If you are a freelance writer, one of your jobs is to make sure that you get paid the amount you are owed on time. Of course, things do not always work out this way, but it should be your goal. But when it comes to collecting money, what method do you prefer?
Generally speaking, freelance writers have two options when it comes to getting paid. This is not to say that there are no other options, but these are definitely the most popular.
First off, you could opt to be paid by check. The main benefit of this is that you do not have to rely on an online payment system in order to facilitate the transaction. Additionally, unlike PayPal, when you receive your funds via check you never have to pay a fee. For some people, this is reason enough to collect all their money this way.
In my case, the magazines and other print publications that I write for always pay via check. This is fine with me, and I usually cash checks within a couple days of finding them in my mailbox.
The only real drawback of a check, when compared to PayPal, is that you have to rely on the mail to deliver your money. Even if things go as planned, you are going to have to wait for a couple of days at the least. For some freelance writers, getting paid quickly is the most important factor. After all, bills need to get paid, and waiting is never a good thing.
This brings us to why PayPal is beneficial to freelance writers. As soon as you complete and turn in your assignment, your client can send you funds via your PayPal account. This means that you could have your money in your account within five minutes of completing a job. Talk about quick service!
As mentioned above, the main downfall of PayPal is the transaction fees that are taken out of your payment. To give you an idea of how bad these can get, I paid nearly $2,000 in these fees last year. Now can you see why PayPal makes so much money?
Since I have several jobs that pay out on a regular basis, some of them as often as three to four times per week, being paid by check is not an option. Sure, I could have them tally everything up at the end of the month, but I prefer to receive payment as soon as possible. This ensures me that I will get what is coming to me; even if I have to give PayPal a small percentage of it.
Although check and PayPal are the two best payment options for freelance writers, you may want to consider others. For instance, I have one client that pays each month with a wire transfer. All they needed was my checking account number, routing number, and bank name. While this is a great way to get paid because of the quick service, keep in mind that you may be charged a service fee. I give up $13 on each payment from this client so that I can get the money wired to my account. Why do I do this, you may ask? Well, since the check is usually for a couple thousand dollars, it seems to be the best option. I would rather get that amount of money as quick as possible as opposed to waiting for it in the mail.
As a freelance writer, consider receiving payments via check and/or PayPal. You should be able to find a happy medium that suits the needs of most your clients.
Most successful blogs concentrate on one large topic area, which is then broken down into smaller sections. Of course, there are varying degrees of this method, but for the most part it is a good outline to follow.
When I started this blog, I decided on three large topics: freelance writing, blogging, and internet marketing. As you can probably imagine, these are three topics that I have a lot of experience with. The biggest key to blogging success is to choose a topic that you love. When you do this, you can be rest assured that you will never get bored. Although there are days when I have to make time to write posts, it is always fine because I love my subject matter.
Within the three larger topics, my goal is to touch on anything and everything that I think my readers will enjoy. For instance, there is much more to freelance writing than what you see on the surface. Subtopics include everything from finding clients to getting paid to writing techniques. As I move forward with this blog, all of these subtopics, and many more, will be detailed time after time.
One of the most difficult tasks for some bloggers is to stay on track with their content. There are times when I have 100 other things on my mind, and many of them are of great interest to me, but unfortunately readers do not come here for that information. For me, the best way to stay on track is to always have a good backlog of article topics. This allows me to research the information that I want to offer, and then put together a quality post. As you can imagine, this is a much better idea than simply thinking of a topic on the spot, and then starting to write with no direction whatsoever.
These are all things that you should think about before you start a blog as well as when you are moving forward. There is nothing worse than building a readership, just to decide that you want to move in a different direction. If this happens, you are more or less undoing and throwing out all of the hard work that you put into the project.
Remember this: you can blog about whatever you want. Just make sure that you love your topic, and that it is large enough to encompass several subtopics. This will help you immensely from post number one. Â
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?
