The internet has opened up a world of opportunities for anyone who has the determination to go grab them. Every day, more and more websites are launched, and the demand for content is growing day after day. Good news for us writers! Today, there’s more work out there than most writers can handle, and because it’s growing daily, there’s plenty of space for you to join the fun.
Today, by taking advantage of the internet, you can earn a relatively fast income as a freelance writer, right from the comfort of your own home. This awesome “Freelance Writing Opportunity” is available to you right now, and it can literally change your life and the lives of those you love.
Full time, part time… it’s your call!
Many writers are not only earning a side income but also replacing their mundane 9-to5 jobs, paying off their debt, spending more valuable time with their families and some are even traveling the world, using hotel rooms or even beach cafes as their “home office.” Whatever your income goals, and whatever your lifestyle dreams, it’s absolutely possible with freelance writing.
And it’s easier than you think
Before the internet existed, writers needed extensive credits, college degrees, recommendations and impressive referrals before they could be hired by a magazine or newspaper to write for money.
It took years of studying and connecting with industry professionals before they could ever earn a decent living. And unfortunately, most never reached a level that would justify the years of time and effort they invested. How things have changed! The internet opened up possibilities that never existed before and leveled the playing field. In essence, it turned the writing industry upside down. Now there are immediate opportunities for people from all walks of life…all ages…all over the world.
And when I say “immediate” opportunities, I mean it…
Some of the most successful online writers have no formal experience and have broken into this industry in a big way…not in years…months or weeks…but within days. Armed with a computer, a keyboard, basic writing skills and an unquenchable desire, you can join the countless number of people who are earning a great living while working in the comfort of their homes. Now you may be asking yourself the following questions about me…
Does she have any formal training?
Did she have a lot of money to invest?
Did she have the perfect environment to work?
The answer to all of those questions is a resounding, NO! Personally, I’m an internet marketer, writer and researcher and I began exactly where you are right now. I discovered the many opportunities the internet provides for people like you and I and I’ve spent time on this report to share with you the valuable information that I’ve gathered over the years. I’m so excited that I can give you all of my knowledge so you don’t have to go the way I did on my own.
I want to share all of my freelance writing expertise with you so that you can also live the life you’ve always dreamed of. I know what you’re saying…”This sounds too good to be true.” For some, that might very well be accurate.
Even though the freelance writing opportunity is real and accessible, there are many reasons why so many people aren’t making money with it. So, although you may be excited to get started, I want to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes that other writers make.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
The unfortunate reality is that the internet is full of inaccurate information. Sure, it’s been great for the people who don’t abuse it. And it’s been a huge advantage for those who can rummage through a lot of sites that are nothing but “garbage” and discern which ones are real. But for most of us, it’s difficult to know which sites are reputable and which ones aren’t. For every opportunity site that can offer valuable information, there are just as many others that are misleading and in many cases, total scams.
This unfortunate reality has left many aspiring freelance writers scratching their heads, wondering what to do next, and whether earning money as a freelance writer is even possible. Because of this, they give up on their dreams and go back to the old way of life that they were desperately trying to escape. After a while, you begin to suffer from “information overload.” So much is coming at you from all sides and everyone is claiming that they are the writing guru.
Whom should you believe? Aspiring online writers will spend hours, days, and even weeks trying to decipher what they are digesting. Before long they discover they are no further along than they were, and find themselves back at the beginning.
The frustration becomes overwhelming and writers with incredible potential end up doing nothing! It can be hard. Writers with whom I’ve spoken don’t know where to start, and because of that, they end up directionless. Where’s the starting line?
Can you imagine a sprinter walking onto a track field ready to line up for a race and there isn’t any starting line? The best runners in the world can’t show how fast they are–and cannot even compete–if they aren’t told where to begin.
It’s the same with freelance writing!
If you can’t find where to begin, you will feel crippled. Many who reach this point never begin at all and think that earning a living as an online freelance writer is impossible.
Even experienced writers, with years in the industry under their belts, have some issues navigating the “internet waters” as they try to expand their careers into online writing. It’s unfortunate that even they don’t cash in on the lucrative opportunities the internet provides. They can’t seem to focus on one area. Again, this is because of information overload.
