Posts Tagged ‘work from home’

The 4 Dangers Of Working From Home

September 5th, 2010 No Comments

working from homeSince 2004, I have worked from home and it has both its good and its bad sides. But despite that I could never go back to working for a conventional employer outside the home again.

Once you begin working from home, you can never revert back because almost immediately you are intoxicated by the freedom of being able to get up when you want to, start work when you want to, and take breaks when you want to.

I mean, I highly doubt a normal employer will let me take a one hour siesta in the afternoon, as I do right now. Or let me sit at my desk naked as I sometimes do. Or sit naked at the window waiting for the female blond postwoman to come deliver my mail as I…er….heard some people do.

Sounds good right? However, before you rush to become self-employed, there are four downsides to working from home.

1. Lack Of Human Interaction – When you work in a place outside of the home, you are working with other people. You chat with them, discuss work with them, sit with them in the canteen and discuss last night’s football game. When you start working from home, you don’t have any of that (except via email and IM but that doesn’t really count). The difference is quite overwhelming at first and it takes quite a while to adjust. I know some people who couldn’t handle the loneliness and solitude and went back to working for someone else, just to hear the “buzz” of the office again.
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Posted in Life As a Writer, Writing for Income Tags: , ,

Avoid Burnout as an Online Writer - Choose Jobs Wisely

July 9th, 2010 No Comments

Along with the plethora of new opportunities that are available throughout the Online Content industry, there is the issue of too much work and not enough time. If you’re anything like me and you hate passing up good income-generating opportunities, it can be hard to say no.

The Schedule of an Online Writer

Making an income from writing is unfortunately still scorned upon by older, traditional folks who believe that a job should be something that you “drive into” by 8am and then “drive home from” by 5pm, along with the rest of the rush hour crowd. This is the right thing to do.

Well, let me tell you something about the right thing…when you are capable of generating a high volume of quality writing, and you can get paid for that writing, you best believe that the income you can earn from your skills will be just as good as any 9-to-5 job that you’ll find with any corporation.



The issue is the stereotype of the Internet. Many people still believe that the Internet is only for playing games or wasting time. Yet, as they sit down for their morning coffee, they’ll read the news on their favorite news website, or the latest gossip on their favorite blogs and forums. I think there are a lot of people who think that the content they enjoy is free. Little do they realize that someone gets paid (and paid well, I might add) to research and write that content.

Too Many Opportunities

Most major websites out there now realize that if they want to offer better content than their competitors, then it will require investment into high quality writers. Only good writers can get the job done. So now, if you’re a writer fresh out of college, with an English degree in your back pocket (or just lots of writing skill), you are now a very rare and in-demand commodity. Online publishers need you! The race is on, and as countless websites start investing into hiring and paying high-quality writers, you will find yourself faced with making some very difficult decisions. Which opportunities do you take, and which do you turn down? And yes, you will need to turn down opportunities, or keeping up with everything will burn you out - and then you’ll be no good to anyone.

4 Signs of a Good Online Writing Opportunity

Some of the opportunities you come across will be one-time writing gigs where you produce a bulk-lot of 20 to 50 articles and get paid a moderate amount per article. Other times, you may be offered to submit single pieces to blogs or websites and, if accepted and published, you will get paid. Best of all, there will be opportunities where you are assigned a certain number of articles to write every month, and you get paid a fixed amount per article.

So how do you know which opportunities are good ones? Watch for the following signs.

