ContentMart - Great Freelance Writing Platform

If you're looking for a steady stream of online freelance writing work, try ContentMart.

ContentMart makes it easy for freelance writers to find good quality writing jobs quickly.

There are always plenty of jobs posted, so writers can pick and choose the projects they want to complete. There are new projects posted every day

What's more, ContentMart accept international writers, so as long as you can write quality articles and receive good ratings from the editors and clients, it's a great way to earn a constant income.

Getting Started with ContentMart

Head over to ContentMart and create your profile. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. You'll be sent an email to verify and activate your account.

Once your account is activated, you'll be asked to complete your profile, including contact information, preferred topics or niches of expertise, and a brief writing sample (about 500 words) to show off your writing style.

Complete the Tests

Before you can start picking up any work with ContentMart you'll be asked to complete some tests to show your proficiency in the fields you've selected as your preferred topics or niches of expertise. Each test is relatively quick and easy, so get them done and completed. You're given a set of 20 questions and given a time limit of 20 minutes to answer them, although it should take much less time than this to complete the test.

Start Writing

Once you've cleared the tests to become a 'Vericate Writer', you're able to start choosing the writing jobs and projects you want to work on. There are thousands of clients who submit regular assignments to the platform, so there are always plenty of jobs to choose from.

Payment

 ContentMart has two different payment options. If you're a writer earning US dollars, your funds will be deposited into your PayPal account. However, if you're in India, you're able to withdraw any money you've earned from your writing efforts directly to your bank account once your balance reaches the minimum threshold of 3000 INR

The platform also offers a safe billing system that protects the writer. If a client assigns work to a writer and then cancels the order later, the writer still gets paid.

Referral Program

ContentMart does offer a referral program that pays 10% of the referred writer's earnings for 12 months. You'll find your referral link in your portfolio after you've completed the sign-up process.

 If you know some writers who would like the opportunity to increase their freelance writing income, you can refer them to the platform and earn a bonus for your efforts.

And yes, all the links to ContentMart shown on this page are referral links. If you sign up using this link, I get a bit of a bonus that helps me keep this blog free.

:)

Can You Leverage Amazon’s Kindle Publishing to Boost Your Freelance Writing Income?

Can You Leverage Amazon’s Kindle Publishing to Boost Your Freelance Writing Income?

Did you know there are more than 18 million Kindle devices worldwide? There are almost half a billion Android devices out there as well, along with almost 400 million Apple iOS devices, all of which can download and read Kindle ebooks. Of course, you’re also able to read Kindle ebooks right from your desktop computer screen, using the right software to make reading accessible.

That’s certainly a lot of people around the world with access to downloading and reading ebooks. Of course, Amazon lists almost 2 million ebooks in their e-bookstore for you to browse and choose from. When you combine the sheer number of people browsing for something to read with the massive traffic Amazon generates, it’s easy to see why so many writers are jumping onto the Kindle publishing bandwagon.

So how can a freelance writer leverage the power of Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform to boost freelance income?

It’s much easier than you think….

Write Your Knowledge

No matter what your clients might pay you to write, it’s very likely you’ll have a hobby or passion that you enjoy writing about in your own time. Think about what you already know a lot about. You might have a great way to help moms think up healthy meals that kids love. You might know a good way to train dogs to be perfect puppies.

You might love gardening and have plenty of knowledge to teach others who have never even pulled a weed before. Your hobby might be golf or fishing or sailing or jogging or….

You get the point. Think about what you already know. Make some notes about your knowledge. Compile those notes into some kind of logical order and turn them into an ebook.

Write Your Research

If you’ve been a freelance writer for any length of time, chances are you’ve written about some strange, bizarre, fascinating, obscure, interesting, helpful and truly weird topics for your clients. I still get surprised by some of the odd topics my clients order from me at times.

Of course, before I write anything at all I spend some time researching the topic. I always keep my research filed for future reference, just in case.

When I’m out of ideas for something new to write, I’ll go back through my research files. It’s sometimes entertaining to see the variety of topics I have lots of information about. Collate your information. Sort it into logical order and turn it into an ebook.

Write from Imagination

Yes, there’s always room for a freelance writer to get creative. Spark that imaginative flair and write a short story or a short novel. Write the type of stories you love to read. Format your story nicely and turn it into an ebook.

Why Bother with Kindle Publishing?

When I first heard about writers making decent incomes on Amazon via the Kindle ebookstore, I screwed up my nose and decided it wasn’t for me. After all, if ebooks are selling for .99 cents per download, that’s mere pennies.

Surely my time is better spent writing highly paid articles, right?

Boy, was I wrong.

You see, a friend of mine jumped onto the bandwagon a few years ago (yes, it’s my regular friend and mentor, Lee. Hi, Lee…) She wrote some simple ‘how-to’ ebooks and published them under a pen name. Her sales were steady, so she wrote some more in a different niche under a different pen name.