They see opportunities to write on anything and everything and end up spreading themselves too thin, become overworked and overwhelmed and stop writing altogether. And to make matters worse, there is a lot of competition. After all, this is a great profession. Who wouldn’t want to earn a nice living, making your own hours while working from home? That’s why the right information and tools are essential if you want to succeed in this competition-driven industry.
So what’s the solution?
Persistence is the name of the game. If you follow my lead, you will win. My wish is that as you read this report, you will see there are real solutions to these freelance writing roadblocks. In fact, these roadblocks can be non-existent if you follow exactly what I did. As already stated, this can only work if you know where to start and understand on what you have to focus. If you remain in a scattered state for too long, you will be hopeless and give up completely. So, let’s dive into how I was able to start earning money from home as a freelance writer.
First stop? Content Mills.
One of the first places available for you to earn money online as a freelance writer is through content mills. What I love about these sites is that you can write today and have money in the bank by next week! It is simple to get started and the learning curve is short so you can earn as much as you want in whatever time period you desire.
Content mills set you on the right path and give you direction so you don’t divert from your mission: to become a successful freelance writer and live life on your own terms. Thankfully, when you work with content mills, it is super easy to begin your writing career and stay focused. And don’t forget the best part of content mills is the FAST cash!
What is a content mill?
A content mill is a company that hires freelance writers for their clients’ online needs. Their writers generate large amounts of content and in turn earn money while building their own business. Content mills work directly with the client and act as the middleman between you and the client paying for content. Content mills are the ideal place to begin for new writers or those who have tried their hand in freelance writing but never get off the ground. Here are the benefits to content mills:
Immediate cash
- Teaches you how to meet writing deadlines
- Gives you real experience
- Helps you land future clients
- Builds your writer resume
- Flexible working hours
- Hire you without a portfolio
Are all content mills created equal?
No. The best content mills have standards and consistently deliver quality writing to their clients that hire through them. These mills will want writing samples and might even have admission tests before they allow you to join. Some will be easier to join than others and you do have to know basic writing skills and be proficient in English.
When looking for a reputable content mill, make sure they give you your pay scale up front. If they hide that from you, move on. They should also provide you with a writing guide so you don’t spend time spinning your wheels and you know what they expect from you immediately. In my experience, the three content mill sites that have been proven to be the best to earn money and gain experience are:
1. Textbroker.com
2. iWriter.com
3. DemandStudios.com
Textbroker
Textbroker heads up our top three content mills and offers several options to make money as an online freelance writer. Based on the quality of your writing samples, Textbroker will give you a rating between two and five stars. The better your writing sample, the more stars you will earn. Textbroker is proactive with continually increasing your rating if it believes you deserve it. Once your writing sample is accepted (which can be as fast as 12 hours) and you’ve been given a rating, you can claim articles. You are allowed to claim work that is at your star level or below which gives you a lot of opportunities to make money. The more stars the article is worth, the more money they offer you to write it.
- Star Level 2 pays 0.7 cents per word
- Star Level 3 pays 1.0 cents per word
- Star Level 4 pays 1.4 cents per word
- Star Level 5 pays 5.0 cents per word
Textbroker also offers “DirectOrder” and “TeamOrder” which greatly increases your rates and earning potential in each star category.
I can almost hear you now. “Those rates are lower than I expected.” It takes a while to get used to how freelance writers get paid for their work, but if I break it down, you’ll get the idea. Most writers end up at level 4 on Textbroker.
That translates into 1.4 cents per word. Most articles on Textbroker are 500 words = 500 X 1.4 cents = $7.00. If you want to write one article an hour for 6 hours, that’s $42.00 a day X 5 days = $210.00 for the week, part-time, working from home. What if you wrote quickly? You could easily double your hourly rate to $14.00 an hour, by writing two articles an hour. Now, for the same amount of time, you are earning $420.00 for 30 hours of work.
