Should You Write For Clients or Should You Write For Yourself?

When I began writing online, I just looked for some kind of writing opportunity to get paid. Being new to internet, the idea of getting paid for writing online was immensely appealing. I learned over a period of time, the ways to find clients willing to pay you for writing for them. The first place I bumped into after losing some money in scam was Guru.com. Landing  the first job there was not easy because I had no ideas on bidding, how much to quote, how to make promises you make sound genuine, where to show the portfolio of your work. In fact I did not have online samples of work. So, much of your online activities are in fact lessons in learning.

Then, one day I was surprised when a client without my least expectation chose me to write for his blog. Actually, he was running a gambling site. I had absolutely no idea on gambling. Yet he chose me for I have no idea, what. He said he was willing to pay me 6 euros for three articles. I was excited beyond my belief. I wrote the  three articles in quick succession, while he quickly transferred the six euros to my paypal account. The sight of those six euros into my  account made me feel like an internet millionaire. For the first time ever, some one was paying me for my first ever online writing work. I thought I had nearly hit a goldmine or jackpot because I had never believed that you can actually get paid online. Everything about the online  scams I had heard so long now appeared rumors or myths.

I didn't believe I could ever write on gambling or gaming for I could not distinguish a spade from a jack, yet I tweaked and rewrote something from  an article that made no sense to me. Neither did the final product - the stuff I had written made a sense to me. 

When you do something the first time after lot of learning and effort, the repeat task becomes easy. So, I wrote few more articles for this client when I realized he was paying me peanuts. He was not an exception, nearly every client looking for a writer wants them to work for peanut wages.

Yet, with little effort and endless bidding, I soon landed with a client willing to pay me at $10 to an article. This was a nearly five times jump. I was  now beginning to get convinced that a writer can survive online. The rest is  history. Along the way  I learned a valuable lesson: If you just want to earn something  writing online, you should be able to do that within an hour. There are nearly  endless opportunities with sites that lets you choose work on the basis of your bids. There are similarly many other sites that let us you choose a work you want to do at a fixed price of say $5, or $10 or more depending on the quantum of work or size of the content. 

However, a stage comes when the cycle of write to get paid upfront begins to get monotonous. This is especially so when you work for one of the content mills where writing, a creative task begins to haunt you like the ennui that haunted the 18th and 19th century industrial workers. The boredom, the monotony, the ennui, the listlessness and dissatisfaction from  the writing work you do is comparable to alienation of the workers that Marx spoke of. I was getting alienated from the writings I did because subjects like online poker, furniture, a new carpet for your room, and other crappy topics that clients requested me to write on did not enthrall and elevate my soul, as I thought writings are designed to. In addition, most of the clients want you to work at 18th century third world wages. 

This was the time when I began to ask, should I write for myself. In other words, you write on things you are passionate about or you have an expertise in or both. There are some very good blogs that let you write on anything you want  to write and make some money in the process. These are Hubpages, Squidoo lens, Triond, YCN and hundreds of others. The best thing about these sites is that you can continue  to earn monthly revenue from them after you have assiduously built a fairly good amount  of content, that is an impressive list of articles.

In addition, you can build your own blog. You may begin with a freeblog as this blog where I publish my articles. It needs to be reminded here that no one should expect to begin earning with the very first article you write here. The consistent result begins to appear with consistent efforts after a period of time.        

How Writing Career Is Transforming Today

Writing career has changed dramatically within the last decade or two. I believe every one, that is pretty much every one who uses internet, mobile and other gadgets to communicate is a writer. That was not the case earlier. In past, there were limited avenues in the print media for writers. Technology has changed all that. A writer need not be at the mercy of publishers and editors because every one needs content today.

If you think, you can write, you can write. It is that easy. If you think you can earn money writing, you can. This is possible largely because technology has empowered everyone.

However, if you are used to security in career or are looking forward to a secured tenure, internet is not the place that can instantly guarantee full time earning. Yet, you can certainly find a little time to make money online writing. 

