When I began freelancing over a decade ago, I greatly enjoyed the challenge of pitching and achieving payment for writing magazine articles. But since the assignments weren’t easy to come by and patience is not one of my top virtues, I decided I’d rather target copywriting opportunities in my own backyard. My first step was to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) so I could attract clients to my website. That meant creating pages on my site for keyword combinations like “Sacramento copywriter” and “Sacramento freelance writer.” I also targeted a wider area with pages for “Silicon Valley copywriter” and “California freelance writer.” I decided that I would specialize in electronic newsletters, which included writing, creating, and managing them with Constant Contact. I planned to target my favorite local day spa as my first potential client, but I couldn’t find an email address for the owner (and I was too chicken to pick up the phone). So, I typed up a letter letting him know I was a long-time customer of the spa, as well as a local copywriter and marketing expert. I said that he was missing out on business opportunities by not publishing an electronic newsletter. The day More
Ghostwriting: A Lesser Known Career Path that Pays Big
/ 2018-12-22Graduating with an engineering degree, I had no clue I would end up being a freelance writer. I chose to be one, as it best suited my life during the recession period back in 2009. Like many other writers who get stuck with low paying content mills like Elance (now Upwork), I started my career earning peanuts. That changed when I did research for a blog post in 2013 about how much ghostwriters earn. That research taught me that I was highly undercharging at $1 per page. The first eBook I ever ghostwrote for a client was over 50 pages long and paid only $50. And that included Elance’s and PayPal’s fees, too! Today, in 2018, I charge as much as $1-$2 per word. I charge more for creative work or fiction than for nonfiction. If the work requires extensive research, the rate runs higher. This means ghostwriting a 10k words novella would easily earn me $10,000. Now, imagine what a full-length novel of 60,000 to 100,000 pays. Ghostwriting is a lucrative niche that many writers don’t know much about. Why Ghostwrite? The truth is: I have tried self-publishing. This requires time to market and sell your books. Ghostwriting is More
Five Tips to Promote Yourself as a Newbie Freelance Writer
/ 2018-12-22It can get hard to get off the ground while starting your freelance writing business. This is especially true if you have quit your day job and you’re yet to get your first assignment. The pressure can be extremely agonizing. All you need to do is leave your worries aside and get down to business. Here are five ways you can promote yourself as a freelance writer and get a regular stream of work: Create a Portfolio A portfolio would help you to showcase your work to your clients with a quick link. The first step to create one is to get published on some of the existing blogs or magazines as a guest author. Once you have a bunch of published articles and client work, (including websites, and newsletter content, etc.) you can make use of portfolio sites like Contently and Clippings.me to put up your published clippings. I created my portfolio on Contently before I quit my full-time job to get into freelance writing. Throw up a Website A website is a great way to promote yourself as a freelance writer. You can create a site on a free platform like Tumblr or WordPress. You can create one More
House-Sitting Puts Ink in the Travel Writer’s Pen
/ 2018-11-30Staying for extended stretches in exotic and culturally rich places for free? Then being paid for pieces you’ve written about your stay? Sounds unreal, but the reality is anything but: over the past several years I’ve spent one- to two-month periods in Hawaii, Mexico, Panama, the Bahamas and St. Vincent and the Grenadines with my sweetheart Alice, without paying a cent for lodging. With some careful prep, and an open eye and mind for stories when you get there, you can set yourself up for exciting travel—and even some green from writing about that excitement. Finding the Opportunities For the past few years, mindmyhouse.com has been our house-sitting site of choice. The site provides descriptions and photos of the properties, dates and length of stays, and what the homeowner wants you to do in exchange for staying at their home. MindMyHouse emails listings almost daily, and they are truly from all over the world. Some owners want you to do things like manage multiple Airbnbs or groom their herd of buffalo, but most of them want someone to take care of pets, water plants and keep the house secure. The Net, Cast Wide To be doable, you have to have work that More
Multiple Submissions of Freelance Material
/ 2018-11-30A reader asked me to address this topic. She had an article to query to publications and didn’t want to wait for one answer at a time. Could she pitch to several markets at once, she asked. The answer isn’t a simple Yes or No. It’s actually Yes AND No. And I have my own personal anecdote for this lesson. Back in my earlier freelance days, I proposed articles on writers and grants to Writer’s Digest as well as The Writer. Each was a unique pitch, written differently, but on the same subject. I’d just gone full time as a freelancer and knew the odds of both nationally-recognized magazines accepting my pieces was slim to none. One of the publications accepted within a month but never stated when the story would come out. The other didn’t get in touch for almost a year but told me when the article would appear. They both came out in the same month. I received a contributor’s copy feeling completely ecstatic. Then I opened the other envelope in the mail and saw where the other publication sent me their contributor’s copy. The thrill of opening one was replaced with dread and despair. Sure enough, one More
Tapping into Local Businesses for Writing Work
