Once again, it is time to check out my Associated Content stats for the past month. Last period I only managed to earn a total of $93.61. And while I thought that was bad at the time, this past month has been even worse.
Luckily, the reason for the bad stats this time around has nothing to do with AC. Instead, it is in direct relation to the lack of time that I have put into submitting. Not only have other freelance writing projects taken up tons of time, but growing this blog is obviously a lot of work as well.
Since I have not submitted any new work lately, I figured I would post my numbers a day or so early. Here are my AC statistics from July 15 to August 13
Articles submitted: 4
Article accepted for payment: 4
Waiting for acceptance: 0
Total acceptance rate: 100%
Total payment received: $19.35
Highest offer: $5.90
Lowest offer: $3.25
Average offer: $4.83
Performance Bonus: $23.15 (3 months)
The best lesson you can learn from these numbers is that AC is a nice side income, but as far as doing it full-time, you need to have complete devotion. I love submitting to AC to make a few hundred extra bucks each month, but my current workload has not allowed for it.
Use AC however you see fit. If you do not have any time (like me this month) it is alright to slow down. But of course, if you are lacking work, you should ramp up your submissions!
There are no two ways about it: you need to like what you are blogging about. If you choose a topic that is not of interest to you, one of two things is going to happen. You are either going to run out of ideas, or you are going to dread writing new posts. Either way, your blog is probably going to fail sooner rather than later.
I am a firm believe that blogging for fun is the best way to begin to make money. When you love what you are writing about, you will not care how long it takes you to garner a substantial readership. It will be more than enough to have the ability to write about a topic you are in love with. But of course, the more that you post the more traffic you will get. And as you continue with this process day in and day out, you will eventually realize that it is more than possible to make money with your blog.
Another great thing about blogging for fun is that it will show through in your posts. If I was to blog about a topic such as sewing or cooking, it would go nowhere. Readers would find out soon enough that this was not my passion, and of course, that I have no knowledge of the industry. Hopefully, this is not the case with this blog. I do my best to show my passion for blogging and freelance writing, and the results have been better than expected to this point.
When you start out blogging for fun, the money will come in the end. Simply put, you cannot expect to make money from a blog if you do not like the topic. After all, why should others find your blog interesting if you find it boring?
Is anybody else as amazed as me to see that so many bloggers put such a high stake on their Technorati ranking? Maybe I am missing something, but in my opinion I think that increasing traffic is much more important than a silly ranking based on backlinks. But of course, maybe I am wrong.
At the time of writing this, my Technorati rank is 124,330. We all know what this is supposed to mean, but does it really hold any credence? With an authority of 48 I am way behind the most well known bloggers. But of course, this is only based on backlinks; not the amount of traffic that I actually receive.
But I will say this. There is definitely a direct correlation between my Technorati ranking and the increase in my traffic stats. While this may not hold true for every blog, it has for this one for the most part. Since being mentioned on John Chow’s blog last week, both my Technorati ranking and traffic has skyrocketed.
So you tell me: should I be concerned with my Technorati ranking, or spend my time working on increasing traffic? I think I know the answer, but I don’t want to overlook something simple.
Freelance writing can be a very lucrative career, as I showed everybody at the beginning of the month with a post on my July income. One way to reach a solid level of income is to leverage existing clients into more work. This is not always easy to do, and of course, not always possible. After all, there will always be those clients who only offer one project. But even then, there are ways that you can turn one job into many others.
Generally speaking, there are two ways that you can get repeat work from an existing client.
1. The easiest way is to get your client to give you more projects in the future. Without repeat work, it is safe to say that my income would not be nearly as high. In fact, of the $5,000 I made in July, I would estimate half of it as being repeat work. These jobs will not repeat forever, but I will keep taking them as long as they come in.
2. Your other option is to ask current clients to refer you to others who may need your service. I know what you are thinking; you hate to ask this, right? But remember, you do not need to be pushy. When asking to pass my name onto others, I usually send an email that looks something like this.
“Thank you once again for the work. I had a great time working with you, and hope to do so again in the future. If you happen to know of anybody who would benefit from my writing services, feel free to pass along my contact information.â€
As you can see, you do not need to be pushy in order to get your point across. A nice note letting your client know that they can forward your information to others is all that it takes.
When you begin to garner repeat and referral work, it is safe to say that your income is going to increase. I am going to leave you with two tips that will give you the best chance to succeed with this.
1. Always do your best work. When you do, clients will never hesitate about sending new projects your way, or referring you to others.
2. Take the time to let your clients know that they can forward your info to others. You may be surprised to know that a little nudge like this can go a long way.
As a freelance writer and blogger, I figured that giving guest blogging a try would be a perfect fit. Luckily, MsDanielle has stepped forward and agreed to let me write a post for her blog!
I wanted to not only say thanks to Danielle, but to all of the readers who are visiting from her blog. You will find that a lot of my posts are similar in content, and hopefully you will like my style.
To stay up to date with multiple daily posts, subscribe to my RSS Feed!
If you read this blog, chances are that you also read others that offer similar content. I wanted to offer up two more blogs that are sure to teach you quite a bit.
First off, check out Yaro Starak and his Internet Business Blog. He is an entrepreneur from Australia, and in my opinion, one of the top bloggers out there. Although he does not have the name recognition of some others, his blog takes a backseat to none. With over 4,500 RSS subscribers, Yaro must be doing something right.
