by Amanda on August 26, 2010
Here’s a question for everyone today. With the freelance writing rates declining fairly rapidly I want to ask you today, would you take less pay if you were guaranteed work. As a freelancer I have to admit that bidding on jobs can be quite tiresome and with so many people not even awarding their jobs at the end of the bidding time, bids are being wasted especially on sites such as Elance. I’m glad that I don’t rely on Elance to provide me with work as I also work for another freelance company too. The pay is less than what I would charge on Elance but the work is guaranteed and I can take as much or a little as I like.
This company has a number of writers and when we log in to the admin system there is a large list of articles available. What you do is choose the article you want to write. The great thing is, that you can’t take another article until you have posted the one you have previously chosen. You have 48 hours to submit your chosen article too. What I love about this compared to other freelance companies that I have worked with is the fact that ever article is listed seperately so you never get bored doing keyword articles.
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by Amanda on August 20, 2010
Today I want to talk about the different choices you have when it comes to ghostwriting and getting paid to write. There are lots of discussions around the internet for each of the methods that I am going to list here so you can do research and find out what is best for you if you want.
If you are just starting out it is easy to get sidetracked with all the different types of ghostwriting jobs. They can however be broken down into three simple choices. These are:
- Content Mills
- Bidding websites
- Private work
Content mills is where you write articles and content for different websites and you either get paid on a per article basis, you get a share of the revenue earned or you get a set amount per thousand page views. There is a lot of bad press related to these content mills but I like to stay clear of this. In my opinion these websites wouldn’t exist if people weren’t making money from them.
The website that I would be most familiar with in this category is Helium. I have an account with them and I have no complaints. Helium pay you per article and you also get money for page views too. I have to admit, that I don’t use it very often but the articles that I do have on this website continue to earn me money every single day. The more you promote these articles the more money you will make. I know that one of my articles that I published on this website earlier this year has already made me over $200 so I guess that’s not bad for a 500 word article. You have to have $25 in your account before you can request a payment and payment is via paypal.
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by Amanda on August 13, 2010
I have an account with freelancer.com (formerly Get A Freelancer) and I have to say it makes me laugh when I read the email notifications that arrive in my inbox every day. These emails are to notify me of new freelance writing jobs and they probably arrive every 10 minutes. Yes, there really is a lot of work available on this website but you would have to be desperate to even bid on any of them.
Here’s an example of a job that was posted today at 10am.
Description
Hi,
I need people who I can send articles to and they can send it back to me within two hours. If you cannot do this, please do not bid on this project. Accordingly, I ask that along with your bid you send a PM stating what hours are you free to do this article. If I accept your bid, I will send you an article around those times and if you accept you MUST send me a PM telling me so that I do not give the article to someone. Depending onyour turnaround time, I might send more than one article to you per day. In your bid please write “I’m ready” to show that you read this project. Bids without this will not be accepted.The pay is .002 X words count. If the article is 400 words, the pay rate will be $0.80 USD Please send your times according to the Pacific Standard Time (PTS) Each rewrite must not be more than 10 words less than the original article. At least one word outof every three words must be different. This article must also make sense grammatically.
by Amanda on August 10, 2010
When it comes to ghost writing jobs one of the biggest debates has to be that of rates and what you should get paid for your work. We’ve all seen it, blogs where people claim that they are getting $100 per article.
You’ve seen these too right?
I remember when I was quite happy to get $15 per article and then I read a blog post like that. Suddenly $15 wasn’t good enough. The enthusiasm I had for my work disappeared and I began to feel like I was being cheated.
I’m sure you can probably relate to this too.
Once you stop appreciating your rates you really do set yourself up for a fall. One thing that must be said is that high paying jobs are different for everyone. If you are currently getting $3 per article then a high paying ghost writing job for your could be $10 an article. This could be peanuts to someone else though. You see, rates are different for everyone.
