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 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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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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by Amanda on February 18, 2010
freelance writing forums are great. You can pick up so much information and tips you wouldn’t believe. Even if you don’t join, browsing these fourms on a daily basis is a great idea. They allow you to keep up with what is going on, what freelance writers are complaining about, you can get freelance writing jobs, and much more.
I have compiled a list of 12 freelance writing forums for you to take a look at. I have deliberately left out the warrior forum which I know has a section for writes and the main reason for this is that I’m sure like me you will find it very frustrating. There are freelance writers on this forum offering their services and they get a lot of replies too but because my rates are not $5 or less for a 500 word article I don’t post there. I could post my services there but with so many low bids it would be a waste of time. You are of course free to check it out if you wish. $5 could be a lot to you in your local currency but in Euro it is only about €3.60.
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by Amanda on January 22, 2010
We all want to be successful freelancers and the key to getting there comes in just one simple word:
ACTION
If you want to be a successful freelancer you need to take action. You need to look for freelance writing jobs, you need to market and you need to promote your services. You need to do this continuously and not just when your work dries up.
You ask any of the really successful freelancers and they will tell you that they have a marketing plan, they promote their services on a daily basis and they keep an eye on the jobs boards. They take action. They are not just sitting there waiting for success to come; they are making success happen.
Think about your own freelance writing career for a moment.
Do you have a plan?
Are you promoting your services?
Are you looking for the right freelance writing jobs?
If you answered yes that’s great but answer me this, how often are you doing all these things?
I decided over the Christmas period that 2010 was going to be my year for success. I decided it was time to take real action, to plan, to market and to promote. It is now getting close to the end of January and things are starting to come together. I have taken the time to reassess things, to prioritize and to focus. Have you?
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by Amanda on September 2, 2009
As a freelancer writer you work to your own schedule and I was fortunate enough to be able to take most of the summer off this year. My reason for this was of course to spend the time with my children and I have to admit that it was great. Many freelance writers quit their day jobs in order to be stay at home parents and this is great but sometimes what happens is that our freelance work can take over and we forget why we wanted to stay at home in the first place. This summer has been a real eye opener for me and it made realise that I had lost sight of my initial goals.
For the past week I have been re-evaluating my blog and website and their reason for existance. When I created the Ghostwriting Uncovered website back in 2007 it was to help others. I wanted this website to be a source of information for people wishing to take up freelance writing as a career. The Hidden Writer is an extension of this website and looking through the last year of posts I realised that I had lost sight of what was originally planned for this blog too. I seem to have been following the crowd which is something that I am rather disappointed in.
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by Amanda on July 27, 2009
We are all probably guilty of wasting some of our freelance writing time each day and this really isn’t good for your career. How much time do you think you waste each day? When you sit down to start your freelance work what is the first thing you do?
Many of us check our emails first thing and this can be a big mistake. You could have 100 emails sitting in your inbox and no matter how quickly you go through them you are still going to waste at least 10 minutes or more of your time. The best advise is to set a specific time for checking and replying to emails. If you put aside 30 minutes in the morning to go through emails that should be it. Don’t leave your email window open on your computer as it only serves as a distraction. Everytime that little “you’ve got mail” popup appears you will be tempted to go and check what it is. If you are in the middle of typing an article this could be detremental because when you come back to your article you have to get back into it all over again. Your train of thought will be lost.
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by Amanda on July 7, 2009
It’s July and for many work at home freelance writers this means school holidays and work schedule disruptions. Many freelance writers have a set work schedule that revolves around their children’s school times. I myself do and my work day is from 9.30am to 12.30pm. These three hours allow me to focus solely on client work and get as much as I need to get done completed. This schedule works perfect for me and allows me to stay at home with my children instead of having to slog away in a 9 to 5 job and employing child care for my children. But what happens when my children are on school holidays?
When July hits it means school holidays and a full 8 weeks or more of having the kids at home all day everyday. If this is happening to you then this article on re-organising your freelance work schedule for the school holidays should help.
Re-organising Your Freelance Work Schedule For The School Holidays
The school holidays last for just over 8 weeks for many people and for stay at home freelance writers this can mean a big disruption to their daily work schedule. For these eight weeks you need to set a new work schedule that will allow you to continue to get your work done whilst still being the best parent you can be. There are a number of ways that you can make a new schedule work for you but some of the most common things that freelance writers do is as follows:
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by Amanda on May 12, 2009
Choosing a freelance writing job to bid on with Elance isn’t as simple as just logging on and placing a bid and there are a number of things that you should take into consideration before you do this. There are some tricks and tips that can help you make the most of your bids (connects as they are called on Elance) and not waste them.
Connects are explained in the previous post http://ghostwritinguncovered.com/Blog/elance-fees-and-connects-explained/
When you log into your Elance account and go to the Writing and Translation category to find jobs there are a few things that you should do. I always choose the show all category so that I can see a list of all the jobs that are available. Here’s a screen shot of what you should see:
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Continuing with my Elance series, today I want to focus on Elance membership fees and explain exactly what connects are.
Elance Membership Fees
Membership fees with Elance vary depending on the subscription you choose.
- Free Subscription = 3 connects per month, you cannot purchase more connects
- Individual subscription = $9.95 per month and 20 connects. You can purchase more connects
- Small Business subscription = $19.95 per month with 40 connects. You can add 5 people to this membership and you can purchase additional connects.
- Large Business subscriptiion = $39.95 per month with 60 connects. You can add unlimited people to this membership and purchase additional connects.
My Elance subscription is the Individual subscription so I pay $9.95 each month and I receive 20 connects.
What Are Connects?
This is something that confuses quite a lot of people. It would be easy to just say that connects are bids but it’s not that simple. Whilst connects are what you use to bid, each connect does not equate to one bid. The number of connects you need to bid on a project will depend on the project budget. If a project is under $500 you will use up one connect to bid on this project. $500 – $1,000 uses 2 connects, and so forth. This goes up to 4 connects to bid on a project. There are also what are known as featured projects and to bid on these projects you will use double the amount of connects. If the project is for $500 you will need 2 connects to bid on it if it is a featured project.
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