Increase Freelance Writing Income by Broadening Your Income Sources

There are so many writers around complaining about how hard it is to make a decent income from writing articles these days. Unless you've signed up to a site paying pennies-per-hour for your time and effort, nothing could be further from the truth! I’ve been writing full-time for 8 years now and I’ve learned that a good writer can easily earn a full-time income from their writing efforts. 

In order to break away from the low-paying ranks, you’ll need to treat your writing as a business proposition – and this means learning to make sure your business has as many streams of income coming into it as you possibly can. The key to making this work for you is to treat your writing skills as a viable, marketable product - and then go out and find the right customers for your particular products

In business terms this is called “broadening your debtor base” but it simply means making sure that there is always money coming in from someone, somewhere, all the time. If you rely on just one source of income, then you’re really in trouble if that one source dries up! The more sources of income you have coming into the business, the more chance you have of getting your business to grow to a six-figure income.

Here are some of my favorite options for keeping my writing business strong:

1) Write Articles Offline

This is the main income source for my writing business. I’ll write about whatever topic comes into my head. Selling articles to magazines and newspapers is fun, challenging and rewarding - and pays a whole lot MORE than any writing market you'll find online. Do a Google Search for “Writer’s Market Listings” and search out the high-paying magazines actively looking to pay big dollars for quality articles.

2) Write Articles Online

This has become a secondary form of income for me in the last year because the pay is about 1/10 of what you could earn by writing for offline publications. Even though the pay-rate is lower, the potential for quick, easy, repeat-business means quick cash into your writing business. 

Marketplaces like Constant Content make it very easy to write anything you feel like. You set your own prices and wait for buyers to snap them up. I've written a lot about how to earn more from Constant Content sales on this blog already, so check them out (http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/increasing-your-freelance-income-with.html)

You can also find plenty of private clients willing to pay good rates for professional, reliable writers to create content for them. If you're really stuck, you'll also find various content mills around the place offering to pay a flat rate for articles you generate.

3) Royalties

I am always amazed when I meet a writer who is serious about earning a full-time income from writing - and they haven't even considered the true value of earning royalties for their skills. You get paid royalties for writing a book, novella or short story and publishing it with a good publisher or publishing platform. It doesn't matter whether your work is non-fiction and informational in nature or a fictional story you created. You do the work once and you earn money for each sale you make for as long as that work remains available for sale! Such an easy option to boost income for any real freelance writer. You will have to think about some book promotion and marketing tactics to keep sales coming in, but it's really easy when you know how.

4) Write Fillers

This one is a weird little writing market – but it’s one of my favorites. The pay-rate per word is so high and the work is so quick that you can churn out quite a lot of these every week and make good money. A “filler” is the tiny snippet of information you'll find in multiple places and pages inside every magazine. It might be a joke or a riddle or a funny saying or puzzle or even a recipe. Many glossy magazines will pay $20-$25 for a 50-word phrase or joke or recipe. That’s great money for very little work!

5) Paid Blogging

I’ve had a blog for a while but it never occurred to me that people would pay me to post in my own blog! But they do. My logic in taking on this extra source of writing income was that I’m now being paid to do what I was doing anyway! There are sites around that will pay you to blog about topics their clients want. Others will pay you to create blog posts for their own blogs. Easy money.

6) Building Your Own Blog

When you write on your own blog, you're building your brand. You have the freedom to monetize your site however you choose and it's likely you'll be happy to share the links to your blog posts on various social media sites you have profiles on. You're building a readership at the same time as giving you another platform to write on.

7) Value Your Time

If you're serious about earning a full-time income that will cover your bills and sustain your lifestyle comfortably, it's important you take stock of how much you're earning for your efforts in the time you spend. As an example, if you spend 1 hour writing an article you intend to sell on Constant Content for $50, it's likely you're earning around $32.50 per hour (that's after CC take their fee from your sale). However, if you spend waste 50 hours per week trying to earn $50 on a pennies-per-hour amateur site like Bubblews, you're earning $1 per hour.

Always monitor the hourly rate you're earning for your writing skills and talents. Have some self-respect and get rid of any writing avenue that doesn't match up to the amount you need to survive. Be brave enough to replace low paying sources with better quality clients or writing income sources as you find them.

These are just a few ideas to help increase your writing income. The best part about writing across different forms and niches is that you never get bored. You’ve always got something different to work on – and they all have the power to increase your income!

Any writer who is really willing to diversify and break into a few different forms of writing will find that earning a full-time income really is easier than you think! 

Writing Articles for Upfront Pay vs Writing for Revenue Share Sites

Have you ever read a freelance writing blog or website that tells you how AWESOME revenue share sites are for earning extra income? Usually, those tips are written by freelance writers who work from home and earn a bit of pocket change working on some cheap-skate revenue share sites.

Now, don't get me wrong - there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with earning a few extra bucks on the side from your writing efforts. Good for you! It's a great way to earn some pocket money.

What I'm talking about are those freelance writers who really want to make a real, sustainable, full-time income from their writing skills. You won't find any realistic tips to further your freelance writing career by following the advice from someone who earns a few pennies per hour on a revenue-share site.

How do I know this? I've joined up and made contributions to a few of those sites in the name of being able to research my reviews honestly and thoroughly. You can see two of them here:

Bubblews - http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/10/can-you-really-earn-money-writing-for.html
HubPages - http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/04/more-passive-income-from-freelance.html

All the freelance writing "tips" you've read from other beginners tell you it's a good idea to write lots and lots and lots of articles. Unless you're on Bubblews, then you're told to write lots and lots and lots of posts that their community call "bubbles".

You're also told not to expect much while you're still starting out. Rather, you're encouraged to keep submitting more content to a website you don't own and you don't control so those faceless website owners can get richer off your efforts while your popularity is still growing.

Let's Do Some Math...

I hear you groaning over there "oh, Bianca you're such a math-nerd". But seriously, math can be awesome fun for proving where your time and writing efforts are better spent.

Let's assume you spend 5 hours per day writing articles or posts for a revenue-share site, such as Bubblews. You spend another hour finding ways to promote your articles and entice other people to read them so you can earn a few extra pennies. You connect to a lot of other people, read their stuff, leave a comment and hope like crazy they bother to read yours in return.

By the end of the week, you've worked 30 hours and you've earned $25 (if you're lucky). YAY! That's less than a dollar an hour... if you can manage to get page views high enough... if you can get that many people viewing your articles... if the site's advertisers actually pay enough to warrant paying you a few cents for that post...if the site's cheap web-hosts actually keep the site online long enough for you to post anything on there...

