Write Your Life:
The Beginner’s Guide To Freelance Writing Online
Published By Paul Bright
Copyright 2010-2011 Paul Bright
Smashwords Edition
Cover art by Ryan Alkove
Copyright License Notes:
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is dedicated to everyone who ever thought “if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me this…”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Disclaimer
What This Is, What This Is Not
SECTION I- PREPARING FOR FREELANCE WRITING
The Business
Time Management
Fit To Write
SECTION II- GOING TO WORK
Content Production versus Creative Writing
Application
Independent Contracts
Research Techniques
Rejection
SECTION III- PUBLISHING AND PROMOTION
Site Profiles
Forums and Social Networks
Self-Promotion
SECTION IV- ADDITIONAL INFO
Resources
My Background
Thanks
All of the views and opinions expressed in this book are solely that of the author’s and are derived from his experiences and other documented experiences and expertise of the freelance writing and professional community. The purpose of this guide is to use these experiences to help new and potential freelance writers gain insight into the freelance writing community. The author does not guarantee success in the freelance writing industry or any pursuit of independent business by using his guidelines.
No entities, companies or websites have any vested financial interest or have provided any funding towards this book’s creation. In other words, no one has paid the author to say naughty or nice things about anyone in here.
All photos, writing and original artwork (to include the book cover) are copyrighted material that cannot be re used without the expressed written consent of the creators.
Before you start reading, there are a few things I would like to clear up so that we all have perspective going into the freelance writing world.
A guide on a guaranteed way to make ridiculous amounts of money by writing articles. Most people will likely earn a few hundred dollars per month as part time freelance writers online. Some who commit more work or go full time can earn thousands per month. That’s better than zero, and probably better than any other part-time paying job that involves suiting up for someone else in a career field you care nothing about.
A never-before-heard-of or brand-spankin’-new system to guarantee success in the freelance writing world. Much of the information presented could be found anywhere else, if you’re willing to spend the months and months and years and years of compiling, testing and applying it like I did.
Endorsed by any of the companies or people mentioned, used, interviewed or reviewed in here. Information about other companies or people are based on my experiences and the collective experiences of other veteran freelance writers I contacted to gather information for this book.
A rant against the traditional working world. You’re not going to read about how “the man” is oppressing you!
THIS BOOK IS
Designed for newcomers. Experienced writers can benefit as well, but this is written for the ones who have the skills and have heard little to nothing about the legitimate freelance writing world. Experienced writers, please keep this in mind!
A guaranteed leg-up into the freelance writing world. By following what’s set out in this book, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into, what it takes to get started and what to watch out for. It’s the difference between taking apart your car engine piece by piece, or having an easy, step-by-step instruction guide written by an experienced mechanic with contributions from the people who built the engine.
An entertaining and insightful look into starting up a legitimate work-from-home business. You’ll see an honest comparison between working from home and working for others, from taxes to time. And by “honest” I mean the good and bad.
IS THIS FOR YOU?
Can anyone succeed as a freelance writer? Truthfully, no. (I told you I was gonna be honest!) This business isn’t for everyone. People with vast amounts of knowledge sometimes have difficulty putting it into words or even discussing it in public. There are also some gifted writers who know much about nothing and have poor or lazy research skills. And if you don’t like working in general and just want to point and click to make dollars, this isn’t for you. While I firmly believe that anyone can learn the skills to be even an average freelance writer, many people just can’t do it.
So what kind of person does it take? Do you have to be super organized, super smart, super skilled, super literate and super resourceful to become even a good writer? No way. I am not an absolute in any of those areas but I am a good, successful writer who started off with a little skill in each area. The two skills I do excel in are patience and resourcefulness. It took me four years to reach where I am now and I feel like I’ve still got more to go. As you’ll see in my background, my working world training and educational background are not in English, or publishing, or Internet marketing. But here I am, making money as a freelance writer!
My best bet right now is that YOU have what it takes. You’re probably someone who has been around the working block and looking for a new challenge. At some point and time in your working career you’ve had to learn research skills, adjust your communication skills, become an expert in a field of work and organize yourself for better success.
If you are a stay at home parent, you have all of those skills and then some. Anyone who can balance a checkbook, research what kind of bug that is on your front porch, officiate a game of football, hook up a video game console and provide psychotherapy day after day surely has the skill set for this kind of work….just when the kids are asleep.
If you are a college student, then you are learning all of those skills. You are researching the ‘net at lightning speed so you can stick around another semester and you’re probably waxing philosophical on everything that’s ever happened to you in life up until now. And most likely at 3am.
If you have a Ph.D., you needed all those skills to earn your degree.
If you reached
management level, you’ve employed those skills or found someone who
could.
