A blog can be whatever you want it to be. It can be a place where you write down your thoughts and feelings, a place to share your work, and of course, a place to make money. When I started this blog I was a bit unsure of the direction that I was going in. Sure, I had some goals, but as you probably know, things never stay the same for long.
Although these are bound to change sometime in the future, here are three goals that I would like to accomplish as this blog moves forward.
1. My number one goal is to supply my readers with content and resources that are going to help them succeed as a blogger, freelance writer, or internet entrepreneur. All in all, if my readers are not happy, I am not doing my job. To go along with this, increasing the amount of comments that I receive is also a long term goal of mine.
2. As you may have heard in the past, many feel that a blog is not worth monetizing until traffic reaches a high, sustainable level. Of course, it is up to you to determine what constitutes high and sustainable. For me, my goal is to increase traffic month after month. If I can continue to move in the right direction, I will then begin to look for ways to begin the monetization phase.
3. Although money is not my primary goal, as mentioned above, an income from this blog is something that I would like to achieve sooner or later. Instead of setting a lofty goal, such as $3,000 per month, I am going to start on a smaller scale. Once traffic is at a solid level, I am going to attempt to reach the goal of earning $100/month. This is far from being a large goal, but in my opinion, it is always better to start with small goals and then work from there.
Overall, I guess you could say that these are my three primary goals for this blog. They will undoubtedly change from time to time, but hopefully they will help me to continue to move in a positive direction.
What goals do you have for your blog? Are they similar to mine?
There is a great article in BusinessWeek about blogging, how to make money from your blog, and of course, a list of some of the best. If you are looking for a way to get motivated, this is the article for you.
The thing that I liked most about this article was the wide range of blogs that they detailed. Most articles like this only talk about the biggest blogs that make the most money. And this one does a bit of that as well. For instance, boingboing.net is featured, and they earn more than $1 million/year through ad sales. But on the other side of things, blogs such as icanhascheezburger.com are discussed, and they earn a more attainable $5,600/month.
If you get the chance, check out this article. It is not long, and there is also a short slideshow that features 13 blogs.
If nothing else, it will definitely get you motivated!
One of the biggest benefits of being self-employed is the freedom that it offers. This means the freedom to wake up when you want, quit when you want, and oversee every last detail of your business. But at the same time, the biggest drawback of being self-employed is exactly the same. With so much leeway in what you can do, wasting time is something that every self-employed worker has to deal with.
Keep this in mind: even if you are self-employed it does not mean that you can slack off. In fact, the exact opposite is true. If you slack off you are not going to get paid. This is not the way that it works if you are employed by a company. You may get fired sooner or later for being a bit lazy, but until then, the paychecks will continue to roll in.
It is easier today than ever before to waste time during the workday. You can thank the internet for this. With so many distractions looming around every corner of the net, you could easily get off track and spend hours on end reading, gawking, and searching for useless information.
The way that I avoid wasting time is quite simple. Every night before I shut my computer down, I write out a list of what I have to get done the next day. When I wake up, I look at this again and devise a plan for working through the tasks. If I am lucky enough to complete them early, I will then allow myself a few minutes to scour the internet for information that is not related to work. This is more or less a reward that I give myself for working hard to complete my tasks list.
But even then, this is easier said than done. Yesterday, despite having a list of 15 things to do, I found myself searching the internet for information on dogs. I am interested in buying a dog, so of course, it was on my mind yesterday morning. Before I knew it, 15 minutes went by and I was still staring at pictures and reading about buying a new puppy. At that moment, even though I was having fun, I had to pull myself back to work. I bookmarked the page I was reading, and then made a promise that I would finish it after my work was done.
Although the internet may be the biggest way to waste time, if you work from home, you will be faced with even more distractions. This includes everything from television to radio to playing with your kids.
If you want to be successful as a self-employed worker, you need to learn how to resist temptation. Make a list, work through your tasks, and then reward yourself!
For most freelance writers, obtaining new clients is the lifeblood of their business. If you are capable of securing new work on a regular basis, you are going to succeed. Of course, you will also want to work hard at keeping the clients you currently work for. After all, recurring business is the best kind.
I have been lucky enough to secure some pretty big contracts over the years, but one of them sticks out head and shoulders above the rest. About 15 months ago I came across an ad on one of the many freelance writing job boards that I check every morning. From what I can remember, the ad was actually posted on several different boards including the one at journalismjobs.com.
The job description was simple and to the point. They were looking for somebody who could write approximately 500 words per day on real estate. Being that I had experience with this type of content in the past, I fired off a quick note with some samples and my resume attached. Not expecting to hear anything back for a few days at the least, I began to move on to the rest of my work. But much to my surprise, within five minutes, I received a call from the company that I had just emailed. They liked what they saw, offered me the job, and gave me some basic details on getting started.
