BY JASON STEELE

The Opportunities and Challenges of Full-time Freelance Blogging

Topics of Discussion

How you can freelance full time: Getting started Online freelance marketplace Finding your niche Print vs. Online

Why freelance?What freelances are looking for from site

producers.Why you should hire a freelance writer.Technology for writers.Free travel resources.

What I Am Not Covering Today

How to write great articles. Plenty of others covering that.

How to build a great web site. I don’t have a clue, talk to the sites I write for.

How drive traffic to your site. Write great stuff, that’s all I know.

Anything bad about specific outlets I love everyone I write for.

You CAN Freelance Full Time

This was the #1 most popular article on Yakezie:

IT IS WRONG!!!

How I Make It Work

Specialize (Credit cards and travel).Earn $75-$150 per article.98% of my articles are 400-1000 wordsWrite 3-6 articles per day.Keep my clients happy.Keep my rates up by finding new, higher paid

work.Have fun!

Participate in the deals I write about. Travel for free with points and miles. Take an occasional press trip.

Getting Started

Personal blogging. An opportunity to write about what you know best. Worldwide instant publishing. Traffic is irrelevant.

Guest blogging. Sites love free content. Linkbacks boost your own traffic and profile. Get to know the host.

Find paid blogging opportunities. Take what you can get until your busy. Start working on your rates.

The Online Freelance Marketplace

Where to find freelance writing gigs: ProBlogger.net Craigslist (OnlineWritingJobs.com) FreelanceJobOpenings.com BloggingPro.com Networking Direct solicitation

Tips for applying Stay brief Put your best foot forward Listen to Lynn

Lynn Truong “How to Not get Hired for a Blogging Job” at Problogger.net

Write in no caps.Use the word “blog” incorrectly.Provide one link to your blog as writing samples.Let me know I can request writing samples.Spell our site name incorrectly.Ask me the next day whether I’ve gotten your

application.Give me a 31 page writing sample.Be a mercenary. Give me irrelevant writing samples.Tell me your life story.Ask for more information without including an

application.

Finding Your Niche

Leverage your inexperience. Blog about learning: i.e. How I got out of debt. How to earn credit card rewards. How you discovered XYZ.

Write about what you know. We all have unique combination of experiences such as IT

worker, pilot, father, cyclist, husband, world traveler, etc.Write like a rebel.

Don’t write like what you read before, write something different.

Treat sites like clients. Clients love you when you don’t act like a writer. Meet deadlines. Correspond, invoice professionally.

Writing For Print Vs. Online

Print and Online are Different Media. They have as much in common as a movie does to live

TV. Online writers trade some polish for fresh content. Print readers are invested, online readers are fickle.

Print rates are high, but so is the hassle factor. 4x the per word rate for only 10x the labor! Pitching, working with editors, and turn around time to

publish. Print publishers never pay on time, online always does.

It boils down to which media has profits: Online has them due to monitization, print doesn’t.

Sites See This…While Freelancers See

This:

Why Freelance?

Advantages of Freelancing:

Be immune or benefit from Penguins and Pandas. Google algorithms put a premium on quality writing while punishing

scrapers and text brokers. You (the site producers) are not Google’s customers, the people who perform

searches are. Finding good content is why Google exists.

Freelancers focus on writing, not monetization. No worrying about: Traffic stats Affiliate links HTML/XML coding

Simple, predictable, diversified income stream. Simple business mode: Write, earn money. Work with multiple clients. The web has an insatiable demand for content, especially personal finance.

Build your brand. Writing for other sites can enhance you stature and that of your site.

Disadvantages of Freelancing:

Few passive income streams. Some traffic sharing and affiliate revenue.

Burnout. 3-6 articles a day requires a lot of vacations.

Less opportunity for a windfall. No big company is going to buy my sole

proprietorship.

Why You Should Hire A Freelancer

You can’t do it all Name me one movie written, produced, directed,

filmed, edited, and starring one person. You already outsource domain registration, hosting,

and other aspects of your business. Your writing isn’t scalable.

Even if you could, could you do it well? Find people who are ace writers, not just casual

bloggers. Add new voices to your site. Outgrow the vision of your blog as a one-person show.

What Freelancers Want From Site Producers

Be easy to work with Cleary defined expectations. Balance of idea origination. Help Writers Refine Angles.

Build relationships Chemistry between editors and writers. Two sites offer the same rates: One has never called, the

other I speak with once a month and have met with twice. Who do you think I am writing for when I have the chance?

How to handle compensation Pay by the article, not by the word. Revenue sharing. Traffic bonuses.

Technology For Writers

Monitors 2-4 monitors mounted on arms. Portrait is for writing, landscape is for watching movies I prefer old narrow-screen to new widescreen (Samsung 204b rocks)

Solid State Hard Drives (SSD) Cuts boot up time. Cuts time opening programs Eliminates lag time when typing.

Mobile office Laptop with docking station – Instantly connects to keyboard, mouse, monitors etc. Magic Jack phone works anywhere in the world with Internet for $40/year.

Learn hot keys Stop using your mouse.

Keep spare parts Mouse batteries Laptop power supply Extra keyboard Spare computer

Free Travel Resources

ThePointsGuy.comBoardingArea.com

View From the Wing One Mile at a Time Frequent Miler MommyPoints

Discussion forums FlyerTalk.com MilePoint.com

Why spend your time clipping coupons to save a few dollars when you and your readers can enjoy thousands of dollars in free travel each year?

Questions?