Two years later, she has a series of best-selling novels and a huge collection of ‘how-to’ series generating more income than she used to earn writing full time as a freelance writer. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll know Lee has a team of 12 freelance writers working for her almost full time just to keep up with orders.

Many of her smaller titles don’t make significant amounts of money on their own. In fact, she has a couple of titles that maybe churn $40-$50 per month each. Nothing to write home about, surely.

But then she released those big profitable best-selling fiction titles that blew her monthly income through the roof! Rather than write another series of high-paying fiction, she promptly released another quick series of how-to books again.

My first question to her was: “Why didn’t you focus on writing the more profitable fiction stuff to start with?”

Her answer surprised me. She said “I write full time as a freelance writer. Orders from the clients come first. In my spare time I put together well-researched chapters about information that people need or want or find helpful. It’s all I had time to do.”

Then she said: “Besides, if you write something straightforward like a how-to instructional book, you’re working from reference material. You can have it finished in a matter of days, spend another couple of days editing it for quality and then publish it right away. Writing fiction takes time. A LOT of time. And patience. And creativity. And more time.”

In essence, those short simple non-fiction books and how-to books might only earn $50 per month. But imagine if you had 10 of them selling comfortably every month. Imagine if you had 20 of them. Or 50. Or 100! That would be cool.

And then you’d have income coming in that would allow you to focus on the more time-consuming fiction writing that has the potential to earn even more money each month.

By diversifying the types of books she has for sale, her income can’t be affected if sales of one or two slow down, or if a particular topic goes out of style. She spread her risk and guaranteed her income.

Why All the Different Pen Names?

Now, my friend has an easily-recognizable name in the writing industry. Yet she released a large percentage of her ebooks under different pen names.

I just couldn’t work out why she wouldn’t want to capitalize on the recognition of her own name. Again, I asked her why.

She said: “I chose to use different pen names across different genres to keep them separate.”

If you love to read romance fiction from one author and she also wrote nasty, gory horror books, or books about making model trains, or wrote about cooking with gluten-free ingredients, or wrote about cultivating a worm farm in your back yard, would you buy those too just because her name is on the cover?

Or would you stick to the genres and topics you prefer and follow individual authors across your chosen niches?

Why Start with Simple Books?

That first series of basic how-to books taught her the intricacies of Kindle Publishing. It taught her about the formatting requirements and how Amazon’s formatting can sometimes skew your paragraphs and page breaks. She learned  how to tweak her book descriptions to boost sales a bit more. It taught her about book promotion and marketing tactics. And it taught her how to work through the payment systems Amazon has in place for earnings in different currencies.

I really thought about my friend’s advice long and hard. I definitely saw the benefits of learning the industry and the publishing platform with a series of simple books. I also saw the benefit of having a consistent income rolling in each month on books that were faster to write, giving me some freedom later to write more detailed work.

How Do You Promote Your Kindle Books?

I asked my friend how she promotes her books. She promptly wrote an article for her own blog so everyone can learn some marketing basics. You can find her article about Kindle book promotion here: http://fictionfactor.com/articles/book-promotion-tips-for-marketing-your-amazon-kindle-ebook/

So….

When is your first Kindle ebook being launched on Amazon’s ebookstore? Let me know your thoughts on the whole ebook publishing idea.

;)

Paying Tax On Freelance Writing Earnings as an International Writer - Part Two

I wrote at length about paying tax on freelance writing earnings as an international writer in an earlier post (here: http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/paying-tax-as-international-freelance.html)

The original post looks at tracking your ACTUAL foreign income earnings from other countries in each different currency. It also looks at being accurate about tracking your converted earnings to your local currency as soon as you earn it so you're able to pay taxes correctly in the right currency.

While I provided a few examples to illustrate where you should be paying your own taxes, one reader offered an example I didn't cover.

Jords wrote:
What about this. A further complication....
Australian writer, living in Spain for the year.

Australian government still classifies me as a resident for tax purposes. Spanish tax office says I need to pay tax here as I will be here for more that 180 days.

Any advice before I pull my last hairs out.

That's an interesting dilemma - but it's not impossible.

Here's how I would work this situation:

Let's assume Jords is earning a mix of US dollars, Euros and UK pounds. Being an Australian writer, Jords still needs to pay taxes in Australia to the Australian taxation office each year.

However, the Spanish tax office wants Jords to pay taxes on earnings in Spain as well. I note that the Spanish financial year runs from 1 January to 31 December, while the Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. This overlap is a real pain in the @$$ (it's also the same overlap with the Aussie to US financial year).

I don't have to pay tax in Spain, but I sometimes end up paying tax in the US during that overlap of financial year.

So... let's get into it.

Step One: Create a spreadsheet that shows precisely how much was earned in foreign currency AND how much that converts to in Aussie dollars in the next column. Create a new column to reflect how much the same amount converts to in Euros. Tally each column at the end of the reporting timeframe.

