For most freelance writers, obtaining new clients is the lifeblood of their business. If you are capable of securing new work on a regular basis, you are going to succeed. Of course, you will also want to work hard at keeping the clients you currently work for. After all, recurring business is the best kind.
I have been lucky enough to secure some pretty big contracts over the years, but one of them sticks out head and shoulders above the rest. About 15 months ago I came across an ad on one of the many freelance writing job boards that I check every morning. From what I can remember, the ad was actually posted on several different boards including the one at journalismjobs.com.
The job description was simple and to the point. They were looking for somebody who could write approximately 500 words per day on real estate. Being that I had experience with this type of content in the past, I fired off a quick note with some samples and my resume attached. Not expecting to hear anything back for a few days at the least, I began to move on to the rest of my work. But much to my surprise, within five minutes, I received a call from the company that I had just emailed. They liked what they saw, offered me the job, and gave me some basic details on getting started.
But while all this was going on, I was still wondering about one very important detail. What was the pay for this job? The ad did not mention the rate, and the client had yet to say anything. Right then, he said to me, “What is your going rate for a job like this?†I quickly responded that I would be glad to help at $.10/word. He said great, I said awesome, and that was that.
Each month, like clockwork, I receive $1,000 or so from this client. I always wonder how I got so lucky as to secure this client. It is obvious that the hiring individual was reading emails at that time, and mine happened to roll in. Talk about great timing!
Wouldn’t it be easy if every contract was this simple to secure? These are the ones that every freelance writer dreams about, but of course, the ones that are most difficult to capture!
How much money can you earn by working full-time as a freelance writer? This is a question that most aspiring freelancers ask time and time again. But unlike some jobs that have set salary ranges, this is far from the truth when it comes to freelance writing. The fact of the matter is that earnings change from person to person, and are based on everything from writing skills to marketing prowess.
To give you a better idea of what type of money you can make as a freelance writer, I am going to detail some of the projects that I work on each month. They range from high paying gigs that I located on journalismjobs.com to lower paying website content articles. Although everybody would like the high paying jobs, even full-time freelance writers have to give in from time to time.
First off, let’s take a look at one of my highest paying jobs. Generally speaking, this job entails writing at least one article per day. That sounds easy enough, right? Well it gets even better. The article can be on any topic I want, and it is up to me to determine the length and direction. What does a gig like this pay? This particular one gives me $.10/word. As you can imagine, this is a nice deal because for a 500 word article I can pull in $50. And since it only takes me 15 to 20 minutes to complete these, I make out just fine in the end.
On the other side of things, there are some jobs that I take on that do not offer nearly as much in the area of finances. But of course, there are a couple of reasons that I stick with these jobs. There are two requirements that I consider before taking on a low paying job. The first one is ongoing, steady work. As long as the client is always sending work, the small pay will add up in the end. The other requirement is that I must feel that the articles can be written at a highly fair rate of speed. After all, I am not going to work for $5/hour or so.
One example of this is a client that pays me $.012/word. Does this sound like a rip-off to you? If so, I don’t blame you. But even though this is far from being the best pay, it usually works out to right around $50/hour in the long run.
As you can see, you will have the ability to make up your mind on which freelance writing jobs to accept. Remember, the faster you write, the more you can write. And in turn, you can increase your average hourly rate. But of course, you should never give up delivering quality work just so you can make more money. If you do, your clients will see through this, and your job will be gone before you can blink an eye.
Determining how much money you will make as a freelance writer is not possible. In fact, it is not even possible for me and I have been doing this for quite some time. There are some months that I earn nearly $10,000 and others that are around $5,000. My goal is to get as close to $10k a month as I can, without having to sacrifice more time. No matter who you are, you should have earning goals in mind for your freelance writing career.
I have received many great jobs from GetAFreelancer in the past, and hope to continue this for years to come. But as of late, it appears that more and more low paying jobs are being posted. While these do not bother me, because I will simply ignore them, there are others who may fall prey. After all, this happens to even the best of us.
I have been meaning to write about this problem, and a recent job posting on GetAFreelancer pushed me into doing it today.
Check out this job at http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/156007.html. I think that the title pretty much says it all: Full Time Work – Max $2 Per Hr. Is this a joke? Does somebody really think that they can find somebody to work full-time for $2 per hour? That works out to a whopping $4,160/year based on a 2,080 hour work year. Even in the poorest countries in the world, this is an absolute insult.
If you do not have the chance to read the post, they are looking for a bidder that feels that $50 to $60 a week is an acceptable income. The job title is quite extensive as they are looking for a person who can handle CSS, customer service, link building, content writing, and more. In other words, they want a highly skilled, full-time worker that will work for peanuts.Â
When I first saw this post I figured that nobody in their right mind would place a bid. But guess what? After one day on GetAFreelancer, there have been 29 bids with an average bid price of $46.
Do yourself a favor, and get paid what you are worth. Working full-time on your own website or blog will go much further than taking a job like this.
