Is freelance writing a legit job?

For the sake of other noobs reading this- always have your business running before you quit your job. Even if you only have one or two clients. That way you have a general idea of what works and what doesn't.

That being said, I recommend oDesk.com. It's my favorite freelance site. oDesk and the other top freelance sites have thousands of jobs posted daily, so you shouldn't have a problem getting hired if you spend enough hours searching, applying, and talking to potential clients.

Also make sure you're setting your self apart from other freelancers. I recommend using a video resume- it worked for me. Landed my first client in one week. All I did was upload it to YouTube and give them the link whenever I would apply. You don't have to do this, maybe offer to write the first article for free? Get creative.

Anyways choose which sites you'll focus on, or what methods you'll focus on to find clients, write them down and stick to them. I'm assuming you'll need to start work fast so get as disciplined as you can at this point.

Oh and by the way, it is possible

My advice, forget the freelance sites. If you have the 20 bucks, an ad in the 'Warrior for Hire' section will almost certainly land you your first gigs.

You can make a full time living writing, but it's just that- a full time job. For those of us who'd rather work 80 for ourselves than 40 for someone else, it's a good life.

Good luck,
Jeremy

Thanks guys, it's good to know that it's possible. I will take both ideas and use them, figure out what works for me. Feeling pretty damn depressed, right now, so I'll start heavily into it tomorrow.

Thankfully, I live with my mom or I would be really screwed. I may not have had the grapes to quit otherwise though, actually, and this IS what I would rather do over mindless factory work.

If you are a good writer and researcher, service work is the fastest way to make your money most likely, but in the long run, having your own products to sell is - in my opinion and experience - very important to your long term business goals.

You should have a mix of LEVERAGE assets like: books, reports, audios, videos, courses, checklists, how-to's, etc. to sell to your customers, prospects and clients.

Develop training programs, courses and products that you can add to sustainable continuity or membership programs - These are bigger leverage assets, backend programs, and the residual nature of courses and training programs - even if these are live group training combined with your other products, can really help you in the long run.

Finally, coaching and consulting others in higher end programs ranging from 1 on group coaching to one on one coaching, the highest end of your products and services list but also the least leverage-able, you have to do it.

Service businesses are a two edged sword - the goal in the long run is not to BE the business but to OWN the business.

Don't get so hung up on your own writing skills that you cannot outsource the core copy or content to others to help you. Remember, it's not about you or your skills, it's about your customers and clients getting what they want delivered to them with the highest standards and integrity.

Not the full picture obviously, but if you start developing these three branches of your business now in the long run, you'll run your business instead of your business running you and you'll likely be doing much better financially as well.

Freelance writing is a legit occupation...it's where I got my start with making money online. In the beginning, I wrote exclusively for content mills, and still have some on the back burner when I need upfront pay.

Check out TextBroker.com. I started out there, making 1.5 cents a word. The amount of work varies, but they used to have enough for me to gain experience writing web content for others. From there, I applied for DemandStudios.com, which pays $15 for their regular articles, and $20-$25/article for content within their special sections (requires extensive knowledge and/or a degree).

Aside from that, I would recommend a "Warriors for Hire" thread.

Of course. Why not. Even Offline companies need writers. You just need to know how to package your service to fit their needs.

You can write press releases for Offline companies and send them out to online Press Release sites.

Lot of freelances sites are ridiculous. 200 articles for $5!

Hello HawkPrecision,

First, I agree that you should always make sure that you can make a sustainable living from home before ending your day job - this will make sure that you aren't in a "pickle" in the event that jobs are scarce and hard to come by (it comes with the territory - there are "up-and-down" periods, just as in most industries).

However, don't despair, and don't give up. You should take pride in the fact that you are turning to the Internet to make an income online. This already puts you ahead of many. There are many people out of work today in this poor economy, but it doesn't seem like many people turn toward the Internet to actually make money, especially while they are looking for work. They use the Internet to post resumes and get job-training advice, but they don't actually use the Internet to make money.

Whether that's due to their not knowing that they can do that, or they don't think (or actually don't have) the skills needed to actually make money online (though, virtually everyone has some skill that they can use to make some money online if they use their imaginations, some creativity, and take the "leap of faith" forward that they can do it (this might be the greatest stumbling block - the "fear" of the unknown and in their own abilities to do it), at least enough money to make ends meet until they get hired - nowadays in this poor economy, that is virtually essential, as you don't know how long unemployment benefits will last or how long companies will hold back on hiring new workers).

Therefore, you should take pride in that. :-)

I agree also that you should look at both the short-term and long-term goals of your business - long term, you'd like to be able to siphon off work toward quality workers who can provide the writing services you will provide to clients. This can provide you with more time and more income. For instance, even if you continue to work on some writing projects yourself, if you have 2-4 workers or more working on various assignments, you can get 2-5+ times more projects done in the same amount of time, leading to more income. You will have to pay these workers, but you'd be splitting the amount of money you'd be making from these projects, which means that you'd be making money from work you really don't work on yourself, thereby increasing your income.

