Freelance Writing Jobs for June 11, 2009
June 11, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Writing Gigs
We’re talking about setting rates over at the Freelance Writing Jobs home page. I’m of the belief that it’s up to us as freelancers to determine our own rates. You see, the reason I’m freelancing is because I want to take charge of my own life, work my own hours and earn the wage I want to earn.
Here are a couple of ways I look at it. If I applied for a job at a restaurant or supermarket and the manager offered me less than minimum wage, I’d think he was crazy. There’s no way I would accept his low pay. Also, if worked at an office, I’d expect a periodic cost of living increase or promotional increase to reward me for my loyalty or a job well done. If that didn’t happen, I’d leave for greener pastures. Why wouldn’t I feel this same way with my writing? The choice to be paid or be paid more is mine, however.
My blog post “Who Sets Your Freelance Writing Rates” isn’t an argument about how much one should be paid, but rather it discusses why it’s up to each individual freelancer to set his or her own rates rather than leave it all up to clients. I hope you’ll drop by and weigh in with your opinion on the topic.
Leads…
- How To Writer - AOL
- Travel Bloggers – $10/post
- Hole Magazine - $20 – $40
- Metrokids - $50
- Yes! Magazine – Paying magazine market – Not a job.
- Intelligent Enterprise – Writers Guidelines (not a job – you have to query) pays $500/article
- The Bark - Paying magazine market – send query.
- Subtropics – Literary magazine (not a job), follow guidelines. Pays $500-$1000
- Online Magazine Writer
- Web Content Writing and Administration for NGO – $20/hour
- Taiwan Publisher Looking for Textbook Writer
- Writer Needed – German Islands
- Blogger/Forum Poster – Vancouver
- Comedy Writers Needed
- Freelance Web Writer
- Freelance Copywriter – Mississauga – $500
- Small Advertising Agency Seeks Freelance Help
- Freelance Copywriter
- Environmental Website Writer
- Research & Compile - Atlanta
- Editor/Proofreader for Magazine
- Law Student for Legal Newsletter - Boston
- Hip Hop Bloggers – Chicago
- Stock Market Expert – Chicago – $2000/project
- Entertainment Magazine Looking for Writers
- Erotic Blogging
- Freelance Copyeditors & Proofreaders
- Ghostwriter- NYC
- SEO Writing Project
- Seeking Freelance Children’s Television Writer
- Seeking Freelance Children’s Comedy Writer
- Hip Hop Bloggers – NYC
Good luck!
Don’t forget to join the conversation at the Freelance Writing Jobs Social Network. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @debng. For updates from this network follow @freelancewj.
Actually, I don’t freelance because I want to be independent. I freelance because I want to write – and I don’t want to wind up writing the same thing over and over again (just press releases, just grant proposals, etc.).
If someone offered me a well-paid full time position writing a variety of things in an interesting setting, I’d probably take it.
Honestly, if my goal were simply to be a self-employed person making as much money as possible, I wouldn’t pick freelance writing to meet my goals. There are much more lucrative, less competitive ways to make a nickel as an entrepreneur!
Lisa
Honestly, I’d planned to return to the working world this past year, but the removal of high school bus service put the damper on that. And I’m making more per hour now that every person I know who does work in this area of Vermont, so I start to have doubts about entering the work force once both kids are through high school or my youngest has her license and doesn’t need transportation to high school.
Deb – the address in the Travel Blogger ad is bouncing back – “no such user”
Deb, I just got my Promotion request for 4wheeldrive sent to About OPS email from About.com. They’re going to start copying my Prep site over today and I will be live soon
Thank you, Deb. It almost literally wouldn’t have happened with you!
http://4wheeldrive.about.com
Err, um… It wouldn’t have happened without you.
Deb writes “the reason I’m freelancing is because I want to take charge of my own life, work my own hours and earn the wage I want to earn.”
I’ve been freelancing for more than 20 years and have found a good chunk of this to be myth if you really want to earn a living as a freelancer. If you depend on freelancing income, you have almost as many restrictions as you do in any job; it’s just that the restrictions are self-imposed rather than externally imposed.