  • Per article payment, not royalties - Many sites try to get content that’s essentially free by offering writers “royalty payments” from the ad revenue the article generates. For the most part the revenue will be a few cents a month, if that. Your efforts would be better invested elsewhere.
  • Fair rates - It may be tempting to throw together a 500 word article for someone for peanuts, just because you can do it quickly. However, how well will it reflect upon you when, down the road, someone discovers this poorly written article that you failed to revise because you were racing through it for a quick buck?
  • Respect - You may be paid well per article, and even promoted into a management/editor position for a blog or a website, but if you aren’t treated respectfully and with dignity by the website owners or upper managers, you’ll find that you’re forever feeling insulted and patronized. This is a common symptom where a new writer shows up within another community - you are treated as though you have less experience simply because you are a new member there, despite the fact that you may have more experience or better ideas than the people actually running the site. Either say no to those promotions, or learn to bite your tongue and simply do your job…conflict and misunderstandings are too easy when you work with people remotely.
  • Prompt Payments - If you do work for a webmaster and he or she is a week late sending your Paypal payment, the odds are good that the person will be habitually late, or may even fail to pay you. It’s difficult to collect such payments in small claims for an Internet job, especially if the client is overseas, so if you sense a problem early on, just walk away.

It may be difficult to say no to new writing opportunities, but if you choose your work wisely, you’ll end up building a very strong and solid foundation for a very lucrative and successful online writing career.

Posted in Getting Published, Writing for Income Tags: , , , ,

Writers and Sedentary Lifestyle

December 31st, 2009 No Comments

As the holiday season approaches and we’ve all finished gorging on a Christmas ham (only to turn around and gorge once again on a New Year’s feast), I’d like to take a moment to talk a little bit about writers and a sedentary lifestyle.

One of the hardest things about being a write is the fact that 100 percent of your job consists of you sitting on your backside, and the only part of your body that’s moving is your fingers. Sure, you’ll end up with some pretty dexterous fingers, but I can guarantee that your midsection won’t turn out quite as well.

writers and sedentary lifestyle

Yes, being a writer involves a lot of sitting, but that doesn’t mean you have to end up three times you’re optimal body weight and with a waistline the size of Texas. As you enter the new year, you know that you’ll be faced with the same writer demands and deadlines, but I’d like to offer a few very effective tips that you can use to maintain your health while also maintaining your schedule.

Effective Writers and Sedentary Lifestyle Changes

Sitting for many hours a day is probably more hazardous to your health than the coffee you drink, the cigarettes you smoke, the fat-laden steaks that you eat, or how fast you drive. Every hour that you sit there not using most of your muscle mass, you are burning almost the least possible number of calories you can.

While your brain may be getting all of the exercise in the world, the container that supports your brain is going to start falling apart. There are several important things you can do to maintain (and even strengthen) the parts of your body most negatively impacted by a writer’s sedentary lifestyle.


writers and sedentary lifestyle

The great image above comes from the University of Illinois. It shows a series of exercises that you can do to maintain your spine posture and keep a healthy flow of circulation through your arms and legs. And speaking of circulation, don’t forget the tender tendons that channel through your wrist.

writers and sedentary lifestyle

At about thirty years old, I had carpel tunnel syndrome. I seriously thought my life was over - I live on the computer. In my twenties I figured I was invincible and such things would never happen to me, but if you aren’t careful, you can pinch the tendons and nerves within your “carpel tunnel” by not taking care of how you hold your mouse. Using a soft soft cushion like this can help tremendously.


sedentary lifestyle

If you’ve never tried yoga, this is a great time to start. By taking a break every 30 minutes to an hour, getting on your yoga mat and going through a few yoga exercises. You’ll find yourself not only losing the weight you gained through your sedentary lifestyle, but you’ll also find yourself feeling more energized and stronger than you ever did before.

While it might take time out of your schedule to do these exercises, in the long run it will give you more time because you’ll feel more energetic, refreshed and awake.


sedentary lifestyle

Finally, I wanted to save the best for last. The device above is called an exercise ball chair. Want to get transform your body out of that sedentary lifestyle the fastest? Give this baby a try.

All you do is use it instead of your regular office chair. Sounds simple right? It takes some getting use to. The balance required to sit on this ball forces your body to make the necessary weight changes using almost every muscle in your body to maintain equilibrium. These subtle changes, over time, keep your body in a constant state of energy and balance - so while you’re writing, your body is building it’s core strength…it’s like the best of both worlds.

With that said, while the FitBall Exercise Ball Chair will definitely be one of your most effective weapons against weight gain from your writing, it will definitely take some getting used to. No more slouching for you!

