I am almost exclusively greeted with bemusement whenever I tell
someone what I do for a living. It is something that I have gotten used
to over time. “A freelance blogger? Can you even make money doing that?”
In fairness, if someone had told me that they were a freelance
blogger 12 months ago, I would have probably reacted with similar
bemusement. It is only recently that I have come to realize how
lucrative freelance blogging can be. I am earning an equivalent of $100
per hour for some of my work.
It has been a big learning curve though – at the beginning of 2011 I
barely even knew what a blog was. I’ve come a long way since then, and
have gradually become aware of a few key things that have led me to
where I am.
Now I want to share them with you!
1. Have a Blog
I haven’t sought out any work since last November, because people
come to me asking if I can work for them. All of my recent clients have
approached me my via
my blog.
If you take a look at the blog, you will see that it barely screams
“hire me”. On the contrary – there is a “Hire Me” link in the navigation
bar, and that is it.
I blog in part about helping people to become freelance writers –
i.e., I write for others like me, not prospective clients. And yet
I still receive enquiries. If you build a blog specifically for your
target clients, you should be able to fare far better than I do.
Stop wasting your time on job boards trying to find clients that may
or not may not be interested in your services. When a client reaches out
to you, you are already in a position of strength.
2. Get Bylines
Prospective clients often approach me having found my blog through a
byline on a client’s blog. The logic is simple – if someone is looking
for a blogger, likes your writing, and see that you are available to
hire, they will probably contact you.
So whenever appropriate, you should get a byline. If a client
initially balks at the idea, suggest that it can actually be of benefit
to the blog, in showing that a recognized blogger is writing for them.
Bylines are of course not always appropriate – for instance, if you
are ghost writing, or writing on a topic in which you have no real
expertise.
3. Consider Intangible Benefits
How much you get paid should not be the only consideration when
deciding whether or not to take on work. I still work with certain
clients who pay me way under my “peak” hourly rate, because of the
associated intangible benefits. These include:
- Authority – it is good to be seen as a writer for an authoritative blog.
- Traffic – certain blogs send my own blog a healthy amount of traffic.
- Potential – could the work lead to bigger and better things?
- Security – could the work be a long term source of secure income?
Such intangible benefits can help you to better rationalize the offer, and make a decision accordingly.
4. Never Price by the Hour
Here’s a little slice of freelance blogging 101 – never price work by the hour.
Instead, become faster at doing your work than everyone else, then
charge the same per post or project. If you can write a 500 word article
in 30 minutes and someone will pay you $50 for it, your equivalent
hourly rate is $100.
The client is happy to pay $50 for a quality article – how long it took you to write it is irrelevant.
5. Type Fast
I’ve been using computers since the age of five, and naturally
learned to type pretty fast (around 90 words per minute). I don’t touch
type in a particularly beautiful manner, but it gets the job done.
But I digress. The point is, the faster you can type, the faster you
can write blog posts. It may sound trivial, but it really isn’t. If you
are interested in writing for a living, learning to type faster is
effectively a business investment.
6. Write Fast
For the purpose of this article, there is a difference between typing
fast and writing fast. Writing fast is about taking a blog post from
its inception, to completion, in the quickest way possible.
Typically speaking, the better you plan a blog post, the more quickly
you will write it. This may sound counter-productive, but how many
times have you got to the middle a post only to forget the core issue
you were trying to address, or how you were planning on addressing it?
Plotting a post out in bullet points allows you to address any
potential issues before you waste too much time. Once you are done with
the framework of the post, it is then just a case of fleshing out your
bullet points.
7. Write What You Know About (or Charge More)
There is a common misconception that you must write about complicated
topics (or that you need to be an “expert” on something) in order to
earn good money as a freelance writer, but that is simply not the case.
It again comes down to speed. If you are knowledgeable on a topic,
you can probably produce a related blog post in double quick time, which
pushes your equivalent hourly rate up. On the other hand, if you are
writing about a topic that you are not familiar with, it is likely to
take you far longer.
Don’t fall into the common trap of charging the same rate across the
board. Decide what hourly rate you would be comfortable with, consider
each job on an individual basis, and charge accordingly.
Tom Ewer is a freelance blogger and the owner of Leaving Work Behind, a blog for anyone interested in quitting their job and building a better life for themselves. Join Tom on Facebook here!