Your high paying job is what you choose it to be. For me a high paying ghostwriting job would be $50 for a search engine optimized keyword article. Yes I would be happy with this and there have been numerous occasions where I have received it too.
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by Amanda on August 2, 2010
Yesterday I shared with you some of the things I missed about working 9 to 5 so today I thought I would flip the coin and tell you what I don’t miss.
- Office Gossip
- Being too tired to play with my children in the evening
- Having to look for childcare
- Spending the weekend doing household chores
- Having to get home and start cooking late in the evening
- Office Politics
- Have to dress appropriately
- Having to take orders
You might have a couple more that you could add to this list too. When I think about my life as a stay at home mom and a freelancer I think about how lucky I am. I get to take my children to school every day. If they are sick I am at home to look after them. I don’t spend my entire weekend catching up on housework and I don’t have to look for childcare when my children are on holidays.
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by Amanda on July 30, 2010
by Amanda on July 29, 2010
I know there are so many would be and wannabe ghostwriters out there that struggle with the whole rates thing. I came across a great article online that I want to share with you today. This article has been written by a professional freelance writer and ghostwriter and in it he talks about what ghostwriters charge. I’m sure you will find it interesting and it should help to give you a clearer perspective on what to charge a client who is looking for you to ghostwrite a book for them.
5 Things You Need To Know About Ghostwriting
I’m always a little amazed at the varied views of ghostwriting: what it is, what it costs, what it can mean to you, your personal success, your career or your business. If you look around online or root through your local library, you’ll find an incredible array of opinions about this subject, and you’ll be lucky to find two that agree. So, since I try never to shy away from a good hearty battle of wits, I’m throwing my hat in the ring too! Here are, in my opinion, the five things you absolutely NEED to know about ghostwriting:
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by Amanda on July 22, 2010
I have spent two glorious weeks on holidays with my husband and two children. During this time I had no internet connection. It was tough to begin with but after a couple of days the urge to constantly check email and social networking accounts wore off. Needless to say, that when I returned I had a lot of email to go through. I have spent the past two days weeding through all the emails in my inbox and there was one in particular that I wanted to share with everyone.
I have won an award. Yep you read that right. This is what the email said:
Congratulations! Emma Lee here, and your blog, Ghost Writing Uncovered, has received our 2010 Top 40 Freelance Writing Blogs award!
You can see your name amongst our winners here at:
www.onlinephdprograms.com/top_freelance_writing/#Ghost_Writing_Uncovered
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by Amanda on May 31, 2010
I received a question via email the other day that I thought I would share with you. This person who has chosen to remain anonymous wanted to know:
Is it possible to have a successful ghostwriting career without a website, marketing or self promotion?
Now I know this is going to go against everything that you have read or are reading at the different freelance writing blogs at the moment but my answer to this question is yes.
You may wonder why I answered yes and the truth of the matter is, I answered yes because I know that it is possible to have ghostwriting success without doing any marketing or having a website. I have done it and I know that there are many people out there who continue to do it today.
When I started my ghostwriting career I began by using the bidding website Elance. I didn’t have a website, social networking hadn’t been invented and I didn’t promote my services in any way. I worked solely via Elance and I earned enough money to enable me to quit my day job. It really is possible.
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As a freelance writer for some years now there are some times when I actually do miss the dreaded 9 to 5. I’m sure many people will agree with me on some of these items.
- Paid holidays
- Sick days
- Fixed salary
- Pension
- Girlie chat on breaks
- Staff nights out
- Adult conversation
- Having to wear a suit
Now just because I miss a few of these things doesn’t mean I regret my decision to become a freelance writer. In fact I wouldn’t change things for the world. Let me give you a little background.
I began my working career at the age of 19. I began working in the local hospital as a clerical officer and during my 10 year career I worked my way up, had a good salary and enjoyed a permanent and pensionable job that would be mine until I turned 65. I had a government job and that really was something.
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