I hope some of these ideas can make a change for the many writers and sedentary lifestyles that they maintain. I know that I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get back to the healthy young lad that I was only ten years ago - and I know that you can too!

Come back and let me know how you do with your health goals in the comments section below!

Posted in Life As a Writer Tags: , , ,

How to Write Your First Nonfiction Book

December 19th, 2009 No Comments

If you’ve ever considered writing your own nonfiction book, this video of a talk offered by Dan Poynter is one that you must watch. Dan is the owner of Para Publishing. He started Para Publishing in 1969 in North Quincy, Massachusetts in order to publish his own non fiction books on parachute design safety and skydiving. In 1974, he moved to Santa Barbara and started publishing a number of other books on many other subjects by Dan as well as several other authors.
how to write a book

Today, Dan is recognized as a well established and successful publisher. He not only publishes, but also travels around the world to offer his insight into the publishing industry. Self-Publishing Guru Dan Poynter explains and educates new writers on how to write publish and promote their first book. He personally fell into publishing because he believed in his book and believed that there would be an audience for it (and there was!).

In an impressive example of work-ethic and drive, Dan both writes and publishes his books - a total of 76 so far. His books are nonfiction - obviously making him the nonfiction expert to go to for your own insight into how to write your nonfiction book. Dan’s is no fly-by-night publishing company - his books sell tens of thousands a year. His best-selling one sold over 100,000 in one year. In fact, his company is a perfect example of business entrepreneurship and how someone with the drive to succeed and a passion for a product can make it independently.

Please enjoy this fantastic video of this awarded writer and publisher on how to write your first nonfiction book.

When you’re done listening - share your own opinion about Dan’s talk in the comments section below!

Posted in Getting Published Tags: , , , ,

Free Resume Writing Software Online

November 5th, 2009 No Comments

At Free Writing Center, I’m always looking for tools and resources that will help with some of the most popular types of writing that people are searching the Internet for, and free resume writing software is at the top of the list. One of the most popular items that people are constantly looking for help with is with their resume. This is especially true in today’s job market when so many more people are looking for a new job - you really have to make sure that your resume is up to date and that it shines.
free resume writing software

The problem is that most people just don’t have time to put together a nicely formatted, perfectly written resume. You might remember all of the rules of resume writing that you learned in high school or college, but do you still remember all of them now? Do you have time to take a class and relearn all of those rules? Yeah, I didn’t think so. So, to help all of you who are looking for some simple ways to spruce up your resume, I present the free resume writing software online called the Resumizer. Yes, the name is  a little bit corny - but wait till you see what this awesome online tool can do.

How Free Resume Writing Software Can Automate the Process

Forget understanding the rules - that’s what templates are for, so you don’t have to remember. When you first go to the online Resumizer tool, you’ll find yourself staring at “Step #1,” which is choosing a resume style. Each style is legitimate and adheres to proper resume etiquette. At this point it really comes down to a matter of style and what most people within the industry that you’re applying to might prefer. This is really hard to know without asking around - but if you don’t know anyone to ask, don’t worry. Any of these styles will do fine.

free downloadable resume template

You can also choose to swap the experience section with the education section, depending on which one you really want to show prominently at the top of your resume. Choose the section that you feel presents the strongest case for your training and your value. Once your done and you click on the next step, it’s time to enter your contact details.

free downloadable resume template

Obviously, don’t be as brief as my examples. When it comes to entering your skills, you really want to take your time and list, in some detail, each and every one of your skills that qualifies you for the particular job that you’re applying for. In fact, it’s a great idea to use this free resume writing software to customize an individual resume tailored for each job that you apply to. Considering that this tool only has a few steps involved, doing so really isn’t out of the question.

free downloadable resume template

The next step is entering your employment history. Again, don’t be brief here - dig back and pull out all relevant work history that’s even remotely related to the job and industry that you’re applying to. Your employment history doesn’t have to be a perfect match. If it could be related, in any way, to any skill that you might need in the job that you’re applying for, then include the job in your employment history. If the job has absolutely no relationship - you can include it if you want, but you don’t have to.

