Freelance Article Writing. Advice Needed

[MikeMarin]

I have found myself in a need to make money now situation and am willing to trade my time for money. I have experience in article marketing and feel that I can help other people with my knowledge in this area.

My questions to existing freelance writers on this forum are?

1.) As a college educated, experienced article marketer, with knowledge of SEO, from the United States how much should I charge per 500 word article starting out?

2.) Where are the best places to pick up new clients. Guru.com, Running WSO's, elance? What would you recommend if you were starting out?

Thanks in Advance,
~Mike Marin

[TMG Enterprises]

I think your prices are fine the way they are. Don't let anyone tell you that they need to be dirt cheap in order to compete or because you are starting out.

Now, if you do a WSO, you will have to give some sort of special price but you could also do a Warrior for Hire thread without lowering your prices. I would recommend, either way, that you write 3-5 articles for people to review so you have some testimonials about your work.

I would not recommend that you simply post "review copies available" because many will ask for the free article and never plan on buying anything from you. Often, they won't even bother to come back and post the review. I made that mistake when I started out. I would recommend that you contact a few Warriors that you respect and you know would give an honest review and see if they would be willing to review your work.

Tina

[Jenn Dize]

Hi Mike,

It definitely sounds like you're a great candidate to get a freelance writing business going. I've been doing the same since Nov. '07, and it's truly exciting. You get to work with people from all over the world, and learn so much about a variety of topics. As a college grad, your skills are highly in demand.

Answers:

1. There is no one right answer to this question. I started out at an incredibly low rate that I'm embarrassed to admit now -- $6 an article It wasn't until I started talking to my friend Courtney Ramirez (who's been doing this for longer than I have), that I realized I didn't need to be afraid to raise my prices. These days, I charge 5 cents per word.

You'll find writers who charge as low as I did starting out, and writers who charge a lot more than I do now. Find the spot that is right for you -- where you're able to get the workload you want, and not feel overwhelmed with low priced orders. You can always adjust your prices over time

2. I believe I've signed up to all the freelance websites...but I've never really used them. I just hate the thought of bidding and competing against other writers. I know some people on these bidding sites who spend half their day trying to find a job, and it doesn't have to be like that!

It's all about getting your name out there, and making some great contacts. I've gotten jobs from Warrior Forum, other, private marketing forums I belong to, social networking sites, being recommended by well known marketers, and (most importantly) word of mouth by clients who love my work.

As you start to take on jobs, your name will start to spread as someone to work with. There are many writers out there, but very few who are high quality, and who deliver on their promises. If you're one of those writers, you're golden

My advice to you in these early stages is to keep on doing what you're doing, and get your name out there in any way you can. Your website looks professional, so it's just a matter of marketing yourself as the writer to go to Never be afraid to ask for testimonials and recommendations from past clients.

Also, I've found it effective to set up an autoresponder list of clients/potential clients. That way, you're in control of your business, and you can stay at the top of your clients' minds for all of their writing needs.

[Bev Clement]

Mike, your site is good, but if you want to be found by people who are prepared to pay higher rates, you should have it optimised with the relevant keywords. I couldn't find any on your site.

I would suggest you don't put your prices on your site, and this is why.

When I started offering writing online, I had my prices shown on my site, but I and many other writers found people saying can you give a discount, can you lower your price etc.

As soon as I removed my prices off my site, all of those people disappeared.

I wouldn't write any free articles unless you know who you are writing for. Whenever you see an offer for free articles, you will find the same people asking for them, and very few will give you the testimonial you are looking for.

You have samples on your site and those should be sufficient for anyone who wants to review your writing skills.

The lowest rate I charge is $0.10 a word up to $1.00 per word. I don't target IMers as such because they are the people who want cheap. There is a world outside IM who are looking for writers, but many writers here miss them, because they don't build their site to target them.

Don't limit yourself to only writing articles there are many more services you can offer which will pay you a higher rate.

[LilBlackDress]

Another option Mike is to include sites that pay by Adsense clicks. I earn quite a bit each month from sites I have written for in the past that pay by click. These continue to pay for years (so long as the site does not change their TOS).

If you want a link to some PM me.

[MikeMarin]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

The lowest rate I charge is $0.10 a word up to $1.00 per word. I don't target IMers as such because they are the people who want cheap. There is a world outside IM who are looking for writers, but many writers here miss them, because they don't build their site to target them.

$0.10 a word! Where are you getting clients that pay this much. By building a site targeted to them do you mean optimizing my site for words such as ghostwriting, article writing, etc?

Originally Posted by TMG Enterprises

I think your prices are fine the way they are. Don't let anyone tell you that they need to be dirt cheap in order to compete or because you are starting out.

Okay I was thinking of dropping them just to get work immediately, seems to me that $10 is actually cheap. Ill keep my prices at that rate for now.