But while all this was going on, I was still wondering about one very important detail. What was the pay for this job? The ad did not mention the rate, and the client had yet to say anything. Right then, he said to me, “What is your going rate for a job like this?” I quickly responded that I would be glad to help at $.10/word. He said great, I said awesome, and that was that.
Each month, like clockwork, I receive $1,000 or so from this client. I always wonder how I got so lucky as to secure this client. It is obvious that the hiring individual was reading emails at that time, and mine happened to roll in. Talk about great timing!
Wouldn’t it be easy if every contract was this simple to secure? These are the ones that every freelance writer dreams about, but of course, the ones that are most difficult to capture!
As you continue to grow your blog, you will hopefully begin to receive comments on each post that you make. After all, what would a blog be if you were not getting other people involved? Everyday I read five to ten blogs, and some of them have in upwards of 100 comments on each post. Of course, this is not a goal that you will be able to reach in a few days, but definitely something to strive for in the long run.
Another great thing about comments is that you can make a lot of acquaintances this way. Although my blog has only been around for a month or so, I have come to take notice that those who comment really know what they are talking about.
You may have noticed that Danielle from http://www.msdanielle.com/ will leave insightful comments from time to time. And of course, I do my best to head over to her blog and do the same. Her content is quite similar to mine, and this alone has gone a long way in helping me to expand and develop my blog.
Another person who makes regular comments on this blog is V. Neely from http://nutshelljournal.com/. Once again, the depth and nature of her comments are always welcome, and have gone a long way in getting some good conversations started. If you are looking for information on blogging and website development, her blog is a good place to start.
Now can you see why comments are so important to blogs? It is always nice to have people respond to your posts, and anytime you get the chance, you should take the time to return the favor. Remember, blogging would not be the same if your readers were not taking the time to interact with you!
How much money can you earn by working full-time as a freelance writer? This is a question that most aspiring freelancers ask time and time again. But unlike some jobs that have set salary ranges, this is far from the truth when it comes to freelance writing. The fact of the matter is that earnings change from person to person, and are based on everything from writing skills to marketing prowess.
To give you a better idea of what type of money you can make as a freelance writer, I am going to detail some of the projects that I work on each month. They range from high paying gigs that I located on journalismjobs.com to lower paying website content articles. Although everybody would like the high paying jobs, even full-time freelance writers have to give in from time to time.
First off, let’s take a look at one of my highest paying jobs. Generally speaking, this job entails writing at least one article per day. That sounds easy enough, right? Well it gets even better. The article can be on any topic I want, and it is up to me to determine the length and direction. What does a gig like this pay? This particular one gives me $.10/word. As you can imagine, this is a nice deal because for a 500 word article I can pull in $50. And since it only takes me 15 to 20 minutes to complete these, I make out just fine in the end.
On the other side of things, there are some jobs that I take on that do not offer nearly as much in the area of finances. But of course, there are a couple of reasons that I stick with these jobs. There are two requirements that I consider before taking on a low paying job. The first one is ongoing, steady work. As long as the client is always sending work, the small pay will add up in the end. The other requirement is that I must feel that the articles can be written at a highly fair rate of speed. After all, I am not going to work for $5/hour or so.
One example of this is a client that pays me $.012/word. Does this sound like a rip-off to you? If so, I don’t blame you. But even though this is far from being the best pay, it usually works out to right around $50/hour in the long run.
As you can see, you will have the ability to make up your mind on which freelance writing jobs to accept. Remember, the faster you write, the more you can write. And in turn, you can increase your average hourly rate. But of course, you should never give up delivering quality work just so you can make more money. If you do, your clients will see through this, and your job will be gone before you can blink an eye.
Determining how much money you will make as a freelance writer is not possible. In fact, it is not even possible for me and I have been doing this for quite some time. There are some months that I earn nearly $10,000 and others that are around $5,000. My goal is to get as close to $10k a month as I can, without having to sacrifice more time. No matter who you are, you should have earning goals in mind for your freelance writing career.
Over the past few hours I have found out that planning a blog contest is not an easy task. In fact, it is downright difficult to say the least. I have been slaving over every last detail this afternoon, and to be truthful, I have yet to make any progress. Sure, I have some ideas floating around in my head, but no definite direction has separated from the pack as of yet.
So what troubles have I run into thus far? Here are two of the biggest:
1. As you can imagine, for a blog contest to be successful you need to give away something that readers will want. Should I offer a hot item such as a Nintendo Wii? Or should I stick to a service that will not cost me any money? Right now, I am leaning towards a tangible object; something that readers will crave.
2. What should the entrance requirements look like? It would be easy enough to allow readers to enter by leaving a comment, but at the same time it could be more beneficial to require a backlink or something of the sort. Obviously, asking for something like a backlink could scare some people away.
