freelance Writer grows and gains experiences, they start to learn more about themselves as writers.  The writer will notice a trend in the niches that are more enjoyable to write, what styles match the writer’s style better, and perhaps the writer even has a preference to article length. Some writers enjoy researching and learning new things or spilling out the same topics over and over again in the specialty of their choice. Some simply like to write quick and simple articles.

Today, I want to talk about the long articles that have higher payouts versus small articles with lower payouts.  I have recently come across a couple of companies that pay on the low end of the pay scale, but the articles are very short and require little to no research.  I decided to apply after hearing a little bit about them on the WAHM.com Moms Who Write message board.

I decided to apply, and have been hired for one of the companies already, because the work is actually going to earn me more money per hour than some of the bigger and higher paying content mills.

Okay,  I know it’s Friday, but let’s talk math for a minute.

For example, I can write one article at Demand Studios for $15.  With the research, choosing pictures, and finding resources, it takes a good hour to two hours for me to complete one assignment.  That means I am working for $15 an hour or (gasp) $7.50 an hour.  Yet, I can complete four or five of the smaller articles at one of these other companies in an hour. Even though those smaller articles might pay only $4 or $5, I am earning more money per hour because I can get them completed quickly. At the least, making $16 per hour when I complete 4 articles at $4 each in one hour. If I complete 5 articles at $4 each, I’ll make $20 an hour. If I can finish 25 articles a day, 5 days a week, this will give me about $2,600 a month of income (or more)!  That sounds pretty good! I can easily complete 25 small, 300-400 word articles a day.

Of course, in order for this to really work well, the company needs to have a lot of assingmetns available so that there is enough work to actually complete 25 articles a day.  If a writer is only going to be able to do a few small articles here and there, the low payments might not work out.  Again, it really depends on the writer’s style and preferences.

Private clients are a whole ‘nother ball of wax.  A writer can pick and choose their private clients and only contract with ones that pay high rates.  The writer may still choose to take a smaller pay amount for very quick and easy work, or, the writer may hold out for bigger and better pay.

It really boils down to what works best for you as a Freelance Writer.  There are all kinds of companies that hire freelance writers, just check out the huge List Of Companies That Hire Freelance Writers. I’m sure there are more that are not even listed and can be found on such sites as Craigslist.org or any of the many freelance writing  job posting websites.

What do you think about writing short, easy articles for a lesser pay amount versus a higher pay for larger article that require more research and take longer to complete?

Textbroker is a company that hires freelance writers to create articles for its clients.  Textbroker is a great place for new writers to start out and get a feel for the freelance writing world.  Once a freelance writer starts writing for Textbroker, their work will be rated and pay is associated with the rating and the numbers of words of the article.  Although some articles may pay on the lower end of the scale they are usual pretty quick to complete and do not require much research.  There are also opportunities to earn $10 or more for an article, especially for those freelance writers with 4 and 5 star ratings.  If you are at least 18 years old and live in the United States, you can write at Textbroker. Follow these steps to apply at Textbroker:

Step 1:  Go to the Textbroker website. Read all the information provided and decide if you would like to proceed to sign up as a freelance writer.

Step 2: Go to the Authors tab. At the top there is an orange link that says “New Registration – become an author”, click on it. Of course, make sure you read this page for information about being an author at Textbroker, including pay.

Step 3: Read the page. You will have to fill out a questionnaire that includes providing your name, address, email address, and birth date.  You are asked to select your areas of expertise and to create a user name and password.  Accept the terms of service and click on the “sign up” button at the bottom of the page.

Step 4: You will then receive an email to activate your Textbroker account. Go log into Textbroker with your user name and password.

Step 5: When you log in for the first time, you must submit a writing sample. Textbroker will review and rate your sample. This may take a couple days, or you might receive an email within a few hours. Once your sample is rated, you can then log in and start writing articles. You will only see articles that you can write, based on your rating. So if you are rated as a 3 star writer, you will only see articles for 1, 2, and 3 stars. If you are a 4 star writer you will see articles for 1, 2, 3, and 4 stars. Most people start out as a 3 or 4 star writer. 5 star writers are experts and have the opportunity to write at any level, though 5 star articles get paid a lot more than the other levels.  The previous 5 articles that are rated are averaged out, so you have the opportunity to move up in ratings. The better your writing is, the more stars you will be rated, and the more money you will be paid!

Step 6: Send in a W9 so you can be paid. Textbroker, like most other content writing companies, require a completed W9 prior to sending out any payments. Once they receive your W9, you will get a confirmation email.

Step 7:  Start writing and getting paid!

I am happy to announce that I’ve been accepted to write at Demand Studios!  I am extra happy about this because I was rejected the first time I applied, which was about 3 months ago.

This shows that you should keep applying at places and not to take rejection too hard.  I was disappointed, but made a goal to get more writing experience under my belt and then re-apply in 3 months. I did, got in, reached my goal, and I feel awesome!

Receiving rejections is part of being a freelance writer. You need thick skin so that you can handle criticism, constructive feedback, and yes, even rejection.  Don’t let it get you down, instead, turn it into motivation to do better and set a goals for improvement.  Take a course, practice your skills, write, write, and write some more and you will improve!

I will write more about Demand Studios once I write a few articles.  There is a probation period where I’ll have my first 3 articles reviewed before I can then start writing unlimited articles.  Check back here for more posts on my Demand Studios experiences.

And, good luck to all of you who are waiting to hear about writing for a new company or client .. and for those that have been rejected, don’t let it get you down, instead turn those feelings into motivation and set a goal to re-apply in a few months or a year.

In my continued conquest to find the easiest way to find a website’s page rank, I have located this awesome Firefox add-on to display Google PageRank right on your browser. No need to copy and paste a website into an engine to find this information, see it right on the bottom right corner of your browser!

