It's spring here and usually that means warm, sunny days and plenty of visits to the beach before coming home to write some more.

Of course, Australia decided to really turn on the sun this week and by-pass spring completely. It's 110 degrees outside for the third day in a row and very likely to continue this way for the next week or so.

It's just too hot to sit in the office and write today. I have plenty of work to do and deadlines looming, but while I'm wilting in my chair, I have no chance of writing coherently today.

So I'm going to try and cool my poor dogs down any way I can without exposing us all to the burning rays of the sun for longer than a couple of minutes at a time. That's one of the best benefits of being self-employed - I'm taking the day off and I don't have to call in sick or make an excuse to anyone.

If this is spring, then summer promises to be a real scorcher : /

If you've spent any time reading my blog, you'll already know I love my private clients. They're usually very respectful and understanding and most of them are willing to pay good money for timely service and quality writing.

However, occasionally I'll get enquiries from people wanting me to deliver top-notch service for pennies. They seem to believe my services aren't worth nearly as much as theirs and they work hard to try and make me reduce my prices to suit their own budget.

I don't work this way.

Today I received an enquiry from someone asking me to do quite a bit of work to a VERY badly written ebook. This would have taken me most of a day to complete. However I quoted an amount that is slightly lower than my usual fee and would NOT compensate me adequately for my time and effort

This person agreed, sent me the ebook (which is how I know it was so badly written) and then decided that it was suddenly way too expensive for him to pay. He wanted to push me for a cheaper price again.

Now... this particular person is selling the poor-quality ebook for €37 (Euros), which is $55 US. On a particular forum I'm a member of, there is evidence that this ebook is selling very well, so the person is making plenty of profit.

It's just a shame that he/she doesn't respect his/her customers enough to sell them something worth reading.

So... if you're ever in a situation where you get clients wanting to undercut your rates, STAND YOUR GROUND. They're making plenty of money from your time and effort and they're treating you like a second-class citizen when they believe you're only worth paying $1 per hour.

There are just too many good clients out there to waste time on tire-kicking time wasters who won't value your time or your writing for what they're worth.

:p

Many newer freelancers wonder what happens to the ownership of their articles once they've sold them to a client.

There's another post on this blog about various copyrights and publication rights here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/03/copyright-what-rights-are-you-selling.html

While the article noted above talks about various rights you can retain or sell as a freelance writer, it doesn't really answer the question of what happens to your rights when you ghost-write for a private client or a content mill.

Let's look at these options in some more detail.

Copyright and Private Clients

When you write articles for a private client, you are selling the full rights. This means you're a ghost writer and the client has paid for the right to do as he or she wishes with those articles.

Keep it firmly in mind that you're selling ALL rights to your client, unless specifically stated by mutual agreement with your client before hand.

Copyright and Content Mills

Content mills are like middle-men between you and the client. The client expects to pay for full writes to unique articles and content mills are simply there to match up available work with available ghost writers.

Once again, you are selling ALL rights when you submit your work to a content mill.

Retaining Your Own Byline and Rights

There are plenty of ways to write articles, keep your own byline and retain your own copyright at the same time as earning money. Unfortunately, many freelance writers bypass this option as it's often more competitive and sometimes more difficult to make a sale.

When you submit your articles to a magazine, the client is the magazine editor. If they accept your article for publication, you usually sell the one-time print rights for that magazine for an agreed time. Your byline is printed below the article title or headline. Once that agreed time-frame has expired, the rights return to you and you're free to sell that same piece again as a reprint.

(*note: you can't sell it again as an original piece. It must be noted on your next submission that it's been published somewhere else first).

You can also manage to retain a byline when you submit work to an article marketplace, like Constant Content. If you only allow clients to purchase 'Unique' rights, this means they are the only client who may purchase or print your article, but you're given the attribution with a byline under the title as the rightful author of that piece.

I hope this helps!

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I have several private clients (who I appreciate and love to bits - thank you all!), but I also work on a content mill to help bring in some extra cash flow, as well as write articles to offer for sale on an article marketplace.

(I should clarify here that I don't bother with 'bidding' sites, like get-a-freelancer or e-lance, so they're not included in this post)

Keeping up with all of these things means I can pay my mortgage every month and comfortably pay all my bills without any other form of income coming into the household.

However, here are some pros and cons to each type of writing activity as I see them.

Private Freelance Clients - Pros

There are so many benefits to having your own private freelance clients that you should always remember to treat them like gold. Not only do they email you directly to place article orders, but they generally pay into your account at the time of the order. Some clients pay 50% up-front and 50% on completion, while others are happy to pay the full amount in advance when they place the order.

