At least once or twice per week I receive an email with the subject: Help – I can’t find any real freelance writing clients. As you can imagine, the body of all these messages is pretty much the same. An aspiring freelance writer needs help breaking through to the “next level” of the industry.
When somebody asks me to help them find real clients it always puts me in a difficult spot. First off, what does the word “real” mean? To some, a real client is anybody that is not associated with a content mill. To others, a real client is somebody who pays a particular amount of money (set in their mind) for each project.
When answering this question, time after time, I always start with the same information. What are you doing to market your services? If you want to find the right freelance writing clients you have to market, market, market. Believe it or not, most people end up writing back and saying, “I don’t do much to market my services, but how can I get started.”
As you can see, those who are not finding the right clients only have themselves to blame. Believe me, there are many webmasters/companies that are willing to pay a lot of money for the services of a professional freelance writer. Just remember that finding these clients takes time and effort. If you are not willing to market your services you will more than likely find yourself wondering why none of the “real” clients want to work with you.
Once again this week I received several email from readers asking why I work so many hours. I assume that since my freelance writing income is regularly high that some feel I work 15 hours per day. To be honest, my freelance writing work schedule fluctuates from day to day. Sure, there are some days when I work 10 hours or more, but this is not the norm. Although I do not keep track, I would venture to guess that I have been working an average of 40 hours per week thus far in 2008.
When it comes down to it, you should work as many hours as it takes to get your work done. If you do not have enough work to stay busy, spend some time marketing and searching for new clients. Remember, you can always find something to do as a freelance writer. If I wanted to work 24 hours per day I could do so; in theory at least. Even if you are only submitting articles to Associated Content, at least you are doing something to better your career. All in all, any sort of freelance writing work is better than none.
Don’t take this the wrong way. You do not want to overdo things. I have said many times that early in my freelance writing career I was working entirely too much. This led to wrist pain, no sleep, and eventual burnout among many other issues. Your goal should be to find a happy-medium sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately, there is not “set” answer on how many hours freelance writers work. Since you can set your own schedule and find your own work, your hours are up to you!
Over the past couple of days, I have been asked by a few readers if I am still using Associated Content. The answer to this question at this time is simple: no. Simply put, I have not had the time to write for them over the past couple of months. Even though I believe that this is a great way to supplement my freelance writing income, I have too many other projects lined up at this time.
The bad thing about Associated Content is that you have to write blocks of articles for it to be worth your time. And of course, writing a block of articles can take an hour or so. With my current workload, taking an hour out of my day to write these articles is not worth my time. Could I make time for this? More than likely. But as of lately, I have wanted to spend more of my day on developing projects outside of my freelance writing career.
For those of you who have not read my Associated Content posts in the past, check them out for detailed statistics. You may be surprised to find out just how much you can make with this service.
To answer the question of how much you can earn with Associated Content, you will have to try out the service for yourself. With that being said, through some estimates and simple stats, I can show you how much I would make if I were to devote more time to the service.
Through past experience, I get offered just around $5/article; sometimes more, sometimes less, but this is average for the most part. Additionally, writing five articles per day would not take me more than an hour most of the time. As you can see, this would work out to $25/day from Associated Content. Over the course of a week this equals $125, or approximately $500/month.
Sometime in the near future when things settle down, I hope to get started with Associated Content once again. It would be really nice to add an extra $500 to my monthly total.
By this time of the month I have usually updated my readers on how my Associated Content earnings are going. But as of late I have not had anytime to devote to this type of writing. Even though I strongly believe in Associated Content’s income earning power, there are months when I have too much work to write for them.
If you are new to freelance writing, or simply want to make some extra money this month, definitely give Associated Content a look. Here are three tips which will help you to effectively use Associated Content to your advantage.
1. Write articles that people want to read, but also ones that are not overdone. In other words, you need to provide unique and interesting content on topics that have not been submitted time and time again. If you are writing on an overdone topic, your best bet is to put your own unique spin on the article. This is the best way to ensure acceptance as well as the highest offer.
2. If you have the time, write articles for Associated Content in blocks of five. This is the method I use, and it seems to help with time management. Additionally, writing articles in blocks of five will also help to increase the amount of money that you earn. Once you get in a writing groove, you can crank out five articles for Associated Content in an hour or so.
3. Set goals for yourself. If you want to make $500 per month with Associated Content, find out how many articles that works out to. From there, divide that number by the days you work and you will know how many articles to produce on a daily basis. As you become more comfortable with Associated Content make sure that you tweak your goals. After all, you might as well set the bar high.
Overall, these three tips should help you to effectively submit articles to Associated Content.
One of the most difficult things about being a freelance writer is earning a steady income. When I worked in the corporate world, a set amount of money would show up in my bank account twice per month. But as you probably know, self employed writers do not have this luxury.