This is how to really take your writing services business to the next level. I am just learning this myself, and I've been doing this for a while, but better late than never, I guess. :-)

Again, though, don't despair - take pride in the fact that you see the Internet as an opportunity to make money and even to make a sustainable living online - I think more people will recognize this and will need to do this, as technology will continue to reduce the number of jobs that men and women will do offline in the coming years and decades. The Internet is not going away any time in the foreseeable future, and as a good friend of mine likes to say, "Content is King," and the best content (according to both humans and search engines) is written by humans, so the demand for writing services should remain strong for many years to come.

Again, welcome to the online "business" world, and keep your head up! :-)

Take care and have a great day!

Joe Chengery III

I've been writing for a living for 3 years now. Does that count as a legit job?

I think you'll find more jobs quicker with a Warriors for Hire ad. Put some writing samples up on a site. In your spare time, start putting some plr packs on hot niche topics together. You can sell those as well as writing for customers.

You can also ghostwrite ebooks for other people if you're a good writer. That would bring in more money.

It's a SCAM!! Stay away!!

Of course it's a legit job but be prepare to work your butt off.

A job will always be a job.

J

Having tried my hands at Freelance writing, I mst say it's a legit job, with handsome rewards for projects requiring relatively less work.

What's not to love about freelancing as a career if what you love to do is write?! It's sad though that a lot of writers employed in organizations, still look down upon freelancers and expect them to work at pretty disgraceful wages!

A lot of great advice has already been given, but here
is my two cents.

Pace yourself when your start getting work because it's
easy to burn out.

Diversify your offers so you can earn more. Don't just
think articles - think AR series, Blog Posts, Short Reports,
Press Releases, etc.

Deliver what you promise clients and deliver it on time.

Its a legit job but it is a lot harder then it seem. Sitting in front of your computer 8-10 hours a day is not an easy job. Most of the time you will find yourself distracted by trivial things and sometimes you would just want to quit. However, it is hard in the beginning and then you will get used to of writing articles.

Since you have already quit your job , its no harm in trying some freelance websites like odesk, freelancer or vworker.

It is very much a legit job. Let me give you the perspective of someone who has employed 100's of writers at a time at articleauthors, which is my content production house: getting jobs as a single freelance writer is harder than being given jobs to do by a facility management staff or at least by picking and choosing available jobs to write on.

If you're an American freelance writer who can specialize in a technical niche, you'll do very well. If you're in the copy production market and want to compete against third world nations who will charge $3/500 word article..good luck. That's a loss-loss situation any way you cut it.

I was able to carve out a niche waaaaay before any mainstream companies because I was able to assemble quality writers and then offer the writing services in bulk to SEO firms, webmasters and other web professionals. From there, business took off and we were even doing offsite content production for magazines, newspapers, and even airline technical brochures (my writers have ALWAYS amazed me with either their background knowledge/experiences or their technical expertise to do research writing).

Whatever you do, make sure you're 100% on time with your promised deadline and be 100% sure your copy is proofed and ready for submission. Clients tend to like that

Yes, I also make a living with freelance writing.
This thread is helpful since I'm right now I'm only earning part-time wages as a freelancer. Thanks everyone! I will share some tips in return:

If you want to find prospective clients, and keep them, this is what you have to do:

• 1. USP Find your biggest strength and a niche that is comfortable for you. For example, what type of magazines do you read? What hobbies do you do? This can be your target market, as you plan.

• 2. Systemize You should also set a daily quota system, so you do not work 20 hours one day, then nothing the rest of the week.

• 3. keep the big picture in mind This industry is hard to break into comfortably. This is a hard working job. You better be comfortable working for many many hours, and the pay will probably be definitely less than your factory job of 12 hours. Once you are established, you will do better.

Good luck!

hey warriors, freelance job is very legit to me. if you are a good writer and researcher, this is the job for you.
however, this is only a easy way of earning especially with fiverr and odesk.
Thanks!

I’d agree with most of what has been said already but…

To make your new venture take off you need to separate yourself from all the other “me too” freelancers out there. If you look at the freelance forums you’ll see the guys from the far east and India writing for peanuts - I mean silly cents per article.

Now, most of these guys are not doing the writing. They are only brokers that pass on the work to other writers who get paid even less to do their bit. That’s why the standard of the completed article is so bad!

You need some way to differentiate yourself from the crowd of other freelancers.

You can do this by :-

1) Specializing - Only write about food, fashion, sport, etc. By doing this you’ll quickly become the ‘go to guy’ for that speciality. This will also help you when you approach off line businesses that are in your niche. You’ll already have a body of work in your chosen area. The key here is to pick an area that you’d like to make your life about, because you’re going to have to immerse yourself in it for the rest of your writing life!