Either way, this means cash flow coming into your account on a semi-regular basis that can help with those unforeseen bills that arrive throughout the month.

Another big benefit to working with private clients is that you begin to develop a rapport with them. You can start to understand their needs and tailor your own writing to suit their preferences. This makes them appreciate your writing efforts even more, because you always just seem to know what they want.

You also have the freedom to dictate your own prices. Your clients come to you initially based on your price and some samples. If you set your price too low, you will receive plenty of clients who are only price-shopping. If you set your price higher to cover your time and effort, you weed out those bargain-hunting clients and in return you get much nicer clients who value your writing efforts.

Private Frelance Clients - Cons

The only difficulty I can think of with accepting work from private clients is that you don't always get a choice of topics to write about. You're bound by what topics they need to suit their sites and this can sometimes make research difficult.

Perhaps another minor downside to private clients is the unpredictability of when they'll order next. I have clients who order a month's worth of work at the beginning of each month like clockwork. I also have clients who order whenever they need something written. This can sometimes make it difficult to know how much time to keep aside during each working week (but I still love all my clients...). It can also make it a little scary when they all place orders at the same time and even scarier again when they don't order for a couple of weeks in a row.

Content Mills - Pros

I still work for a couple of content mills on a semi-regular basis because of the ease of available work. When I've caught up with any outstanding private orders, I'll log into a content mill and pick up work I think I can complete quickly.

The good part about the content mill system is that you only have to accept topics you know something about, or that you're familiar with. Most of them also pay either weekly or fortnightly, so the extra cash flow is handy.

Content Mills - Cons

Unfortunately, in order to remain 'competitive', many content mills pay pittance - generally $5-$7 per article (and even less again if you're with TextBroker). This is the primary reason I'll only pick up orders where I know something about the topic and don't have to waste time researching. The clients also seem to expect miracles for a few bucks. They haven't grasped the concept of paying a writer adequately for their time and effort (yet).

The other downside is the lack of flexibility. In most cases, you're discouraged from contacting the client directly, even if you want to ask questions about the topic or the client's preference for format. This means the writer is left guessing as to the type of article the client really wanted.

Article Marketplaces - Pros

The biggest pros to uploading your own articles to article marketplaces (like Constant Content or Daily Article) is the freedom to write what you enjoy. You're not limited to the client's word counts and you're not constricted to anyone else's keywords.

You also have the benefit of being able to set your own prices, which can be great if you write in really popular niches.

Article Marketplaces - Cons

Unfortunately, while marketplaces are excellent for the freedom of writing whatever you like, there are plenty of negative aspects. The majority of marketplaces pay monthly. If you rely on your freelance income to pay the bills, this can be a long time between checks.

The fees are also outrageous. For example: Constant Content takes 35% of your sale price as their fee. This eats into your profits and reduces you income.

Perhaps the biggest downside to uploading your articles to marketplaces is waiting for a buyer to find your articles. While I've had some great luck with most of my work being picked up relatively quickly, there are plenty of horror-stories around from writers who have waited months for their articles to sell.

So there you have it. My take on the benefits and draw-backs of some ways to derive a freelance income. I'd love to hear of any pros and cons you can think of that I might have missed...
;)

The amount of freelance writing sites around these days wanting writers to submit W9 forms is increasing. This can make it difficult for international writers (like me!) to compete with US writers and earn a decent income.

If you haven't been asked to fill in a W9 form before, it's a form available from the IRS website that's basically a declaration that you're an American citizen, paying tax in the USA. Many content creation sites are asking their writers to fill in these forms to be sure they're only hiring Americans.

So where does this leave international writers?

You have a couple of options available to you. One is relatively easy and the other is a bit of a nightmare.

While there are still places around that will accept submissions from non-US writers, many of them are beginning to ask for W8 forms from any writer who can't submit a W9. A W8 form is basically a declaration that you're an international writer who is responsible for paying tax on your earnings in your own country. You simply fill it in and either fax it or snail-mail it to the company paying you.

That's the easy option and it's the one I'll choose whenever I can.

The not so easy option is applying for an ITIN and electing to pay tax on your US income to the IRS. This isn't fun. It's not always easy to co-ordinate with your own local tax laws and the paper work can be an exercise in torture.

An ITIN is an International Tax Identification Number and if you elect to pay tax on your US income directly to the IRS, you'll need to be familiar with the taxation laws in the USA or you'll need to hire a tax agent familiar with handling international clients.