Michael Kwan, a freelance writer and blogger, runs the blog Beyond the Rhetoric. As you can imagine, this is one of my favorites because we have similar career goals and interests. Michael has mentioned my blog several times, and recently gave my contest a plug as well.
Take the time to read these two blogs if you are interested in learning from a couple knowledgeable guys in the areas of internet business and freelance writing.
Even though I am a long way away from fully monetizing this blog, I did sign up with Text Link Ads for the first time. To be honest, I never realized that there was so much money to be made with this program. But upon further review, it is safe to say that you can make a couple of hundred bucks a month if you have a solid marketplace to offer.
There are two main reasons that I decided to implement Text Link Ads at this time.
1. I did not have to greatly alter the look and feel of my blog. In fact, all I had to do was download a plugin, activate it, and drag the widget to the sidebar. From there, Text Link Ads will do the rest. Even I figured this out with ease!
2. I have read several blogs in the past couple days that show decent earnings from this program. Although I do not have nearly as much traffic as some of the top publishers, there is nothing wrong with getting an early start.
Of course, I have no way of knowing how this will work out for me. What are your experiences with selling Text Link Ads? If you are yet to try this out, I would suggest doing so. The unobtrusive look and easy setup is reason enough to give this program a try!
PS: Sorry for the “Test Link Ad†on the sidebar. This will only be around for 12 hours at the most.
For a freelance writer to succeed, repeat work is a must. When it comes down to it, “one and done jobs†are not going to get you very far. Sure, you can make some money this way, but you need to keep clients coming back time and time again. This is how I have grown my freelance writer career from $0 to $5k to $10k per month, and something that you will definitely want to keep fresh on your mind.
I found one of my biggest repeat clients at GetAFreelancer, even though I did not see this coming initially. Up front, they asked for 100 articles at $10/each. Since they were only short pieces of about 200 words, I decided to go for it. Over the past year, they have paid me more than $7k for similar work. The moral of this story: when you start working for a client, you never know if it will turn into repeat jobs in the future.
The best way to secure repeat work is to offer your best the first time around. Simply put, if the client does not like your writing on the first project, why would they offer you more in the future? This alone is reason enough for you to put your best skills forward on each and every project.
Obviously, if a client tells you that repeat jobs are going to be available, you should fall over yourself trying to win the project.
The best type of client is the one that comes back for more, time and time again. Some clients will send one job right after the next, whereas others will wait for weeks or maybe even months. It comes down to what they need, and of course, how much money they can afford to spend.
Although repeat work is huge in the freelance writing industry, this holds true among other jobs as well. Everybody from web designers to car manufacturers know that repeat customers can help them to grow their business, while increasing profits.
I have been talking for a couple of weeks about offering a contest to all my readers. Well, the time has finally come. Even though I am starting out small, I am sure that you will find this contest to be well worth your time.
This is the second book that I have written, and to this point, my most popular. Although it is based largely around the game of basketball, it also teaches life lessons at the same time. To give some details, Open your Heart with Basketball touches largely on how my life and basketball career were affected when I was diagnosed with cancer. As you can imagine, the lessons taught in the book can help you succeed in life, sports, and of course, business.
To give you an idea of the publicity that the book has received, cover quotes were provided by: Regis Philbin – television personality, Dick Vitale – basketball announcer, Jack Wagner – Pennsylvania Auditor General, and a foreword by Lute Olson – Head Coach of the University of Arizona men’s basketball team.Â
Entering the contest is quite easy:
1. Make a post on your blog announcing this contest, and linking to my site. You can use whatever anchor text you please.
2. If you have pingbacks disabled on your blog, send me an email or leave a comment with a link to your post. You may want to do this anyway just to make sure!
3. There is no limit on the number of times you can enter. If you have more than one blog, feel free to link from each one; it will better your chances of winning!
4. One week from today, August 14, I will draw a random winner. I will contact the winner right away, and upon receiving a mailing address the book will be sent out!
Although the retail value of this book is only $12.95, it is definitely a valuable tool for bettering every aspect of your life.
I am looking forward to a good response and many more contests in the future!
Trying to increase traffic to your blog is not an easy task. All in all, this is one of the main reasons that a lot of people give up on blogging after only a couple of weeks. Although I felt good about this blog’s progress at the end of July, I am even more optimistic about the future after the way things went this last week.
On Tuesday August 1, I posted my freelance writing income for July 2007. While I thought that this would get people talking, I was not expecting the results that followed. Within a couple of days this post made its way around the blogosphere, and really hit it big when John Chow featured it on his blog.
You are probably wondering what this did for my blog, right? First off, it has helped to increase comments. To me, this may very well be the biggest benefit; I feel that comments are a great way to make the most of the blogging experience. At this time, my freelance writing post has 33 comments; my personal best for this blog.
Additionally, my daily traffic has doubled. I thought that this may only be temporary, but it appears that the numbers are holding steady for the most part. The reason that I am optimistic is that my RSS readership has also doubled. Obviously, this will have a positive effect as time goes on.
Although a lot of this success has to do with top ranking blogs linking to me, I feel that the quality of my original post is where everything started. Think about it this way: if my original post would have been poorly constructed, nobody would have ever taken notice. This is why you need to make sure that you put your all into every post that you write. You never know when a John Chow or other big time blogger is reading!
Despite the fact that I got a huge boost over the past seven days, I am not going to stop working hard this month. The way I see it, the more great posts I make, the more publicity this blog will receive. Sounds easy enough, right?