Why? Because it is a job and people who hire you expect you to meet their needs and timetables. Your client’s deadlines become your deadlines. You end up scheduling around them. Going on vacation? Better put in some 15 hour days to finish your biggest client’s biggest project that he just dumped on you. Sick or have a sick kid? Too bad. Someone is depending on you to finish that job today and get it e-mailed so that it is on their desk tomorrow morning. Tired of the same type of writing? Look at your bank account. Do you really want to give up boring, but regularly paying client A for more exciting but less certain assignments from Client B? Job offer doesn’t pay enough? Sure you can turn it down if you have the luxury of a better paying job lined up or if you want to take a week and paint the house or take the kids to the beach, but the mortgage is still due on the first of the month.
I’ve spent 20 years fighting the myth that because I work at home I’m not working at a real job and that I have infinite flexibility or I can just drop everything and play when a friend is unexpectedly in town or a neighbor calls or asks me to watch her sick kid so she can go to work. It’s not like that. Work imposes obligations, and you need to meet these obligations consistently if you want to keep working as a freelancer. Do your best work, turn in material to specifications and on deadline, and you get more work. The pay gets better. Employers start coming to you. Decide that you are in control, that you can decide when and how much you want to work and only want to work when it is convenient, and the jobs start drying up.
Right now I have 3 regular clients. One pays $35/hour. One pays $40/hour. The third pays .50/word. Their deadlines are my deadlines. Their needs are my mortgage payment. Am I in charge of my own life? Only if that means no one cares whether I start working at 8 or 9 am or pm. I don’t have to ask anyone if I can go to lunch at 12 instead of 1. I can do a load of laundry on my lunch break. I don’t really call that being in charge, because in exchange I have all the uncertainty of not knowing if my clients will be sending me more work or whether they will be laying off their own employees and hiring them back as freelancers instead (yes, this happens). They could get sold to a big company with an in-house writing team or even go bankrupt. Fortunately of my regular clients one is an outstanding payer who gets me a check usually within a week. One takes 2 weeks and the other a month. But they all pay, which isn’t always the case. And when you are trying to collect from a deadbeat client, you hardly feel like you are in charge.
I like what I do (even though this post may sound a bit jaded). I’m glad I can do it for many reasons, not the least of which is that the quality of our life is better with me working from home. But I’m really tired of the view that freelancing is a free-and-easy sit out at the pool with a drink and write and watch the money flow in lifestyle.
know a lot of people who read this board write only for supplemental money, not as a career. This gives them a lot more leeway to pick and choose jobs and turn down projects that are boring or pay poorly or interfere with family or social plans. But it isn’t like that if you depend on freelancing to pay the bills, and I, for one, am tired of some of these self-employment myth freelancers seem so attached to.
Tish – Of course you have to follow a set of rules, but you’re calling the shots. You don’t HAVE to take on the clients you do, or accept the pay you do. You’re choosing the situation that works the best for you. Now, I agree there are many myths and folks feel that this is a glorious leisurely lifestyle, and that’s not always true. However, the freedom and flexibility is there. It’s your choice. It’s your schedule. It’s your agreed rate. You’re in control.
I have found over the years I can charge more money to fewer clients and have more time for myself and my family. My goal is to work smarter not harder and it’s been working for me so far.
I mostly agree with Deb here. Yes, my clients give me a deadline, and yes, I need to schedule interviews with people — so I have to have a somewhat scheduled day. No, it isn’t easy taking vacations, but right now, it isn’t so easy for my husband in his full-time job to take vacations, either.
But. I can decide what my work hours are, which means no more slaving to being in the office at 8 am when I’m a night owl. I can decide when I’m going to write. I don’t have to get permission to take a late lunch, go to the doctor, etc. And if money seems to be tight, I can bump up my marketing and production to get more clients, as opposed to being locked into a salary.
Freelancing is my career. I make more money than I ever did in a regular job and I love being able to arrange my work day per my lifestyle and desires. I like even better not having to deal with a dictator boss and crazy co-workers.
I’m the first to say that freelancing isn’t easy and you have to have the personality to do it and succeed. My former bosses and coworkers thought I’d be a miserable failure because working in an office environment was a struggle for me. But with a lot of smarts, networking skills, dedication and hard work, I’m doing okay. It’s work, to be sure, but I’ve never been happier or more content with my work life.