For me personally, I get to file my taxes in the US three months before I'm required to file more taxes here in Australia. The ATO (Australian Taxation Office) will take into consideration any income I've already declared and paid tax on in the US before deciding to tax everything else I earn right here in Australia. Sigh.

My accountant has put two kids through college, bought a lovely Mercedes sports model and upgraded her computer and office furniture twice from the fees she charges international writers like me :(

I hope this makes it a little easier for any international writers out there.

When you make your living by selling your writing, it's important that your clients know they're getting unique material. They pay you for the right to receive words that haven't been reproduced hundreds of times all over the internet.

While most freelance writers understand this basic principle, there are a few low-lives out there determined to spoil this industry for all those other writers who try hard to do the right thing.

If you're a freelance writer and you regularly write and sell original work, then I urge you to run a simple check on Google or Copyscape to be sure your work hasn't been stolen or copied by one an unscrupulous thief.

There are numerous reports of writers creating good quality, unique content and offering it for sale on Constant Content . The buyers there are willing to pay slightly higher prices for articles because they believe the articles are unique and haven't been posted everywhere else.

Unfortunately there are are a few bad writers in the crowd determined to skim the sample articles offered by other writers and post those samples on Associated Content so they can earn a measly couple of dollars through the hard work of someone else.

The pages at Constant Content aren't indexed on Google because they are supposed to be private sales and representing unique, unpublished content. Because it's not indexed, the internal software at Associated Content doesn't catch that it's a copied article. So they accept it and pay the loser who stole it a couple of lousy dollars and the rightful owner loses out.

If you're a Constant Content writer, I urge you to copy a sentence or two out of your own articles, paste it into a Google search or enter the URL of the site where the article is posted into Copyscape.

In fact, you should make it a habit to do this with anything you've written to be sure it hasn't been 'borrowed'.

If you find that your work has been plagiarized, I urge you to contact the person directly and ask for the stolen writing to be removed. If they don't comply - report them to the site owner or web host. These people need to learn that it's NOT okay to steal another writer's work.

You might remember a previous post (http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/04/plagiarism-is-theft.html) about an unscrupulous thief who stole every single post off my blog and posted it as his own elsewhere. The same person/thief/liar/scum, Harshajyoti Das, a.k.a jr_sci, is back to his thieving ways again. While the article isn't mine this time, it does belong to someone I know and it's still plagiarism.

Stand up for your rights and protect your writing.

I heard a rumor that a potential new writing opportunity might be available...

Today I had coffee with a good friend (okay, it was my mentor and friend, Lee) and she told me about a new project she's working on. Lee and another freelance writer she knows are cooking up a way to outsource some of their work load to other writers because they simply can't keep up with the orders they receive. They had a brainstorming session and learned that they could probably hire 10 or 12 writers comfortably and still have plenty of work for themselves as well.

When I heard this my eyes popped and I immediately ordered her another coffee and a slice of cake (bribery goes a long way, I hear...)

You see, both Lee and her writer friend have decided to try and hunt down writers who can work quickly and accurately in both US and UK English to help them meet the demands of their clients.

Some of the work will be quick, easy website content. Some will be SEO articles for article marketers and site owners and some of the work will be quick blog posts, product reviews and blurbs. Some will be press releases, chapters in e-books, sales page copywriting and whatever else they end up with.

Of course I volunteered to help them out.

Lee agreed to let me give you all a hint about this potential opportunity on my blog to see who's interested and who isn't. It's okay if you haven't had much experience. They're willing to work with writers from anywhere in the world with a PayPal account as long as the writing is of a good quality.

...but there's a catch...

If you're interested in registering yourself for their list of available writers, then you'll need to be able to follow instructions. Their clients expect their orders to be fulfilled according to their own specifications. They'll expect you to adhere to those specifications the same way they would. So here are the instructions for registering yourself at a potential candidate on their list.

Leave a comment on this post and include a link behind your name pointing to somewhere we can view your work. This could be your blog, website, content site, article directory - whatever. We'll be able to find you and contact you this way. Give us an idea of what your preferred writing topics are, your areas of expertise and where in the world you live. Don't forget to add a little about what type of writing you prefer to do. (e.g. If you only want articles and SEO content, then say so.) Specify whether you write in US or UK English so they know who to consider for different client's needs.

Pay rates haven't been worked out yet and the work also won't be allocated for a little while yet as they're working hard on finding a system that works for them as well as for the clients. However, they also wanted to be sure they would have a good selection of writers when things started moving along.

Let's hope Lee and her friend get moving quickly on this one :)

If you're searching for a freelance writing market that accepts non-US writers or international writers, then Work Online might be a starting point for you. However, be aware that I've officially placed this listing into the 'markets to avoid' category as they've reduced their pay rate since the original posting.