/ 2018-11-02Here’s an optimistic thought: writing is a necessary part of every business. You read that right. Every business – big and small – has the need for written language. More good news: most businesses don’t have a full-time or even part-time writer on staff. Hint: here’s where you come in. Local businesses need your skills. They just don’t know it yet. It’s up to you to tell them. Identifying potential clients First you have to find them. Take a walk or a drive and make a note of locally-owned businesses in your town and the writing needs they might have. Browse the Yellow Pages online at yp.com. Identify potential clients by joining the chamber of commerce. Local rotary clubs also give you access to small business owners. (I’ve found small businesses better targets than large businesses, which are more likely to have in-house writers.) Compiling your information Once you’ve identified potential businesses, it’s time to give them something – for free. I’m not advocating you work for free. Instead, put together a brochure or letter that includes helpful writing-related information: how email newsletters benefit businesses, ways to generate social media content or writing for your target audience. Then remind them More
Writing for Hobby and Leisure Activity Magazines
/ 2018-10-19When I began my freelance writing career in 2007, I would never have believed I’d end up writing dozens of articles for hobbyist magazines. But today, my bylines include more than 20 special interest magazines for hobbies as diverse as gardening, gold prospecting, ham radios, four-wheel drive vehicles, classic cars, art and sculpture, wine tasting, hiking, brewing beer, living history re-enactments — even UFOs! My bylines in hobby and leisure activity magazines include Garden Answers, Pacific Horticulture, Lost Treasure, Monitoring Times, Popular Communications, National Communications, VHF Communications, Off Road Adventures, Collectible Automobile, Open Minds, Renaissance, Sculpture, Videoscope, Walking New Zealand, Washington Tasting Room, New Writer, The Writer, Writers Forum, Writers News, and Zymurgy. I’ve found hobbyist magazines among the easiest genres to break into. And I’ve found that once I’ve got my foot in the door with these publications, their editors have been highly receptive to repeat business. Leisure activity magazines exist in a mind-boggling plethora of topics; trains, quilting, motorcycles, automobiles, cats and dogs, dolls, scale modeling, yachting, cycling, running (and nearly every other sport imaginable), camping, hiking, video games, arts & crafts, astronomy, military history, stamp collecting, coin collecting, rock & gem collecting, antique collecting, and every other More
Writing for the Health Markets
/ 2018-09-14In case you had not noticed, America is getting older. And while that might cause alarm for some people, for freelance writers, it is time to dance a jig. Why? Because with the so-called “graying of America,” the opportunity to write for health markets has “exploded and reached an all-time high.” And it will continue to grow and grow and grow. Here are five tips to keep in mind when writing for the health markets: Find the latest health and fitness news. Think like an editor, who is always trying to think like a reader. What is happening in the world of health and fitness, and why is it newsworthy? Find a timely topic in the health world, and you are one step closer to landing an assignment. There are thousands of websites that are devoted to health and fitness information. A good place to start is the Federal Government’s own site, the National Institutes of Health. Visit them at http://www.nih.gov and you’ll find every health topic and late breaking bulletin there is. Target your audience. Know the audience of the magazine, newsletter or website, and your job as a health writer will be a lot easier. For example, does this More
Platform – It’s About Making Friends
/ 2018-08-11Who you know and how far you can reach. That’s pretty much the definition of platform. But so many people are writing that the competition is fierce. And there’s so much competition for entertainment that books aren’t everyone’s first choice. Which means putting a book on Amazon will not sell it. Someone told me their book was in Barnes & Noble, and they were excited. I asked if they were in the stores, and they said, no, not that they knew of. But they were online at the website. Sorry, but everyone is there. Jane Friedman, publishing guru and previous editor of Writer’s Digest and Virginia Quarterly, states that your platform is measured in three ways: Ability to reach new readers Ability to engage existing readers Ability to mobilize super fans At a recent conference, I changed this to read: Ability to reach new friends Ability to engage existing friends Ability to mobilize super best friends When you stop and consider that you are asking people to invest money and loads of time reading your work, it gives you pause. How do you convince these strangers to buy your stuff? But if you consider them friends, the effort has a More
Would You Write Daily If You Got Paid For It?
/ 2018-06-29A new UK company has launched offering aspiring novelists an alternative to publication: a salary from £2,000 per month to write novels. De Montfort Literature (DML) will pay writers a salary to write novels which DML will then design, print, publish and promote. After salary, production and marketing costs, authors will receive a 50 percent share of the book sale profits. https://www.thebookseller.com/news/start-publishing-venture-offer-aspiring-novelists-salary-793601 Imagine having to report to work every day, sit at your desk, and produce a certain amount of work. To earn a full-time writing income, you have to write full-time. A lot of people don’t like that. They think the rigorous schedule takes the fun out of writing. Well, guess what? When a hobby becomes a job, there are days you don’t want to come to work. Just because it’s writing doesn’t mean it’s exempt from a work ethic. Income success correlates with work production. Write every day. You get better. You get stronger. You get faster. You build confidence. You become dependable. You get to the point that whenever your butt hits the chair, your brain kicks into gear and your fingers itch to write. It’s called habit. It’s teaching your body what to instinctively do. And More