Have you ever been asked to do an interview with a website, print publication, or any other type of media? If not, you should be prepared if and when the day finally comes. After all, turning down a request for an interview is never in your best interest; unless you have tons and tons of offers, of course.
Over the past five years or so I have probably been interviewed 100 times or so. As of late, this number seems to be adding up quickly thanks to my success as a freelance writer and author.
So what can an interview do for your career, you may ask? While this will differ based on your situation and who interviews you, there are some things that seem to be consistent with me.
First off, it always seems that one interview leads to another; this is especially true if you do a good job the first time around. Once people in your industry begin to become aware of who you are, you will quickly become a hot commodity. Sometimes you will get a few interview requests per week, and other times you will go through a cold period.
Of course, interviews can help to increase your success and hopefully your profits. After you complete a good interview, you are sure to get inquiries about your career, etc. And in many cases, you will benefit without having to do a thing. For example, my most recent interview by Create Business Growth has sent a bit of traffic to this blog. Of course, this is only going to pick up in the days to come. My hopes are that this leads to more RSS subscribers, regular readers, and maybe even some new work.
Anytime that somebody requests an interview, you should not have to think twice. Unless you have a very good reason for it, take the time to answer a few questions. This will benefit you in more ways than you ever imagined. You never know who may be reading about you!
Related Link:Create Business Growth offers information on how to improve your online presence.
There is no denying that a few big jobs make up a large part of my monthly freelance writing income. But guess what? I also believe that smaller jobs are every bit as important. Sure, I would love to work on high paying jobs only, who wouldn’t? But the reality of the freelance writing industry (at least for me) is that this is not always possible. For this reason, I always think twice before I turn down any small jobs that I am offered.
What does a small freelance writing job mean to me? First off, when I say “small” I mean small in the way of payment. But when you add three and four small jobs together, you end up with one big job. This is why taking on small jobs that will not consume a lot of your time is very important.
Take for instance one specific pet related project that I work on every morning. This project consists of one article per day of 300 words or so. For this, I receive $10/day. That may sound small on the surface, but by months end this has added up to $300; which is a nice sum to bump up my monthly total.
When I finally get to a point where my workload has become too much, I then start to cut back on the smallest of small jobs. But of course, I only do this when I am completely out of time. In the example above, it would be foolish for me to leave $300 on the table when it only takes me about 15 minutes a day to complete one of these articles.
I read a lot of blogs, and one thing that other freelance writers always touch on is that you should get paid a solid wage for your work. And while I agree with this, I think it is foolish to pass by a project just because you are not being offered $.20/word or more. This is especially true if you are new to freelance writing, and are simply trying to get in on the ground floor.
Simply put: do not always turn down the small jobs. Several of these could add up to more money than you ever imagined!
Related Link:Blog About Your Blog is all about quality. Quality posts, quality people, quality bloggers!
Imagine the potential success of your blog if you could churn out 25 or more blog posts per week. Most people, including myself, strive to post at least once per day. For me, the main reason that I do not post more is a lack of time. When my freelance writing workload is not taking up my entire day, I find it much easier to write more than one blog post.
If you are interested in increasing your article production there are many tips that you can follow. Through my years as a full-time freelance writer, I have found the following three tips to be most useful.
1. Set aside a block of time each day where you will do nothing but write. One of the main reasons for slow production is too many distractions. When you are writing blog posts you should be doing nothing else. This means no television, no radio, no checking email, and no checking traffic stats. If you can give yourself a couple hours of solid writing time each day, you will find out soon enough that you are producing more articles than you ever thought possible.
2. Not knowing what to write about can slow you down. To avoid this, keep a list of topics next to your computer at all times. Anytime that you think of a good blog post, write it down on your list. When it comes time to write, you can then choose a topic off and get started. This is much better than wasting time trying to come up with a topic that will suit your blog.
3. It is common sense that the faster you write the more articles you will produce. While you may struggle with fast thinking and typing at first, you will improve in both these areas as time goes by. Soon enough you will realize that you are writing at a faster pace, which will obviously give you more time to write each day.
These tips will definitely help you to increase your article production. But remember, you should never speed up if you think it is going to decrease the quality of your work. Even though it would be nice to post several articles to your blog each day, they all need to be of high quality.
All in all, your goal should be to produce as many articles as possible without compromising quality. With the three tips above, as well as plenty of practice, you will be well on your way to reaching this goal.
