Introduction
A decent earning is possible by writing articles, blog posts, reviews as a freelancer. What I am going to share with you is all from my personal experience and not taken or copy pasted from all online resources.
I am writing blog since 2008 at various places. Most of my blogs are non existent now or lost or deleted by myself. There is a big gap in my writing life in last few years. Some earning can be made by writing own blog through ads but this is not a preferred income source for me. But writing for others and earning money? No way! I am not gonna do that because that is not going to pay enough. Wait, I used to think that way but the reality is different.
For the impatient readers here is a little intro of how much you can earn. My first earning writing an article was $100, the second one was $10 – obviously two of them varies in number of words. But this is not the end of the story. You can earn from $10 to $1000 writing with the word count ranging from 200 to 2000. On average you can earn $250 to $300 for per quality article with average word count.
Yes, you can make your living out of this freelance writing things. It’s relatively hard to make as much and as quick earning through other type of freelancing work. If you have got the talent of writing you are ready to go and earn a living of $1k to $5k per month just by writing.
Where do you find those clients who need articles?
First of all the freelancing bidding sites will pop up in everyone’s mind. Yes, that’s a very good option but that is not the end of the world. In the world of freelance writing your opportunity is infinite if you know how to find them. Freelancing sites like Upwork.com, PeoplePerHour.com, Freelancer.com, etc. are very good starting points (avoid Fiverr.com at all cost for it’s fraudulent activities, I will write on their activities later). Everyday a lot of people come there and post their requirements about articles they need. You can send your cover letter and if possible some links of your previous writings. If you know how to approach a client online it will be a breeze for you to win these jobs.
Where else to search for clients?
Freelancing marketplaces are not a great option all the time. First of all they take around 10 to 20 percent of your income in the name of money protection. Again due to various restrictions you cannot communicate with your client easily. Most important of all you are stuck with them – obviously that’s what you do not want because you started your freelancing life not to be stuck like day jobs.
To find clients outside of online marketplaces you have to understand where your customers are. You have to go in touch with your customers online instead they come in touch with you. So, to find your customers/clients you need to understand who those customers/clients are?
A lot of business who want their presence online want to have article written related to their business. You cannot create a website describing your service and expect people to come and buy that. You need something more. You need have some engagement and interaction with people. You need to create contents so that people come and read and get interested more about you. You need to list your site at the top of search engines’ results. The list goes on an on. For all these you need to have various articles written. But you are busy with your business, you do not have time to write them or the effort is not worth the time. So, what you do? You find people whose profession is writing in your niche. You are happy, the writer is happy and most important of all your customers are happy. So, in short you have to find all those business that need content for their website, newspaper, magazine. And the best guide for you is google to find them.
A lot of newspapers and magazines need articles and if you are good in the topic you can write for them. A 2k words writing gonna pay you 800 to 1000 bucks if you know how to deal well.
Do you need to have a lot of previous published articles to get those jobs?
Well, no! you can start from zero. In a previous post I described how to approach your client and win the deal (that is applicable both for marketplace and non-marketplace clients). If you have no previous work but you can convince your client by your words then you are the winner. But if you have some previous work or some popular blog then your path to winning the deal is easier. But again if you do not know how to approach your client then your previous work work not gonna save the day.
There a lot of things that I want to tell you about writing and earning but I am saving them for later. By writing a very big post I am not gonna bore you to death. Tell me your opinion or question through comment box below or email me. You can also get connected with me through facebook, linkedin, twitter, G+. Let’s get in touch.
One last most important suggestion: never copy other’s writings – it gonna hurt your writing career to death.
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