Is freelance writing a legit job?

[MyNewMama]

The short answer is YES. Right now is one of the best times to start a writing career. Many companies are still trying to find ways to cut down on cost, but ALL companies need content. If you're good at what you do and are focused, then you can make a good living as a freelancer.

Long hours and hard work come with the territory.

[Joseph Robinson]

All of my bills are paid month to month with freelance writing. If it's not legit then I don't want to be .

[mrinternational]

You have to be proactive at looking for jobs in the writing field, not just go out to iwriter or elance but actually check out niche sites and contact the owner directly about what you can do for them and prove it with past accomplishments if you have any. If not offer some sample work.

If you only stick to going to sites like iwriter and the likes you will be stuck at low paying writing jobs instead of you setting your prices, which is alot easier if you go out and be proactive.

[CyborgX]

Its a lot of hard work. if you are working for someone else then he/she will tear up last drop of juice from you. Well its from my personal bitter experience. Don't take it on yourself.

[gojiberryman]

Originally Posted by HawkPrecision

I'm a noob, and I recently quit my job thinking this would be a good idea...I'd take the 12 hours I use mindlessly at the factory and use it for writing...the thing is I think I'm screwed....

I'm willing to work hard even for a part time wage...I'm just having a terrible time finding sites with enough jobs.

What are some sites to work for? and is it possible to make a living?

Yes, Freelance writing is indeed a legit job and you can be paid extremely well if you have a love for writing.

[fenway2k]

Originally Posted by earthmom22

Hi All, this is my first post here. I read this thread and decided to try my hand at some writing gigs so I went and registered on a few sites, iWriter is one. I wrote one article and it was approved (yay), wrote another and it was approved and I left a 5 star feedback for the requestor saying I hoped to be able to work with him more in the future. After leaving that I saw that my rating had diminished. I figured out how to check it and was shocked to see that although he did accept and pay for the article, he accused me in feedback of stealing it.

I am more than horrified. I not only wrote every word of the 500 word article, but of course I didn't even write it in a word processor program or anything. They don't want any extra formatting on the copy so I typed it right into the text box just as I'm typing this post into a text box on this forum right now. All came from my head and my fingers. I went outside of that for less than 10 minutes to double check 3 URLs before putting them into the article (glad I did too, because I had one as a .com and it's really a .org). I reread it twice to try and catch typos, all looked well and off it went.

There is no way to respond to feedback or contact the person who left it, so here's the stupid thing I did. I clicked on another article he had listed for hire and clicked on 'Contact Requestor' and told him I was shocked that he had accused me of stealing any or all that article. I gave him a bit of my resume in the corporate world (20 years worth) and told him I had just started on iWriter.

Then, because I had clicked on 'write article' in order to be able to contact him, I felt obligated to go ahead and write that article. I thought it would prove to him that he was wrong about me, see that I have the same voice and writing in both, etc. Silly me. He said in his instructions he would only consider articles from someone with 4+ stars but his feedback had knocked me down to 3.5 So he rejected the second article and left me another negative which takes away even more of my rating.

I'm dumbstruck. I thought this was fun and never thought it would end in just two days and a couple of articles!

Has ANYONE had anything like this happen to them? Any words of encouragement? Should I scrap the whole site or is it worth it to try and fight my way back up and bring up my rating?

Right now all I can think of is "argh".

Thanks for reading.

Never give up! This is par for the course. While not in freelancing, I go through this similar turmoil everyday with my ebay store. With all their new rules and changes designed to 'protect the buyer', ebay has allowed people to cheat the system and get your merchandise for free by claiming they were deceived, or the merchandise was broken, whatever. Since the first course of action is now instant refund or risk getting a bad seller rating, what do you do? You just take it on the chin and keep it moving.

Even in internet marketing, you will never please everyone. You can expect to have a LOT of refunds. It's part of making money online. Just hang in there and when this is all behind you in a few months, come back and let's laugh about it.

[earthmom22]

Thank you Mr. International. I appreciate your positive words and advice!

[earthmom22]

Thank you fenway2k! I didn't really mean give up on writing as much as should I give up on that site since I had received negative unfair feedback right off the bat! The advice I'm seeing here is to aim a bit higher, and I want to do that.

I really appreciate your words of confidence and plan to take you up on regrouping and laughing about all of this later on!

[OmarNegron]

Yes, writing is a legit "job" but as someone mentioned above, it is NOT as easy as it seems. Being glued to the computer may not be fun but maybe if you can write about something you are interested in it will help out in your cause.

I know that sometimes, the topic might not interest you though.

What you need to watch out for though is people who want articles and NEVER pay you. That's why you need make sure you are comfortable with the person before you get down to business and start writing for them.

-Omar

[James Gladwell]

OK, so obviously from the deluge of responses, you know it's legit. I suspect you knew it was legit when you quit your job...

Here's an idea for you to do either short-ish or long term.

Write for revenue sharing sites like InfoBarrel.com where you can make money by being part of their Adsense program, which gives you a percentage of all the ad clicks your articles receive. It won't make you a millionaire, but you can be generating a decent income just by writing two decent SEO'd articles per day for a few months.