If you do the same thing for 12 months, you'll have earned a grand total of $1,300... maybe. Remember, the amount you earn is shared revenue. If the site you're writing on loses their advertisers or changes their advertising modules, or if Google changes their algorithms again, your income could easily go way DOWN. You're also heavily dependent on making sure you can get lots and lots and lots of people to view your articles or posts.

Every. Single. Day....

All year long. Without stopping.

What's the Alternative?

Now let's look at it a different way. Let's assume you spend two hours writing a well-researched, well-written 700 word article and you submit it to a good marketplace like Constant Content or Ghostbloggers or Daily Article. You charge $78 for your effort. The marketplace takes their cut and you're left with $50 in your pocket that you get paid for right away.

You've earned $50 for 2 hours work. That's $25 per hour. Not awesome, but certainly not bad. Imagine spending 30 hours per week doing the same thing? That's a potential income of $750 per week if you did this full time. That's money you receive right now without having to spend hours promoting someone else's site or spend waste time commenting/liking/interacting. You simply move onto the next order.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's just stick with spending only two hours a week, writing one single, solitary article per week at $50 per piece. You put that in the bank and you earn 4% interest on your earnings. After 12 months, you have a guaranteed $2,704.12 in your account. Not a bad effort for 2 hours work per week.

It's also more than double what you could earn if you spent wasted your time on a crappy $1 per hour revenue-share site and the money is guaranteed. It's not a guess. It's not a maybe. That money is yours.

How does it look side by side:

	Revenue-Share Site	Selling Articles
Words Written	100 per post	700 per article
Number of pieces written	20	1
Sub-total words per week	2,000 (+words written for comments)	700
Number of comments left	100 (about 20 words per comment = 2,000)	0
Total words per week	4,000	700
Number of connections required	50	0
Time spent per week	30	2
Amount earned	$25 (maybe)	$50 (after fees)
Earnings after 1 year	$1,300	$2,600
Guaranteed Payment	No	Yes

Okay, so based on this example I know I would rather spend 2 hours earning $50 I can spend right NOW than spending 30 hours earning a variable and unpredictable amount of money that may never arrive. Besides, once I've earned my money, I can go hang out at the beach or in my boat and relax and enjoy the company of my husband and my daughter and my dog and the rest of my family. I'm not "bubbling" for 12-13 hours a day into the small hours of the night to earn an extra 3 cents.

Of course, I happen to work more than 35 hours per week writing articles for various clients and marketplaces ,so I do earn more than the examples shown here. It's not difficult. It's not slavery. It's not rocket science.

However, if you're still starting out 2 hours per week is a great start for someone wanting to start replacing income from a job with writing income. It's also a very handy part-time income for anyone already earning money elsewhere.

Comparing Accurately

Just to ensure that I'm giving accurate comparisons, in the past month I spent 30 minutes per day - AFTER I'd finished actual properly and respectfully paid writing assignments - spending wasting time on Bubblews to see whether the "claims" of various bubblers were actually true.
(here's the original post: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/10/can-you-really-earn-money-writing-for.html)

Yes, I got paid twice - despite the fact that lots of writers don't get paid by this site. If I spent 30 minutes per day on the site I earned a little more than $25 per month.

If I spent 30 minutes per day writing articles, I earned $50 per day which adds up to more than $1,100 per month. TWO HOURS PER DAY compared to more than 30 hours a week....

Gee... let me think for a moment.... Um $25 per MONTH on a crappy revenue-share site paying pennies or $50 per DAY? Hmmmm.... take a moment.... think about it.... what would you do?

Get the idea?

Even if you sold your articles for $10 each and write five articles per week, you're still earning $50 per week, which is still $200 per month - and still far more profitable than spending wasting time on a site like Bubblews.

Math lesson over.

Writing for Revenue Share Sites vs Writing On Your Own Private Blog

I admit it. I'm a numbers-nerd. I like to compare options and work out the actual numbers before I make a decision that might impact my freelance writing business.

Recently, I've had a lot of people slam my decision to NOT recommend revenue-sharing sites.

So here's my math-nerd response - and some questions for you to consider in the meanwhile.

Answer these questions...

Are you willing to write lots and lots of content for free in the hopes that you MIGHT earn some "passive" income in the future?

Are you also willing to spend a lot of time promoting your work to make sure you get lots of page views?

Does the idea of reading and commenting on lots of other people's pointless, aimless posts in the hopes that they might visit yours in return excite you?

If you said yes to any of these things, you probably already spend a lot of time trying to earn money from writing on a revenue share site. You may also own your own blog.

How do Revenue Share Sites Work?

Revenue share sites all work on a similar platform. The site owners earn money from advertising revenue generated by the content you create for them. They pay you a tiny portion of the revenue they receive based on how popular your posts are and how much they're earning at the time.

Owners of revenue share sites also place the responsibility for increasing your own page views right on your own shoulders. If you get no page views, you earn nothing. Even if you DO get page views, you may not always earn anything, depending on the advertisers they've chosen to use on their site that show up on your posts.

So it's your job to write the content, promote your work and find traffic for THEIR site.

If you're willing to write lots and lots of content for someone else's site, chances are you could end up in the ranks of "high" earning revenue share site writers, who are always in the minority. Or you could become another statistic earning less than $150 per year for hours and hours of low-paid work each week.

Let's be honest, most new online writers believe that getting paid by a "get paid to write" revenue share site is a good opportunity for them to learn. Likewise, the spiel sold on 'get paid to write' revenue share sites is that you earn more for contributing more. In other words, they really want you to work hard to make their site more popular for them. As they become more popular the amount of money they can earn from their advertisers increases, so they try to tell you that you'll earn more in the long run.  If that was true and the site owners were so confident about earning enough revenue from your work, why wouldn't they pay you upfront for your contributions?

What Are Your Options?

By comparison, you could create your own blog. You can also spend your time and effort writing lots and lots of free content. Only this time you have the choice which advertisers you work with.

You're still responsible for finding your own traffic and attracting new visitors to your posts and you're still responsible for promoting your work, so nothing changes there. You're also responsible for connecting with your readers and finding ways to entice them to keep coming back to visit your blog.

The difference is - you don't have to share your revenue with ANYONE. It's all yours.

Unfortunately, far too many new writers believe they can't do this. So they fall for the slick sales pitches revenue share sites sling at them and they hope to earn a few extra dollars over the long term. They think writing lots of posts and attracting visitors and promoting their new blog will be too hard.

... and yet they do the same things willingly for a revenue-share site for a fraction of the revenue. Curious.

Your Own Free Blog vs Revenue Share Sites

Let's say you spend three minutes setting up your own free blog on Blogger or on Wordpress or Typepad - or whatever blogging platform you want. You spend another 30 minutes signing up for a Google Adsense account, or an Amazon affiliates account, or a Clickbank affiliate account, or Chitika or Donanza or Neverblue - or any other type of advertising platform you want to play with.