free resume writing software

Step four is entering in any and all education you’ve had through the years. In this section, you should include any formal classroom training you’ve received, even if it wasn’t as part of a degree program. The section is for any form of education you’ve received, and individual classes or series of classes counts - so include it, especially if it’s related to the job you’re applying for!

free resume writing software

The final step is where you can enter in additional certifications or licenses you might hold. Include or note anything in this section that sets you above the tens or hundreds of other applications for the job. Don’t hold back - you’re in competition with a lot of folks who are looking for work too, so really sell yourself!

create free printable resume

Finally, you can opt to customize the font style, size and the coloring of your resume to suit your particular tastes. The default settings are really good enough, but if you want to add a little bit of pizzaz to your resume, then go for it. Just be careful not to go too over the top or it you could turn a good resume into a total flop. Proceed with caution! After this last step, just click on edit and you’ll see the following screen.

create free printable resume

The coolest part of this online free resume writing software is that you get to download the final resume as a text file, an html file or a PDF. I’d suggest downloading a copy in all three because there are good uses for each format. For example PDF is perfect for email, HTML is great for your online profile or website that you added to your resume, and of course many employers on places like Monster request text format. Downloading all three - you’ll be ready for anything.  What does the final product look like?  Check it out!

create free printable resume

The view above is the HTML format. The formatting is pretty slick for HTML, and it’s nicely laid out with all of the information fitting neatly within each section. Any employer that sees your resume will think that you spent many hours putting it together. Little do they know that you learned about this little secret weapon from FreeWritingCenter!

Are you out of work and looking for a job? Did Resumizer save you some time putting together your resume? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Posted in Free Writing Resources Tags: , , ,

Offering Live Support Chat For Clients and Friends

November 1st, 2009 1 Comment

First, a little bit about how I came up with the idea to offer online PC support on this blog. One of my favorite writing gigs is the work that I do over at MakeUseOf. The writing crew over there are some of the most talented and technically savvy folks anyone could ask to work with. One of the things that I love about MUO is that it pushes me to try to come up with interesting ways that you can “Make Use Of” Internet technologies in ways that most people don’t know about or even consider.
free online writing courses

One of the things I really want to do is provide my blog visitors with a direct line of communication with me, and in that spirit, last month I tested and installed the VZOchat service on my blog. This service is fantastic and it’s an excellent way to offer videoconferencing over the Internet. The one drawback I noticed is that in reality, most people who are sitting in front of their PC really don’t want anyone seeing them - so they shy away from video chatting. I believe this is probably why videoconferencing never really took off as a major online service.

Offering Easy to Use Online PC Support Services

On the other hand, everyone loves to text chat. The popularity of IM services like Skype, Yahoo Messenger and the many other instant messaging services proves that people love to text. One of my favorite ways to get tech support when I used to be an Ebay Powerseller was through Ebay’s Live Support chat service, when they offered it. So, in my latest article at MakeUseOf, I decided to alter my videoconferencing approach into a text chat approach. It didn’t take very long to find the best service out there to accomplish offering high-quality online PC support - LiveZilla absolutely rocks.

livezil2

The LiveZilla support software is really easy to set up - the Wizard does everything for you. It will FTP the files to your web server (assuming you have your FTP details), and once installed on each PC that you want to use to answer calls, you’re done. The last step is distributing your chat room links either through your blog, emails, Facebook - wherever. As you can see to the right, I’ve decided to use the LiveZilla service to offer online PC support sessions as well as SEO advice sessions at various intervals of payment.