Sigh.

Well, it's almost a paying market. The pay rate is terribly low, but it is in UK pounds. At least UK pounds give a semi-decent conversion rate as compared to the US lately.

The basis behind Work Online is that you write a quick 'story' about the keywords you're given. The article only needs to be a minimum of 400 words, but it must include the keywords chosen by the client at the density requested.

You're paid via PayPal if your account reaches a minimum of £10. The terms say 'within 14 days', although I've seen comments from writers saying they've received their payments in 3-5 days.

If you're in the UK and happy to receive UK pounds, then you'll receive the following:

- for the first 100 articles you write, you're paid 25p
- between 101-300 articles, you're paid 50p
- between 301-500 articles, you're paid 75p
- for every article after you hit the 501 mark, you're paid £1

The original post had a list of exchange rates showing how much this pathetically low amount converted to in Indian rupees, Philippines pesos and Hong Kong dollars. As the pay rate has been reduced even further since I wrote it, I've removed them.

The pay rate at Work Online is appalling. If you'd like to add a little bit of filler income to your freelance cash flow then feel free to join up and see how you go.

If I still haven't put you off, you can join up with Work Online here: http://work-online.org.uk/join-now
If you want, you can add my referral code when you join - it's WOR:0441

... but I'd suggest you can find far better options for your writing elsewhere.

Well it's been a while since I wrote in this blog - but a lot has happened in that time. My beloved aunt died, which saw me take a few days off to simply get my head around it all. She was young, vibrant, bubbly, intelligent, beautiful and more like a sister and a best-friend to me than an aunt. She was close to my age, so we kind of grew up together. I'll miss you more than you know, Tiana.

When I did feel up to working on my freelance stuff again, I switched on my computer and my hard drive decided it was time to die in sympathy. It went out in spectacular style, with some hissing and a little show of fireworks. It would have been pretty if it wasn't signifying the death of my work-machine.

Without my laptop, I can't work, which means I can't earn money. My computer is my most essential piece of work equipment.

While my computer was busy dying, it decided to fry my wireless modem as a bonus. Unfortunately, I also had my external hard drive hooked up to the machine because I was only backing up my files that same instant. Of course, my melodramatic computer decided to sizzle my external hard drive as well.

So for the past two weeks I've been frantically trying to replace my computer and get my internet connection up and running properly again, re-install software and programs I need to stay working, figure out the missing entries in my income spreadsheets, find files and articles that needed to be sent to clients, locate lost email addresses and then catch up on a back log of work that had gone past deadline during the crisis.

I bought two smaller computers and a new external hard drive. If one computer decides to go wrong, then I now have another in the study that contains just the essential business information (income spreadsheets, expenses, work schedules etc).

This also meant that I was behind with my work load by several days. I spent five days just writing at double time to catch up to where I should have been.

Now the work files are operating again, I realize that I'm missing some of my most cherished photos of my daughter and my aunt together.

A computer wiz is working hard to retrieve my information off the external hard drive right now for me - but I learned that if you truly value your freelance writing business, you'll remember to back up everything very regularly.

Even after all the posts I've written, it still surprises me how many freelance writers are seeking that one, single, solitary source of writing work to get them going.

I'm going to put it bluntly: freelancing means you're self-employed. This also means that if you have ONE lonely source of writing and something happens to that company - you're out of business.

There are so many ways to build freelance income, get paid for your writing efforts, supplement your writing income via other sources and otherwise build up a healthy income that it's impossible to do them all. The point is to find the ones that suit you and your preferences and work with those.

You'll find my top ten tips for ways to find freelance work here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-find-freelance-writing-work.html

However, finding work is not always the same as creating the right balance of work-types in your own freelance business. This post is more about finding work within different writing types than actually finding any old freelance work you can get hold of.

Let's look at a few basic options:

Content Mills

There are a LOT of these around on the internet. Clients submit requests for the articles they want and the Content Mills allow writers to pick up the work that interests them. You write the article, submit it and get paid. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Content Mills tend to be among the lower paying markets, but they are a source of consistent work if you're still building up your income and need the cash flow.

Try places like Need-An-Article or TextBroker or eHow or Demand Studios or Delegate2 or 10DollarArticles or LovetoKnow for this kind of work.

Article Marketplaces

These can be a higher-paying source of work and if you do a little bit of homework, you could find that this can be a handy addition to your freelance income.