You set up your blog's format and layout and you start blogging about whatever you love. You write 2 posts per week at around 500 words per port. Of course, you post a link to each post on your Facebook account and on your Twitter account so people know to come and read it.

Yes, it takes time to build up a following. But that's the same amount of time and effort you'd put into building up a following on a revenue-share site anyway.

Time for the Freelance Writing Math Lesson

It's time now for a little more freelance writing math.

Let's look at the comparisons side-by-side. For the purpose of this example, we're going to compare writing simple 100 word posts for Bubblews to writing 500 word posts for your own blog.

	Revenue-Share Site	Writing Articles for Your Blog
Words Written	100 per post	500 per article
Number of pieces written	20	2
Sub-total words per week	2,000 (+words written for comments)	1,000
Number of comments left	100 (about 20 words per comment = 2,000)	0
Total words per week	4,000	1,000
Number of connections required per week	50	0
Time spent per week	30	2
Amount earned per week	$25 (maybe)	$50 (maybe)
Earnings after 1 year	$1,300	$2,600
Guaranteed Payment	No	No

Hmmm... so you're earning around double the amount of money (maybe), but you're only spending two hours a week writing something you actually enjoy. Plus, you're not dependent on another site owner choosing what ads are displayed on your work.

You're also not dependent on them being honest about the amount of revenue you're actually earning for them while they give you a few pennies in return. When it's your blog, you get to see exactly how much you're earning from each different advertiser you have.

When you can see the statistics of which blog posts earn you the most money and gain you the most page views, you can duplicate your efforts and choose topics that people are more likely to come and read. You have more control over your online business, because you can see what's really happening behind the scenes.

But Owning a Blog is Hard Work...

What's that? You say it's hard to drive traffic to a blog? It's hard to increase page views? It's hard to think of new things to write?

So, what exactly are you doing on those revenue share sites anyway to earn a few extra pennies? You're focused on increasing your page views. You're focused on thinking of new things to write. You do all this in the hopes that someone else will pay you AFTER they get paid from the same advertisers you have the same level of access to directly.

Before you fall for the hype of earning "passive income" from a revenue share site, think carefully about your options. Your time and effort could be better spent elsewhere - for more money in the long run.

Personally, I own several blogs across a range of niches and topics. I know it took me a bit of time to get them up and running. It also took a bit of effort to get them ranked in search engines and to find a few regular followers.

I also know I earn quite a bit more each month from my blogs than most of the "higher earning" people on Bubblews earn. And I really only spend a few hours a month on each of them, because I also write articles and ebooks for various other clients throughout the day.

So, what's your choice for your own freelance writing business and your own freelance writing future?

:)

Making a Living As a Full-Time Freelance Writer Made Easy

One of the best parts about being a freelance writer is that YOU have the power to set up your business and your income YOUR way. You can choose what you write. You choose what clients you want to keep. You choose what sites you visit.

It's all under your control.

Yet I receive so many emails from writers who have absolutely no idea where to start. I get emails from writers who get stuck in low-paying content mills and end up burning out. I get lots of emails from writers who want to increase their income and build up business.

Of course, I also get emails from writers who just want to write for fun and not to try and make a big income.

It doesn't matter what your goal is with your freelance writing. The key is to remember that it's all about YOU and what you enjoy doing. When you can work that out, you're in a position to build your freelance business around your preferences, so you end up getting paid for doing what you love.

So let's look at all the options and see if you can find any that suit you...

Writing Just for Fun - And a Little Extra Cash

Believe it or not, there are sites out there that will pay you for writing anything at all. You can tell stories about your day or your memories or your dog or random thoughts. Whatever. Those sites do exist. The pay isn't great, but it's better than hanging out on Facebook. Go and have some fun. Socialize, connect and network with other people. Earn a couple of extra dollars while you're there. You'll find several sites mentioned in this post:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/freelance-writers-who-dont-want-to-be.html

Hobbyist vs Business-Person

Before you start building up your freelance writing business, take a careful look at whether you want to be a hobby writer who does this just for fun or whether you really want to head off down the professional business person path. Take a look at the difference between the two in this post:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/04/what-is-freelance-writing-really.html

Freelance Job vs Freelance Business

Did you know there's a difference between a freelance job and a freelance business? I'm often surprised by the number of people who ask me what freelance site they can join with so they can get a freelance job. There's nothing wrong with that, but just be sure you're aiming at the right thing before you sign up. You'll learn more about both options here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/freelance-job-vs-freelance-business.html

Debunking Freelancing Myths and Building Your Confidence

Ugh! The number of silly myths I see circulating online about freelance writing really frustrate me. Let's debunk some of those silly myths and find ways to build up your confidence in your own writing abilities at the same time. You'll find more information here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/freelance-writing-myths-dispelled.html

Finding Freelance Work

The biggest challenge most freelance writers face is figuring out how to find freelance work. There are plenty of options available to you, but the key is to work out which options suit your goals best. You'll learn all about some of those options here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/how-to-find-freelance-writing-work.html

Diversifying Your Freelance Business

It's a shame how many really good writers I see fall into the same trap. They become reliant on one form of income and they end up stuck when something goes wrong. This is why it's important to diversify your freelance income wherever you can. You'll see some options here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2009/09/private-freelance-clients-vs-content.html
and here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/increasing-your-freelance-income-with.html

Recession Proofing Any Freelance Business

Yes, it really is possible to recession-proof your freelance business. In fact, back in 2008-2009 my business almost tripled, so the big Global Financial Crisis didn't affect everyone. But you need to set up your business so you're protected, no matter what. Check out how right here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/recession-proofing-your-freelance.html

Benefits of Expanding Your Business Internationally

Many of the writers who read this blog are international writers, just like me. I'm in Australia, but the majority of my clients are in the US, the UK, Europe, New Zealand, India and several other parts of the world (of course, I have a few Aussie clients too). If you really want to build up your freelance business, you should understand the benefits of taking your business global, here:
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/benefits-of-being-international-writer.html

Hopefully the posts listed above will help you on your way to building up your freelance writing income so that you get paid for doing exactly what you love doing every day - WRITING!

:)

(image from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1197801)

Boost Freelance Writing Income with Cloud Crowd

Recently I received an email from a reader asking if I had heard of Cloud Crowd and whether the money making opportunities there are any good.

I had never heard of them before, so I figured I would sign up and see what it's all about. Here's what I found out:

What's Cloud Crowd About?

Basically, Cloud Crowd pays you to complete various tasks that range in pay from just pennies up to $30 per task. You can select whether you want to work on lots of really easy micro-tasks that take 30-40 seconds to complete or whether you want to work on more involved tasks, like researching and writing articles at $30 per piece.