Offering Your Expertise for Pay

Why charge for your LiveZilla online support service? Well, as a writer or blogger, the odds are pretty good that you’re very busy most of the time. If you’re not updating your blog, you’re fine-tuning your website theme or writing articles for other clients. The fact remains that there are people out there who could really use your advice and technical expertise. Do you want to help them? Sure. Do you have time when you could be devoting that time to writing another article that helps you earn more income? Of course. If you have to choose - which would you go for?  Time is money - but you can still offer your expertise to your visitors who really need help, and are willing to pay for it. Think about it - most people are stuck with several options. One, ask a family member who claims to “know computers,” but who ends up messing things up worse in the long run. Two, hire a guy down the street who’s going to charge $60 to $80 an hour. Or 3, someone far less for a quick 15 to 20 minute chat session where they can ask their technical question and get a straight and knowledgeable answer.

livezilla11

Now, you can offer your blog visitors an option where they can pay peanuts to chat with you for 10 minutes, get a quick answer to their technical question, and their done. You haven’t wasted any of your time, and you’re putting your experience and expertise to excellent use for your blog readers and website visitors. It’s simple, easy, and you can add it as one more stream to your many streams of income earned on the Internet - it’s win, win for everyone.

Posted in Writing for Income Tags: , ,

Two Books About Writing and Getting Published

April 24th, 2009 No Comments

When you are a writer, whether you’re writing for the online market or the offline “print” market, there are a number of resources that are critical to your success. These span the whole range of skills that every writer needs, including:

1. How to write well
2. How to organize and plan your writing projects
3. How to make money from writing
4. How to get published (either online or offline)

Every month I plan to provide book reviews for the best books out there on particular topics related to writing. This month, I’d like to focus on two books in particular - the annual Writer’s Market, and the instructional and entertaining book On Writing by Stephen King.

The 2009 Writer’s Market

The Writer’s Market is published on an annual basis, and includes the most recent list of publishers, agents, and other contacts that writer’s who are looking to be published need to know. The fact is that this particular book is the Bible of the writing world. Even Stephenie Meyer, the new author who found tremendous fame in her Twilight series, pointed out what was at the very center of her publication efforts when she writes:

“I subscribed to WritersMarket.com and compiled a list of small publishers that accepted unsolicited submissions and a few literary agencies.”

The fact agents and publishers continue to “discover” new writers every year is proof enough that you too have the potential to become the next “big thing” in the literary world. This book contains everything you need to navigate that path.

Stephen King - On Writing

If there’s a single book “on writing” that I have to admit I enjoyed more as a source of entertainment than as a source of literary education, this book was it. I’ve always liked Stephen King’s dark humor and gritty sarcasm, although his arrogance, at times, is a bit difficult to stomach. Then again, when you get to his level of fame, I suppose that’s your right.

While there are some King novels that are at the top of my own “favorite” list, and others that are horrendous, like Rose Madder, this particular book titled On Writing, is at the very top of that list. The rare insight that King provides into his own life and his early struggles with writing is enlightening and encouraging for every new author. But his overwhelming advice is poignant and true - successful writers work hard, but the majority of them work hard for peanuts. Publication is often 50% skill, and 50% luck. This book is useful however, if only because of the wisdom found inside, from the “King of Horror” himself.

Posted in Life As a Writer Tags: , , , , ,

Using Craigslist to Discover Writing Work

April 24th, 2009 No Comments

One of the best ways to start really ramping up your income from writing is to use Craigslist to find writing work.

How to Use Craigslist to Find Writing Work

imac,apple imac,imac computers,While writing for many of the Royalty-Payment websites will allow you to flex your writing muscles online, and possibly earn you a small monthly income from the articles that you publish, the only way to earn a significant work from home income much more quickly is to land one or two writing gigs.

Ideally, what you’re looking for is a short term, small job where you’ll need to produce from five to ten articles for a webmaster, or some similar job. You could always search Constant Content or Scriptlance for posted jobs - but when you do so, you have to keep in mind that you’ll be competing with thousands of other writers who are searching over the same listings that you are. That doesn’t mean that you can successful land some great jobs at those sites, just just means that you’ll need to lower your price in order to stay competitive.

