writing experiment update (approx $2,000 this month)

[Johnathan]

OK,

So I thought I would update everyone with my writing experiment... and basically help you if you are doing the same thing/what I've learned from it, etc, etc...

So for this month (I am counting on work that has not yet been paid, but assuming it will be paid before the end of the month/providing it gets completed )... I will have made about $2,000 from 'writing' for people... (this is not article marketing, etc. Just basically sitting down, and writing)... I've probably spent about 100 hours doing so, so it works out to about $20/hour... (please note these are approximate 'guesses', because I didn't fully track it like I probably should have :P the $2,000 is a fairly accurate guess)... Also, for reference, the last two months were about $900/month, so basically I managed to pretty much double my income from this But anyways:

What I've learned:

1. You should avoid people that seem to be too "cheap". There is nothing wrong with wanting to get a good quality article written for say $5-$10 (which is about 500 words)... But some people try to chisel you down to say $1 (which I totally avoid) -- or -- they ask for a ridiculous amount of work. (I.e., "write the article" -- which is ok -- but then "Oh yes, put exactly 5 keywords at the start of the paragraph, one keyword in the 3rd paragraph from the top, make sure the first sentence is exactly 25 words, but bolded on the 3-5 words", etc, etc... Unless they are fairly clear instructions, this becomes quite confusing and wastes an incredible amount of time...

2. As a caveat to the last one... There *are* people who ask for say $0.50/$1 per article... Unless you live in a country where $1/hour is considered a pretty decent wage... I would recommend staying away from that. Why? Because not only is it usually a waste of time -- but sometimes these people also have ridiculous requests as well (as above).

3. Generally speaking, I don't recommend doing re-writes *totally* 'free' of charge, unless you have a good relationship with someone. Why? Because usually these people just simply aren't happy with your work ("new" providers that is), no matter what. The quality of my work is pretty much top notch, but one guy (for whatever reason), didn't seem happy with some of the articles. So -- I offered to redo them totally from scratch. I worked twice as hard to make sure they were top notch quality. His response? "Mm, I guess they are 'ok'". He didn't seem to appreciate the extra time put into them.

4. Always make sure you do top-notch quality. One really, really nice benefit that I've found -- is because of the fact that my articles are generally so well researched, and so well written -- is now I have people coming back to me asking for more. That is part of the reason my income is higher this month. Simply because, people were really, really happy with what I was able to give them, and wanted more. Most of the time, when I put together an article, it is not simply a 'regurgitated' version of what someone else wrote. Rather, I research the topic from a number of different sources, think about it, figure out how the article should be written (structure, etc), and then put it together.

5. Generally speaking, if you are a native english speaker, you are more likely to get a job than someone else. Why? Simply because -- the other guys don't know how to write correctly. They'll write something like "I likes very much the shoe peoples wears on there feets". So if you see anything wrong with that sentence, chances are you have an advantage

Anyways, hope that helps, and good luck writing!

Johnathan

[traces2757]

I've found pretty much the same things with my writing business, Johnathan. The strange thing is that the people who want to pay the least for articles are often the ones who want you to follow the most stringent guidelines. I was browsing through a bidding site one day and someone had posted that he wanted 500 word articles written, and that he'd pay $1 for each one. Then he went on to say--and I had to read twice to be sure that I'd read that right--that the articles had better be perfect and have no mistakes because he wasn't going to pay 'that much' for badly written articles.

*blink*

At $1 apiece that is exactly what he was paying for, as far as I was concerned!

For the most part I enjoy writing for others. Though I've had some problem clients, for the most part the people I write for are easy to work with and appreciate the care I take in giving them a good product. On the rare occasion when I run across a client that I can't seem to please, I'm honest about it with them. I simply say that it looks like we are not a good fit and that we should end the business relationship. I think in all these years this has happened twice.

[LilBlackDress]

I like to write for sites that pay based on adsense clicks etc. I have earned several hundred dollars each for some articles that took me about an hour to write. I learned to optimize my articles for the search engines and many are at the top of the google heap so they get lots of views and clicks.
I take in several hundred a month for articles I wrote months ago. Naturally there are some articles that make nothing though.

Congrats on your success with your writing business!