And that, my friends, is what this book really IS about: tapping into “you” as you’ve lived in this world and finding a new way to make money. Not crazy, gazillionaire money that doesn’t come from hard work, but more money than you ever thought you’d make based on your life and a word processor.
PREPARING FOR FREELANCE WRITING
“The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare.” Bobby Knight, NCAA Basketball coach
THE BUSINESS
Let’s begin at the beginning. What are your goals? Are you trying to quit working for other people, making other people huge profits? Are you looking to do a job from home full-time? Do you just want to make a little extra money on the side without having to take on a second out-of-home job?
Whatever your goals are, freelance writing online may be your answer. For some, making a few extra hundred dollars a week was all they wanted. That was certainly my goal, and I was able to make five figures on an average of 10 hours per week. For others, they do want to turn this into a full time job. Freelance writing online is a legitimate way to make that money.
IF you treat it as a business.
That’s right. Like other work-at-home jobs or any job, you are running a business. As such, you need to be prepared to run that business. The common mistake freelance writers often make (me included!) is that they want to work on their own but they want to have someone else do all the management. That’s still like working for “The Man”. But much of freelance writing online, especially with other publishing companies, is a client-based business. That is, you have agreed to a contract to write X number of articles with X number of guidelines in exchange for X dollars. For example, companies like Demand Studios offers an average of $15 per completed article selected from titles they have available, while Yahoo! Voices can offer up to $20 up front for articles you write that you select, plus residuals. More details on those two sites later.
A long-term, personal contract might require more demanding time constraints. I have colleagues that have worked as ghostwriters on books that took them several hours a day for months at a time to complete. Even if you are the fastest typist in the world, your client can require changes in one part of the book that change the entire structure of the entire work. Kinda like changing out the furniture in your house right after you’ve painted it a unique color.
So what does it take to start as an online freelance writer besides putting coherent sentences together? Let’s lay the foundation down.
EXPENSES
Could there be expenses associated with freelance writing online? Yes. There are a number of things you can claim with the freelance writing business, especially when you first start. Here’s a short list:
Computer
Printer
Printer Ink
Internet connection
Paper
Advertising costs
Tax preparation
Utilities
Getting started will cost you a few dollars, that’s for sure. Any personal business will incur start-up costs. But think about what you WON’T be spending if you go full time!
Gas. Where are you driving to? Certainly not the office. Not only do you save on gas, you save on any additional mileage and maintenance on your car.
Uniforms, business casual wear. You could virtually write naked….or at least in your pajamas. No dress code, no uniforms, no dry cleaning, no expensive shoes or heels unless you want to buy them with your profits.
Lunch. If you were used to eating lunch with your coworkers, or buying lunch for potential clients out-of-pocket, no worries here. You can save money by making lunch from your groceries or eating at less-expensive places. In some rare cases, you can turn those occasional meals into legitimate tax write-offs. I’ve reviewed a lot of local restaurants and legitimately claimed the meals as a tax expense.
Daycare. Daycare is often a major expense when working outside the home. If you have very young children, you won’t have to worry about daycare expenses, should you manage your time wisely. If you have school-aged children, you can create your schedule to work in between school hours.
And at the end of your first year in business, you’ll file under a decidedly different income category. If you’re used to working for “the man”, this is new territory. You’ll be accounting for every penny in and out related to your practice. Is it a tax advantage? I asked an expert tax preparer.
TAXES
Derek Atwell is a 10-year veteran tax preparer in the greater area of Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte is recognized as a major banking city (its home to Bank of America), so he gets a lot of work, namely in the small business field. Derek works with at least 300 small businesses a year, so he has experience with independent filing.
Derek suggests that freelance writers shouldn’t forget about the home.
As long as the area of the home is used solely as an office space, then the self-employed individual can use a pro-rata share of expenses related to utilities, home insurance, property taxes, and mortgage interest/rent based on the square footage of the office vs. the total square footage of the home. For example, if I paid $2,000 in utilities during the year for my house, the square footage of my office is 200 square feet., and the total square footage of my home is 1,000 square feet, then I can take a $400 (200/1,000*$2,000) deduction related to the utilities.
Home owners can benefit, too.
If you own your own home, you are also entitled to a depreciation deduction on the office as well. Additional costs that you can take over time related to the office are expenses for internet use, computer costs, and printers.
One thing I didn’t consider until I interviewed Derek was the aspect of incorporating your freelance writing online contract work. Doing so actually minimizes the potential for audit, but make sure you get an attorney for legal advice.
This provides two benefits: 1) provides a separate small business return, which has a lower chance of being audited by the IRS than if you are set up as a sole proprietorship. Sole proprietorships are required to file Form Schedule C with their individual tax returns and this form leads to a lot of IRS audits. 2) S Corporations are not subject to social security tax which allows the business owner to better control how much money they pay into the social security system.