Not too shabby. You are working in the comfort of your own surroundings without a boss breathing down your neck. Payday is every Friday. Whatever was completed and accepted by midnight on Thursday, you will receive through PayPal on Friday. I can honestly say, that first check I received through Textbroker was one of the highlights of my life. Why? Because I knew it was possible to really make money. That’s all I needed and the rest is history.
iWriter
iWriter is a content writing site with a large community of writers and publishers. There isn’t any limit on the amount of articles you can write, and similar to Textbroker, you get paid through Paypal. Unlike Textbroker, your payment is sent in one of four time periods: weekly, bi-monthly, or on the fifth or twenty-fifth of each month.
Writers get paid 81% of the price that the client is paying for the article you’re writing. After PayPal and Copyscape fees (this ensures your article is unique and genuine), it works out to this pay scale:
- 300-word article – $1.62+
- 500-word article – $2.43+
- 700-word article – $4.05+
- “Elite” writers earn $15+ per article
Not much, right? Don’t fret. There is good news with iWriter. Once you’ve written 30 articles with this company and you have earned a rating of 4 stars, you move to the Premium level.
If you keep turning out excellent articles, you will move up even further. Once you hit 4.6 stars, you are now in the “Elite” tier. Now you can apply for the $15-per-article gigs. I discovered that iWriter is a bit more lenient with editing. Their editors will correct you, but they are mostly concerned with unique content. If they run your article through Copyscape, and they discover you plagiarized, they will probably ban you from writing for them again.
Demand Media Studios
Demand Media is one of the largest producers of online content. You will gain immediate credibility when working with Demand Media. On this site you can freelance for some of the top websites today such as LIVESTRONG.com and eHow.com. Once you become a writer for Demand Media, your writing will be viewed by millions of people. Once you sign up at Demand Media, you will receive an email response saying they received your request to write for them.
Processing your application could take them an hour or a couple of weeks depending on how many writers applied ahead of you, as well as the time of year. Once you’re approved, you will be assigned an editor that will guide you through their process. Demand Media is known to have the strictest editors, but it also pays the best. You can earn $15+ easily per article.
You also need some type of skill or proof of experience in the industry in which you write. So, it is a little more difficult to get accepted to this content mill, but the rewards are better. Content mill’s success can be yours! I’ve found that you can be successful and make money with content mills. Some people concentrate on one content mill company. I did just the opposite. I applied to many, including the top three listed here.
I had more work than I could keep up with and made some decent money. If you only apply to one content mill, you are limiting yourself because the amount of work that is accessible to you will be much less. Before you apply to any content mill, set up a PayPal account. Every application will ask you for your PayPal information so you want to be armed and ready. After all, getting paid is what this is all about, right?
Lastly, to ensure your content mill success, spend time crafting several writing samples on different topics. This is the most important time you can spend. The better the writing sample you submit to the content mill, the higher the level you will initially attain, so you will earn more money. Also, you can use these samples on your website, Facebook page, LinkedIn page and anywhere you are asked to show your writing. Good writing samples and a strong portfolio are the backbone of every successful freelance writer.
What are the drawbacks of working for content mills?
It’s a nugget, not a goldmine. As with everything, there is an “up” and there is a “down.” The downside to content mills is:
- Relatively low pay scale
- Writing has to meet exact standards or you may have to rewrite
- Write anonymously without a byline can’t build portfolio
- Sometimes you get contradictory advice from editors
Content mills aren’t going to make you rich as a writer. When I first began my journey into freelance writing, I had no writing experience and what I did write, I wrote slowly.
As a result, I was making $5.00 an hour. People told me I was crazy spending my time this way, but for me, it was a building process. The content mills that gave me work also taught me how to write better. Editors would point out changes to my writing and through those “suggestions,” I became a proficient freelance writer.
What I learned from those editors was invaluable and I still use much of the knowledge I gained through content mills, today. Writing has to meet exact standards for every content mill company. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. These editors will equip you with a set of standards that will aid you throughout your online writing career.
On the flip side, sometimes they will ask you to rewrite the article, which can cost you valuable time and money. When I was working for content mills, if the editor asked for more than I was able to do, I would put the job back into the job pool and let someone else do it. It’s just not worth spending a lot of valuable time to make a small amount of money. One of the most frustrating elements to writing for content mills for me personally was that I couldn’t say I wrote that article.
