Working as a freelance writer means that you must be your own collection agency. In other words, there is nobody else to collect money from clients; this is your job. Luckily, most clients are good about paying what they owe on time. But just like any industry, there are going to be times when a client tries to stiff you. In order to decrease the chances of this happening, follow the five points listed below:
1. Demand a certain percentage of payment up front. This does not have to be the entire amount, but should be substantial. Most freelance writers agree that anywhere from one-third to one-half payment is fine. In the past I trusted people entirely too much. In turn, this resulted in several projects that I have yet to be paid for. You are much better off demanding some money up front. Explain why you are doing this, and work with the client to agree on reasonable terms. Once a client pays you once, you know that you can trust them in the future for the most part.
2. Keep in mind that situations do arise that will push payment back. Even if you mark on your invoice that payment should be made within 30 days, this may not happen. Some companies only cut checks once per month, and others are simply slow. If you do not get paid right away, do not accuse the client of scamming you. Instead, send a nice notice.
3. If possible, sign a contract with your client. As you probably know, this is not necessary or possible with every job that you take. After all, you are not going to draft a contract for one keyword article. But from my experiences, larger jobs should be backed by a contract. In most cases, you may not even have to do this as your client may beat you to it. Of course, before you sign a contract presented by a client, you should make sure that you agree to the terms.
4. Talk about payment with your client before you start the job; this goes along with number one above. Not only should you ask for some money up front, but also get an idea as to how you will get paid. Will the client send you a check? Do they use PayPal? These are all details to consider. When you open the lines of communication before the project starts, the chances of a problem later on is much less.
5. Although not always easy, try to dig into the clients past. With the help of the internet this is not as difficult as it once was. You won’t believe how many times I have had somebody contact me, just to ask around and find out that they are a fraud.
These five tips should help you to get paid soon after completing a freelance writing job. Just remember, every situation is different and should be dealt with accordingly.Â
It seems that all freelance writers have their “specialty.†This is more or less the type of projects that they work on the most. For some, this is keyword articles, for others business plans or sales letters. One of the best paying specialties to consider is feature articles. If you can break into this area you are sure to increase your monthly income.
As you probably know, feature articles are used by magazines of all sizes. These are the articles that are featured in the magazine due to their depth, detail, and most of the time length. Early on in my freelance writing career I did not concentrate much on feature articles. After all, these gigs are difficult to tie down because there is a lot of competition for them.
After a few months I began to send out query letters to mid-size magazines that matched my expertise. Soon enough, I landed a couple of regular jobs and was on my way from there. Check out a feature of mine in Insight Magazine; this is just one of many that I have completed in the past few years.
The most difficult part of breaking into feature article market is getting that first job. Without a lot of samples this can be difficult, but if you send out enough queries you are sure to get a bite sooner rather than later. From there, you can begin to narrow down your targets and build your career. Your first gig may not pay great, but it is a start nonetheless.
As mentioned briefly above, feature articles can pay very well. This is not always the case, but bigger publications pay $1/word and up. I have never earned that much per word, but have been close a couple of times. Just like anything else within the freelance writing industry, your pay will increase as you become better known and more proficient at writing feature articles.
No matter what stage of your career you are at, attempt to break into feature article writing sooner rather than later.
As you know, there are many ways to make money online. With that in mind, every so often a new program comes along that shows extreme promise. Over the past month, TNX.net has been getting a lot of solid reviews from bloggers. And after taking a close look at what they have to offer, it is obvious why this is the case.
Being that I am more of a publisher than advertiser, let’s take a look at this side of things first. The main benefit of being a publisher with TNX.net is that you will have the ability to sell links on every page of your blog or website; not just the homepage. Obviously, this is a huge benefit to not only your readers, but also to advertisers.
Other benefits of being a publisher include:
1. Monthly payouts made via check, wire, or PayPal. With more options for payout, it is safe to say that more members will join. After all, not everybody loves PayPal.
2. TNX.net only charges a 12.5 percent commission. This is miniscule when compared to other text link brokers/services.
3. Link prices are automatically calculated based on page rank, link, site popularity, and other like factors.
4. For publishers with no technical skills, like myself, it is easy to use the service thanks to a “copy and paste†method for installing the code.
Now for the benefits that advertisers can take advantage of. First and foremost, the price to buy links is quite affordable. A point system is used in which one point will purchase one text link. To make this even better, you can purchase 1,000 points for a little more than one dollar. When you compare this to offers at other text link services, it is easy to see just how much money you will save.
Other benefits of becoming an advertiser include:
1. The ability to receive targeted traffic to your website or blog. Isn’t that what most webmasters are looking for?
2. Improve your ranking in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc.
3. An easy to follow and simple to understand interface. Once again, if you do not have a lot of experience like myself, this will make your life much easier.
For more information on this service, which pretty much offers free text link ads, you don’t have to look much further than some of the more popular money making blogs. It seems that everybody has had their say on what TNX.net has to offer. And up to this point, I have yet to find too many negative comments!