Deb,
Could you blog on what you mean by working smarter not harder? I hear these buzzwords often, but I’d like to see how you were able to put them into practice as a freelance writer in ways besides the obvious setting a minimum rate that you will not work below.
I couldn’t agree more with Tish.
Tish,
As a 17-year freelancer and 30-year writer, you voiced many of my thoughts. I was trading e-mails with a client in the Phillipines. Why? Bills and upcoming vacation — have worked on vacation more than once.
I do like a lot about freelance, but the healthcare and overhead costs continue to rise.
To work smarter, outsource those things you can — be it excess work or work that’s not your expertise. I use a local travel writer for some promotional work — I’m more of a journalist/business writer. I’m good with accounting, so I handle the books myself, but pay my kids to mow the lawn and do other things that free me up to concentrate on work.
Thanks for the post and the comments. I’m not freelance yet, but hope to be someday sooner rather than later, for a lot of the reasons mentioned here.
I’m with Tish, for the most part.
I also spent the last 10+ years prior to taking up the flag of a writer as a self-employed individual, and I’ll agree that while there is some flexibility, it’s still a “job”.
I’m also a lot luckier than most because I don’t have to do this full time. My income is supplemental income to my wife’s. We have a paid-for home. Our bills are under 400 USD a month, total. That includes our entertainment expenses. My wife’s part-time job pays the bills, and I pay for extraneous luxuries, home decorations, padding the savings account, and vacation money.
I see Tish’s point completely. When we were back in the states our living expenses were around 4500 a month including my wife’s school payments/expenses. That meant I had to make at least 5k a month just to make ends meet and have a little extra for when things were slow. And despite being “self employed”, there wasn’t a lot of freedom because at the end of the day you still have the living expenses to meet, so whether or not you are working for someone as an employee, or just working for someone under contract, you are still working FOR someone else, not necessarily yourself. And when you have those living expenses to look after, you constantly have to keep plugging away because you need to make ends meet.
That’s why when the housing market dried up in 2007 and I was unable to find work any longer we chose to move oversees rather than stay in the States. Sure, I could have moved to another city where the housing market was still doing fairly well, but that would have meant staying in the same 4500-5000 dollar a month situation where all of my money was going towards paying the bills, and hardly any towards the savings. My wife’s school was only about halfway done at the time, and it just wasn’t feasible to keep doing it. So we moved.
I think a lot of it comes down to a person’s personal expectations. Many people in the US think in terms of absolutes. They make decisions based upon “meeting the minimum” standards of living within the US. The cost of living is ridiculous, even for baseline, average households. We lived in Colorado, which is *not* the most expensive place in the States, and I was making 60k a year and *barely* making ends meet for two people. We lived in a 40 year old apartment building and we kept our expenses as low as we could, but I was spending 800-1k a month in gas alone, plus the cost of doing business and…it just didn’t make sense anymore.
I don’t think freelancing is a world of fairy tales and dreams. I see a lot of talk about from these “uber” writers about how they charge 150 dollars an hour and can afford to sit around and be picky about their projects, but I think the reality of the situation is that *most* people are only making between 30 and 40 dollars an hour, realistically, if they have been doing this for 3-5 years. Those of you who have been working longer than this can obviously know more than me, who has simply been doing this for a year and a half. The thing that drives me nuts about some of these writers is their claims that anyone working below 150 an hour is “bastardizing” the industry and that we are “ruining” the industry for everyone else. Then in the same breath they say that each writer should “set their own rates” and that “no one should tell you what to charge but you”.
WTF? Talk about double standards.
I don’t make 150 an hour. But I do have enough work coming in that if I wanted to, I could easily make around 3500-4k USD a month if I worked 8 hour days, if I didn’t turn so much work down. However I don’t. I work 3 hour days, and I make around 1500 a month, turning down the rest of the work so I have more time to spend on my short stories and work on my novel. I also enjoy living the European lifestyle, which means siestas, enjoying life, and taking it easy. I don’t miss the “work your fingers to the bone, 40 hours a week” mentality that everyone is driven to in the States.
But I absolutely don’t think freelance writing is a “walk in the park” by any means. Yes, there is some added flexibility in that you can take off when you want to, start work when you want, and have a few beers while you work, or listen to music, but at the end of the day you are still beholden to a “boss” in the sense that you still have bills to pay, and someone’s gotta pay them.