[zerivabella]

As I am a rubbish writer I must fess up and admit that I went to a bid site for someone to write at $1 per article. It was useless. The quality of the articles was laughable, I think that even I could have done better.

You get what you pay for or as my Granny used to say, Buy cheap, buy twice. How true.

[Johnathan]

Lol,

Yes -- I have seen people post stuff like "$1 each, 3 rewrites -- AND I must be 100% satisfied or you won't get anything"... :P Surprisingly some people still seem to go for it anyways, but not sure if they ever get paid :P

But writing good quality content is the best thing to do.

Originally Posted by traces2757

I've found pretty much the same things with my writing business, Johnathan. The strange thing is that the people who want to pay the least for articles are often the ones who want you to follow the most stringent guidelines. I was browsing through a bidding site one day and someone had posted that he wanted 500 word articles written, and that he'd pay $1 for each one. Then he went on to say--and I had to read twice to be sure that I'd read that right--that the articles had better be perfect and have no mistakes because he wasn't going to pay 'that much' for badly written articles.

*blink*

At $1 apiece that is exactly what he was paying for, as far as I was concerned!

For the most part I enjoy writing for others. Though I've had some problem clients, for the most part the people I write for are easy to work with and appreciate the care I take in giving them a good product. On the rare occasion when I run across a client that I can't seem to please, I'm honest about it with them. I simply say that it looks like we are not a good fit and that we should end the business relationship. I think in all these years this has happened twice.

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by LilBlackDress

I like to write for sites that pay based on adsense clicks etc. I have earned several hundred dollars each for some articles that took me about an hour to write. I learned to optimize my articles for the search engines and many are at the top of the google heap so they get lots of views and clicks.
I take in several hundred a month for articles I wrote months ago. Naturally there are some articles that make nothing though.

Congrats on your success with your writing business!

Are you saying that people pay you with adsense clicks? Or you have your own website/own articles and get paid through adsense?

Thanks!

[Bruce NewMedia]

Interesting experiment Johnathan....I've got a question, if you don't mind:

Since it took 100 hours for the month to make $2000, if you have enough business demand and double your work hours to 200 hours, conceivably you might earn $4000, correct?

But, that would probably be where this tops out right?...since you'd have to be working non-stop or raise rates to do any more?
_____
Bruce

[Johnathan]

Hi Bruce --

Yes, you are correct. I actually had to decline a few writing assignments this month because I was fairly busy (people really like what I put together), so may actually raise my rates. (Part of the reason it was only 100 hours and not 200 hours this month is because I have been working on other business ideas as well. This only happens to be one of them, but I believe I could have easily done $4,000 this month if I had wanted to from writing).

Johnathan

[understandyourniche]

Congrats on the money, thats a nice income, 2000 green ones.

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by understandyourniche

Congrats on the money, thats a nice income, 2000 green ones.

Hi, thanks! I appreciate that!

[understandyourniche]

Originally Posted by Johnathan

Hi, thanks! I appreciate that!

How many hours per day of work is that? If you wrote it, I missed it...

[Charles Washington]

I get .02 per word, but I dont get steady work. One reason - I get burned out after a few days of writing.

If I could find one or two clients that gave consistent work, around $300 per month, I could stay motivated. I get in trouble by not taking time to market my services while I have work. Then, when I am finished with that work, I have no more work because I didnt do any marketing.

It's a weird thing.

[Rachel Goodchild]

Can I suggest if you are writing alot that you start also pitching offline? Most of my income comes from that- and it pays alot better.
IM writing get's your word count up and teaches you alot of things you cna use for offline work

[Charles Washington]

Originally Posted by Rachel Goodchild

Can I suggest if you are writing alot that you start also pitching offline? Most of my income comes from that- and it pays alot better.
IM writing get's your word count up and teaches you alot of things you cna use for offline work

Could you give some more info on how and what you pitch offline? Are you pitching publications or businesses?

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by understandyourniche

How many hours per day of work is that? If you wrote it, I missed it...

Hi -- it usually works out to about 3-4 hours a day... I usually spend 6-7 hours doing other stuff (other business related items), or have a bad habit of playing computer games :P (trying to change that! although I'm great at getting a high score!)

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by Charles Montgomery

I get .02 per word, but I dont get steady work. One reason - I get burned out after a few days of writing.