However, when it comes to Craigslist - you aren’t only searching on one website, you’re searching job listings for every state in the entire country. Lately, Craigslist has started taking on a life of its own, and some people are even turning to Craigslist instead of Ebay in order to buy and sell goods. The fact that Craigslist is becoming so popular so quickly means that Craigslist is a golden opportunity for you to find exciting writing work before anyone else does. Read on to learn how.

Search Through All U.S. States for Writing Jobs

The main page of Craigslist can appear a little bit intimidating.

Not only are there states and cities, there are also other countries. However, since you work from home, and all of the jobs that you’re looking for can be done remotely - the more locations there are, the better for you! Click a State, and the typical State page will offer a search feature like the one shown here.

As you can see on this screen, I’ve entered a search for the term “writer” under the “jobs” category. The results are not overwhelming, but the good news is that there are results!

Now, there are likely to be a number of listings that fall outside of your range of expertise. That’s perfectly fine. However, you’ll also find a number of excellent opportunities where you are very likely to be successful. For example, when I clicked on the “Looking for Freelance Writers…” link, I discovered a news website looking for “qualified writers to contribute to our growing publication.” The pay is a respectable $15 to $30 per article. Now, keep in mind that some of these jobs may be local, but a large number of them are posted by webmasters seeking content - and that’s your forte.

Does searching through each individual State in the entire U.S. feel overwhelming? Well it should! That’s why I’m happy to present the Free Craigslist Reader from Motion Technologies. Thanks to Motion Tech, you can use this free software to search the “Jobs” or “Gigs” categories for all locations. I have to say - this is an unbelievable advantage and a huge time saver.

Check out this single search for “Writer” on all locations:

The only drawback with the search feature of this Reader application is that there is not much indication that the application is actively searching. However, as long as the search bar reads “Cancel Search” and not “Search,” then it’s still scouring all of the listings for jobs. By the time it’s done, you’ll have a list of hundreds of potential writing jobs from all across the country (or the world, if you like!)

In an upcoming post, I’ll go over the best approach to take when contacting a potential client regarding a job posting, a sample contact letter, and how to present yourself in a way that will virtually guarantee that you’ll land the writing gig!

Posted in Writing for Income Tags: , , , ,

Make Money Online With Freelance Writing

April 24th, 2009 1 Comment

After a few weeks of earning money by writing for websites like Associated Content, Helium, and Ehow, you’ll get a taste for what it’s like to actually make money online with freelance writing. If you want to work from home, it doesn’t have to involve get-rich-quick schemes or selling cosmetics and bath soaps to your friends and family. If you are a natural born writer, you really can earn a very respectable income by earning money online. Read on to learn how to work from home doing what you already love to do, through online writing jobs.

How to Make Money Online With Freelance Writing Jobs.

There are thousands of ways that you can make money online, earning a lot of income from various online writing jobs. Most blogs and work at home websites will tell you that you need to create your own website or blog and work at building enough traffic to generate ad revenue. In time, they say, ad revenues will generate steady streams of income. While this is partially true, for both your own blogs as well as for content websites like Associated Content, the truth is that those sites will produce steady income later. What you are looking for are ways to start earning good money by working from home right now.

Make More Money by Working on Writing Projects

You’ve probably scoured the Internet for freelance writing sites where you could work for buyers who list writing projects on those sites. Many of the websites are either so poorly created that it’s horrendous to navigate and even figure out how to bid on a project, or the bids on projects are so low that you feel like it’s useless to even try. I’m here to tell you that the bids are misleading. You can win writing projects at these websites, and you can earn significant income from them. The secret is to bid correctly, present yourself extremely professionally, and then perform above and beyond the call of duty. Below, I’ve reviewed the three websites where I earned the most income from online writing jobs. Each has pros and cons, but by using all three, you could be just as successful (or more!)

Constant Content - A Freelance Job Posting Site

It always amazes me, whenever I visit this website, how such an oddly designed site could produce so much income for writers. Constant Content is somewhat difficult to navigate if you don’t really understand how it works.