Click here to go to the Firefox Add-on To Display Google PageRank.  This add-on works with both Firefox and SeaMonkey.  I’ve been using it for about 24 hours for my current project and it is FANTASTIC. It is the easiest way I’ve found, so far, to find out a website or blog’s Google PageRank.

For those of you that are interested in Alexa ratings, it provides a bar with Alexa information too!  So, with this awesome little Firefox add-on, you can easily view the Google PageRank and the Alexa ratings for every single website you are looking at, just by slightly moving your eyeballs!

This one of the best tools available for writers, and it’s free!

Once again, the link to download the Firefox Add-on To Display Google PageRank is HERE.

Hi Readers!

I just wanted to put up a quick post to share with you all this great tool I just found to find out what a website’s Google PageRank is. In case there are people that are not aware, the Google PageRank is a number between 0 and 10, 10 being the best, that indicates how popular your website is. The higher the Google PageRank, the closer your website is to the top of the first page of Google Search Results.

This website will tell you what a website or webpage’s Google PageRank is just by simply entering in the website address, entering the Anti-bot code, and clicking on Verify Now.  If it does not show the rank for a page within the website try again with the home page/landing page website address and that should work.

http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php is the URL of this awesome Google PageRank tool. Bookmark this page because you will want to use it again!

Not only can you use the website to find out the Google PageRank of any website, you can add a short piece of code to your own website to share this tool with all your visitors.  And, there is also free code to add a little button onto your own site to tell visitors what your Google PageRank is.

Click Here to find a Firefox add-on that will display a website’s Google PageRank and Alexa rating right on your browser! And, it’s FREE!!!

In my keyword research adventures I found another great website.  Check out this free keyword suggestion tool HERE.

This keyword tracker is simple to use. Just enter the main subject you’d like to find keywords for into the box at the top of the left side of the screen.  Adjust the Adult Filter as needed, and then click on the Hit Me button.  The Keyword Tracker will then generate a list of words that relate to your requested keywords. These words appear with the most searched phrases first, with the number of times those words have been used in a search.

Obviously, you want to use the keywords listed at the top of the Keyword Tracker list, as they are the words that are searched for most often.  If you want to research further, you can then look up those keywords in Google to see what kinds of sites come up and see if they are sites that you can compete with.

Basically, I’m learning that keyword research is not always quick and easy task.   But, being able to find good keywords is a great skill for freelance writers to possess.  When and if you decide to work with private clients, being able to find keywords could increase your pay rate as clients may not have the time or the knowledge to research keywords that are appropriate for their business.

When Freelance Writers see companies looking for someone to write SEO articles, this is pretty much what they are looking for. Companies are looking for Freelance Writers that can do keyword research to come up with great keywords and then write an article that includes those keywords through out the document, without the article sounding too funny. The keywords need to flow naturally through the article and not sound like the keywords were just stuffed in there.

Here is the original article in this series:

How To Research Keywords – 1

Internet Brands owns multiple websites and they hire freelance writers to write content for those sites.  When a freelancer is hired by Internet Brands they are assigned a certain website and provided guidelines that are specifically for their designated site.  Writers may apply to write for more than one website, but they must apply separately with a new application each time.

Internet Brands pays twice a month, via check or direct deposit.  When direct deposit is chosen, writers will receive a statement in the mail with payment details. The pay ranges from $4.00 and up per article, with articles as small as 200 words.

Internet Brands is a great egg to have in your writing basket, but one question always comes up when people apply, “I applied a few days ago and haven’t heard back. How long does it take to hear from them?”

I wanted to let writers know that they should not be discouraged when they don’t hear back from Internet Brands after a few days or a week.  It takes three, sometimes even four weeks for a writer to receive an email stating that they’ve been hired or not.

To apply at Internet Brands, send your resume and cover letter to stacey.marquez@internetbrands.com.  You will then receive an application to complete and instructions.  Complete the application and email back to IB. Then the wait begins.  After a few weeks you will receive another email stating if you’ve been hired or not. If you have been hired, your email will contain contracts, agreements, and other important documents.  You must follow instructions on completing and returning the documents. Then another short wait until you receive another email with a link to the writer’s portal, your id and password, and more information about starting your career with Internet Brands.

I am currently a writer with Internet Brands and I like them. I do have other higher paying gigs that are at the top of my list, so I don’t write here regularly. I save IB for those times when all my other articles are being reviewed and I have time to work on other things. Or, if I have a short period of time I know I can get a quick IB article done.  I usually do the short 200 word, $4.00 articles.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted here.  I went on vacation to New Hampshire and my oldest son finished up his 3rd grade year. It is now officially Summer and I find myself with a new schedule that needs to be tweaked a bit.  But, that is one of the best things about being a freelance writer and working from home, you can make your own schedule!

I brought my laptop and did some work while I was on vacation. I only did the bare minimum work so that I could enjoy some family time.  Again, another reason why I love my job; I might not get paid to take a day off, but I can take my work with me when I travel. When you love what you do, like I love writing, then doing some work while on vacation isn’t a big deal at all.

Now, I need to start saving up my well earned freelance writing money to buy an in-ground pool so next summer I can sit by the pool and do my writing!

Just a little update on my personal writing adventures:

I am really enjoying my writing for wiseGEEK and QualityGal. Those are my two favorite content writing gigs right now.  I also like my blogging job at ComplexSearch.com and have expanded from doing only travel deals to also posting some electronic deals as well.

I’ve got a new client in the works. It sounds very interesting and promising, so I’ll post more later.

Private clients tend to pay more than content sites, so as a writer gains experience and private client opportunities start appearing, take advantage of them because your income could really grow!