Freelance Writer Information

The Benefits of Being A Freelance Writer

The instant benefit of being a freelance writer is having the ability to choose the content that you are going to write about. You also pick the hours that you will write and you set your own deadlines.

Another thing that tends to make freelance writers happy is the ability to set their own prices. You don't have to answer to anyone else when you are putting pen to paper. You determine how much your words are worth, and you make the decision to take on as many jobs as you would like. This is ideal for anyone that is part of the freelance writing community. They like to have the ability to make their own rules.

There are a ton of people that are look for freelancers, and the freelance writer appreciates an opportunity to make some occasional money without any long term commitment. This may be the most rewarding part of the job.

To learn more about how to become a freelancer, you can check out these books on Amazon:

Details: Created: 14 January 2021

If you’ve just contacted a freelancer about writing your article and you include links that aren’t your business website or documents that the writer needs to download, your writer may reject the opportunity. The best-case scenario involves the writer asking you to put all the information as text in the body of the email or message. Why? Because your article probably doesn’t pay for a new computer.

Details: Created: 15 December 2020

As a sole-proprietor that's offering services, your income relies on bringing in new clients and maintaining your current client list. Part of the ways that people build a potential client network is through emails. However, before you send out that cold email to spread the word about your business, you need to make sure your message is relevant.

An Example of a Badly Targeted Email That Won’t Win You That Client

Dear Team, (Uh oh, you don’t even know who you’re talking to. You didn’t spend 30 seconds on the website to try to determine the owner or manager name. Since this is an actual email I received, I can assume he didn’t even look at the website address! But let’s keep going cause it just gets better.)

Not sure if you knew this but your website X has some problems that you might want to consider looking into. I spent 2-3 minutes looking around and found: ( I just bebunked this in the top paragraph with the greeting.)

- It doesn't work properly on Mobile Phones, at all (which is how people browse the web these days). (Actually, it does. This guy assumes that I don’t have a cell phone and haven't looked at my own website on my cell phone)

- It doesn't adjust properly when you resize the screen (Google recommends RESPONSIVE Websites rather than ADAPTIVE) (Actually, yes it does. I’ve tested this myself. Works on cell phones and tablets. It’ll also resize itself if you adjust the size of your browser on your computer or tablet. Again, did you spend 10 seconds on the website?)

- It's hard to read on larger displays ( bahahahahahaha. This is just complete and utter bullshit.)

- The design looks really, really dated compared to some of your competitors. (Because you want to turn a 2000 page website into a Wordpress site. BTW, I’ve never seen a good one.)

I actually do web design as a living so I figured I'd reach out and let you know there's serious room for dead easy(and affordable) improvement. If you would like, I can send you some of my previous work samples. (hahahahahahahhaa….. My website is shit. BUT this guy can web design it into perfection! Yeah, that’s gonna work.)

I can develop the website on a more advanced platform at an affordable price. That price also includes making it complete mobile responsive which will support all modern devices including all ranges of screen sizes. (Uh huh… sure you can web DESIGNER! This guy doesn’t know the first thing about the platform I use. I’d guarantee it)

Is that something you'd be interested in? (Not a chance in hell)

I do want to point out that this is a form email. I’ve received it numerous times, and this guy now goes directly to my spam folder, but the problem here is that the guy completely insults the website. When you add all this together, he calls the website trash. THEN, after he’s presumably made me doubt my own web development and programming skills, he tells me he can do it better. He can go suck something unpleasant because:

I have a computer science minor
That minor specializes in web design and databases.
I can program in SQL, HTML, Java, Javascript, C and C++
I used to be a Java programmer

The bottom line is that you should never do this. Don’t insult potential clients, even if you think whatever they already have is terrible. I never tell potential clients that the content on their websites is garbage. I may feel that it is, but I sure as hell do not insert that opinion into my emails. Instead, I tell the individual that I am a freelancer writer. I specialize in X content (whatever industry they are), and I can write content for them. At no point do I ever tell them that there existing content is shit. That’s a sure fire way to piss someone off because they probably paid good money for that content! I also tend to include coupons or free articles in those emails as an incentive.

How Should You really Tailor Those Custom Messages?

1. Do not insult potential customers.

You want this individual or business to give you money for a service that you provide. You do not know who designed the website (unless it says. Sometimes there’s a link at the bottom.) You do not know how much the individual or business paid for their existing website and web development and maintenance services. Sometimes, this can be quite a huge amount of money, so you don’t want to tell this person that they’ve wasted all their money up to this point.

2. Make sure the individual or business lines up with your services.

Don’t offer them a service they don’t need. For a freelancer, this would be looking at the blog posts and checking the date on the most recent blog. If they’ve posted in the last month, they don’t need your services. If it’s been 6 months, they might need your service.

3. Look at the website and figure out who the owner is.

This information is normally located on the About Us page. If it’s not, look at the blog posts. Sometimes you can find the name of the owner in there. If the website is a NAME, well… duh. If you really can’t find a name, skip the Dear X and just get to the point.