Step Two: Register your Australian writing business to complete your BAS (Business Activity Statement) quarterly via the Australian Taxation Office web portal. (this is a painful exercise all by itself.... but awesome once it's set up)

Step Three: Enter ALL your non-Australian writing earnings into the 'foreign income' category, (no GST paid on foreign income - yay) but be ABSOLUTELY certain you enter the Australian-dollar equivalent amount into the form. If you also earn Aussie dollars, enter that amount into the regular income section, along with any GST claimed (if applicable). Provide a total income amount and your quarterly PAYE tax amount will be calculated automatically for you. You CAN amend this down to zero on the online form if you wish, but it's not usually a good idea.

Step Four: Declare any tax you have already paid to the Spanish tax office on your quarterly BAS AND your annual Aussie tax return. After all, you don't want to be paying taxes on the same income twice in two countries!

Step Five: Declare any tax you have already paid to the Australian tax office on your Spanish tax return. From what I can tell, Spain won't care what you've already paid elsewhere. But the Aussie tax office DOES! They should (.... remember the operative word here is should!) reduce the amount of tax owed here in the form of a tax credit for amounts already paid overseas on the same income amounts.

Step Six: Keep track of the two different end-of-financial year dates and be aware of the overlap. Always double-check your conversion rates and always report in the correctly converted currency.  You're reporting in two different countries with very different tax laws, so it matters that you get it right.

Step Seven: Learn as much as you can about what's deductible in which tax system for where you live. After all, there are some benefits to earning foreign income living abroad in terms of deductions and costings with the ATO. This will help keep your taxes down :)

***Important Note: I am not an accountant! I am just a freelance writer earning money from multiple countries in a variety of currencies.***


I hope this helps :)

Are You Giving Away All Your Rights When You Write on Bubblews?

Blowing Bubblews

You've probably heard all the hype surrounding revenue-share site Bubblews. There are plenty of people singing the praises for Bubblews being an 'easy way to make money online'.

The rules are so simple. Write about anything you want, make sure your post is at least 400 characters long, post it and you make money. 400 characters is around 100 words, so it's quick to get going.

What could be easier?

The site is filled with thousands of people posting endless 'bubbles' about what they ate for breakfast or about some mundane thing they saw on the way to work.

There are also loads of posts containing highly personal information, such as kid's names, family member's names, pet names, locations of where they live, personal family photos, and other personal trivia.

Of course, there are also people there willing to publish their own creative inspirations, such as poems and short stories, all in the hopes of earning a few extra pennies.

What Are Your Rights?

When you write anything at all for Bubblews, you do all the hard work. You do the writing. You promote your posts. You try hard to find more people to view your work. And then Bubblews pay you a few pennies (if you get paid at all, that is....)

But what does Bubblews get out of the bargain?

Maybe it's time to read their Terms of Use a bit more closely and see what you're REALLY giving away.

If you look at Paragraph 5, Section C in some detail, you'll notice a lot of legal sounding jargon that looks as follows:

Bubblews.com owns a copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such content, as well as in the content original to it. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part.

Is Your Work Still Your Own?

So, once you've published your 'work' on Bubblews, do you still own it? Or is the copyright for your work handed over to Bubblews in return for a few pennies?

What about those beloved photos of your kids and pets you posted to the site? How about those precious poems you labored over during their creation? Do the rights for those now belong to the site's owners?

I've seen it written that many people are happy to post "otherwise under-performing" articles on Bubblews in the hopes of making a few extra cents.

When the next big revenue-share site fad is launched and you want to shift your work over to the new site, what happens then? If you delete your own posts on Bubblews, they deduct money from your account. If you don't have much in your account, your bank balance will drop to a negative figure indicating that YOU owe THEM money for removing THEIR content!

Let's find the nicely worded section in the Terms of Use that explains that little bit of trivia more clearly. You'll find it in Paragraph 5, Section D:

...you grant Bubblews.com and its assignees and licensees right to review and make public any and all game play, film, photograph and record your name, nickname, pseudonym, persona, picture, biographical material, voice and/or likeness and to use and distribute the same in any manner or media whatsoever, by any and all means, media, devices, processes and technology now or hereafter known or devised anywhere in the universe at anytime in perpetuity, for any lawful purpose whatsoever, including advertising, publicity or trade.

Blowing Bubblews Back at You

In Paragraph 5, Section D, it actually states that by posting any of your work to Bubblews, you're handing it over to them in exchange for a few pennies. That's right, folks, they can do what they want with YOUR hard work. You accepted the pennies in payment and they get to do what they want with YOUR work, photos, artwork or whatever else you post to the site.

Aren't you generous?