It’s late, and that post had some spelling errors. Damn me for getting used to MSWord fixing all those for me
You know, a lot of people like to hate on people who move out, but I had a couple of friends in the construction industry who did the same thing, and I think it’s an option people should honestly consider if they are so unhappy with their current situations. One of my old construction buddies in particular saved up around 150k over the course of 10 years and he retired, before the age of 35, to a nice little villa in Mexico not far from the beach, for around 50k USD. Now he just kicks back and enjoys life, and while 100k may not sound like a lot, if you are in the right part of the world, that will last you the rest of your life.
Now granted, he’s not married, doesn’t have kids, and your options become a lot more limited when you have a family to worry about, but I sometimes wonder why people stay in their situation if they hate it so much? I remember one time a few years back my friends and I had a waitress follow us out of a restaurant and complain because we hadn’t tipped her EXACTLY 15% on the tab. It was around 13%. I fired right back in her face and told her “if you don’t like your job, find a new one”. Seriously. She was working 5 tables while she was with us, and if each table tipped 4-5 bucks (which was what we left her), she made an easy 25 dollars + her wage, so around 30 bucks. 30 bucks an hour isn’t a shoddy wage, it’s a great wage, considering the national average is only 21.
I get tired of hearing freelancers whine, honestly. If half of the people who complained actually went out there and did the work they are complaining about they would be bringing in a healthy wage.
T.W. Anderson,
I’m curious as to what type of writing you specialize in that you have enough work in the current environment to be able turn down some projects? I’m a financial/marketing communications writer, recently laid off from a long-term (10 month) contract position in corporate America. I’m trying to figure out how to get freelance financial writing gigs. The market for my type of writing seems scarce at the moment and I’m new to the freelance world.
TW Anderson: Why is it whining to point out the realities of freelancing? I didn’t see anyone here say they hated what they did, they just pointed out that it is more work than people think it is.
I’ve only been freelancing since August, but I can tell you that my experiences have been closer to Tish’s. When there are bills to pay, you sometimes have to suck it up and take the work you find/comes to you. Personally, I make on average $50 per story, sometimes more sometimes less. That means, just to break even, I have to write a minimum of 10 stories per week. Sounds like a cake walk, except when you factor in reporting the story (making calls, doing research, fact checking, etc.) and then writing the actual story. Even if you average that I spend 3 hours on a story, that’s 30 hours a week. And then let’s say I spend another 10 looking for other work, bookkeeping, generating story ideas, etc. I don’t see a lot of time in there for long walks on the beach. Then let’s do the math shall we. That’s $2,000 a month if I can manage to make my weekly goal every week. That’s less than $24,000 per year when you factor in taxes.
So you see TW Anderson, I am doing the work, but am not yet bringing in a “Healthy wage.”
And you may read that as complaining. It’s not. All I’m saying is that it is hard work, that takes time, effort and care. It’s not a panacea of get rich quick, write a bit here and there and sip maragaritas the rest of the time. (And that’s not to say anything bad to the person who said he lives outside of the US. I say good on you for finding a way to make that work.) It’s hard, stressful work. It’s not a fantasy life and no one should believe it is.
And much like the waitress you insulted, maybe if YOU had ever done the job, you would know the kind of work, time, sweat and tears that goes into it.
I think perhaps we’re talking about very different kinds of writing.
I do make a “healthy” income (I’m the primary bread winner for a family of four, and we have a comfortable life), but the vast majority of my income comes not from writing online or print articles.
I make my “real” money writing federal grant proposals; curricula; for-hire books (that is, the editors hire me to write a book they’ve already decided they need – and they provide me with direction and a flat fee); marketing material; etc.
A lot of the work I do as a writer does not have a byline. What it does have is a significant paycheck attached. It isn’t unpleasant work – and often it’s very worthwhile.
Also – an important point – I’ve been able to find quite a bit of that kind of work right here on this site! In just a few months, I was able to pick up $9,000 worth of grant writing, and several more thousands in marketing writing.
Lisa
That’s a really excellent point Lisa and I think you are absolutely right. It definitely depends on the kind of writing you do.
And mostly I was taking umbrage with the idea that if you weren’t making a ton of cash yet you weren’t working or looking hard enough.