Through my experience, there are three reasons that ones freelance writing income may begin to decline.
1. You may see a decrease in income if you decide to start working on other projects outside of your primary career. For instance, this blog has taken a bit away from my freelance writing income. Even though I made nearly $5,000 last month, this is several thousand less per month than earlier this year. While I am not happy about this, taking the chance to build this blog is something that I hope will pay off in the end.
2. Losing a big job can greatly affect your freelance writing income. For instance, if I were to lose a $1,000/month job, my income would drop to $4k/month right away. If this were to happen, I would immediately begin to search for a way to make up some or most of this money. My backup plan always has been, and always will be Associated Content. I know that I can write for them whenever necessary, and if I can do so in quantity, there is money to be had.
3. Simply put, when the quality of your work decreases, so will the amount of money that you make. This may not happen right away, but shoddy work will lead to clients dumping you. In turn, your income will suffer.
Some of these things are unavoidable, so it will not do you much good to worry about them. Instead, do your best to build your freelance writing income to a steady level. This way, you can at least have a ballpark figure of the money you will earn each month.
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!
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.
Over the past couple of months I have put a lot of time into submitting content to Associated Content. And for all the hard work, I have been rewarded with a high acceptance rate, decent pay per article, and much more. Check out my post at http://www.chrisblogging.com/associated-content-recent-results/ for a good idea of my past results. Although this post covers the time from May 15 to June 15, it still shows just how much Associated Content has to offer.
I have slowed down my submissions over the past month due in large part to the amount of other work that I have had. And coincidentally enough, it seems that Associated Content has slowed their roll quite a bit as well. What do I mean by this? Simply put, they are not approving articles as fast as they were a month or so ago.
For instance, some of my articles in late June took 10 days to garner a response. This is compared to no more than five days in early June. While this may not be anything much, it makes me wonder what the problem is. Does Associated Content need to hire more editors? Or are they simply receiving more content now than they have in the past?
Personally, it does not bother me if they take a bit longer to respond. After all, I do not rely on Associated Content to pay my bills; I simply use it to add a few hundred bucks to my monthly total. But for those people who only write for Associated Content, this could be a huge problem.
Right now, I have quite a few articles waiting for a response that I submitted four to five days ago. It will be interesting to see if a response comes soon, or if 10 days or more go by this time.
Let me know if anybody else is having this problem, or if it is just me!
My Associated Content posts have been getting a lot of hits, so I wanted to add another quick one. I have talked a lot about what Associated Content has to offer, how much I earn, etc. But for some reason, I have yet to say why you should sign up.
Here are three reasons that all freelance writers should consider becoming a content producer for Associated Content.
1. You can make a name for yourself. Believe it or not, some Associated Content articles get tens of thousands of page views. As you can imagine, if your articles become popular, you are going to get exposure. In turn, this could lead to other freelance writing jobs in the future.
2. There are no other services similar to Associated Content. You can write about whatever you want, and if it suits their criteria, you are more than likely going to make money. No, you do not get paid the best rates, but any money is better than no money.
3. Associated Content is perfect for everybody. No matter if you are a part-time freelance writer, full-time freelance writer, or just dabbling for fun, Associated Content will suit all of your needs. There are no requirements on quantity or deadlines to adhere to. Write when you want, take time off when you want.
Hopefully, these three reasons will show you why every freelance writer should give Associated Content a try. Remember, until you submit a few articles and experience the community togetherness, you will not totally understand what Associated Content has to offer.
As mentioned in a few posts back, I am really starting to ramp up my production at Associated Content. And despite a lot of people saying that they have gotten tougher, I have actually found the exact opposite to be true. Over the past month, dating from May 15 to June 15, I have had quite the run of success.
Here are some of my statistics for the past month:
Articles submitted: 57
Articles accepted for payment: 47
Waiting for acceptance: 10
Total acceptance rate: 100%
Total payment received: $304.14
Highest offer: $8.50
Lowest offer: $4
Average offer: $6.47
If you do not have the time to compare, here are a few of the main differences:
1. My acceptance rate went from 78 percent to 100 percent. In my opinion, the reason for this is better keyword research, longer articles, and topics that are not mainstream.
2. With the most recent 47 articles I was paid a total of $304.14. In my last update, I showed 56 articles earning $310. Of course, this means that my average offer increased from $5.54 to $6.47.
3. The only negative when comparing stats is that my highest offer was $8.50 this past month. In the last update, my highest was $10. This is something that I am still trying to figure out.
As I continue to submit articles to Associated Content I will keep you updated on my progress. My overall goal is to increase my average offer each month. Check back regularly to get updates on Associated Content news as well as my personal stats.