By submitting material to any public area of this Site, or otherwise submitting materials to Bubblews.com, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such material has expressly granted Bubblews.com the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, edit, creative derivative works from, distribute, and sub-license such material (in whole or in part, through multiple tiers and/or via syndication) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or hereafter developed for the full term of any copyright that may exist in such material. You also permit any other user to access, view, store or reproduce the material for their personal use.

What About Using Graphics on Your Bubblews Posts?

Almost everyone uses graphics to highlight their Bubblews posts. Some people make their own graphics featuring nothing more than their name or random pictures. (yes, Bubblews owns those too - you submitted them. You got a couple pennies. They're not yours any longer...)

However, lots of people choose to use images from royalty-free stock sites. As long as you have the rights to use and reprint those images - and you credit the source correctly - you have no problem.

But if you spend even 5 minutes on the site, you'll see tons of Bubblews posts float past the 'recent additions' scroll featuring images that are copyrighted to other people. There are pictures of celebrities and products and name brands floating around on the site at any time.

So, what happens when the rightful copyright owners decide to take up legal action against Bubblews for publishing a copyrighted image? Yet again, their Terms of Use make it really clear how they intend to deal with that. Just read Paragraph 6, that states:

Any controversy, claim or dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms of Service, its breach or claimed breach shall be settled by arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules in Virginia, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate Bubblews.com 's intellectual property or confidentiality rights, Bubblews.com may seek injunctive, monetary or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court in the State of Virginia (and Bubblews.com may assert both intellectual property causes of action and other appropriate causes of action in any such action), and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts.

Awesome!
They even TELL you they're coming after you to seek compensation for any damages YOU caused them by publishing whatever you want in your 'bubbles'.

Did Bubblews Make it Clear Enough Yet?

Just in case you didn't read the rest of the Terms of Use on the Bubblews website, they decided to make it abundantly clear in Paragraph 8 that YOU will be held responsible if someone decides to pursue legal action against them in anyway, including coming after YOU for their expenses and fees:

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Bubblews.com, Bubblews.com affiliated companies and their respective directors, officers, employees, agents, assignees and licensees from and against all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, resulting from (i) any breach of these Terms of Service or your negligent and wrongful conduct; (ii) your use and access of this Site, including the posting of any content on this Site by you; and (iii) violation by you of any applicable law, rule or regulation.

Think Before You Bubble

If you're happy bubbling away on Bubblews, fine. Go for it! Have fun!

Just be sure you think about what you're posting - because you're giving away all your rights the moment you hit that submit button.

I still refuse to endorse any site that makes getting paid a random event.

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)

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 :)

More Passive Income from Freelance Writing on HubPages?

If you've been reading my blog, you might already be aware that I'm not a fan of revenue sharing sites.

But I had a client ask me if I knew how to make hubs on Hubpages. I had no idea. So I asked him to give me a couple of days to see how it all worked before I submitted a pricing quote for him.

The point of  Hubpages is to write an article on absolutely anything you want. Upload it to the site and select some related Amazon products to promote. There will be Google Adsense ads displayed on your completed page as well. You can even sign up to receive commissions on eBay sales made on your hubs if you wish.

Essentially, you get paid 60% of any revenue your pages generate. The people who own  Hubpages keep the other 40%. That's the crux of revenue share sites, folks.

So I thought I'd see how difficult it was to get started. It took me about five minutes to create my account and then another 90 minutes to write and upload a total of four articles. Not too bad, really.

What I learned is that you don't just paste your written article into your hub. Instead, you can break down your paragraphs and put them into different sections. You can break them up with interesting images or or graphics or ad blocks. The point is to keep the reader engaged long enough to leave a comment at the end.

Now that I've set up a couple of hubs on  Hubpages, I can't say that it's done anything amazing for my income. I've earned $1.22 in the past two weeks from those ads. Woo hoo.

But the point is that I also upload multiple articles for my client in his account each week. He's earning PLENTY from his account (I probably shouldn't be peeking in his account earnings while I'm supposed to be uploading new articles, but he lets me log into the account, so... what would you do?)

Maybe this is where I need to think about submitting a few more and making them a little more active to see if that boosts my passive income at all? It's worth a thought, anyway.

Has anyone out there had any success with  Hubpages so far? I'd love to read your comments about what you did to make it work for you.

When You Are Your Own Freelance Writing Competition....

My friend and mentor, Lee, just gave me a HUGE giggle!

You see, she's a full time freelance writer with a team of writers working with her. She writes web content for various companies around the world. She ghost-writes ebooks for various Internet marketers who call themselves "gurus" in their industries.

She also writes her own ebooks and novels and has a consistent column in a couple of different print magazines as well.

Yesterday she told me that one of her clients was consistently late with all payments for work completed and has been for more than 2 years. She chases payments every month from this client and has done for two years.

Now, for a professional writer with such an impressive publishing history - this surprised me!

But she said that she kept accepting the work to ensure her little team of writers was always busy. She doesn't touch any of that work herself.