@TW Anderson: You said:
“The thing that drives me nuts about some of these writers is their claims that anyone working below 150 an hour is “bastardizing” the industry and that we are “ruining” the industry for everyone else. Then in the same breath they say that each writer should “set their own rates” and that “no one should tell you what to charge but you”.
Who is talking about making $150 an hour? Honestly…I think you’re engaging in a bit of hyberbole here.
Also, picking on waitresses is bad karma. The job sucks, and plenty of people don’t tip at all.
@Rose-Stick with it, it gets better.
@Lisa- i would love to get in to grant writing, but I’m not sure where to start? Are there any websites or other resources you could point me towards?
As far as the waitress…if you want don’t like the tips or the customers…find a different job…what was insulting was that she felt the need to follow us out of the restaurant and complain about making 25-30 dollars an hour
I don’t have to have worked the job. All I have to know is the simple fact of human existence: if you aren’t happy with your situation, you change it. At the end of the day the ONLY person standing between you and happiness is YOU, and only you. No one else.
About the 150 dollars per hour…I’ve been coming here for about 8 months, off and on. There are a select group of writers (5-6 of them) who have in the past doled out their rhetoric about their 150 dollars per hour. I use it as a generalization, so my apologies if you haven’t been around long enough to know who I’m jabbing at
What is my specialty? Working hard, being diligent, and persistent. I spent the time last year working some low paying gigs that I turned into high paying gigs. I have a UK client company who throws work at me. I talk about it over on my blog. It’s not luxurious, it’s not pretty. It’s about 60% re-writes, 30% original content, and 10% SEO work. Many people would call it a content farm because it’s ghost-writing. I don’t get to take credit for the work, persay. But I don’t really care. I do the content work for the paycheck, and fiction work for the credit, with an end goal of transitioning into full time fiction writing either in late 2010 or sometime in 2011, depending on how things work out.
My UK client keeps me busy. I’ve had over 4k worth of opportunities for the months of May and June, both months (4k each month), which means I turned down over 2k worth of work each month. My specialty is that I am their go-to guy. I spent the time last fall and earlier this year busting my arse, taking every job they threw my way, and now I can’t keep up with all the work they throw my way. If I wanted to do this full time, I could easily make 50k a year, and I’m doing this with generic re-write content for the majority of my work. I’ve taken what some people consider generic, hack content (and let’s face it, re-written content ain’t glorious, but it’s a paycheck) and turned it into a job that makes me a damn good wage. I shoot for 1500 a month, but I also draw about 300 a month in commission for some guides I wrote for computer games last year, and I also do a couple hundred per month through Demand Studios, so I end up making about 2k a month, on average, for about 3 hours of work a day.
I *do* understand what it takes to be a full-time freelancer. Prior to doing this I owned my own construction company in Colorado. I know what it’s like to have to take every job that comes your way to make ends meet. I know it’s not always glorious. I know my current situation is NOT what most people deal with. I am extremely luck in that.
If you truly want to succeed in life, you will. Or you won’t. It’s up to you as an individual. I firmly believe that the only person standing in the way is yourself. I’ve seen a lot of writers come here in recent months complaining about how hard it is to find “decent paying work”, and I see it all the time. I see people complain that “well by the time you factor in X hours of research and etc, the pay sucks and it’s not worth it”.
Do you need to put food on the table for your family, or don’t you? It’s not a hard choice, as far as I’m concerned. If you have bills to pay, you do whatever it takes to make those bills get paid, bottom line. If that means shoveling poop in the downtimes between eating ice-cream, then that’s what you do.
At the end of the day, this site (along with others) are FULL of opportunities. I’d say a good HALF of the people who post here anymore do nothing but complain about the rates associated with the jobs that are being posted. Tell you what. I took a job that pays 3 dollars per 250 words, 6 dollars for 500 words, etc, and I turned it into a 30+ dollar an hour job. Am I writing beautiful prose? No, I’m not. I’m not even going to try to suggest that I am. Re-writes and SEO work are crap in terms of “quality”. But like the British actors of the early 19th century, I’m doing content generation (films) to pay the bills and fiction (theatre) for my passion.
It ain’t a walk in the park. I’m not suggesting it is. What I am suggesting is that if people really want to succeed they have to stop looking at the rates and complaining, and instead figuring out how to make it work to their advantage.