After you’ve signed up as an author on Constant-Content, to find what jobs are currently available for Freelance writers, you need to scroll down the left side and click on “Requested Content” under the Author Login section. On the requested content page, you’ll find a list of writing projects posted from buyers. These buyers will range from print magazine publishers to website designers. What they all have in common is that they are simply looking for quality articles written by good writers. On the requested content table, you’ll find the requested titles, the date of the request, and even what range the buyer is willing to pay for the completed article. The way the process on Constant Content works is this:

  • First, write the article according to the guidelines set by the buyer in the request
  • Make sure to assign a price within the range the buyer requested
  • Submit your article. You’ll need to wait a few days for Constant-Content to approve it
  • Once approved, go back to the buyer’s listing and suggest your article to the buyer
  • The buyer will pay you through Constant-Content

In upcoming blog entries, I’ll take you through an actual real-world step-by-step process of submitting articles to buyers on Constant-Content and getting paid for them. This page is an example of what your profile will look like, and any articles you write that don’t sell remain for sale so that other visitors on the web can purchase your articles. Keep in mind that Constant-Content takes a whopping 30% commission for all of your article sales through their website. It’s highway robbery, but without them, you’re article wouldn’t be seen by quite as many potential buyers.

Scriptlance - A Freelance Job Bidding Site

Scriptlance is the one freelance website where I finally discovered that it really is possible to earn a substantial income from writing. This is the king of all freelance sites. It’s focus is website design, but for an online writer, such a website is a goldmine of opportunity to write online content for website designers. When you first sign up with an account, you’ll have a profile page like this.

This profile page is where you’ll monitor the status of all of the projects that you bid on, as well as all of your active projects that you’re working on. Your current balance is displayed, and as you complete projects successfully, your rating will eventually rise - winning you more and better paying jobs. Clicking on the “View Projects” link under Member Login on the left switches to the page listing the latest project postings.

This list is where you’ll spend much of your time, monitoring the latest posts for projects that you could potentially accomplish. Remember to keep an open mind - website designers need content covering a very wide variety of topics. If you’re willing to write about anything, the opportunities that come up are endless. When you see a project you like, post a bid amount that’s competitive but reasonable.

Find freelance programmers at ScriptLance.com - Search worldwide

In an upcoming post, I’ll take you through the process of bidding on, and winning, Scriptlance bids by writing winning private message board messages that win over the buyers. The secret of success at Scriptlance is perseverance. Never give up, even when you lose bids, just keep bidding and eventually you’ll have more work than you know what to do with.

Miscellaneous Sources of Freelance Writing Jobs

Other sources for writing work can be located all over the Internet, if you know where to look. It’s best to avoid the websites that are obviously a sales pitch for membership at some freelance listing site. You don’t need to invest money to obtain good freelance jobs, you just need to be diligent about searching for opportunities and applying wherever any arise. Free classified listings are filled with job opportunities from all sorts of folks who need articles for different purposes. By searching these sites, you’ll discover a few additional sources for some excellent freelance writing opportunities.

  • Craigslist - Search jobs for “articles” to find writing opportunities from buyers across the world.
  • USFreeads - Search through the “employment” and “business opportunities” sections for listings.
  • Yahoo! Classifieds and Google Classifieds (Base) also list great opportunities in the job categories.
  • LiveSimon - Another popular online classified site listing occasional writing opportunities.

There are thousands of free classified listing sites across the Internet with unlimited ways to make money online with freelance writing - the only real limit for earning income from home is how much time you have available to write. Keep searching for those jobs, and make sure to bookmark this blog (or subscribe) for the latest tips and news about the newest online writing opportunities within the writer’s market.

Please use the comments section to share some of your own freelance writing stories and some of your own successes or failures!

Posted in Writing for Income Tags: , , , ,

Work at Home With Legitimate Online Writing Jobs

April 24th, 2009 No Comments

One of the most common questions I’m asked whenever I tell people the sort of online writing work that I do is whether it’s really possible to earn money online through work at home. My answer is always the same, yes - it’s absolutely possible. But you won’t succeed by answering those too-good-to-be-true ads about earning $100,000 a year from home by letting your “computer do all of the work for you!” The magic bullet that I’ve found comes from using your god-given talent to earn a significant income for your family. There are four simple steps you can follow that will get you there. First you need to be honest with yourself about your abilities, then you need to decide that you’re going to work your tail off in order to succeed, and finally - you’re going to decide that quitting isn’t an option.