Over a cup of coffee yesterday, she admitted that her constantly late paying client had been contacting her alter-ego for about six months. Yes, that's right. My mentor has a pen name that she operates as a completely separate business entity. That pen name is also responsible for several series of best-selling ebooks on Amazon, along with a variety of globally-based clients.

And now that consistently late paying client is delaying payments to the pen name as well.

Her solution?

Easy. She increased her writing rates in her real business name and emailed him with new payment terms. He still hasn't responded to her.

Instead, he emailed her alter-ego pen name asking for an urgent order to be completed in the next two days. Her alter-ego responded with a polite and professional request to please pay the unpaid outstanding invoice for work already completed last week before any further work will commence.

And so it begins.

The client hasn't paid EITHER of her writing businesses and is still demanding work to be completed.

Solution?

She increased her rates even further under the name of the alter-ego and amended her payment terms to "payment up front only". She also included mention that any work completed and not paid for would have the copyright ownership reverted to her and would be sold to other clients to recoup costs. If that client was found to be using copyrighted material without paying for it, it's lawsuit time!

This all sounds like a lot of grief for one client who can't be bothered to treat writers like professionals that his business relies on. I know I wouldn't bother!!

But my friend said to stop and think about it for a moment. So I did...

It occurred to me after a while that when he was dissatisfied with her own services, he went searching for the competition instead - and found her alter ego. That means she set up her business so that she's her OWN competition.

That's genius! Seriously! If clients don't like quotes they get from her, they go to the competition and get another quote - which is still her! Fortunately, she's really good with SEO (search engine optimization) so that both of her businesses show up first in any search for that particular industry, so clients always end up contacting her one way or the other.

Personally, I'm impressed. This is why she's my mentor. Just awesome :)

Interruptions to Regular Freelance Writing Schedule

I don't know about you, but I have a pre-determined writing schedule that I need to follow every week just to keep up with everything. I allocate blocks of time and whole days to get orders completed on time.

I have some clients with regular standing orders each month, so these get entered into the writing schedule at the beginning of each month. That blocks out multiple days every month before I even start.

I also have some clients who are regular enough with their orders that I know I should keep some time aside for their orders too.

Some of my clients are so hectic that they constantly add new orders into shared spreadsheets at regular intervals throughout every month.

These are the clients I love. I work hard to keep them pleased and I strive to meet deadlines whenever I can. They pay me regularly and on time, and they're very clear about their job specifications without being ridiculously paranoid about sending multi-page "style guides" just in case I don't know how to do my job. Being concise helps my productivity levels enormously, as I'm able to get the project right first time without fuss or rewrites.

And then there are those fabulously inconsiderate clients who place an order with a 24 hour deadline on it - on a SUNDAY - then demand it gets done on time, and then demand multiple edits that take days out of my time that were never part of the original job outline.

Keep in mind that the same clients sent me an 1100 word "style guide" they wanted followed to the letter - for a 350 word article. LOL!! Really??  Paranoid much? Afraid that another writer can't do the job as well as you might? Perhaps outsourcing isn't your thing, dear paranoid client.

These types of clients have no regard for the fact that I had other important clients already waiting patiently for orders to be completed. They just want what they want. And they want it now. Silly me agreed to the stupidly short deadline, because I was a little afraid to lose a client if I offended them.

I'm not afraid any more. I have good clients. I'll bend over backwards and write all night without sleep and without coffee to please good clients.

However, these are the types of unrealistic clients I'm seriously considering sending to other writers.

Seriously.

You're welcome to keep those types of clients for yourself. I'll even happily hand them to you, if you want them. I'm WAY too busy to deal with clients who take advantage of my time and effort and just don't care what else they might be interrupting.

The way I see it - if a client expects that I've really got nothing else on my plate at any time and I can drop everything - on a SUNDAY - and complete an unexpected order for them within a few hours, then that client obviously is used to dealing with writers who aren't good enough to stay busy on a full time basis and who do have that kind of spare time.

I'm not one of them.

Starting Out as a Freelance Writer

I receive a lot of emails from freelance writers keen to learn more about earning money from freelance writing. Recently, I received an email from a reader saying that my blog posts are very helpful, but there's nothing on this blog about how to get started from scratch.

Silly me! I never even thought about that in all the posts I've put on this blog. Everything I've written about is either about finding new markets or finding new clients or finding ways to diversify your income or finding ways to be more productive with your writing or increasing your pay rate or setting up your business to weather any financial storm or...

Oh wait...

Those are all things that are still relevant and pertinent to beginners as well as seasoned pros. In fact, they're even more relevant for beginners, because they're easier to put into practice while you're still building your business and your client base.

So! What should you do if you're brand new to the whole freelance writing business thing and you want to get started? Here are some quick tips:

Don't Give Up Your Day Job

Yes, you read that right. Before I went full time with this whole writing thing, I spent months building up a solid buffer of savings from my regular full time job (I worked at a boring old bank back then, but I wrote part-time in whatever free time I could find).