Can Anyone Join Cloud Crowd?

Yes. Anyone with a Facebook account and a Paypal account can join Cloud Crowd.

Keep in mind that Cloud Crowd doesn't operate from a standard .com website, even though all their instructions and support forums are on a regular website. The actual work is posted to a Facebook application instead.

Once you've created your Cloud Crowd account, head over to the link that says "Earn Money Now". You can select tasks right away - however, it's strongly advised that you read the FAQ on their site so you understand what's expected of you.

Micro Jobs vs Writing Jobs on Cloud Crowd

If you intend to just complete lots of little micro-tasks to earn your money, then go right ahead and get started! The pay for this type of work is quite low, but as long as you're quick and you're careful about making sure your work is correct, you will get paid tomorrow for any approved work you do.

However, if you intend to accept more involved work, such as writing articles or press releases, editing, marketing work or proofreading, you can expect to be paid up to $25 per hour or 5 cents per word for your time for some of these more involved tasks. In order to qualify for this level of work, you will be asked to complete a Writer Credential Test.

There are several Credential Tests you'll need to take, depending on the type of work you want to complete. The majority of these are basically testing your comprehension and usage of the English language. If you're already working as a freelance writer you should find these Credential Tests very easy to pass.

Does Cloud Crowd Really Pay You?

Yes. Payment is made daily on Monday through to Friday via Paypal for any tasks you've completed that day. There is no minimum payout threshold you have to reach. You just need to have finished some tasks in your Cloud Crowd account.

So if you complete a few tasks on a Monday and they're all approved on Monday night, you can expect to see payment turn up in your Paypal account on Tuesday night.

Advantages to Working with Cloud Crowd

There are some definite advantages I've noticed when working with Cloud Crowd. Here are some of them:

1. Next Day Payment - that's always a bonus in anyone's book, right? It's even nicer that there's no minimum payout threshold you have to reach. You just get paid for any approved work you submitted.

2. Lots of Variety - if you're keen to work on the higher paying tasks, it's quite easy to earn a decent amount of money fairly quickly here. However, if you want a bit of a break from the researching or editing or whatever you're doing or you just want to fill in a bit of time at the end of a work day, you can always pick up some quick, basic categorization tasks that only take a few seconds to complete.

3. Get Paid to Review - yes, that's right. You don't even have to do the work yourself if you don't want to. You can choose to review other people's work and get paid for your time that way.

4. Correct Any Rejected Work - if your work is rejected, you still have the opportunity to correct it and resubmit it again. At least your work isn't wasted!


Downsides to Working with Cloud Crowd

As with most things, there are always negative aspects to think about. Here are some of the biggest disadvantages I noticed:

1. Peer Review - any work you submit at Cloud Crowd is reviewed by other workers on the site. If somebody decides to reject what you've submitted, you don't get paid for it unless you successfully appeal the decision. It's also a bit lame that anyone can decide to reject something you've done, even if you've followed the rules exactly. You can keep appealing those incorrect rejections, but you're limited to 16 appeals per month.

2. You Must Disable Secure Browsing - when you're working on tasks at Cloud Crowd  you are required to switch off your browser's secure browsing option. You can always turn it back on again when you've finished work, but always remember to run a good anti-virus or anti-spyware software on your computer every day or two. You'll be amazed at how much spyware and adware programs turn up on your computer the moment you switch off secure browsing. Personally, I decided to do any Cloud Crowd work on my laptop and keep my office computer safer that way.

3. 16 Appeals per 30 Days - as there are so many people working on Cloud Crowd  the number of people having perfectly good work rejected is very high. Unfortunately, you're only allowed to submit 16 appeals each month.

4. Credibility Score - everyone who works at Cloud Crowd is given a Credibility Score that doesn't seem to make much sense. Every time you complete a task, your credibility score will increase. If your work is rejected, your credibility score will decrease. If you let your score get below 30, Cloud Crowd will close your account.  While this seems like a really positive way to get people to follow the instructions and submit great work, I don't see it that way. What I see is that it takes a lot of tasks and a lot of effort to get a high score. But if you get one piece rejected, your score drops really fast.

5. They Want Your SSN - if you're in America, Cloud Crowd will ask for your SSN. I personally don't have one (I'm in Australia!!) - but for those of you in the US, you can just switch up the first two or middle two numbers in your SSN to get your foot in the door. That way no one has your details, you get your account and your identity stays safe :)


What's the Verdict for Cloud Crowd?

So far my verdict is mostly positive. For those looking for easy ways to earn quick money online that pays you the very next day, Cloud Crowd could be a great start. If you're willing to work your way through the Credential Tests, there's even the possibility of earning decent money for your time and effort.

I'd love to hear some feedback from anyone who's tried this site and had any success.

:)

Get Paid to Write Music Reviews on SliceThePie!

Well, here's a site that really made me sit up and pay attention. Apparently it's possible to get paid to write reviews and critique new songs from music artists. You actually get to give your opinion about what you think of new music being released.

The site is called Slice The Pie and all writers/reviewers are called Scouts here.

All you need to get started is a Facebook account and a Paypal account - and you're set to earn money.

You don' t need any special skills to get started here. The site just wants your opinion on what you think of song tracks you listen to. Just say what you think about the song and move onto the next. It's really easy.

It takes a few minutes to create a new account, simply because you're asked about your interests and music genre preferences. This is so Slice The Pie  can match your tastes to the type of music they offer you.Choose the type of music you actually enjoy, as this will make it much more fun for you when you're only listening to tracks you're likely to enjoy.

When you get through the 8 question process, you're ready to become a scout. You'll be taken immediately to your first track.

Basically, your task is to listen to at least 90 seconds of a new song. You can rate that song on a scale of 0 to 10. You also need to write a review about your opinion of the song you just heard.

Earning More Money on Slice the Pie

Remember, the better your review is for the song you heard on Slice The Pie, the more you're likely to get paid for it. Be constructive in the feedback you offer and if you really feel the need to leave criticism, be respectful about it.

The musicians who created those tracks value your opinion and your feedback, so try to be fair to the work and effort they put into making that song.

The length of your review isn't important - what matters here is the quality. If you can write constructive reviews that contain descriptive words relating to what you felt about each song, it's really easy to reach payout very quickly.

You can cheat here by remembering to use lots of adjectives to describe what you're saying. The automated system seems to think that describing a song with lots of adjectives means paying you more money! It works.

Building Your Member Rank

Slice The Pie have a Ranking system for their writers. Whenever you submit a review you gain experience and member ranking. As you increase both of these factors, the amount you can earn also increases.