Work at Home by Completing Online Writing Jobs
The online world is going through an amazing transformation. When the Internet started getting popular, back in the 90’s, websites were fairly dull - with cookie cutter table-like formatting, with drab grey colors and horrendous writing. And work from home jobs using the internet was virtually unheard of. Here’s an example - my apologies to Wendyanne…I simply grabbed this because it was the first example I found.
Web pages were filled with dry text and endless lists, charts and tables. But as things got more interactive, and then Google came along, things got very interesting. Suddenly webmasters realized that they were competing with all of those other websites for visitors, and search engines ran the show. Keywords were king, and web designers started stuffing keywords into their content in order to catch the attention of the search engine crawlers.
Google Created Demand for Quality Content

Google was the first search engine to catch on to these web design tricks, called keyword spamming, and actually penalized websites for doing it - reducing their page ranking. Today, webmasters now find themselves in a situation where the only possible way they are going to be able to generate the traffic that they need is by producing high-quality and keyword optimized website content. By 2003 or 2004, this demand has created a unique niche market for writers. Never before have creative writers had the kind of work at home opportunity that the Internet now offers. Just consider the countless ways you can legitimately work at home by working on online writing jobs. What sort of jobs are available?
  • Niche market analysis reports
  • Creating content for webmasters who can’t write (which is most of them!)
  • Writing on sites that pay royalties per visitor
  • Writing sales copy for businesses
  • Creating easy single web page content for businesses
  • Writing newsletters
The list goes on - the only limit is your imagination and your ability to seek out the source of those opportunities. This is where I can help. Subscribe to this blog, and each week I’ll walk you through all of those work at home opportunities.
Earn Money Online Through Royalties

The first examples are those websites that offer royalties every month for the content that you produce. These are the lowest-paying work at home opportunities, because it takes a bit of time to produce enough articles to generate significant monthly income. Regardless, it is possible to start a few income streams. The following are the best sites that I’ve found, and they are all free.

Associated Content

Associated Content is, by far, the best content producing website on the Internet that accepts articles from its membership.
Read the articles at this link for some examples of the variety of content you can write about to collect revenue from your visitors. At first you’ll only earn a few cents per article, but if you stick with it, once you have a library of hundreds of articles, you will be earning a respectable revenue. And yes, AssociatedContent is excellent about making payments to your Paypal account.
Ehow

Ehow is probably one of the easiest websites to earn income from. This is because they pay royalties based on what the ads on your article pages earn, not just on visitor count. This is excellent news if you know how to write how-to articles that attract traffic for the highest-paying ads. The way to do this is to search for popular keywords and write toward those topics. For example, just from this list of Ehow articles, I earned almost nothing for “How to Devein a Lobstertail” (don’t ask me why I wrote it), yet I quickly earned over $12 the first month for “How to Pay Less for a New Car” - it’s what people are searching for, and it’s what advertisers pay the most for.

Helium

Helium is not the place I would recommend going if you hope to earn the big bucks. The revenue from articles, even if you’re an excellent writer, is chickenfeed. You can try to compete with other writers in the “marketplace,” where buyers select from a list of writers.
You write to their guidelines, as do 20 or 30 other writers, and the buyer chooses one winner who will get paid an average of $10 to $100 for their work. Unfortunately, regardless of how well you write, because there are so many writers competing, you are more likely to waste your time. However, Helium is a fun community to post your opinion on topics and at least earn a tiny sum for your efforts. It’s better than nothing! These articles are some examples of the sort of thing you’ll find at Helium.
The websites above are the top three, but there are countless others online. In upcoming posts, I’ll go over additional work at home online writing jobs that pay substantially more than these.
Posted in Writing for Income Tags: , , , ,

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