With most content mills, you are a ghostwriter and you cannot add your bylines or use your work to build your online portfolio. So what did I do? When I began submitting to direct, private clients, I used those articles as samples for them to read, even though I couldn’t post to the online version. That way, I still got use out of them, but I knew they would never become public, so it worked perfectly. Did I get frustrated? You betcha! I take it back that my greatest frustration was not being able to add my byline. The most frustrating part of content mills was dealing with contradictory editors.
For example, one editor would tell me to use a comma before the word “and” and another editor would tell me not to use the comma. Huh? In this situation, I just did what each editor told me. I wasn’t looking to make friends or influence people. I wanted to get my articles submitted and approved as fast as I could to make as much money as I was able.
So, I see content mills as “gold nuggets” rather than “goldmines.” They’re a good way to learn the ropes, dip your feet in the freelance writing world, and earn some money in the process. I understand that you want to make as much money as possible from your writing work. Don’t get discouraged, this is just the beginning. Content mills have their place, but you don’t want to earn only pennies forever. You have to move on up to the bigger and better pay rates and get paid what you deserve. And with my help, you will!
Direct Clients
Next stop? Direct clients. Working directly with clients instead of the content mill middleman creates many exciting opportunities.
- You make a LOT more money
- You have direct communication with the client
- Set your own rates
- Set your own deadlines
- Less work because you’re earning more per project
- Build writing portfolio
- Able to bid on many jobs at the same time
- Recurring work with the same client is possible
As you can see, there are many perks to moving toward direct clients. Content mills help writers learn their chops, but there is no better way to learn and grow and get to a real level of success than to land freelance writing jobs through direct clients. As an independent, online freelance writer who is working with private clients, you are no longer just a “number.”
You are a desirable writer who has built an impressive clientele with a bright future and has established a name for yourself. You are now a freelance writer who has a longterm, financially-rewarding, debt-busting career, not just some quick cash to help you get through the month.
One huge plus is that you are no longer limited to writing just articles. You can also write:
- Blog Posts
- Website Content
- Sales Writing
- Press Releases
- eBooks
- Ghost Writing
- Report Writing
- Newsletters
- Manuals
- Academic Writing
- Speeches
- Editing
- Proofreading
However, there is STILL one problem.
Finding direct clients can be seriously time-consuming. As a new writer, I would spend most of my day seeking out potential clients, approaching them and negotiating prices. It was a full-time sales and marketing job. Eventually, I built a reputation and started to get referrals on autopilot, but it was hard work in the beginning, and there’s nothing worse than draining your time and energy trying to market yourself when all you want to do is write. If only you could focus on writing, and let other people find clients and work for you…
Back when I first started, there was no such luxury. However, today, you’re lucky enough to have such services available to you. It’s a website called RealWritingJobs.com and if you’re looking for well-paid work, without having to chase down clients all day, then I can’t recommend this service enough. As a member, you get daily job opportunities sent straight to your lap. Not just any jobs, but pre-vetted, pre-screened, high quality, and legit writing jobs, picked out by real writing professionals who know what they’re looking for.
This means you don’t have to scour through classified ad websites, freelance job boards, or social networks, trying to hunt down clients and negotiate deals. And because each job is carefully screened, you don’t have to worry about getting ripped off by scams. I actually have my own account there, and I’m amazed by the amount of fresh new gigs that come through the door each day. Take a look!
And unlike freelance websites, there are no price bidding wars either. You get paid what they’re offering. You either take the job, or you don’t. No hustle. No bustle.
They also give you all sorts of freelance writing training, templates, websites and so much more. It’s really an invaluable goldmine for any new writer who wants to break into this enviable, lucrative world of writing from home.
Either way, your dream of working from home, being your own boss, earning what you truly deserve, and living a more friends-and-family-oriented lifestyle, is closer than you think. I’ve given you plenty of places you can explore to start getting work. Most of them have pros and cons, but they’re all legit and instantly available to you, right now. I wish you all the success in the world.
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