You start off with a ranking of about 40%. As you do more reviews, your ranking increases and so does your pay.

Does Slice the Pie Pay Writers?

Yes. Slice The Pie will pay you directly into your PayPal account every Tuesday and Friday. You can request a payout the moment your account reaches $10 US.

How Much Do Slice the Pie Pay for Reviews

The amount you're paid for reviews on Slice The Pie varies widely. You can earn up to $0.20 cents per review, but they're very quick and easy, so you should reach payout relatively fast. The site seems to prefer reviews that contain descriptive words and be sure you use proper English when you're writing.

What's the Verdict for Slice the Pie?

This site seems to be legitimate. I've only reviewed a couple of songs so far to see how the process works and it seems very easy. The pay is quite low, but if you're bored at the end of a work day and want a bit of extra cash, it's a fun way to earn money.

With that in mind, I've also seen a couple of complaints from writers saying they didn't get paid - but some of those also admit to not sticking to the rules. ALWAYS take the time to check that you're following the rules before you start reviewing. If you stick to the rules, you should get paid for writing reviews every time with no problem.


If you've joined with Slice The Pie and been paid, or if you've had problems with the site, I'd love to hear your comments and feedback about your own experiences

:)

Let's Talk Freelance Writing Math....

In a previous post, I reviewed a site called Bubblews. This is a revenue-sharing site that pays its members a share of the revenue they generate from placing ads on the site.

Members are expected to post short little 'bubbles' that are longer than 400 characters (or around 100 words). They're also expected to read other people's bubbles, 'Like' them and leave comments on them.

A part of my review also pointed out that there are a LOT of people out there writing every day for this site and not getting paid for their efforts.

So.... let's play with some freelance writing basic math:

Case Study 1

Let's say you spend 5 hours a day for a whole month writing bubbles, reading other bubbles, liking other people's stuff and generally trying to get other people to read yours. You finally make it to the $50 payment threshold limit and click the big green 'Redeem' button. Nothing happens. You don't get paid. How odd. You've always been paid before - and so has every other bubbler you know. Why did they miss your payment this time? And so you start wondering what you've done wrong.

Now, it's estimated that there are about 100,000 users on Bubblews. If everyone accidentally gets passed over for just ONE payout each.... that's $5,000,000 that the owners aren't paying out. But you can bet the site owners are still making that same $5 million dollars in their account from the work and effort of all those other people.

Curious!!

Let's look at some different math figures...

Case Study 2

Let's say you spend lots of hours writing and connecting and liking and commenting on Bubblews. After two whole weeks of working for 5 or 6 hours a day, you finally reach the $50 minimum payout threshold.

Seriously? 50 hours work for $50 payout? That's a $1 per hour wage.

There are people on the site who take 2 or 3 weeks to reach payout. That's $0.30 cents per hour they're struggling and slaving so hard for. Seriously??

Let's compare that to picking up a writing gig at a site like Fiverr.com You accept a job paying $5 to leave comments on someone else's blog. You finish the job and you get paid. Awesome. You still have time left in the same day to pick up another gig and earn another $5. If you're quick, you might be able to do a few of these in the same day. And you ALWAYS get paid.

It's not great pay, but it's certainly higher than slave-labor rates.

Case Study 3

There's always some bright spark out there willing to put on a smug face and say "Oh, but you're totally forgetting about the residual income you can earn on Bubblews".

No.

I'm not forgetting a thing. I'm working on facts, figures and actual math. When you're doing the same, we'll talk about who's forgetting what.

Let's do some more math.

You write 10 bubbles a day at a minimum of 100 words each. That's 1,000 words you've written for the day. Then you spend hours and hours connecting to other people, liking their posts, commenting on them, all in the hopes that they MIGHT come and look at yours in return so you get paid another $0.01 cent for your 6 hours of time and effort.

I wrote 1,000 words in my Bubblews review right here on this blog (here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/10/can-you-really-earn-money-writing-for.html) It took me around 20 minutes to write the review, but I admit it took me about 2 hours to research the site, join up, create some bubbles of my own so I knew what I was reviewing, look around, email a few other writers about their experiences and put together my notes.

I earned more in residual income from writing and posting on my own blog yesterday than I did from my time on Bubblews. AND I didn't have to go and visit multiple other blogs, leave comments, try and make lots of connections or any other pathetic time-wasting activity.

Guess what? The math says it's FAR more profitable to start a free blog on Blogger and post a few ads in the sidebar, then spend 20 minutes a WEEK publishing a post when you have time.

End of case study 3.

Case Study 4

While we're talking about residual income, let's look at the difference between hoping for a few cents per page-view from Bubblews and calling it "residual income" and how a professional, full-time freelance writer earns income every day.

Yes, I write full time for various clients who pay me for the words I write. Nice.

But I also generate a considerable amount of passive income every month without doing a thing after the initial work is completed.

Yes, I have Google Adsense ads in the side bar here on this blog. I have Donanza ads running. I have Clickbank affiliate ads running. I also have Constant Content widgets running. On other blogs, I have Amazon Affiliate ads and Commission Junction ads running as well.

And I have multiple blogs running across various niches and topics. Add the residual earnings from all those up every DAY and they add up to far more than most people working full time on Bubblews make in a MONTH.

Sure, I tried Hubpages with some success (review is here). I tried Squidoo with some success. Meh. Not impressive.

You know what really does work for residual income for a writer? Royalties. Write a book. Publish it. Get paid every time you sell a book for the next few years to come. It's not hard. Think of it as compiling 15 articles together in logical order called Chapters (or think of it as putting together 200 bubbles and a few hundred comments into some kind of order for a similar result).


So What Else Should You Write to Earn Money?

Aside from Bubblews offering writers their insane slave-labor pay rates, there are SO MANY better paying writing gigs out there that you really want to start questioning what you're doing on a slave-labor site in the first place.

Let's look at simple, easy, quick "paid to post in forums" type of jobs. There are plenty out there. The work is easy and you get paid regularly. Here are some for you:

http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/10/paid-forum-posting-and-paid-blog.html
http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2008/12/paid-forum-posting-jobs.html

What about writing articles for other people? There are lots of content mills out there paying anywhere from $2 per article up to $25 per article. That's not great, but it still pays a LOT higher than a slave-labor site like Bubblews. Think about iWriter.com or textbroker.com (international writers to textbroker.co.uk) or need-an-article.com or places like that. The pay is not great, but you'll do far better with these than you ever will with Bubblews.

How about writing articles and submitting them to a marketplace for sale? I generate a lot of sales from writing whatever I feel like and submitting them to Constant Content. Set your own prices and write what you want. Easy.

Want to take your writing to a pro level? Submit queries to editors at your favorite magazines. The pay rates are 50 to 100 times better than you'll find with online markets. And it's much easier than most people realize.