4. Get to the point. Quickly.

If you are not asking the individuals something about their website, a product or a book or asking a question that is relevant to the individual you are sending the message to, get to the point. You’re already wasting their time because you don’t need anything. You want something. Specifically, you want this cold email to lead to a new client, and you want them to pay you money for your services.

5. Offer Something Free

If you’re a freelance writer, offer a free blog post. Make sure it’s unique and a good example of your work. Yes, you will have to offer different articles for different potential customers. You do not want to circulate the same email. If they use it, it’ll be dinged for duplicate content. If you’re a graphic artist, make a simple logo. Pick a blog post and create a new top image for it. And say – Hey, I thought you might like this. It’s totally free. Feel free to use it. It is an example of my work.

6. Use a polite closing

Sincerely and Regards are passe, overused and unwelcome. Close your email by thanking the person for their time. Tell them that if they have questions, they can email you back, and you’d be happy to speak with them. Put your contact information under your name, and include your business name if you have one that is separate from your name. If you include links, they may not get clicked, but they may search your business name in their web browser.

By taking these steps, you are helping to ensure that your cold email is read, your potential client is not insulted and that you get your message across in a clear and concise way. In other words, you're going to increase your chances of landing that new client.

Details: Created: 08 October 2020

If you need content and don’t have a good budget, you might be tempted to hire a 2-star writer from any number of content mills. These guys typically make up to .01 cents per word. This means a 500-word article would pay the writer $5, maybe. If you’re going with Textbroker (TB), that writer gets… I think it’s .007 a word or $3.50 for a 500-word article. I’m not even sure that pays for a happy meal at McDonald's.

What Should You Expect for $3.50?

Hopefully an article you can edit to meet your needs and post on your website. In other words, you are going to get NOT A BLANK PAGE, and you will most likely have to adjust it to meet your needs.

Details: Created: 11 August 2020

By Patrick Bailey

Honesty is the best policy, both in social media and in real life. There is real power in being honest about difficult topics in public settings. It is cathartic for the one sharing and quite often deeply inspirational for some members of the audience. Sunshine is a good disinfectant, as they say, and getting things out in the open is a fantastic way to look at them squarely and figure out the best way to fix them.

Almost anyone who has been through the process of alcohol and drug rehab will say that part of their healing process was to be honest and tell the truth about where they were and where they had been. However, sharing such information online can have serious negative side effects.

Personal disclosures can affect not only the person sharing but their family, friends, and community. While it’s okay to talk about personal issues on social media, people must do it with a modicum of caution. There is an art and a science to protecting one's identity while writing about sensitive subjects such as one’s health, personal fitness, psychological status, and medical history.

Details: Created: 26 December 2019

As a professional freelancer, you’ll sometimes find yourself with a piece of content that your client refused to buy. When a client doesn't pay for their content, it remains the property of the freelancer, and the freelancer is free to do whatever he or she wants with that content.

Who Steals Content?

People that want fresh content for their websites and don't want to pay for that content often steal content from other popular websites. Some people even use scrapers to grab new content as it’s made available. Other individuals may post extremely low paying orders on content sites to get custom content, then tell the writer it needs extensive work or is, in fact, plagiarized. The client in this scenario knows that if they list enough problems with the content they received that the writer will drop it rather than continue working on it.

Details: Created: 24 December 2019

Are you wondering how to price your content in order to pay your monthly bills and attract new clients? The truth is that freelancers can charge any rate they wish from less than $10 per article to more than $1,000. Your answer will probably depend on your experience level, your education and your experience as a freelancer.

Typical Custom Content Prices

When it comes to pricing your custom content articles, you can set your prices anywhere that’s comfortable for you or that you feel are fair to both yourself and your clients’ needs. With that being said, here are a few common price points.

No Research Needed or a Brand New Content Writer - .01 to .05 cents per word
Some Research Needed or a Freelancer with 1 to 3 Years Experience - .05 to .10 cents per word
Experienced Freelancer with 5 to 10 Years Experience - .10 to .20 cents per word
Experienced Freelancer with 10+ Years Experience - .20 - .50 cents per word
Lots of Research and/or Formatting Required - .50 cents per word to $1 per word
Extremely Experienced Freelancer or Niche Topic - $1 to $2 per word
Knowledge Requires a Degree in the Field - $2+ per word

Details: Created: 23 December 2019

While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes you’ll have a client send you a message or an email stating that the topic they requested and you wrote isn’t the topic that their client wanted. This typically happens when your direct client is actually a middleman between the writer and the actual website owner or business.

Don’t Work for Free

The first thing you should know is that it’s not your fault the client didn’t like the topic the middleman or the website owner selected. You are not a mind reader. You can only work off the information that you received in order to write the topic. If the client changes the topic, you are not obligated to write it for free. The client paid for the first topic, and you wrote it, which means you fulfilled your obligation.

When a client changes a topic and essentially wants a second article, they must pay for that second article.