HELP! Writing services will be offered... BUT WHERE?

You don't have to have a site to get started - and NEVER offer to write for free! NEVER!!!

Replace the word "offer" with the word "compete". Don't wait for people to find you - if you want to make money, go after the work.

I started writing as a business a year and a half ago. Began with elance which will cost $10 a month to be a paid member plus $10-20 for additional "credit" you will use to bid on jobs.

Create a good profile there - leave nothing out. Then find advertised jobs you know you can do and write good, competition bids. This will help you gain a high ranking and the work will come easier.

You should know how much YOU are worth. How much experience - how much knowledge - you decide what YOUR time is worth. How many 500-600 word articles can you write in an hour or two hours?

Ok, well this opens up some additional options for you.

Do you want to brand yourself?

Here is one plan.

1.Get your domain "ladidawrites.com" or what ever.

2.Toss up a website - you can use wordpress or what ever.

3. Get some writing samples together.

4. Put your samples on your website

5. Get a few clients who might give you some testimonials you can use. You can do this by offering some freebies (lol or not as Kay says) , offering to do some blog posts,
etc. (don't offer freebies/discount directly here on the forum, but you can offer a limited one in your sig link and ask people to pm you )

6. Get an ezine articles account, and get some articles in there and get yourself "ezine expert" status on something. This can be used to your benefit. You can get this status just on your first article (I did).

7. Make a list of all the places you can offer your services, take time to check them all out and decide if you want to join any of them. Search google, and pretend you are looking for a writer - this way you will find the big services that offer up writers and you can gather some intel too.

8. Add a link to your site in your signature here. You can set your own rates for article packs etc on your site

9. Be clear about the topics you specialize in.


If you put up your own site, it becomes your personal office and where you can direct people who may be interested in hiring you.

You can start local if you want. If there are some small businesses with websites, you could see if they are looking to have some content added.

I hope the advice below makes sense to you. I began writing as a business a bit less than two years ago. I've never placed an ad here as I seldom write in the IM area and I don't write for cheap which is what marketers often need (understandably).

NEVER offer to write for free! NEVER!!! If you can write well, you don't have to compete with people in other parts of the world who can live on one cent a word writing.

It's best to have your own site - but I still don't. I've registered three domains to build writing sites but have been too busy writing to build them yet. Go figure! Maybe I don't need one after all.

Replace the word "offer" with the word "compete". Don't wait for people to find you - if you want to make money, go after the work that pays decently.

I began with elance which will costs $10 a month to be a paid member plus $10-20 for additional "credits" you will use to bid on jobs. There are many writing and freelance sites - start with one and get familiar with how it works and what the competition is.

Create a good profile there. Then find advertised jobs you know you can do and write good, competitive bids. Do a great job on any work you get and always deliver on time. That helps build regular, returning clients which is what your goal should be.

You should know how much YOU are worth as you know your experience level and knowledge. A good place to start is to set fees that are equal to what you could earn per hour offline - it's just one guide you might use.

My point is - YOU decide what your time is worth and YOU decide what type of writing you are good at. Many writers specialize in certain subjects while others will write on anything buyers want and can quickly research almost any subject.

kay

How much are you going to start with?
What are your opinions regarding it?

Jill's brilliant list in post #7 above really comprises not so much "optional suggestions" as "the minimum you need to do to make a professional start", I think, especially if your start-up budget is very low. (I don't think having a low start-up budget is a handicap, provided you substitute work/time/energy for money, and make sure to make a professional start).

It's about "the markets in which you choose to compete", in my opinion.

Writers' incomes are not determined solely by their writing skills, but in great part by their marketing skills, too.

Many people with genuinely valuable writing skills start off with very low-paid projects, thinking that this will help them to move on to higher-paid projects. It usually doesn't, at all. It's really important, I think, to avoid at the outset the mistake of imagining that it's sensible to "start off by writing for low prices" with a view to raising your prices after clients have seen what you can produce. When writing for online markets, it simply doesn't work that way: when you write for low prices you attract clients whose primary motivation is to pay low prices, and you lose almost all of them when you increase prices later.

You may well find some/all of these resources helpful:-

Jennifer Mattern's blog

Carol Tice's blog

Freelance writing jobs (minmum payment requirement of $50 per article to be listed there)

Free report on how to attract new freelance writing clients during a recession

The Renegade Writer Blog

The "Irreverent Freelancer" blog