[Bev Clement]

All of my clients find me through the search engines. Many of our clients are one-off clients, as an example they want a manuscript for their publishers. Rarely do we write articles now, unless they are part of a package.

Some of our clients are IMers whom we have worked with for a long time.

Others are business people who want good quality content for their sites or books written.

Yes, I did mean target the keywords like ghostwriter.

But, I personally would never call myself an article writer, because many buyers automatically assume they are cheap and not so good at writing. It isn't true but if the people with money think this, then you will find trying to get higher rates will be harder.

Why is it thought article writers are not so good and also cheap? Because IMers haver said this over the years, and the knock on effect is in play here.

For every IMer who wants writing done, you can find at least 10 people to replace them for a higher pay day.

There is a lot more work available outside of IM and people are desperate for writers. There are some interesting facts about writing, and not spoken about by IMers.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by MikeMarin

1.) As a college educated, experienced article marketer, with knowledge of SEO, from the United States how much should I charge per 500 word article starting out?

I'd say $10 to $15. You're in the right ballpark.

2.) Where are the best places to pick up new clients. Guru.com, Running WSO's, elance? What would you recommend if you were starting out?

Every client I've had to date - 64 of them so far - was either a Warrior, or referred by a Warrior.

[MikeMarin]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Every client I've had to date - 64 of them so far - was either a Warrior, or referred by a Warrior.

Those from the warrior forum. Was that by signature link? By Warrior for Hire or running WSO?

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by MikeMarin

Those from the warrior forum. Was that by signature link? By Warrior for Hire or running WSO?

Initially, I just PM'd people looking for writers; got about five clients that way. Then I ran a WSO, which I never bumped, but had in my sig - offering a 40% lifetime discount to my first 15 clients, and a 20% lifetime discount to the next 15. (These clients will get their discount on any custom writing they order from me, ever, no matter how long it's been.) Over four months, I got all thirty of those slots filled, and the early clients sent me a bunch of non-Warriors too.

[rick750]

Great stuff. I have done freelance writing on and off for several years, and like Mike have always been unsure what to charge. I have done all the sites as well; elance, freelancer etc.. and have almost always been beat on price as writers are charging almost nothing for their work. Crazy. Is building a website recommended then? Like your site by the way!

[Dennis-White]

Id run a few WSO's and charge 6 bucks an article, plus offer some kind of sweet bonus, every 10 articles ordered 2 free Idk something clever

[redicelander]

The reason you can be outbid by people on other sites offering crazy low prices is they live overseas in places like the Philippines where $500/month is a great salary for most people.

[SiteBlaster]

Mike,

Would you consider rewriting an ebook to make it better? Yes it is my book but I am WAY to technical for writing at a level that people would understand. I'm just not good at writing.

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by MikeMarin

I have found myself in a need to make money now situation and am willing to trade my time for money. I have experience in article marketing and feel that I can help other people with my knowledge in this area.

My questions to existing freelance writers on this forum are?

1.) As a college educated, experienced article marketer, with knowledge of SEO, from the United States how much should I charge per 500 word article starting out?

2.) Where are the best places to pick up new clients. Guru.com, Running WSO's, elance? What would you recommend if you were starting out?

Thanks in Advance,
~Mike Marin

Mike, you could always try elance.

[Bev Clement]

In answer to the question about having a site, if you want people to find your services and you don't have any site, then how will they find you?

Don't compete on price, there are people who are prepared to pay good rates and they very rarely post on freelance sites.

[miwriting]

I think $10 is a good place to start - you don't want to start too low or undervalue your work too much because it makes it harder to raise your rates down the road.

As far as finding work, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on the freelance sites because there is always someone there who is willing to do the work for a lot less. When I started writing web content three years ago, I got my very first job by lowballing everyone for a job on elance and I ended up getting paid nothing for my efforts. But I did end up getting a bunch of referrals from that one job and ever since, I've found referrals to be my best source of business.

You could try offering a discount to any of your clients - 15% off their next writing job if they refer new business to you, etc. I also think forums are a much better place for finding clients than any of the freelance sites. Just my opinion though.

Good luck!

[seobro]

I typically pay $90+ dollars for a ten page report where each page is 250 words, so a 500 word article would be approx $20. The key is if you can submit this article with minimal modification "spinning" to five directories...

It takes me about five hours to write one 500 word article, so in my case it pays to find help. Right now, I have one I am working on.

How many articles can you write in an hour?

[SiteBlaster]

Mike,

email sent.

[MikeMarin]

Originally Posted by seobro

How many articles can you write in an hour?

Its been taking me about a half hour for 500 words including research.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by MikeMarin

Its been taking me about a half hour for 500 words including research.

That's about what it takes me. You must be good.