Thread: Honestly, how much money in freelance writing?

I am a solid writer. I wouldn't consider myself a copywriter or anything of that nature, but I am good with words and unique views on content. Above average I'd say. What can someone realistically expect to make from writing content freelance? I do my own e-Commerce thing but I'm looking for side work that is supplemental. I don't mind working long hours, nor do I mind deadlines. Outlook?

It really depends on luck in my opinion. There are some writers that are well above average barely making any money writing. The problem is that people would rather pay cheap rates than get good quality and there is a lot of cheap crap being offered all over. So basically you are competing against people that are offering to write a 500 word article for $2. If you keep looking though you will eventually find someone that will offer a good price for quality.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I write, and I write very well, yet all the good work goes to people that are willing to sit and grind all day writing 500 words for $2 or less.

It's a tough market, saturated as well, but you can get into it.

I am having a tough time right now, but starting up little projects here and there to get things going again.


Keep trying and don't give up, you will make it.

PM me your article rate.. I've got and do a lot of article writing work that I can put you in on if your interested..

It's tough because if you look on freelancer.com or something like that, copywriting and data entry are part of the fields that get the highest number of bids. The competition is huge. When faced with the service buyers, there are those that want quality, and those that want a low price. Your going to have to weave out alot of the buyers and see what works best for you. Indian people are probably going to be willing to accept less than what you would. If there is an Indian person who can write that is fluent in English, then that's even more competition for you. While I'm not saying there is no outlook, I would say that the hardest part for you would be people who want your work on a consistent basis. You need to find people who want high quality writing. Once you can show them that, you are automatically beating most of the freelancers out there. If you can find a good number of these people that will give you work on a consistent basis, then you will be fine. Or you can start out by offering cheaper rates to show that you are a high quality writer, and once you generate business, raise your rates. But with the rates that foreigners will work for, you will have to figure out what works best for you. Just keep your head up because there ARE buyers that prefer quality over a low price.

If you go to sites like freelancer, don't expect high paying jobs.

For decent rates, you can look towards textbroker and such.

If you want to make decent money freelancing, you are going to have to get into certain high paying sites or find private buyers you can write for.

It all depends on getting that certain job. Also, you want to make sure you can type and think fast when you are producing these articles; don't make them low quality, but try to churn articles out asap.

There was a great ebook on here about writing content for living. I don't remember what it was called, but it was pretty good with a list of places you can apply for writing jobs.

TB is low too. You will probably be writing for .01 a word forever.
I will say this though, if you want to refine your skills, learn a little a long the way, and be guaranteed to make money, it's a fine choice.

You could in a sense sit there ALL DAY and make a living. Making $20 a day on there isn't near impossible at all.

In fact, it would only take 7 or so 300 word articles, doable in around 3 hours if you are steady.

Also, you will never run out of work, and I have yet to be rejected for ONE article.

I think you are thinking of Content Cash Cow. I looked into a lot of those places that were in the book but it didn't amount to anything.

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/associated-content-writing-articles/203452-get-top-dollar-your-articles-content.html

I started on Freelancer, then Elance, PeoplePerHour and now I have a nice gaggle of clients who are regulars. Try to capture around 5-10 clients and stick with them. The last thing you want to do is to have to chase one-off clients for payment (...from experience).

I decided a few months ago to go directly to head offices, MDs and big-boy websites in a niche I was interested in. Works a treat, they never really look for writers, but always need them. If they don't understand the importance of article marketing/SEO then give them some pointers, ultimately ending up in you getting a job out of it.

Spend a few days writing up some excellent samples in your target niches, then write up a "as-a-matter-of-a-fact" sales email for your services.

Or, simply hope for the best with Associated Content/Constant-Content.

Or, start your own websites/blogs and utilize aff. links/Adsense.

As said above, if you're good on writing, better start your own blog and keep writing quality unique articles and you can see traffic comes in quicktime, you can make some big money later on.

For years, I have a man from India, Amit Agarwal, who starts writing and reviewing products on a blogger blog and soon he makes lots of money by adsense, now he shifted his blog to his own domain and making a lot of money daily

He is a real inspiration to me and his blog is http://www.labnol.org He just writes 5-6 articles daily with useful information that brings more people to subscribe to his blog and google loves his blog and getting his site more traffic. Once he said, making around $1000/day with adsense with just one blog. go and check it.

about his earnings http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-much-money-do-i-make-from-adsense.html