Article marketplaces are sites that allow you to submit articles on any topic you want to write about and then offer them for sale to customers who happen to be browsing the listings. While some writers complain that this takes too long to sell anything, I personally think this is a good option for earning decent money per sale.

Try marketplaces like: Constant Content or Daily Article

Freelance Market Listings

There are plenty of places that offer free freelance market listings. Browse through these and find websites, blogs, ezines, magazines and anthologies that accept freelance submissions. You find the guidelines, check out what the publication wants to see and then write what they want. You submit it to the editor and when they accept your piece you get paid (hopefully).

These are often only a once-off sale, but you should find that the pay rate is 10 to 20 times the amount you'll receive from a Content Mill, so they form the 'high-paying' section of your freelance efforts.

Private Clients

This is the biggest source of my own freelance income. I have several private clients who email me directly with their orders every week. This keeps me busy on a regular basis and keeps the cash coming in.

Most newer freelance writers aim at freelance job boards or advertise that they want new clients. I won't do these things. The client thinks they can negotiate your prices with you. They think they can aim at the cheapest quote. This is too hard.

I go out and find my clients directly based on who I prefer to work with and I give them my non-negotiable prices up front. They can take it or leave it.

I enjoy SEO writing, so it seemed logical to contact a few SEO companies and submit my resume, bio and some samples. I offered them my services directly. Several declined my offer immediately. This is normal and to be expected. Don't let it stop you though. There will always be another company who does need a writer now.

I have three SEO companies contacting me directly for their work (two in the US, one in Australia). When they hire you directly, the pay rate tends to be much higher than content mill work. They're paying for quality and for the right to have a dedicated writer on demand whenever they want it.

I love writing about finance. So I contacted a couple of finance magazines and suggested a column on a sub-niche that interests me, but they don't have yet. Most declined my offer (again - this is normal) - but two accepted my idea and now I write two permanent finance columns for magazines (one in the UK and one in the US).

I also enjoy writing sales pages (this is called copywriting). Rather than advertise that I do copywriting, I simply emailed the owners of a few different affiliate products that interested me. I showed them some of my previous work - now four of them contact me directly to write the sales pages every time they release new products too.

Copywriting pays MUCH higher than article writing, so if you can learn the tricks behind it, it's worth the effort.

Creating Your Own Markets

In the link I posted at the beginning of this article, (http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-find-freelance-writing-work.html ) if you scroll down to tip number nine, you'll see where my own mentor is proficient at creating her own writing markets. She doesn't go out searching for clients. She brings the clients directly to her!

I'm still learning how this works, but the attempts I've made have been very profitable so far. The benefits of having clients come directly to one spot to purchase your work while you're not even writing are just huge. I'm working hard to increase my knowledge and available work in this area right now.

This area seems to be one of the more profitable niches within freelance writing!

Passive Income

No, I do NOT mean submitting work to revenue-share sites. I'm talking about ways to benefit from the things you write and get paid for your efforts. Your own personal website or blog should be your advertisement for your writing style and your commitment to writing in general, but there's nothing wrong with monetizing it a bit.

Did you know that most of my own private clients come to this blog to check out my writing? Even though this blog is about freelance writing and has nothing to do with the topics I'll be writing for them, they get to see that it's been running quite a while (shows dedication), I post fairly regularly and that I constantly promote it to get my name out there. This also gives them an idea of my 'writing tone'.

Since I have a blog running and I'm posting new content to it, I might as well try to monetize it anyway I can. You will notice ads in the right hand column - both Adsense and affiliate ads. You will also notice that I have a section of links to my friend's sites. These links help their blogs. Hopefully they link to me too, which helps my blog. Everyone wins.

Fun-Fillers

Income fillers serve a couple of positive purposes for freelance writers. While they are usually very low paying, they can become a great source of free advertising for your work, your website or your blog.

These fun-fillers include paid forum posting, paid social networking, paid chatting etc. You don't need any experience and you don't need to write endless articles. These are just a bit of fun for a little extra money.

Remember - these are fun-fillers, so they're not intended to be ways to earn serious income. Don't let them take over your real working time.

http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/01/freelance-writers-who-dont-want-to-be.html


Okay - that's about all the options I can think of for now. Along with a link for ways to find freelance work (at the beginning of this post), you now have several options for ways to diversify your freelance income. Pick and mix the options that suit you until you have enough freelance work to keep you busy.

And keep writing :)


p.s. if you're reading this, then I want to know what questions you want answered. I want to know what you want to learn about freelancing. There's never any such thing as a silly question - questions just mean you haven't found the right answers yet. Your comments help me to think of new posts and new topics to try and cover.
Thanks!