I stayed working full time until my little part-time writing business began to take over every waking moment. At that point, it felt like I was working two full time jobs. I approached my old boss and told him I wanted to drop to part-time hours. He refused.

So I cheated. I called up an old colleague who had left on maternity leave. They wouldn't allow her to return on part-time hours - only full time. Between us, we were capable of working full time hours in the same job role each week. So, we approached the boss with this 'job-share' arrangement. We got our part-time hours. He got the full-time role covered as he wanted. He agreed.

Working part-time hours gave me the opportunity to write even more for my clients. It also still meant I had regular income coming in from my job, so I was fine financially. I was still steadily building up my savings for the day I would go full time.

Build Up Your Client Base

Spend your spare time building up a regular client base. Look for spare writing income sources. Apply to a few content mills. Yes, these are low paying, but they'll give you some experience in writing to a deadline and sticking to client specifications for assignments.

You might prefer to start loading articles for sale on Constant Content to see if you can increase your earnings this way.

Advertise your services on freelance writing sites, like Guru.com or Freelancer.com or register with Odesk.com. These aren't ideal places to work over the long term, but they're fine to make a start and hopefully meet some new clients.

Specialize

Think about what type of writing you really enjoy.

Some writers do nothing but write web content. Others write sales copy. Some write ebooks as ghost writers. Some write magazine articles. Some write marketing scripts for video sales copy.

I tend to write anything I can handle in my available time.

I know someone who earns good money writing about her travel adventures all over the world. She loves her job and she gets to see some amazing things in her travels.

I also know someone who seriously loves writing about dogs - everything about them. Their health. Training them. Finding toys and accessories for them. Dog psychology. Dog food. You name it - she specializes in this. After some time working with online writing, she started submitting her work to print magazines. These pay FAR higher rates than online work, by the way.

Personally, I love writing about finance and money and debt and anything related to economics. It's my own specialty and I also submit my work to various magazines around the world.

Diversify Your Income Sources

Never. Never. Never. NEVER let your freelance writing business get dependent on one single source of income. If you have a really big client who pays well every month - woo hoo to you! But don't allow that one single income stream ever get bigger than 50% of your total freelance writing income.

Work on different sources of income that are derived by different means of writing. By this, I mean if you focus on web content writing, think about writing short fiction stories or magazine articles or other forms of writing that don't leave you hanging on one style.

Think about ways to increase passive income through writing wherever you can. This includes royalties from ebook sales. It includes Adsense income from blogs or even from revenue-share sites (if you must...I really don't like revenue-share personally, but it's income).  You might want to work on ways to use your writing talents to promote affiliate products. You could think about paid forum posting jobs to give you a break from writing articles.

There are plenty of things you can do to diversify your income. I've written about lots of them on this blog. Think about options that work best for you and then set your business up around what keeps you motivated.

Take the Plunge

When you have built up a bit of a savings buffer and you're at the point where your freelance business really does earn you enough money to survive on, it's time to quit your day job and go full time.

I personally took this leap three times. The first two times, I jumped too soon. I didn't have enough regular work. I didn't have enough savings to cover me during those quiet months. I didn't have enough clients to keep my income consistent. So I ended up going back to work.

The third time I tried, I did it the way I outlined above. I saved money. I wrote in my spare time. I learned to write different styles of writing in order to increase my service offerings to clients.

I kept submitting extra articles to Constant Content. I submitted articles to magazines. I write ebooks and reports and fiction novels and anything else I feel like writing.

The real key is to treat your freelance writing business like a full-time business enterprise. It's not a hobby. It's not something you do when you feel like getting out of bed. You really need to work at it.

You also have to have a plan to cover you for those times when orders go quiet. And they do. This is why the savings buffer is so important. This is why the income diversification matters so much.

So, I hope this gives you a bit of direction for your own fledgling freelance business.

Good luck!

:)

Wow - Productivity and Focus Equals Happiness

Well, it's been a few months since I actually had time to write anything on my poor, neglected blog, but that time wasn't wasted. I've been crazy-busy in the last few months, writing, planning and just making things work. I actually re-structured my entire freelance business from the ground up - and I've never been happier.

You see, for the past six or seven years I've accepted almost all freelance work assignments that have come my way. I have multiple private clients who order regularly and I have other sources of writing income that I focus on as well. This has been my routine the entire time I've been freelance writing full-time.

However, a few months ago I had a bit of an idea.

My logic was that I needed to find ways to actually enjoy what I was writing, without affecting my overall income in any way. Of course, that's easier said than done, right?

Here's what I eventually did:

Increase Writing Rates

My regular private clients are brilliant. I love them to bits. But sometimes they order the most random cr@p that really is quite boring or unappealing. I still write these things because I love my clients and they always pay me on time (which is why I keep them as regular clients!).