No one will ask you how qualified you are. No one looks for credentials or certificates to write online. All you need in the online world to write is to write something that makes sense. In other words, everyone from a Nigerian to Pakistani and Indian known as ESL writers or the writers whose English is the second language to EFL Americans and Britishers with English as their first language are free to write on the same platform.

All you need to decide is when and for whom are you going to write. If you are going to write for a client, they will pay you to write the stuff they want. If you want to earn writing within half an hour to an hour with money paid instantly, you can begin writing for iwriter. But there are hundreds of other online writing sites where you get paid to write. All you need is Google "freelance writing" or any other search term.

When you begin writing for the first time online, anything you earn first time sounds too good. Soon you will realize, you are getting peanuts for all your labor. The clients who want you to write for them are actually making money off your writing. 

So, a better idea is why not write for yourself. In other words, when you write for yourself, you have your byline and you also earn something in addition. There are some websites like hubpages, triond, YCN, Squiddo  lense and several more, where you can open multiple earning channels. For instance, you earn from google adsense, from amazon, from ebay and few more sources. Only your income is split 50/50 or 40/60 depending on where you are writing. The income split is justified because you do not have to worry about hosting your site. In addition, these sites have high PR which helps you promote your content to a large number of audience. 

This is quite unlike ever before. Anyone can be a writer and anyone can begin writing and earning anytime they decide to. Compared to the past, where only few could write, this has been a real transformation. Some of the old print newspapers are today dying and decaying or have been compelled to transform and run online versions along with printed paper versions. 

In addition, the niche for which any one can write has multiplied exponentially. There are more fields to write than one can imagine. In comparison, there were limited periodicals earlier with limited topics and issues to write on. 

We have entered into an era when content is truly the King. Every one who has a presence on internet needs content whether they write it themselves or hire writers to write them. In addition, the need for content is increasing by the day because content is essential to drive traffic.    

How to Land Your First Writing Job on Elance

Since you are reading this article, I presume you know what is Elance. It is the world's leading site for online work. They have every kind of online jobs for just about every online worker. The last time I checked the site, they had about 18,000 live jobs available on their dashboard.

Sounds great! IT and Programming alone had over 7500 jobs, while design and multimedia had over 3500 listed jobs. While Writing and Translation was at the third place with about 2500 jobs. On the lower side, while Engineering and Manufacturing featured under 400 jobs, Finance and Management showed barely 300 jobs, and Legal segment showed a measly 183 jobs. From the available figures, it is clear that IT and Programming professionals have the most lucrative opportunity on online work sites including Elance. In other words, if you're technically skilled, you will not have to compete severely for jobs. Here is why? In all there are about 620,000 professionals vying for all jobs available on Elance. Of these, about 538,000 are individuals and about 82,000 are companies.

From available figures, it is clear that over 600,000 professionals are vying for about 18,000 jobs at any time on Elance. On average, there's one job for approximately every 35 persons competing for jobs. This indeed makes landing with a job very competitive. Here's some more statistics. There are about 168,000 IT and Programming professionals competing for 7500 jobs which means about 22 to 23 professionals compete on average for one job. In other words, IT and Programming professionals are at a slightly advantageous position than the rest. In the domain of Writing, 139,000 professionals including companies are found competing for about 2500 jobs, which means on average 55 to 56 professionals will compete for one job. The obvious conclusion - on average a writing professional will find more than two times tougher to get a job in comparison to an IT and Programming professional. Additionally, the average wage of a writer is likely to be less than half of the average wage of an IT and Programming professional.

Moreover, with increased demand for technical writing and the higher wages for the same, IT and Programming professionals have both writing and IT jobs open to them. Therefore, writing professionals would do well to learn technical skills to survive the competition.

Here are some strategies for the writing professionals to land with your first job.

Register with elance and complete your profile. Employers prefer to hire workers with complete profile. Showcase your writing samples in your profile. Employers invariably go through your sample before selecting your bid. Showcase your best work samples.

