Freelancing

Content is influential online, and since a writer creates content, he is very powerful in online world. SEO experts all agree that unique website content is the number 1 way to get to the top of the search engines.  Quality website content gets linked to by other websites. Copy on a page is number 1 factor in sales or visitor conversion. We discussed earlier about freelance writing for newbie freelancers. Pointing out how a new freelancer can start his writing career online and profit from it.

The freelance sites we discussed in earlier post are great sites and they work. But their is a trouble with these sites, you have no way to assure yourself of an income on your terms and schedule. You may or may not win the bid, and there are people out there willing to write for next to nothing on those sites, ready to underbid you. If you don’t want to waste your time bidding, if you have articles already written and you want to sell them, then these are the 5 sites for you.

Associated Content allows users to both submit articles for them to make an offer on and puts out calls for specific articles for writers to claim. From their site:

AC’s platform enables anyone to participate in the new content economy by publishing content on any topic, in any format (text, video, audio and images), and connects that content to consumers, partners and advertisers.

Downsides: The pay is very low. Upsides: You get traffic payoffs from them, so if your articles do well you will get ongoing payments. This site is perfect for the beginning writer who just needs to get some credits under their belt.

It seems that Associated Content doesn’t pay out to non-U.S. residents. You just get traffic residuals.

Who is eligible to be paid?

You must be at least 18 years old to be paid by Associated Content. If you are also citizen or legal resident of the United States, you are eligible for both Upfront and Performance Payments. If you are not a citizen of legal resident of the United States, you are only eligible for Performance Payments due to U.S. tax regulations.

Constant Content allows people to purchase and sell online content among themselves. Writers can sell different rights to their work to content publishers hungry for fresh content. From their site:

Constant-Content is a consignment shop for articles and pictures. Publishers can peruse the archive of articles, find the articles that they are looking for or use our system to reach out to authors and publish a request for new articles on your topic. Keeping content fresh on any site can be a lot of work, especially if you’re aiming to post new content very regularly. Constant-Content has a massive archive of articles and a community of writers who are keen to fulfill your content needs.

Constant-Content is unique in that we do not allow search engines to index our articles. As a consequence, when you purchase a unique or full rights license for one of our articles you can be certain that you will be the first on the Internet to post this article and you will receive the benefits of having unique, interesting and link-worthy content.

Upsides: You can get paid much more, sell work you already have sitting around, and get your work published all over the web. Downsides: Your work might not sell at all.

Demand Studios is a subsidiary of Demand Media, and is a bit of a cross between Associated Content and Bright Hub. You apply for a position and once you get your contract you are able to claim or suggest articles from their internal menu. Each kind of article has a set price, and you claim and write what you want. There is a limit to how many you can claim at a time, but that limit increases as you write for them regularly. From their site:

Demand Studios enables talented freelancers to create valuable content, reach an audience of millions and earn money. Qualified content specialists can take part in the process, from making high-quality titles to editing finished content. We currently employ writers, filmmakers, copy editors, transcribers and title proofers, and we offer unique promotional opportunities for experts in all disciplines.

Downsides: Sometimes articles take a long time to get approved, meaning you can’t accept more assignments; this can really mess up your working timetable. Upsides: Demand is another low paying but dependable writing gig. You know you can make money there whenever you need to, and you can, once you can claim enough articles at a time, make a living from them.

Bright Hub focuses on tech and science articles and has a set payment per article. You apply for a contract with them and then join a team of writers working within a specific channel. From their site:

With an expert writer network and an active community of life-long enthusiasts Bright Hub provides a level of technology transparency rarely seen in high tech. The team of writers and managing editors utilize deep domain expertise to focus on creating valuable information for both novice and advanced consumers. With a content inventory of thousands of science and technology articles, software and hardware reviews, buyer’s guides, blog entries and forum discussions, Bright Hub is able to provide readers with a dependable resource to make informative technology decisions.

Downsides: You have quotas to meet and the editors can be demanding. Upsides: Bright Hub is solid, dependable work, you can work in multiple channels (though you end up having multiple editors, each with their own expectations and personality), and you are able to set your timetable by their schedule. While it is not going to make you rich, writers can make a full-time living from Bright Hub if they are motivated.

Daily Article allows you to sell your articles from their site. After joining DailyArticle.com you submit your pre written article, excerpts from these articles are post at DailyArticle.com for publich viewing. From their site:

Unlike article selling websites that overcharge for articles, spin articles, and offer various “ownership” options, DailyArticle.com provides buyers with an affordable way to own their articles 100%. No need to track your rights to the articles and no worries about duplicate content penalties. DailyArticle.com – the new way to buy articles.

Downside: Your articles may not sell at all.