Yet, when the vast majority of my working day is filled up with these things it tends to get a little tedious. So I figured that I needed to increase my rates just a little. This allows me to earn the same money in a shorter amount of time.

Weed Out Bad Clients

I know it sounds backwards, but if you really want your freelance writing business to work for you, it's really important to be selective about the clients you work with. I had a couple of clients who demanded the most outrageous things to be done (at no extra charge) on top of regular assignments. At first, I would do these things because I needed the money. Then it occurred to me that those clients are taking advantage of my time and my skills for their own gains.

Rather than continue this, I re-wrote my freelancing contracts and asked them to accept the new terms. Those terms included actually charging those clients when they asked for "just another thousand words on the end of that report", or charging them when they asked me to "just write another 10 different titles for that sales page so I can split-test properly", or "just format that report for me with these fonts, these page borders, a few stock images and maybe a quick cover?"

If they want the extra effort, they can pay for my time. If they don't like it, they can find another writer.

Yes, I lost two clients this way. You know what? I don't miss them. I much prefer working with clients who respect my time and my writing.

Increase My Service Offerings

Usually I tend to write SEO web content, magazine articles, press releases and ebooks for my clients. These things have been enough to keep me busy (and well-paid) for years. However, I also realized I might be limiting myself.

So I increased my service offerings to include writing email autoresponder series, video marketing scripts, and sales copywriting.

Each of these things required some study and a lot of practice to get right. But I can now charge additional fees for those clients who want these additional services :)

Increase Passive Income

Once I'd figured out a way to keep my income stable by working just a little less each day, I sat down and filled that extra time with ways to build up my passive income a little more. Yes, I earn some income from Google Adsense. I earn some commissions from promoting affiliate products on a different blog I own. I also earn royalties from a few ebooks I wrote. These things are very handy, but they're never going to amount to a full time income.

So I focused on maximizing these wherever I could. That included adding a new ebook to my collection to help boost my royalties overall. It also included working a bit harder on marketing my sites to increase visitor numbers overall.

Phew.

When you put all these things together, it actually did make a big difference to the bottom line for my freelance writing business. I find I'm more productive, simply because I'm working more on things I truly enjoy. I kept all my good clients, so that keeps me happy. And I have a wider variety of things to write about, which keeps me from getting bored with writing the same old things day in and day out.

So - is it time for you to re-structure your own freelance writing business yet?

What are your thoughts?

Protecting Your Freelance Income

I know I've posted a few times now about the importance of diversifying your client base. Unfortunately, I still see a lot of freelance writers struggle and lose their incomes completely because they fail to follow this simple advice. So I'll go over just why this is so important for every freelancer once more.

Understanding Your Freelance Writing Business

When you have a really good client who provides lots of steady, ongoing work for you, it can be a great feeling. You know you'll be busy and you know you're earning money. 

While this might seem like the ideal situation, relying on just one primary client could actually set you up for failure.

You see, if that client stops ordering or goes quiet or decides to cut back the amount of work they need from you, your income suddenly dries up. This leaves you scrambling around searching for more work to replace the income you just lost.

This is the same thing that happens with employees. They become reliant on one source of income (their salary). If this stops, or they lose their job, or they're retrenched, their entire financial well-being also stops. 

Don't let this happen to you. You're not an employee. You're a self-employed freelance business owner. Run your freelance enterprise just like you would run any other business.

Why Bother Working for More Than One Client?

Once again, I get asked frequently why freelancers should bother taking on extra work with content mills or smaller, irregular clients. After all, if that particular freelancer has a long term association going on with a really good-paying regular client, there's no point, right?

Think about this: Even if you only earn 10% of your total freelance income from a lower paying writing source each month, that's still an income. It's better than nothing at all - especially if your primary income drops off. Besides, if you have more time available you can boost that secondary source of income up until you find another big client to replace the one you lost.

Now imagine if you had two or three sources of income coming into your freelance business ASIDE from your main client. Even if you did lose that big source of income, you'd at least still have something to fall back on and your freelance business wouldn't die a painful death in the process.

Diversifying Your Freelance Business

Ideally, your biggest client or source of income should be under 50% of your total income. This can be really difficult for some freelance writers to do, but it absolutely needs to be done if you're serious about protecting your business income.

The key to any successful business is the ability to keep bringing in new sources of income. You might be quite happy writing for private clients, but always consider the option of submitting an article occasionally to a print magazine. They still need well-researched, well-written articles from freelance writers just like you, too!

Think about writing just one, boring little article at the end of every working day for a content mill somewhere. It might only earn you a measly $7 per article, but over 5 days, that's a $35 a week pay rise you didn't have yesterday.  It won't be a big part of your income, but at least it's something to fall back on if you ever need to make money in a hurry.