Related Link: Fellow freelance writer Michael Kwan blogs about writing, personal development, and much more.
When putting together a WordPress blog, deciding on what pages to include is essential. Even though you can add or delete these at a later date, it is always nice to get everything in place as early as possible. With that being said, how do you decide what blog pages to include?
On this blog, I have decided to keep things simple by adding only an “about me” and “contact” page. These are by far the most common pages, and in my opinion, two that every blog needs to have. The question is: what others are worth adding?
For blogs that sell direct advertising, a page based around this is always a good idea. John Chow recently wrote a great post on this. Being that he makes several thousand dollars each month by selling ads, it only makes sense that he includes this. But for smaller blogs without monetization, like mine, an advertising page would be all for not.
The nice thing about adding pages to a WordPress blog is the ease with which this can be done. Generally speaking, you can add a page in a matter of minutes, and to make things even better, it can be about whatever you want. If I wanted, I could have 10 pages ranging from my writing services to top posts and much more.
I feel that it is essential to find a happy medium between too few pages and too many pages. With too few pages your blog may appear bare to readers, and of course, this could leave them wanting more. But on the other side of things, too many pages can confuse visitors while also making it difficult for them to concentrate on the actual content.
As this blog continues to grow, it is safe to say that a few more pages will show up.
Text Link Ads recently released a new feature which allows bloggers to sell post level ads to interested advertisers. According to their website, post level ads will be exclusive to one advertiser, offering up to a 150 letter description, and will be positioned directly at the end of posts.
Since I am not quite ready to monetize this blog, I have come up with an idea of my own. I am going to include post level “ads” at the end of posts, but for now, there are two catches. First off, they are not going to cost any money! Sounds like a good deal, right? Additionally, I am going to choose the featured site at the end of each post. In other words, they cannot be bought; just yet at least.
At this time, my goal is to offer other blogs more exposure as opposed to trying to make money. This is why I am not charging for these ads, and instead making the decision on what to include based on my own personal decision.
So how am I going to choose what blog to feature? Better yet, how long will the ad stay in place?
1. I am going to choose the blog based on what I come across during my daily readings. For the most part, the blog that I feature will be related to the content of my post in some way, shape, or form.
2. The ad will stay in place forever! Even though the post will begin to drop down as each day goes by, the ad will always be on my blog. So obviously, this is a bit of link love that could help in the long run. In many cases, I may place the same ad on several posts.
I am going to start using these ads in my next post; which will probably be later today or tomorrow. To be fair, and to offer some fun to my readers, the first person to comment on this post will get the first post level ad. After that, I will make the decision on my own with each post!
Let me start off by saying that I think the world of PayPal. If it were not for this service, my freelance writing career would never have taken off. But with that being said, PayPal frustrates the heck out of me each and everyday. How so, you may ask? Simply put, I am tired of getting hit with fees each time that I receive a payment. While I know that this is there way of making money, it costs me hundreds of dollars each month.
PayPal charges several levels of fees, but most of us fall into the “PayPal Standard Rate” category. If this is the type of account that you have, you will be charged 2.9% plus $.30 on each transaction. For example, if you receive a $100 payment you will net $96.80; assuming that there are no cross border fees.
My biggest problem is when I receive large payments such as those close to $1,000. For these, I am docked with a fee of nearly $30! Sure, this is still better than waiting for a check, but that is a lot of money for a transaction that is done the same way as a lesser one.
Just as my freelance writing income fluctuates, so do the amount of PayPal fees that I incur monthly. But for the most part, I lose approximately $200/month. When looked at on a yearly basis, these fees total $2,400 or so; which is not a small chunk of change by any means.
It would be nice to have an online service similar to PayPal that buyers and sellers could use free of charge. But when it comes down to it, PayPal has always been the top dog in this industry, and probably always will be. Unless you want to wait around for checks to arrive in the mail, PayPal is your best option. It is no fun to find out that they are taking hundreds of dollars from you each month, but in the end, it is a service that online entrepreneurs have come to use on a regular basis.
Have you ever seen the television programs that detail the art of “house flipping?” Generally speaking, people purchase homes for a low cost, fix them up, and then clean up big time when they sell a few months later. While this is not the way that the process always works out, it is the basic gist.