When bidding for the job, put yourself in the shoes of the employer and try to see what solution the employer is looking for. Tell the employer how best and unique is your solution. Tell them everything you will do and your expectations from the employer. Don't overstate or claim more than you can do or more than you are capable of. Give evidence for your claims.

Take the professional tests available on elance. The score on these tests will inform employers about your expertise. You have the chance to improve you score, so don't hesitate in taking tests.

Try to connect with the employer one on one. Engage them with questions that will help you improve the outcome.

Never bid more than the amount the employer has indicated. Better still, if you're trying to land your first job, bid low.

Don't get disheartened if you do not land a job in your first month or month after month. On average for every 55 or 56 bids you make, you are likely to land with a job. That's the average - you may get more or less. However, with completed profile and few professional tests, you're likely to improve your successful bid counts, better than the average.

Finally, it is the persistence that pays. Keeping on bidding effectively when a time will come, you will begin getting jobs. Among all the professionals bidding for the jobs, there are actually very few who continue to persist, the rest are weeded you naturally because they have no patience to continue the struggle and continue improving skills. The quitters in fact make the task easier for you.

Half of those currently listed under professionals are not serious. So, don't get disheartened by confrontations with a very large number of bidders. If you can continue and persist, you will likely break ice before you can imagine.

Remember, landing a job on elance requires not extraordinary IQ or talent. All it takes is a systematic course of action combined with persistence.    

How much can you earn from your writing

Many people ask me how much do I earn from my writing? I tell them freelance income fluctuates month to month. However, I am never worried about earning a certain minimum level even under worst circumstances, because the demand for online writer continues to and will continue to grow. Yet, if you do not earn enough or earn little, you are solely responsible for it. Chances are you are not making sincere efforts to find clients, or write, or both. The chances are you are a beginning writer struggling to find your way through. The following guidelines will help you build your writing career.

How to begin earning from writing online
There is no straight answer to the question how much can you earn from writing. It depends on a number of factors: (i) your writing experience (ii) time you give to writing (iii) the rate (per page/per hour) you receive for writing (iv) your writing speed (v) the quality of your writing (vi) meeting the guidelines sent by clients (vii) continuing to learn while growing within the profession (viii) building a strong niche or a set of niches you want to write in (ix) building your trust as a writer, and (x) developing strong relationships with your clients so you continue to get repeat orders.

If you are looking to start earning online from your writing, the best place to go is elance which is the marketplace for freelance writers and employers looking for one another. The signup process is easy and you can begin bidding on available jobs within moments of signing. However, if you are new to writing process, it is advisable to build a portfolio. Almost every client wants to see your sample or past work before they decide to hire you. Don't have a portfolio? No problem.

How to build a portfolio
There are several webcompanies who are open to your writing. Some of the well known among them are Associated Content (Now a division of Yahoo), Yahoo Voices, Hubpages, Triond, and several others. You may go to one or more of these sites and begin publishing your work so that you can showcase your writing samples to the employers. Additionally, you get paid residual earning for your writing on these sites. But for some initial years, your writing at these sites may not be enough to meet even the expenses for your evening snack. So, that's probably the reason you may want go for upfront payments for your writing job.

How much do the clients pay you
During your initial career as a freelancer with nothing much to showcase, you may not expect to earn well. There are more clients looking for $1to$5 per page writers. Yet, sites like elance, Guru, freelancer, and others are flooded with bidders for these jobs. After some experience, reputation and excellent portfolio to showcase you may find clients paying at least $10 per page which in my opinion is the minimum, a freelance writer deserves. Typically, a page contains about 300 words. There are many clients offering that much although in overall terms of percentage, they form a small minority.

Take your first step
While many persons have told me they are interested in writing and would like to make writing a secondary source of their income, but not many among them actually begin writing. You have to take the first step. Go, write anything that comes to your mind. Practice writing. Get familiar with your key board and begin to press letters. Sooner or later that will become your habit, a habit that you cannot live without. Once you begin writing on your desktop and publish your first work, you will feel like having won the Olympic race. It is the first step that is difficult, the rest is easy.