Freelance Writing - Tips for Beginners

Starting a blog is an essential first step because it is a fast and easy way to show the world your writing style.

I recommend that you reserve a domain and find a hosting company. I wasted a lot of time in the beginning using free blogs. I realize now that if you have your own blog, it makes a stronger impression on people and looks more professional.

Here are the two sites I recommend:

www.GoDaddy.com


This is the site I use to reserve most of my domains. Just be careful to ONLY purchase the domain and not pay for the extra services unless you really think you need them. I've never used these extra services and my websites have been just fine.



I use Hostgator to host the website itself or should I say websites because you can host multiple domains on one account. What a money saver! I am currently hosting at least ten domains on that one account and I'm not finished yet!

Once you get acquainted with the site, you may want to start setting goals. For starters, you can make it a point to write one article per day. As you get comfortable with that you can increase the number of articles per day.

You can either use it for article marketing which gets the article live on the site right away or you could try to submit a few for upfront payment (or both). At the very least, try to submit ten articles, each with a link to your blog. But the more articles you manage to submit, the more money you'll make in the long run.

When you write an article for Associated Content you have a choice between exclusive and nonexclustive. On the one hand, exclusive articles will get paid more. On the other, you can't do anything else with them.

My advice to you is to select nonexclusive. You'll need the articles later.

Your next step is to sign up at the various freelance bid sites. Once you have several articles accepted and published with Associated Content, you can use these as samples and examples when you bid for jobs.

Here's my profile so you can see some examples of articles.

Here is a list of websites you can use to find freelance jobs. Click on the ad at each one to sign up. Some of them charge a fee to sign up, some of them don't. I had the most luck with rentacoder, others may like gofreelance better.

You can also try ifreelance.com, guru.com, and elance.com.

It is a goal of mine to be on track to make a six figure income, or around $8400 per month. I just purchased 6 Figure Freelancing to help me achieve that.

Even though I've been a writer for a while, I still need some advice on how to achieve this level of success.

Right now, you should have three things going on.

1. You have a blog that you post on regularly.

2. You have a few articles published with Associated Content.

3. You signed up for a few freelance job sites and are getting acquainted with the format and maybe even posting bids.

Now that you are not a complete beginner anymore, you need to know that the more you practice, the better you will get at writing articles and posting bids.

You WILL see success if you are consistent.

I would set productivity goals. This is a sample and very close to something I would do if I were in your place. In fact, I did something like this when I first started out.

1. Update blog every day with one new blog post.

2. Write 3-5 articles per day at Associated Content.

3. Bid on 3-5 different projects per day.

After a few weeks of doing this, you should start to see the money rolling in.

Your first job can be a little scary, I'm not going to lie. The first job I ever did for a client, I got a little nervous and procrastinated.

Once I got started, though, I realized it wasn't hard at all! I knew how to write. The stressful part was actually that I procrastinated.

I've learned since then. So my advice to you is to start right away. Read the project specs. Ask the buyer questions if you need clarification. And then, start working on it as soon as you understand the requirements.

Trust me. It does get easier!

Every time you write an article, you should think of its potential. This means that you can have one article pay off multiple times.

Basically, you could write one article and get paid once with Associated Content and again with Constant Content.

Sign up and look around before you start posting. The difference between the two sites is that you set your own amounts on Constant Content. At AC they review the article and make an offer.

Remember, you can't give full rights on this site, only Usage Rights since you already sold it someplace else.

By now, you should be keeping pretty busy. It is time for another goal setting session. These are the goals you'll set this time:

1. Daily Productivity Goals
2. Goals about how much you want to make

Spend some time not only setting the goal, but determining exactly how you will reach your goal.

Here are examples of some goals. You can use these if you can't think of anything:

Productivity Goals Examples

1. Five articles with Associated Content per day, non exclusive

2. Submit those same articles to Constant Content

3. Bid on 3-5 projects per day

4. Work on any of your deadlines. Make a schedule for each deadline and stick with it so you don't get stressesd out.

5. Make one blog post each day

Sample Monetary Goal

To make $2000 a month

Tally up how much you are earning and figure out how many articles you will need to write or how many projects you need to do to meet your goal.

In order to make money writing articles for sites like Associated Content and Constant Content, you need to offer helpful information to the reader. Anecdote stories may get rejected unless there is a how to or educational element from it.

If you have written anecdotes but they got rejected, don't worry. There is a place for those articles. Trust me. :) I just haven't introduced them to you yet.

For now, worry about writing for Associated Content and Constant Content. The readers there like to learn something, that is why they read. Go on the site and look at the kinds of things that they have published.

How to articles do VERY well on those sites. "How to Find Humor in a Stressful Situations" or "How to Start Your Own Bread Making Business" are the types of things that they'll likely publish.

As an exercise sit down and brainstorm 50 articles with a How To theme. Specific is better than general. Example:

How to Start Your Own Business is general. Maybe too general and it will either get rejected, or you won't get a large offer. How to Start a Business Baking Bread from Your Kitchen is much better.

You can write a How To article on pretty much anything.

As a Challenge pick five of your best ideas from the list and work on them tonight. If you like them all, challenge yourself to write all 50 as quickly as possible.