Over the last couple of years, this phenomenon has been brought to the internet. Internet entrepreneurs are buying websites with potential, and then selling them for a large profit after making some changes. Again, this is not a sure thing, but a great way to make some money if you have the proper skills.
While I could go into detail concerning this process, you would be much better off reading Yaro Starak’s post on this at Entrepreneur’s Journey. His post touches on everything from the fun of flipping to what to look for when buying.
If you are searching for a way to make money online, why not look into flipping websites? It takes some time, skills, and money, but just like real estate, the payoff can be huge in the end!
There is no denying the fact that I love blogging. Not only does creating content excite me, but I am having a great time learning the technical side of things as well. For this reason, I am thinking about starting a new blog. But as you probably know, this is not something you can jump into without considering all of your options.
The problem I am struggling with now is whether or not I should choose a topic similar to ChrisBlogging, or if I should venture in an entirely new direction.
A similar topic could be something such as the book writing process, freelance writing jobs, writing for magazines, etc. But on the other side of things, there are hundreds of other topics that I could explore. While not all of them would interest me, I am sure I could find a couple that would fit in quite well with my likes and lifestyle.
There are pros and cons of each option. Choosing a similar topic will allow me to more or less build off of the success of this blog. To go along with this, I have plenty of knowledge when it comes to writing because this is what I do for a living. On the downside, this may not give me much of a change, which could get boring in time.
If I choose a topic that is completely unrelated, the fun factor would be quite high; at least early on. After all, it would give me the chance to break away from writing about freelancing, making money, etc. And with this, I think that it could spice things up quite a bit. Facing off against this is the fact that I need to find a topic that I am passionate about, and of course, one that people are interested in.
I am not 100 percent sure if I should start another blog at this time. Do I have enough hours in the day to write and market a new blog? Probably. But with that being said, I do not want to add so much work that my freelance writing career begins to suffer.
Over the weekend I plan on brainstorming some ideas, and taking a closer look at my day to day schedule. Hopefully by next week I will have a better idea of what I am going to do!
The majority of people who start their own business have a couple of things in mind. First off, they want to branch out on their own so they can quit working long hours for somebody else’s good. And of course, they are interested in making money. With that being said, there is one very important question to answer: are you comfortable with your online income?
As a freelance writer, my income fluctuates each month. But as you can imagine, this is something that every self-employed individual has to deal with. I do not mind a fluctuating income, and in most cases, it helps me to work harder in the future. But all in all, I am positive that I will never become comfortable with the money that I make online.
After my post earlier this month about making $5,000 in July through freelance writing, I received many emails asking me how I did this, if anybody can get started, and if I am happy with this income. While I knew the answers to the first two questions, I stumbled on whether or not this income makes me happy. If you are asking if it pays the bills, the answer is yes. But I know that there is much more money to be had.
I think that internet entrepreneurs are a special breed. Even if you are making tens of thousands of dollars each month, it is safe to say that you will want to increase this income in the near future. There is something about making money online that pushes people to want more and more. Some see this as selfish, but I see it as a great way to motivate. After all, money is the biggest motivator in the world!
Overall, I don’t believe that anybody should ever get comfortable with the money that they are making online. If you do, you will stop working towards reaching future goals. And when this happens, not only do you lose the chance to make more money, but you may also find out that you are earning less. If you are always pushing forward, there is no reason that you should be looking back!
Every month, with the exception of a few, my freelance writing income seems to build the same way. I always look at my income in three sections: the first, second, and third 10 days of the month.
For me, the first 10 days of the month is always the most profitable. In most cases, by the end of these 10 days I have earned anywhere from $2,500 to $3,000. This is due in large part to the fact that my checks and bank wires arrive during this period.
The second 10 days are always the slowest. This is when I am churning out work for clients, and is usually when I work the most hours. For the most part, these days usually net me somewhere around $1,000 or so.
Finally, the last 10 days is when I make my final push for as much money as I can. While not as much as the first segment of the month, I can usually draw in $1,500 to $2,500 during this period. As mentioned above, a lot of this has to do with the amount of work that I complete during the middle stages of the month. By the end of the month all those projects are complete, and payments begin to roll in. Subsequently, I do not work nearly as many hours as the month winds down.
Of course this can change, but over the past few months when I have been earning just about $5k, this tends to hold true. Personally, I love being able to rely on this sort of pattern. It helps me to chart my progress, while also knowing when certain payments are going to arrive.