So there's our freelance writing math lesson for the day.

Any questions?

Can You Really Earn Money Writing for Bubblews?

Recently, I received an email from a concerned reader telling me about a site known as Bubblews . The reader was worried that the site may potentially be a scam, as that reader had amassed earnings of around $125, only to find that the account had been de-activated, closed down, and all earnings removed.

So I thought I'd look into the site a bit further.

What is BubbleWS?

Basically, Bubblews is the new revenue-share kid on the block. They share the revenue generated from Google Adsense ads and a few other advertisers on their site with the users. The site is set up much like a social networking site, where you're expected to make connections and read posts by other users. Of course, you're expected to write things and post to the site too if you hope to make any money.

What's Different About This Site?

Most revenue-share sites (including HubPages and Squidoo) have their own little communities. However, Bubblews is a little more like a social networking site than a content site. You're expected to make connections and you're expected to leave comments on any new posts your connections publish.

Now, you're definitely NOT allowed to suggest that other people leave comments on your own posts. You're also NOT allowed to link back to your own posts or add referral links to other sites.

However, because this site has such a strong social feel to it, there's an unspoken agreement that the more posts you read and leave comments on, the more likely it is that those people will come and read yours in return.

Obviously, the more Likes you have and the more page views you get, the higher your income is supposed to get.

What's the Catch?

Bubblews wants you to sign up and just write! Write about anything you want, on any topic you feel like. They don't mind. They'll even accept international writers, as long as you can accept payments via Paypal.

What they DO want is that each of your posts is longer than 400 characters. Read that part again properly. I didn't write 400 words per post. I wrote 400 characters! This is around 100 words or so, which won't take long to write.

If you can do that, you're ready to start making money on Bubblews. In fact, if you can't find a way to make money anywhere else online, this is a great way to get started earning a few bucks here and there.

How Does Payment Work?

When you first sign up, you'll be paid $1 for your first post. After that, it seems that you're paid based on how many views your posts get and how many 'Likes' they receive. Apparently you're paid $0.01 cent for each page view you receive, $0.01 cent for each Like you receive, $0.01 cent for every comment you receive and $0.01 cent for every social media share you get.

Join the community and make some connections. Visit them and they'll visit you too. Leave comments and they'll come and comment on your pages. It seems to be the only real way to keep your page views high. Unfortunately, the majority of people who connect with you without any prior contact are those who are hoping you'll like their bubbles or comment on their bubbles. They have no interest in you or your writing at all. Sad, really - but very prevalent on this site.

The minimum pay out amount is $50 USD through Paypal. As long as you have more than $50 in earnings in your account, you can ask for a payout.

Is There a Referral Program?

Yes, there is a very lame referral program. Yes, I used to have an evil referral link behind every mention of Bubblews you see on this page. They pay a pathetic $0.20 cents for each person who joins up AND who writes a 400 character post. Not exciting. The referral program is not really worth the effort.

Is Bubblews a Scam?

Before I wrote this article, I spent some time researching what other people have to say about Bubblews. The reader who originally emailed me about this site was concerned that more than $125 in earnings had disappeared unpaid.

A quick Google search confirmed that there are LOTS of writers out there that haven't been paid by this site. There are plenty of writers out there who just didn't get paid for the time and effort they put into this site. Actually refine your search and type in "Is Bubblews a Scam?" and the results you get are astounding. Then try searching for "Bubblews doesn't pay writers". You'll get the same staggering results.

Most people who haven't been paid have legitimately read the terms and conditions. They haven't done anything to contravene them. The comments on their complaints are from readers who all say the same thing... "Oh, you must have broken the rules". Those commenters don't look any deeper into the problem and dismiss those complaints.

However, the exact same Google search also showed me lots of writers who make some decent pocket money on the site AND get paid regularly. It appears there are even a few writers out there pressing that big green 'Redeem' button quite a few times a month and getting paid each time. It's still VERY low earnings, but it's not bad for spare change, right?

It seems to me that Bubblews is still new and finding their feet. They have lots of glitches and bugs to work through.The site is often offline for hours at a time. They also have some downtime problems, where the site goes down due to being overloaded. If those unfortunate writers pressed the big green 'Redeem' button during one of their downtime sessions, then it's likely their payout request was never received. Unfortunately, another glitch on the site is that if that request disappears, it doesn't come back. You lose.

What Are My Concerns about Bubblews?

Okay, so I've had a look around the site. I've spoken to a few other writers and I've searched the internet for any information I can find about Bubblews. I even created an account there and aimed at reaching payout to see if they actually paid or not.

The site is slow. It's filled with incredibly mundane, low-quality content. Its quite amateurish in its design. And its filled with absolute newbies who think being paid 1 cent per page view is a huge amount of money - and then instantly brag about how much they're earning.

My biggest concern is the number of writers complaining about not being paid. There are LOTS of them out there. The majority of them say that they've adhered to the terms and conditions. Sure, there are some that admit they've posted referral links. There are some who realize they may not have attributed the rightful source of various graphics.

But the rest have done nothing wrong. They didn't get paid.

My next biggest concern is the apparent lack of communication or support from the site owners/moderators when users email or contact them.

Another major concern is that the business model for Bubblews just isn't sustainable. There have been a lot of decent sites disappear due to lack of funding over the years. Now, Bubblews does have sponsors and it does earn ad revenue through Google Adsense ads and various other network ads shown on posts. But is this enough to sustain it through the start-up phase and on into prosperity? I'm doubtful.

There's also the concern of so many low quality posts shown on Bubblews. Seriously, you can write ANYTHING at all and you'll earn money if you get page views and a few Likes. But I'm thinking about all the Google algorithm changes that actually punish low quality content.

Can a site with no real, actual quality content remain financially viable? Doubtful.  Remember what happened to Squidoo, Suite101, Triond, Associated Content, Ezine Articles, Xomba, Article Dashboard, InfoBarrel and other sites like that?

Yeah. They all got punished for their amazing array of low quality drivel and either had to change their tactics, improve their quality or just vanished totally.

My Verdict?

I've decided that I can NEVER endorse this site as a viable option for serious freelance writers. The pay is pennies-per-hour slave labor that anyone with a passing knowledge of the English language could out-earn without much effort on any other professional freelance writing site.

However those few pennies might be a decent start for absolute beginners and amateur hobbyists. I've seen some excellent reviews and some very positive comments about Bubblews. I've also seen some very negative, disturbing and worrying comments and reviews at the same time from writers who feel ripped off by the site for not being paid after doing what they were supposed to do.

I also read a LOT of comments from writers who had their work on Bubblews deleted, removed or otherwise censored, just because their posts mentioned other writing sites that could help other writers to earn more than a few lousy pennies.