That brings us onto…

2) You need to build up an area of expertise. Great if you already have in depth knowledge about a particular subject. If you have a degree, or have worked in some sort of industry or area of business then you have a head start. If you don’t already have a area of expertise you need to start to develop one. By doing this you’ll quickly build up a body of work in that area. This will greatly enhance your cred with prospective clients!

3) Start your own blog! This is where you can ‘showcase’ and where you can send potential customers to download sample articles, and see your writing style, and standard. I would never hire anyone who is unable or unwilling to provide samples for inspection.

4) Don’t play the price game. You can’t compete with the “$5 for 5 articles” freelancers from Asia. You just can’t do it, so don’t even try. Make your work quality, hassle free, and fulfil it quickly! These 3 things will make you a joy to work with. Don’t think everyone wants the cheapest price - they don’t! But most want good work, done quickly.

5) By specializing in a given subject you can build up a bank of prewritten articles etc that you can change, modify, and tweak to turn out work quickly. This bank should be added to when you are not actually writing for a client. So, in your spare time you should be adding to your bank of articles. Use these “spare” articles on article directories online (like ezinearticles.com) to drive traffic to your blog. They’re great for getting the word out about your services.

Above all… write in an area that you’re interested in. It makes the days a whole lot more enjoyable! And be friendly, and approachable, to everyone. You really don’t know where your next job will come from.

Ian

Hi Hawk,

like what some of the warriors here said. Next time make sure your business is up and running already before you shut the door to a main source of income.

However, now that you're already there, here's one thing I think can help.

There's a site called iWriter.com - I think it's owned by a warrior. Go check it out.
It might help you.

Sincerely,

Mary

I agree with Mary and the general sentiment in this thread. It's totally possible to make it happen under your circumstances, maybe you just need to dig a little deeper and find more forums with available writing gigs.

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.

It's great if you're self-motivated and love to write, if not you'll burn out damn fast. I've been doing very well with it for nearly 3 years and have 6 writers who work for me, so I'd say yeah, it's legit. However, your negotiation skills are far more important than your writing skills. -Keepin' it real

check out iwriter.com. Write some articles this weekend and you could have some money in your paypal account next Tuesday. And if you have $20 offer your services in the warriors for hire section.

It sure is, very legit since there are people who are into freelance services as an article writer or re-writer. And as what seth had said, to be a freelance writer one has to be interested, motivated and most importantly, has the passion to write or else, you will just evaporate in the limelight as a writer. Since I had read in an article that I also agreed on what it said, writing is an art and it has to include one's love and passion to be a writer.

You could check Odesk.com, like what fellow warriors had already mentioned, it has thousands of jobs posted in which you could apply to a job posting that you can deliver and provide clients what they require applicants to do. One could start in the IM business without money by providing services to clients from all over the world, and there are a number of sites for freelance writer.

I am also into freelance writing ever since I started in the IM world last 2008. Although I am still a part-timer in this business, as a freelance writer, I am earning decent amount of money on this and at the same time, I am enjoying what I am doing. I am a university faculty and writing is one of my interests, and that is one of the reasons why I am still a part-timer but eventually would become full-time IMers.

There is always room for learning, be as writing, back linking, SEO, affiliate marketing, domain and so on. Don't be discouraged if at first, clients will not accept your writing style, since different people have their own different philosophy of writing. Never gave up and never quit. Mistakes and setbacks are there to teach us lessons for us to improve and be better the next time.

I'm new, too. I've been writing for clients for years but, it was "old school." I wrote print newsletters, brochures, press releases, white papers, etc. I can write. It's marketing my skills online that I'm having to learn.

Wow, Odesk looks absolutely amazing. I'm completely stunned at how long I fought to keep away from that website. I've never seen so many jobs.

If you can read, you can write.
If you can write, you can COPYwrite.
If you can copywrite, you are one tiny step from a fortune

Besides Odesk, you can try to offer your service at the Forum. Myself and other WF members are always need new content for our sites.

If you can provide quality article at an affordable price, this is the best place to start to build your client base.

Hope that helps.

Sandy

Anyone who thinks being a freelance Writer is hard work needs to visit a Construction Site

Hello everyone,

I too wanted to say thank you to all of those providing resources and advice in this thread - it's always good to know new resources and have additional encouragement, even when you have some experience in this field. :-)

Take care, keep up the great work, and have a good day!

Joe Chengery III

Yes. Freelance Writing is a legitimate job which can provide a sufficient income. However, the amount of money you will receive depends upon the market which you are targeting, your experience and your skill.

Freelance writing is definitely legit!

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.

great posts and feedback in this thread. As someone who does write part time, getting quality jobs vs junk jobs is important. I'm not going to write 500 words for $1 since it's not worth my time. .03-.05/word may seem high to some, but getting someone who is US born, a college grad, and who can get guaranteed turnaround times makes up for a cheap article that needs editing. Lots of quality sites already mentioned and many more out there. Great feedback though, keep it coming

I have a friend who make a living writing, it can be done. Try to get out there but start with the virtual assistent sites first like people suggested already (elance, odesk etc..). Good luck.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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...