If I could find one or two clients that gave consistent work, around $300 per month, I could stay motivated. I get in trouble by not taking time to market my services while I have work. Then, when I am finished with that work, I have no more work because I didnt do any marketing.

It's a weird thing.

Ah -- excellent point... I forgot to add that... Yes, I find that sometimes I need to take a break... For example, I did have one assignment that I sat down to do -- but no matter what, I just didn't want to focus on it -- and so instead went and played cards

[Mac the Knife]

Charles,

Good question...Rachel...how about a WSO:

Profitable Offline Sources for Writers!

Johnathon, congrats on your success...and yes, raising your prices will keep you sane AND profitable...I work on a model that nets me at least $30 per hour when work with IM'ers, or $50 or more per hour when writing specifically for offline or other websites that offer higher pay rates.

Mac the Knife

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by Rachel Goodchild

Can I suggest if you are writing alot that you start also pitching offline? Most of my income comes from that- and it pays alot better.
IM writing get's your word count up and teaches you alot of things you cna use for offline work

Thanks -- what do you mean by pitching offline? Do you mean writing for other businesses?

[Brian McElroy]

Pitching offline is a great idea, as well as getting into
higher value stuff like white papers, copywriting, or
highly specialized areas.

It's FANTASTIC that you doubled your income... but
don't stop there!

Today I charge more than 100x more than what I
started out at just 2 years ago... a bit of savvy when
marketing your services goes a long way

Cheers,
Brian

[Rachel Goodchild]

pitching offline?

two ways...
1. market to businesses that need content, marketing etc
2. pitching story ideas to newspapers and magazines.
I've sold lots of interesting stories about people I care about that way.

these normally pay per word- and make sure you charge market rates.

[ashwinsatyanarayana]

Hey Johnathan,

Great work there, mate!

What you just did does take commitment and zeal, bu as you did prove it, it is pretty much achievable. I have always been an active proponent of moving on from writing into things bigger than just writing for others.

Think of your writing business as a super-portable, ultra-flexible, high-paying business you could anytime to bring in positive cash-flows. But meanwhile, you got to invest in businesses or systems that can make money for you, whether you write or not.

This is very important since you won't be able to write forever and even if you can, you got to have something to back you up when you must(or want to) stop writing.

I am very much on the same page as you are. I very much want to do what I just suggested you do and I am doing my bit to get there. I suggest you do too.

Best regards

Ash

[Johnathan]

Originally Posted by ashwinsatyanarayana

Hey Johnathan,

Great work there, mate!

What you just did does take commitment and zeal, bu as you did prove it, it is pretty much achievable. I have always been an active proponent of moving on from writing into things bigger than just writing for others.

Think of your writing business as a super-portable, ultra-flexible, high-paying business you could anytime to bring in positive cash-flows. But meanwhile, you got to invest in businesses or systems that can make money for you, whether you write or not.

This is very important since you won't be able to write forever and even if you can, you got to have something to back you up when you must(or want to) stop writing.

I am very much on the same page as you are. I very much want to do what I just suggested you do and I am doing my bit to get there. I suggest you do too.

Best regards

Ash

Hi,

Thanks -- yes, that is part of the reason I am posting this (to show others that yes, you can do this). It does take work -- and if you are looking for a little bit of startup cash, or looking for a job from which you can work from 'home', then this is one such job.

Cheers!

Johnathan

[4morereferrals]

Nice post Sir - congrats on - TAKING ACTION!

Most marketers never seem to overcome INERTIA. 2 Years ago I didnt and I could just kick myself - well the spousal unit already has [long story! ]

If you dont mind - you mentioned "quality articles" in the range of $5-$10.

Might I see a link to an article you've written that you would consider just such an article in that range?

I've been doing some writing [ for myself / my niche ] as of late and I find Im too "wordy". AND, it takes me too damn long. I'd like to get a better representation of what should be going on - and who knows - I might hire you

Feel FREE to PM me if thats preferred for you.

Congrats and keep rockin!

Steve

[topnotchservices]

Artilce writing is a great money maker in many forms. Either you write yourself and get paid for it, outsource to someone else and take home the difference of simply use it for adsense sites. Article writing is one of the mainstays of the IM game