I personally had multiple posts deleted from the site for daring to mention that there are other freelance writing sites around that people might find more profitable (that was before I vandalized, trashed and otherwise deleted my own account once my research was finished). Apparently Bubblews doesn't like any form of competition, despite them claiming to love 'freedom of expression'.

Yes, folks. If you dare to say anything negative about the site at all, the chances of you getting paid are very close to ZERO. Including saying anything on private blogs, social media or other sites AWAY from Bubblews. If you want your money, play nice, play dumb and act like a total newbie. Those options seem to be the only way to guarantee you'll get paid on Bubblews, sadly.

And then there's my own time spent wasted on the site trying to research for this post. I spent wasted quite a lot of time posting silly things and trying to get the account up high enough to see if they would bother to pay me. Of course, I only bothered with the site AFTER my main income-producing writing gigs were finished for the day. There's NO WAY I'm going to earn pennies for my time and effort when I have clients that pay REAL adult income levels for my time and effort properly.

Final verdict:

Bubblews is not worth your time or effort. By the time you spend  waste hours trying to make new connections and read other people's stuff in the hopes that they *might* drop by and read one of your posts so you can earn one more penny, you'll make more money flipping burgers at McDonalds. Seriously.

If you've already joined the Bubblews community, I'd love to see your comments about your experiences there! Have you been paid? Are you earning money? Or are you one of those who has lost their earnings and not been paid, despite the time and effort you've put in?

Let us  know!

:)

Update 1: here's a quick look at some simple freelance writing math using Bubblews as a basis for earning vs not being paid. http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2013/10/lets-talk-freelance-writing-math.html

Update 2: it's been 4 weeks since I joined this site and tried to reach payout minimum. Geez I'm BORED!!! There's no bigger motivation killer for a full-time freelance writer who's used to earning more than $50 per hour than being paid $0.10 cents per hour for your work. I'll persevere until I manage to reach that payout mark. At the rate I'm going, plus the boredom factor, plus the fact that I prefer to actually get paid for my time and effort, I find it difficult to find enough motivation to even log into the site. But I'll continue! Just so I can post here whether I actually got paid by this site or not. Then we'll see whether my SEO skills are up par or not.... he he he

Update 3: Did I Get Paid by Bubblews?

So I reached redemption amount and I got paid. Yes, they actually paid me. It took them four days to process the payment request and another three days for the payment to clear. I got paid twice that month.

But, do you know what? For a lousy $25 that took a month of wasted time and effort - I can say that Bubblews is NOT worth the effort. Spend your time and talent elsewhere. Anywhere else.  Seriously.

Update 4: Bubblews is for Amateurs

Well, I got my payout without hitch, so the rumors that Bubblews doesn't pay aren't exactly true. I also got a couple of residual payments from them from the lame dribble posts I put up there. I decided to test their resolve and see how much they'll deal with before deleting my account.

My experiment was quite simple. I posted a screenshot of my earnings from ONE day from ONE other freelance writing site, showing that it's very possible and very easy to earn 10 times the amount of money the more prolific people say they're earning from Bubblews. It took 24 hours for that post to be deleted. I ranted, raved and complained in a subsequent post about having my post deleted. That post was also deleted (can't say anything negative about Bubblews, remember? They have no confidence in themselves, so they won't allow it).

So I chose to delete EVERY SINGLE POST I had created on the pathetic amateur pennies-per-hour slave labor site (lucky there were only 59 little 90 word posts there, huh?) Apparently, when you delete your own work, you owe THEM money. HA!! My account went into a massively negative figure. Within 12 hours, my entire account was blocked  or banned or deleted or whatever.

I don't care. I don't miss it. The amount I earned from writing this review out-stripped the pathetic amount I received from Bubblews during my research, so I don't see the point of continuing with Bubblews in any form.  I don't lament the loss of a mob of newbies who think they're suddenly rich for earning $50 per month, which is something they could easily do by returning bottles and cans to the recycling depot or by cleaning toilets for less than minimum wage in any country on this planet. Ridiculous.

If you're still happy writing for a site like Bubblews, I am truly sorry that you don't value your time or efforts for what they're worth. I have spent years on this blog trying to show writers that they are worth so much more for their time, their talent and their skills, so it pains me to see writers thinking they're getting a "good deal" by being ripped off by this ridiculous amateur site.

Good luck! You'll need it ...

Paid Forum Posting and Paid Blog Commenting on Postloop

Today I received an email from one of my readers about a site called Postloop. Apparently, this site pays writers to post in forums and leave comments on blogs.

So I thought I'd check it out and see what I could learn.

Firstly, they do accept international writers. Payments are made via Paypal for amounts over $5 USD and they'll send your payment out within 24 hours of you asking to be paid.

How Do You Join?

The site is here: Postloop

It takes about a minute to create a new account that you have to activate by clicking a link in an email they send you. Once you're done, take another minute to set up your profile. You're asked to select up to 7 interests if you want to. When you're done, save your profile.

Now, here's the part that the site doesn't make very clear. Just because you've joined up doesn't automatically mean you're going to get paid. You need to pass an approval process first.

Here's the approval process, copied directly from the FAQ page from the Postloop site:

Below is how the application process works. You must follow every step in the exact order listed:

- Join The Postloop Portal

- Subscribe to The Postloop Portal here: http://www.postloop.com/subscriptions/subscribe/369 

(this is different from joining!!!)

- Make 10 posts at The Postloop Portal

- Wait up to 24 hours for approval. Postloop staff will review your posts made, and if they are of acceptable quality, your account will be approved to start subscribing to any of the sites at Postloop. You will be notified immediately via email and inside of your Postloop account once your posts have been reviewed.

If you post and then subscribe, your posts will not count. Only posts that you make after you subscribe will count. 

Before you start complaining about making 10 posts and being ripped off by working for nothing, take a moment to think about it. The site owners need to ensure that their paid writers are willing to follow the rules. That's why they put rules here.

If you CAN follow the rules and your forum posts or blog comments are considered good quality, you're all set to start earning money. Head over to the Postloop Portal and start posting!

If you CAN'T follow the rules, your posts won't be accepted and your Postloop account will be closed.

How Much Does Postloop Pay?

The FAQ section on the Postloop website says they pay writers an average of $0.07 cents per post, depending on a range of factors. Those factors include your writer Rating and whether you're eligible to earn bonus points or not to boost your income. If you can't manage to earn any bonus points, you're paid around $0.05 cents per post.

What's the Rating System About?

Apparently, every time you submit a post it will be Rated. Your own Postloop dashboard will show what your Rating is.

