Back to the Blog and Standing Still

I skipped posting last week mostly because of that old saying: "If you don't have anything nice to say..." Well, you know the rest. I really didn't have anything nice to say about anyone or anything. I probably still don't, but I don't fee like putting a cork in it anymore.

The first thing that made me back up and give the blog some space was the flow of project messages into my inbox. If you have ever worked with Guru, Elance or similar sites, you know that this doesn't mean you have been awarded a project. Most of the time, the potential client uses it to ask you for additional information as sort of an interview process before they decide who they will award the project to. So, it's something you can get a little excited about, but not too much.

That's all changed for me. No longer will I jump out of my seat for any emails labeled this way. Why? Because every job I applied for last week decided that they would rub it in when I didn't get the job by sending out a project note to each loser who didn't get the job. Now, many people may consider this a courtesy and a nice thing to do, but I think the false hope aspect of it definitely trumps the courteous form letter starting with "There were so many great candidates to choose from, and unfortunately you weren't it." Then, especially if it is a book project, they go into blatantly promoting their project. Enough of that.

So, I've be scouring the far corners of the Internet for new leads on jobs. Last Friday, I was lucky to find four new leads. On Saturday, I came down from that temporary euphoria. Two of the leads were oDesk and People Per Hour --  websites essentially like Elance and Guru -- lots of work, but lots of competition as well. Don't get me wrong, they are all solid sites. I would have no hesitation using them to hire someone, but it's really hard to get hired, whether you have great feedback from previous clients or not.

The two other leads were a bit out of the traditional writing zone. One was a job posting on message boards. This job seemed great at the time I signed up. I qualified for permission to start posting quickly, but then I found out that it pays on average $0.10 per post. That wouldn't be problem, except posts on each board are limited to 5 or 6 a day. There are many boards to choose from, but most are too techie for my tastes and I wouldn't be able to provide the quality posts they expect. Out of the boards I'm currently posting on, one board isn't even counting the posts I write, so I'm having to get to the bottom of that as well.

The last lead seems fun, but again is very low paying. It is a job rating music at Slice the Pie. I already do that at HitPredictor and get paid in points/gift cards that only add up to about $10 a month. This new site lets me rate music for anywhere between $0.07.-$0.10 per song (with a minimum of 90 seconds of listening time). I think the rate is based on how many words are included in your review, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I've also noticed that rating the song poorly doesn't get you anywhere either, though they do ask for honest reviews so... anyway. It's still a job that's going into the "can't you smell the desperation?" pile.

All of these disappointments have led to one good thing. The more frustrated I get with this failed entrepreneur/nearly unemployed situation, the more exercise I am able to complete. I just finished a great bike ride this morning, and I'm sure I'll get one in every day this week. It doesn't hurt that the weather is so mild either. 

And while I'm rambling on, I'll continue with my sad update about Camp Nanowrimo -- it's not going to happen. The 25,000 word goal... I'm not even halfway there. And believe me, there's not enough caffeine on this planet to finish by Thursday. However, through the month-long process I did find out more about my story -- mostly that it will take way more than 25,000 words to finish. My kooky little characters -- they decided to sneak up on me with a few plot twists I didn't even expect.

 Today is the day for change, so I'll still look for more leads, but the freelancing world seems to be pushing me out my front door inch by inch.

**For anyone who actually made it to the end of the post, thanks for listening. I need to vent to people who know what it's like being in this business -- friends and family just stare at me like I'm an idiot when I try to explain how freelancing really works. 

The Tough Writing Gigs

Writing for a living is a tough gig -- I don't think I will get any arguments with that. And like all other professions, there are just some things that annoy the working writer to no end. I happened to run into some of my biggest annoyances all at once this week. Anyone who has written online for money can probably relate. So here's just a taste of the long list of things that annoy my professional self:

Purposely adding grammatical errors: If you want something written by a professional, why do you insist that I maintain a certain amount of grammatical errors? Working too much on this type of work can get writers into bad habits they have a hard time breaking.

Writing About... Shady Topics: I get it. You want to sell your products online and make a profit just like anyone else. When that product is illegal or misleading, it's another issue entirely. When I see a legal notice blocking your website, I'm just going to back away and say, "No, thank you."

Tell me my work isn't good -- then not telling me why: Did I misuse a colon? Was it a misspelling of your company's name? Do you just not like me and/or my writing style? If you don't tell me what I did wrong, I can't improve your article and my writing skills.

I try not to whine, but I'm putting these annoyances out there so that maybe I can reverse some type of Internet writing karma. Better instructions and better communication between client and writers can make us all work harder and more efficiently.

New Articles:
Key Terms for Capital Costs

An Emerging Pattern of Chaos

Since yesterday, I started to double my workload. If I want a dream, the sad truth is I'm gonna have to pay for it, whether with time, money or both. But still, it's what I like to do. I love being my own boss, taking the jobs I want -- and about 80% of the time, it's really fun. To get through each day now, I just have to take a deep breath, dive into work and hope I didn't forget to put it all on my to-do list that I'm increasingly dependent on. Organized chaos... the perfect phrase to describe this moment in my life.

The doubled workload consists mostly of quick turnaround web content. Low paying, but a wide variety of jobs available. The one odd thing about it? I had a look at my browsing/searching history. You can definitely tell what searches were for work research: wholesale shoes, hair restoration, equestrian groups, employment law, bathroom vanities... Yeah. I like to keep my work interesting and very, very broad in topic.

Larger projects are also on the task list, so this weekend I joined Elance to see about getting more leads. I already use Guru, which has turned out some pretty good work over the years.