Ali Shah asked here.

“I write useless php and ajax apps for my uncle and for fun but i just want to do some productive stuff, I tried freelancing lol never worked. No one accepts my bids. I am more like learner, I dont consider my self a pro and i won’t. I was doing Bcs but didn’t finish, i will go abroad to do Btech cert. and then bachlors from abroad. I have alot of time in my hands and i want to utilize it in some really good way. I want to make myself a portfolio. I want to make an app. What should i make.?”

Building up a portfolio (a collection of your work) is essential. Many employers will require it before they consider you for a job. Take the time you need to produce something that will impress them–it’ll really pay off.

Graphics designers and web designers those I come to contact have very nice portfolios. But programmers rarely bring any samples of their work to show. Freelancing & job hunting is more competitive then ever now. You need to have a clear focus, a good portfolio and you should be excited about you worked on. Build a free app, promote your cool stuff online, highlight and bring it to the attention of employer.

Things that will help:

• creating your own portfolio site
• publishing code you have written on the site
• keeping the published work focused on the job you want

Don’t put your portfolio in your resume, only include your portfolio website URL in resume. Only include bullet points.

If you are fresh out of school you can build few cool apps to demonstrate your programming skills. But if you’re experienced you should display your best work. You have the luxury of chosing your best work and displaying it.

Make sure the code is focused toward what you want to do. If you want a J2EE job, leave out the Visual Basic, Access, PHP, etc.

You can compare yourself with other successful programmers.

• Lester Chan’s Portfolio
• White Night Logic’s Portfolio
• UrbanCode portfolio
• Ryan Alyn Porter’s portfolio

Hope it helps you and our readers

Data entry jobs from home are hard to start up and it needs a lot of effort, self-motivation and knowledge. Its not easy to find a data entry job specially a data entry job that can earn you 4 figure salary.

Most people searching online for data entry jobs are scammed. Data entry scams can be easily identified when a company demands money to be sent for a training kit etc. Employers pay money to the employee and not vice versa. Therefore warning bells should be heard while coming across such offers. Another warning is regarding advertisements blaring of get-rich-quick schemes.

It is advisable to join popular and respected online forums, which are free of cost.

Mostly scam data entry sites without giving any details on the kind of data they just say “typing data into a couple of fields” and demand a registration fee. Instead of the job, they send an eBook asking to write ads. This is called affiliate marketing. These scams have three ways of misleading; first, data entry scams do not pay to enter names or addresses into database. Secondly a registration fee is charged to gain access to list of merchants, which can be obtained free elsewhere. And thirdly they hide the fact that more money will be extracted later.

So stay away from these scam sites, always use established trustworthy sites like GetAFreelancer or Elance.

People often asks me different questions about online freelance work, Yashwant Senha from New Delhi has asked a few questions through email. They are very commonly asked questions, I’d answered these questions in this post. This post also provides good basic information for freelancing newbies.

Yashwant asked, “Can I really make money as freelance writer?”

Yes off course, it is possible to earn a decent amount of money from freelance writing. Some may even make a full time income as a writer. There are many successful freelance writers, many of those I know are from India and Pakistan. They are making their living by freelance writing.

Yashwant also asked, “How much I get paid for an article?”

There are many variables to it like quality of article, its length, to whom you are selling it, location of your client (region), place of contact etc.

Article Size: Rule of thumb for freelance writing is pay per word, on average people who get work from freelance sites get paid 1 – 5 cents/word. So if you write a 500 word article for a client, you can earn $5 – $25 USD per article depending on its quality.
Quality: Clients can pay you 1 – 5 cents or even more depending on quality of article. If you have good copyrighting skills you can do very well in freelance writing.
Location: For example clients from Western Europe and North America pay higher then clients from China or India.
Place of contact: This is a very important factor but mostly ignored by freelancers. If you got contacted through DigitalPoint Forums chances are you will be paid peanuts like $1 USD per 500 word article versus ProBlogger Job board or SmashingMagazine Job board. Point is that you’re marketing directly to end customers or your clients are resellers. There is a new breed of contractors growing with econom crises. They are resellers, they get work from small & mid size businesses  & individuals from USA/Canada/EU and then get it completed through freelancers in Asia. These middleman earn from you, they keep 70 – 80% of fee. They pay you peanuts for working with them. So beware of them. However if they pay peanuts, they get monkeys Quality writers always prefer quality job boards & sites.

3rd question from Yashwant, “How I will get paid?”

There are many international payment methods like PayPal, MoneyBookers, Escrow, Bank/wire Transfer or even you can have your own MasterCard through Payoneer.

I hope it help you Yashwant and our readers, wish you best of luck with your freelance writing endeavors