If you have a Rating that is higher than 4, you become eligible to earn bonus points, which can be a great way to increase how much you earn from this site. You're able to convert those bonus points to cash and redeem them through Paypal. Your points are worth $0.05 cents per point and you need a minimum of 100 points to withdraw them.

When Do You Get Paid?

If your account balance is higher than $5, you can request Postloop to pay the amount you're owed into your Paypal account.

So there you have it. If you're looking for a way to earn a few extra bucks in your spare time, go ahead and join up with Postloop. If you've already joined up and earning money with them, please leave a comment and let others know what you think!

:)

Increasing Your Freelance Income with Constant Content

I know I've sung the praises of Constant Content on my blog before (back on this post http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2008/08/making-money-with-constant-content.html from a few years ago), but I think this needs to be written for those of you who haven't tried the site for yourselves yet.

Basically, Constant Content is a marketplace site that lets you submit any article you want onto their site. You can write about absolutely anything at all! When you're done, you submit the article and you get to name your own price for your work. Buyers come and check out what's available and they buy the articles they like.

It sounds really easy, huh?

Unfortunately, I still get emails from freelance writers who simply can't get an article accepted. I also get emails asking for help from writers who submit articles and can't make a sale. Sadly, I also get emails from people who signed up for the site, but never got around to submitting anything. You can't sell anything if you don't submit something first!

So I figured I'd write this post to give you a bit of an idea how I manage to make so many regular sales on Constant Content every single DAY!

Requested Content

One of the easier ways to increase your chances of making more sales is to check out the 'Requested Content' section. You'll see three tabs across the top here. These are for Public Requests, Private Requests and Standing Orders. The Public Requests section shows you specific articles that customers want to buy. They tell you what topics they want and how much they're willing to pay. Write for these if you find topics that interest you.

Standing Orders

Sometimes the Standing Orders are great value. These are orders placed by the admin team at Constant Content for specific content that always sells well, but that they need more articles for. This is sometimes also because they expect large orders from certain clients. I tend to submit multiple articles to these regularly and they always sell very well at between $40 and $50 per 500 word article! Too easy!

Quality Counts

The editors at Constant Content are quite strict. They expect your articles to have completely correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Even the smallest mistake will get your article rejected. Be ultra-careful with your wording and ensure your syntax is correct or they'll pick up on these things too. So be sure to edit everything before you submit. Of course, as professional freelance writers you already do this before you submit any work to anyone, right?

Formatting

They want you to format your articles to their exact specifications before they'll even read them. This means you need to set your font to Times New Roman or Arial and it needs to be 12 point. If you're going to create a "Top 10" list, don't just start your article with the numbers. Actually include a short introductory paragraph, otherwise it will get rejected.

Writing Ideas

In the navigation bar on the left hand side of your Constant Content account is a link for 'Writing Ideas'. Visit this section often, as it shows you what articles have sold recently and how much a customer paid for them. This is a great way to see what topics are selling and what's popular right now.

Build Your Portfolio

One of the biggest factors to how many sales you'll make on Constant Content is building up a portfolio of work. The more articles you have available for sale, the more likely it is that someone will buy something from you. As I tend to make regular sales, my portfolio keeps shrinking. Those sold articles become unavailable once someone buys them, leaving fewer and fewer available articles for customers to buy. This means I need to find a bit of time at the end of each working day to write one more article to submit to the marketplace to keep my portfolio growing. I made a commitment to myself that once my work was done for paying clients each day I would write just one more article to add to the marketplace to keep that portfolio growing.  The bigger your portfolio is, the more sales you'll make in the end.

Patience

Yes, it's true. I have some articles sitting in the marketplace that have been there for a few months. Some sell within hours of being approved. The key with this particular market is patience. It DOES take several days to get articles approved by the editors (unless you're submitting an article for a request - then it can take 24 hours or so). It DOES sometimes take a bit of time to find the right buyer for your work. But if you're diligent about submitting more articles to the marketplace regularly, you'll find that something is always selling and you get paid regularly as a result. Besides, those pieces that end up sitting there for months will eventually sell too, so you still get paid in the end.

Be Diverse

When I first starting submitting articles to this site, I stuck to the topics I really love to write about. This meant most of my portfolio was in the same one or two categories. One day I was writing about a brand new topic for one of my clients and I found it enjoyable. When the order was finished, I wrote two more articles on the same topic to submit to Constant Content. Both of those sold within hours of being accepted. This taught me that it's always a good idea to spread your articles across a broad range of different categories and topics. You also want to be sure you have a variety of prices on your work too. I have some quick, short pieces sitting at $25 per article and I have more highly focused pieces sitting at $150 per article, with others priced somewhere in between. This attracts the more focused buyers at the more expensive end, but it also increases your chances of quick, easy sales at the cheaper end. You appeal to more buyers that way, which means more profit for you in the end!

Seasonal Topics

It's surprisingly easy to sell lots of articles around holiday themes, but so many writers overlook this avenue completely. Halloween articles, Christmas articles, Thanksgiving articles, Easter articles - these things sell like crazy. Admittedly you need to keep your prices competitive in these types of seasonal niches, but you'll make plenty of sales very quickly so it all adds up in your favor.

Writer Pools

Constant Content does have a private order section that is reserved for writers who ALWAYS submit high quality content for requested orders. After you've had 10 articles accepted, you may be eligible for the private writer pools. I earn more money from direct orders in the writer pools than I do from random sales you see in the requested content section. These orders tend to pay higher than regular orders and they're almost always accepted without the strict editorial rules of general articles.  Keep your quality high and respond to requested content orders. Before long, you'll be invited to the writer pools that are seriously so profitable you'll wonder what you did before!!

Pricing

It's important to work out your pricing points carefully on this site. There are some highly focused niche topics that will easily fetch $150 or $200 per article. However, there are also topics where the buyers won't pay any more than $10 or $20 per article. Work out what you want to be paid for the word count you submit and check out other articles in your categories. You can see their word counts and pricings very clearly by doing a simple search on the site.

Remember, Constant Content takes a whopping 35% fee off the price you charge for your articles. So if you charge $100 for your work, they're going to take a $35 fee out of your sale price. This will leave $65 in your account. Always take this fee into account when you're setting up your prices.

Payment

Constant Content pays twice a month in US Dollars through Paypal - but ONLY if you set your account correctly. The default setting in your account is set at monthly payments. You need to click the link on the left hand side of your account page that says 'Edit My Account'. On this page is an option to change your payment frequency to bi-monthly instead. Remember, you must have made more than $5 in sales to reach pay-out minimums.

There you have it. Those are my tips for making more freelance writing income through Constant Content. While it might not make you a full-time income, it's certainly an easy way to get your income up every month without much effort - and that's always a good thing.

Have fun :)