Make sure you keep a separate bank account for any money you earn as a freelance writer! I couldn’t stress this enough. This makes tracking those dollars in-dollars out much easier. Some banks will even let you set up a separate account for little extra costs since they’ve already got business with you.
I’ve done the separate account within my same bank for my writing expenses. I linked my PayPal account with it so that if I spend any money advertising or any other expenses, it doesn’t get mixed into my normal household funds. For example, I write restaurant reviews for Yahoo! Voices. I’ll often pay for my meal through that account so I can separate what was a family dinner from what was a meal for review. If I wanted to travel in order to complete a job and needed to fill up my tank, I use the same account. PayPal’s online documentation combined with my bank statements is enough to keep my finances in order.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Working at home or from home doesn’t mean working anytime you want. In all actuality, it may be harder to work in a home setting than a work setting. At a work setting, all eyes are on you. If you are a subordinate, you’re watching for your boss to see if he catches you on Facebook. If you’re a boss, you can’t get caught napping or he or she will think you’re lazy. At home? Well, there’s just you and your bank account.
Working as a freelance writer online will really, really challenge your time management skills. But when you get those skills mastered you’ll see your income increase by leaps and bounds.
So without reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to give you the bare bones elements of what you’ll most likely be doing as a freelance writer:
- Looking for sites, topics, contract work
- Researching for sources to support your work
- Producing content
- Proofreading and editing
- Delivering your work
- Filing personal records and making copies
- Managing bank accounts/financial spreadsheets
- Creating advertisement via creating web pages or creating back links
It seems like a lot to do on a daily basis. Throw in two school-aged kids that don’t take naps, a spouse, friends that call all day, bill collectors, household chores, TV, socializing, extended family….it can get a bit chaotic.
But be real: those were all things that happened while you were still SOMEWHERE ELSE WORKING. So if you were halfway able to manage life while spending eight hours a day somewhere else, you can completely manage life while working as a freelance writer. So without buying some expensive time management software or taking loads of useless courses (that also suck up your time), here is what you can do to keep it all on track.
Map out your current daily schedule. It’s just like those financial makeover shows where people print out what they spend on a weekly basis and their jaws drop: you’d be surprised at where your time goes. Map this out to what you do in 15-minute intervals, from how long it takes for you to get out the bed ‘til how much time you spend reading the paper on the john.
Once you’ve done that, look for periods where you can move and manipulate to where you are alone with your computer. That’s where the work gets done. And be honest with yourself. You do have more flexibility at home, but could you dress your kids and feed them while conducting a board room meeting? Could you pitch a corporate product to viable investors while with the boys on bowling night? Then don’t expect to do the same in the house. The goal isn’t to fill every minute with action; rather, we’re looking for the best block of time you can spend “at work”.
How much time? It really is up to you and what type of freelance writing you’ll end up doing. When I do flat-fee work I do two-hour blocks because the focus is volume of work. I do another two-hour block at night if I want to create and promote residual-based work. Once I reached a point of experience I was able to do all my writing work at night after everyone was in bed. I spent mid-day promoting articles via the social networks.
I would suggest that by spending a solid four hours a day doing business you can get a bulk of your work done. If you plan to spend four hours, break it up into sections. Otherwise you’ll find it hard to start and finish in one sitting.
Gain family support. No matter how excited you are to do freelance writing online, the excitement can die when frustration and family life intervene. It can be easy for your family to think that because you’re at home they can interrupt your freelance writing at any time. This is not true if they want you to be successful. Even if you plan to return to the out-the-home working you’ll need them to understand and accept that you are working. If your family lifestyle can’t support this as a full-time gig, then surely you can do this part time, even if it’s two hours a day. Regardless, you’ll need their support to make this happen. Before you get started, sit down and show them when you would like to do your work. See where it conflicts with the people in your life. Lay down the ground rules. Make concessions, ask for concessions. Usually you’ll find that happy medium that everyone can work with. Just make sure you stick to your end of the bargain even if they don’t.
Consider the child issue. When my kids were at the toddler age, their sleeping hours attention span and one-on-one time requirements were significantly different from what we deal with now. I had to build in time for changing clothes, loading/unloading strollers, cartoons, tummy time, multiple loads of laundry and constant feeding. And I’m the husband that was gone most of the day yet the time constraints existed after work and all weekend long! However, they did go to bed earlier in the night.