Along with a Warriors for Hire ad, you should be 'in the money' relatively quickly. The great thing about InfoBarrel is that you do the work once and get paid forever on each article you write.

[pamon]

The entire question revolves around where you live, what kind of living u need to live on, and can you make that money doing the work. Lots of good solutions. If you're living somewhere where you don't need a ton of $$ to live on, thats one thing. Other places, unless you land sizeable deals, then its a different thing.

[cashp0wer]

I would definitely do an ad on Warrior for Hire - it is only $20. You can find work there I think.

[Greg Wildermuth]

Here's what I recommend stated as simply as possible

1. Freelance sites/ Warrior Forum to get immediate work. Meanwhile...

2. Build a site and start promoting it/ driving traffic. Once that's going...

3. Your own books, info products, courses, coaching, etc.

Good luck!

[Stoney]

Earthmom, that is so sad and frankly, unethical. Unless he can prove you "stole" it from somewhere else, he shouldn't be able to slander you like that. I'm sorry; they're not all like that. Keep your chin up, keep writing and don't look back.

[tess47]

Consider writing for Constant Content, where you can sell your work for what it's worth (you set your own price). Or, Interact Media has alot of projects that pay 3.2/word, not too shabby for starting out. In both cases, you'll have to provide a sample of your work and get "approved."

When I began, I built a small website on Weebly (still have it today), optimized it for my keywords and began working on organic SEO. I also advertised heavily on Craigslist. While that was 4 years ago, I made $1,600 my first month - and I was ecstatic!

Of course I know that's not much today, but it just goes to show you that with tenacity and hard work, you can achieve whatever you want. Good luck to you

[JustinDupre]

A lot of people are looking for writers either as a full time or part time position. I'd start with oDesk if you plan to look for prospective clients.

[Trevor M]

Freelance writing is definitely legit.

It's one of the best ways to start making an income from the internet from the day you start. I often advise people to do freelance work (which keeps the money coming in) while also working their way to creating a passive income.

But freelance writing can be your whole business model by itself. If you work on the craft of writing consistently, the price you charge per article will continue to grow. After a period of time this can add up to a nice income on its own.

- Trevor

[Kay King]

You learned a valuable lesson - when I worked on freelance sites I never left a comment/rating for a buyer until AFTER he had given me his rating. That leaves you space to answer any concerns should something come up.

I had one bad buyer on elance - and it can be a shock. He paid - with a bonus - and thanked me for the great work....two days later left a scathing review claiming copy was plagiarized.

Elance investigated when I complained - and removed his comments and though his bad rating knocked my stats down temporarily it wasn't long before I was back to 5 star status. You can get past one bad buyer.

In my case, the buyer was uninformed. He wanted articles about a certain regional holiday and the groups and dates involved. He didn't realize when you write about actual events and named organizations...others may have mentioned those in writing, too.

kay

[Ettienne]

I'd say: "yes", but it all depends on your definition of "legit."

[chinadigipro]

Originally Posted by HawkPrecision

is it possible to make a living?

Yes it is definitely possible that you can make a living out of writing articles...
Research and quality writing, patience and delivery of work on time can get you fair amount of money....

I earn little by writing but i can live my life...

[earthmom22]

I have a happy ending! Not only did the requestor send an apology but Brad's support staff cleared the wrongly given negative!

[absoluteallen]

Originally Posted by CDarklock

These sites are primarily for you to show the quality clients that you are a quality writer. You are not supposed to build your career on them.

Once you have worked for a few clients and delivered high-quality work for them, you should be able to get recurring work. I don't do freelance work anymore, but I've got a short list of people who always want freelance work and would jump at the opportunity to hire me for it.

There are simply not enough writers to do all the writing we need in this world. If you're good at it, you can get paid a lot to do it, once you find the right clients and show your value. But the people on the freelance sites are just a starting point.

I suppose I should say out loud that you have to be a good writer. Your post is not an example of good writing. And before you open your mouth to say "it's just a forum post," it's been my experience that how you post is a much better indicator of your writing skill than any samples you might have posted anywhere.

Agreed!

Follow that advice. In other words, don't post in forums while finishing a six pack.

No, not a joke. That's how I started here and other forums. I cranked out face palm posts that I thought were peachy at the time..

They weren't!

As I see it, in the days I used to post in forums, people were still feeling out the net and it wasn't as social or serious as it is today. When I came in here I was "stressed to the core"!

"I felt that drinking and posting some odd stuff was relieving"

It's an embarrassment.

Although I don't rely on this forum for business, your posting style does speak who you are in a nutshell. Apparently, I am just.. nuts!

So what? How does that help, you?

It says.. if you are legit in your writing, there are legit clients out there wanting your services.

Keep that in mind while you write, you will then capture your audience

[cashp0wer]

Freelance writing is a legit job and one I did for a few years. It was a lot of hard work, as you constantly have to look for new clients. I think I spent about as much time looking for work as I worked. I did make a full-time income but make much more with IM.