Hope for bigger success in the near future and lottery tickets -- that's what I'm leaning on now. : )

New Articles:
Key Terms for X-ray Equipment

What I Can Do

Organization is the key to success. If it's not, I'm wasting my time! Anyway... just a little food for thought this morning. I spent a lot of time yesterday finally getting more links onto my PUBLISHED WORK page on this blog. I put up all of my articles/stories/poems that are featured on the Yahoo Contributor Network (formerly Associated Content). While I still have more than 100 online titles left to put on that page from Triond, I thought that this was a pretty good start. Oh, and if you want to check out the book reviews I have written (besides the ones on Goodreads), you can check out a list of book reviews on my other blog, Book Review Bin.

I'm not great at persuasive arguments or savvy sales techniques, so I'll resort to shameless promotion and begging: any clicks on these articles would be appreciated. While one or two clicks may only add up to pennies, it helps me to keep doing what I do best and to maintain my goal to constantly improve on my writing. I know my dedicated readers already put up with paid posts and other promotions, so this is probably the last time I'll mention the articles for awhile.

Other than promotion, the plan for today is to dig out the poetry project and make one of my famous To-Do lists so that I know exactly what I have to do in order to complete it for publishing. I think the majority of the work today will be to find all of my completed poems and sort out which ones will best fit the project. That's where my organization skills are too good--my external hard drive with all my work on it is split up into about 100 different folders and there are completed poems lurking in all corners of that virtual cabinet. But I'll go all Sherlock Holmes on those folders and find every last one of them.

2012

Yeah, it's the new year. Things look about the same as they did a few days ago. All my life I have been in the habit of over-hyping this two-second holiday. I think just because we all shout and the date flips forward on the calendar, my whole life will change. It doesn't, so I'm constantly disappointing myself.

At the very least, I thought the work situation would get a little better. The company I'm currently getting job from isn't supplied with thousands of articles as I thought it would be today. In fact, there's less than 100 right at this very moment, most of which I have no interest in writing. Of course, interest is not the only issue. I'm working for extremely small wages so I have to be careful when I choose jobs. My basic criteria are that the length of the instructions cannot be longer than the finished article itself, the minimum I will take is 500 words/$5 (which is STILL too low) and no insults at the end of the instructions. It happens. Some will say "I will reject anything that does not meet the high quality we expect and are paying for." Um... you expect quality when you pay $5 for more than 750 words? No, no my dears. That's just fantasy there.

So, on January 3rd I'm officially declaring that 2012 is surpassing 2011 in being the worst year of my life so far. And to be honest, I have probably had some pretty bad ones. I'm not all Negative Nelly at this point, but once my bills are paid for the month and I cannot see a way to pay those same bills the next time around, you can be sure that this semi-positive outlook will change. Drastically. Happy New Year.

Rising to the Challenge

For the most part, my career is back on track. I may have to live within a smaller budget, but there is work and plenty of it now. Freelance writing is here to stay... at least for me. It was my mom that actually made me realize I was being a baby about the whole thing. I told her the other day that I was back writing articles but didn't like it. "But I thought you loved writing?" She replied. And that did it. I do love to write. I may not be too happy about every subject I'm asked to write about, but that's all in paying my dues so my career can continue to move forward. Thanks, Mom. :)

Online Resources for A Freelance Writer

Last week I talked about how to get started with freelance writing online. This week, I'll give you a sneak peek into some of the online resources I used to get started. Not all of these resources were easy to find, but once you get a good one—hold onto it. Even if you get a better offer later on, there's no telling when you'll have to go back into the trenches to find your next job.

Resources for Writing Information

While these website may not provide solid leads for jobs, you can spend hours here finding information on the freelance writing world.

Freelance Writing

This is where I actually scored my first real paying gig. Mostly an information site, Freelance Writing offers tips, tricks and news from industry professionals. Also offers jobs listings.

Writing Career

A great website to gain some general information and advice on starting a writing career and the different subcategories you can choose from such as technical writing, copywriting and editing.


Resources for Jobs

Here are some of the stable and legitimate resources to find online writing jobs quickly.

Freelance Job Openings

This website offers a wide variety of writing jobs, searchable by location, category and experience level.

Guru

Guru offers a wide variety of online freelance work for writers, designers and graphic artists. Jobs are awarded through a bidding process.

Online Writing Jobs

This is a site that searches through listings at Craigslist for writing related jobs.

Advice for Starting to Write Online

I have been working as a freelance writer since January of 2008. Since that time, I have had many friends and family wonder how I got started, how I find my jobs, and (sometimes) how they can get in on the game too. Trust me, it isn't easy. Once you get the hang of it though, you will be able to earn a decent monthly income.

There are no set rules to start writing online. Most people choose to do it for free—they write on social media sites, blogs and post comments on other people's work. If you want to make money from it thought, you may have to dig a little deeper to find the paying gigs.

First, look for reputable freelance writing resources. There are dozens of message board and websites that provide leads for jobs. If you want to maximize your time searching for these jobs, remember that you should never have to pay for job leads! If someone wants a skilled online writer, they won't make you pay for the job.

If you like the thrill of the chase, finding jobs may be simple. It's finding the right jobs that will keep you busy and successful. It's hard to price most jobs when you are just beginning, but if you don't end up with at least a half a cent per word, skip to the next job offer. Many people will try to entice you with endless work, but $1 per 500 words will not pay the bills (unless you have 23 hours in the day to work!).

Another tip that I have found helpful is to do at least some work where you can retain the rights or have a byline. Having a byline will get your name out there so that others looking for writers can easily see your previous work. If you are lucky enough to retain full rights to your articles, you can spin new articles out of the originals by branching off on different topics or aspects of the same general subject.

One last piece of advice—every online writer needs a home. This can be a site that takes all kinds of articles (like Triond, for example) or a blog to showcase your writing. This is a great way to get additional hits for articles that earn residual income from pageviews.