So for now, I have yet to come up with the final details of my first blog contest. But if all goes well, it is on its way soon enough. Stay posted, and maybe you will be the big winner; no matter what prize I decide on!
I must warn you before moving on; I did not submit nearly as many articles this past month. The main reason for this was that I picked up three new blogging jobs that have turned into big money makers. And of course, I wanted to make sure that I devoted enough time to them so they would get off to a good start.
Here are the statistics from June 15 to July 14:
Articles submitted: 20
Article accepted for payment: 17
Waiting for acceptance: 1
Total acceptance rate: 85%
Total payment received: $93.61
Highest offer: $7
Lowest offer: $4.25
Average offer: $5.50
As you can see, the articles submitted category was not the only one that suffered this month. Whereas last month my acceptance rate was 100%, I had three articles denied for payment this last time around. This does not bother me too bad because the topics were quite general, and I probably should have known better than to write about them.
My highest offer was down by $1.50, and my lowest offer was up by $.25. But the thing I am a bit perplexed about is the average offer. It is down $.97 this month. There could be many reasons for this, but I figured that the average would begin to increase as I continued to submit. After all, this helps to raise my page views which will in turn affect my clout. The average offer statistic is the one that I will be keeping the closest eye on during the next month.
So there you have it! Another month’s worth of Associated Content stats. It will be interesting to see if the downward trend continues, or if I simply had an off month.
It is amazing how many people think that being self-employed as a freelance writer is a joke. They honestly believe that freelance writing is a career that anybody can excel at in no time at all. In fact, I have had more than one person say to me, “Freelance writing? I have been writing since I was in first grade!” True, these people probably did learn how to write that early in life. But it is amazing to me that they are so ignorant and clueless as to what it takes to be a successful freelance writer.
All in all, there is nothing easy about freelance writing. Although I would never trade in my career for another, it does not mean that I live the good life where work is a walk in the park everyday.
Below is a list of three things that a freelance writer has to handle that a corporate employee would never be able to sympathize with; unless they become self-employed of course.
1. As a freelance writer I am responsible for drumming up my own business. If I do not do this, I will not make any money. As you can see, this is quite different than somebody who works for a company and relies on others to keep the wheels moving.
2. When you are self-employed there is no way of escaping your work. While it does not bother me, some people have a major issue with this. Since I run my entire business alone, I think about work a large majority of the time. In other words, there is no leaving my work at the office. After all, my office is in my house!
3. Not only do I have to sell my services to obtain more work, but I am also responsible for collecting the money that is due to me. Unless you work as a collector or in the accounts receivable department, you really have no idea what this is all about. If I do not do a good job as a collector, once again, I do not get paid. This is far from the way that things work in the corporate world. Try telling an executive that their salary will be paid when the company’s clients decide to send some money. Trust me, it wouldn’t work; not even for a second!
The freelance writing life is a great one. I am the first to admit that I love everything about it. But when people think that being self-employed is a joke, it really irks me. The next time that you catch flack for living the “easy life,” point your critics towards this post. They will see where you are coming from right away!
Running one blog is hard enough for most people. After all, there is a lot to do if you are going to make your blog a success. And as you can imagine, things can get even trickier if you decide to start multiple blogs. If you are thinking about adding more blogs to your workload, you need to make sure that you know what you are doing. After all, this may sound easy, but in some cases you are going to be up against the wall.
First off, you should never move on with another blog until you feel comfortable with your current situation. If you do, you will find out soon enough that you are spreading yourself thin, and all of your blogs are therefore struggling to keep up.
Generally speaking, there are three tips that I can offer people who are interested in running more than one blog. If you can master these tips, you will be on your way to building a successful blog network.
1. If you are working with multiple blogs you need to have a schedule. Without a schedule you are going to find yourself lost, day in and day out. You will want your schedule to not only outline on when you are going to post, but also on the subjects that you want to touch on. The more organized you are, the less time you will have to spend on each blog. And when you are running a network, saving time is something that you should definitely be interested in.
2. As you probably know, for a blog to be successful you need to add content on a regular basis. I have said before, for me, it is best to add at least one post per day. This is what I am comfortable with, but you may very well have another way of doing things. One post per day may seem easy enough if you only have one blog, but what if you add more? Although you may not want to give up any control, many bloggers hire other people to help them keep up with posting new, original content. You do not necessarily have to do this, but all in all, keeping up with regular posts is a must.
3. The biggest detail that will consume your time when running multiple blogs is the marketing side of things. With one blog, you can spend all of your spare time on marketing and like tasks. But what will you do if you have two blogs or more? Not only will you have to decide which ones are most important to you, but you will also have to follow a marketing plan for each one.
Let these three tips guide you to success if you are interested in running and keeping up with multiple blogs.