If I were freelance
writing during those toddler days, I wouldn’t even touch a word
processing program so long as they were awake. It’s hard to
convince a two year-old that starting your freelance career and
paying the bills is more important than playing “Mommy is a jungle
gym”. But I would definitely have paper and pads ready to jot down
any ideas, or make use of my smart phone note-taking software. I
would work out a schedule with my spouse to handle laundry at night,
and I would complete the freelance writing while all the laundry was
done.
As the kids get older, their needs change and you do have a period where there is more time to work, such as when they are in school.
Eliminate distractions. With your time mapped out and your family in order, you’ve got to eliminate those distractions. My biggest challenge was Facebook. It’s a great way to make your work popular (more on that in another chapter) but you can get tempted to join a mafia, build a farm, or watch that ninja cat video just one more time before ignoring a friend request from a high school classmate that you can’t remember. I had to learn how to buckle down and just promote while “at work” and socialize when I wasn’t. That meant no chatting, no “Friending” or anything like that.
If it’s not Facebook, maybe the big game on TV is the distraction. Or the cell phone. Or even the baby crying while dad is fighting off a bad diaper and trying to put a new one on. Whatever it is, eliminate those distractions and close off the rest of the world. Dad will figure out that diaper eventually on his own. You can turn off your ringer and direct all emergency calls to your home or spouse’s phone. Close out background e-mails, instant messaging programs…whatever it is that pulls you away, get rid of it! Again, treat it as if you were working with your boss in your face, except this time your boss is your bank account.
Build in breaks. You still have to build in some breaks or else you’ll face burn-out. I once spend four hours a day three days straight doing nothing but flat-rate articles. I had a serious financial issue come up and I just didn’t have a choice. I knew that when I was done I could get more than $350 in my pocket by the end of the week. That’s not bad for 12 hours of work.
But I advanced my chances for acquiring Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. And my eyes got super glazed. I also could write for three more days and had a really slow fourth day. I slowly saw myself getting back to a point where I would have to pull off another marathon.
It’s easy to burn out like that and it happens to people regularly. You’ll need to build in breaks every hour or so. Give yourself some fresh air away from the PC. Check on the family real quick or even call up a friend….just don’t call the one with all the “drama”. This isn’t the kind of job where you can talk and type on a regular basis, so make sure you get back to the work.
When you get consistent, you’ll find that your four-hour dedication can turn into the same money people make eight hours a day without the hassle. Remember you may not be making MORE money at first, but you’ll be taking more home at your own schedule. A man who makes $1 million a year but spends $2 million and has no time for family isn’t as rich as a man who makes $50,000 but takes home $25,000 and spends as much time as he wants with his family.
Throughout this book you’ll see a series of exercises. These are designed to help you think about the elements of the freelance writing business. I highly encourage you to embark on these exercises, print them, and keep them easily accessible.
Find your motivation. Another sharp reality is that some work is repetitive. It can be draining. I have clients that request 20 different articles on the same exact subject with little modification. It can get so tedious that I become almost an expert in whatever it is. I once wrote seven articles on hair restoration alone!
But no matter what happens, you need to have small motivators. I have mental breaks as motivators. I think of things like “I could be smelling like old pizza right now trying to earn this extra cash” or “if my kids need me, I’m one door away”. Others do things like post their past-due bills next to the computer, highlighting the amounts. I like to think of the bills I paid off when times were tough or the small gifts I got my wife from writing when times were good. But what it comes down to is the beginning: whatever got you into thinking about freelance writing should be your first motivator.
EXERCISE
For one week straight, finish your night by completing a table that outlines what you do every day in half-hour increments. Look for the blocks of time where you are most distraction-free and can work. Remember to work with your family and friends if you need to create space!
FIT TO WRITE?
During my Air Force career, we had a change in the way we approached fitness. We went from riding a bike to measure our cardio strength to doing pushups, sit ups and running 1.5 miles. One of the slogans we used was “Fit to Fight”.
Did you know that as a freelancer you should also be “Fit to write?”
It’s true. Whether you intend to spend two hours, three hours or eight hours a day in front of your computer monitor; your body needs to have some sort of health regimen that can sustain the “doing nothing” requirements of writing. It does you no good to make lots of money from writing at home only to blow it all on health care costs because you didn’t take care of yourself.
Let’s take, for instance, what your body looks like when you sit in a chair facing the monitor. There are two long tendon-like structures called iliotibial bands (ITBs) that run alongside your hips down to your feet. When you sit in a chair, you bend those bands in a manner much like crimping a garden hose. If your ITBs aren’t stretched out or relieved, this can cause a nasty pulling sensation on your hips and knees. I know this because I’ve suffered from it. When several ITB Syndrome titles came available in Demand Studio, I couldn’t pick them fast enough because I already had the wellspring of knowledge. I had to flashback to those painful chiropractor and physical therapy treatments. I believe I made at least $300 back, which makes me feel a little better.