If you don't want to write for 'those' types of sites, write that extra article at the end of every day anyway. Submit a few of those articles to a good marketplace, like Constant Content. You can set your own prices on these and you'll end up selling them eventually, so you still get paid anyway.

Think of some ways you can use your writing skills to boost up your residual income (or passive income) from advertising revenues or affiliate sales or commissions or whatever. There are SO many ways your writing skills can really boost your income this way that it's worth looking into.

Consider how powerful royalties can be for your overall income. Royalties on book sales can go on for years - especially with digital e-book sales. Non-fiction and fiction books sell well, so look into something you really enjoy and maybe add this feather to your freelancing cap too.

No matter what you decide, your freelance business is still YOURS. Work out options that work for you and your schedule. Think about what you can do for your own business that will help diversify those income sources and then get to work!

You'll be glad you did if that big-income client ever vanishes on you...

Here are some related links that might help you:

Recession Proofing Your Freelance Writing

Private Clients vs Content Mills vs Freelance Marketplaces

Plucking Low-Hanging Freelance Fruit

Creating Residual Income from Freelance Writing

Creating Multiple Freelance Income Streams

Goal Setting to Increase Productivity

It's been a little while since I posted anything, but it occurred to me today that I've been more productive in the past week than I have all year so far. Sure, I've been writing solidly every week for the past four months.

But in the last week I ended up with some serious medical bills to pay. My daughter broke her arm (she's fine!), but it wasn't a normal break. She needed minor surgery to put a pin into the bone in her wrist. Aside from being at the hospital and offline while she was there, I got the bill and nearly went into shock. I thought Medicare would cover all these things. Apparently not. The ambulance bill alone is higher than my mortgage payment  :(

So I got home, settled my daughter for her recovery phase and sat down to write.

Not only did I need to write enough to cover my normal bills and expenses, but now I had to write extra to help cover the excess bills that have now come in. So I created a daily income goal and I didn't stop until I reached it. Every day. Including today. And it's Sunday.

I usually work to a daily dollar-tally. When I reach that daily amount, I know I'll have enough to cover bills and expenses. But I'd increased my daily goal to help put towards the new bills. This meant I had to stay up later and write longer, or find a way to work smarter.

I'd love to be able to say I just worked smarter - but I actually did both. I worked longer hours than usual, but I also learned to group together various articles/topics that were similar to each other that came in from various clients. As the topics are so much alike, I could continue writing the same theme without having to stop to research or look up different information. It just let me rehash what I'd already written from a different perspective.

e.g.

Topic: Debt Reduction

Article 1: Top 5 Debt Reduction Tips
Article 2: Common Debt Reduction Mistakes
Article 3: Speed up Debt Reduction Tactics
Article 4: Creating an Effective Debt Reduction Plan
Article 5: Why Debt Reduction Tips Aren't Working for You

You get the idea. Instead of writing just one and then moving onto the next assignment on my schedule, I grouped together those that sat in the same, or similar, niches and worked on them in batches.

When I was done with a particular batch, I would add one more on a random topic in that same niche and add it to Constant Content. This increases the number of articles I have for sale on that site, which also increased my sales coming in from that source as well.

Once that was loaded to the marketplace, I'd write just one more on the same topic, but from a different perspective. This one gets loaded to HubPages in an attempt to raise my Google Adsense income that little bit more.

Not only did this let me get far more done than I normally would, but it taught me that my OLD daily dollar-tally was probably set too low.

Especially since I'm aware that working this way really does add up to more income for me without much more effort in the long run  :)

Unprofessional Freelance Writers and Bullshit Excuses People Use

As most of you know, I'm a full-time freelance writer. I don't pretend to write while I'm playing stupid games on Facebook. I don't accept work only to lie to clients about my reasons for not completing work. I definitely don't take work, ignore it until after the deadline has passed and then pass it off to any other writer who will take it, even though it's overdue because I don't feel like doing it. And I definitely don't borrow money from clients because I was too stupid to pay my own bills first, instead of buying stupid crap like guns or motor bikes or other stupid crap.

You see, when I write, I do it to earn money as an adult business owner. I assess how much I'm earning. I withhold the right amount of tax that needs to be paid and I always adhere to deadlines set by my clients.

Unfortunately, I got to witness one of my very best friends being taken advantage of by a complete amateur, pretending to be a freelance writer.

You see, this particular writer begged my friend to lend her money (more than $400) she hadn't even earned yet in order to pay her mortgage. My friend felt bad, as things had gone a little quiet on the work front, so she lent this amateur, pretend writer the money. She had apparently received some work from another source and so promised faithfully that it would all be paid back within the next week or two. That was seven months ago.


Yet, within 10 minutes of the loaned money clearing, this amateur writer immediately went camping with her creepy looking boyfriend. She bought a new motorcyle and bought a new gun. They bought a new pick up truck. She didn't pay her bills that she cried about being so urgent. These things are verified by screenshots of status updates on facebook over the same amount of time.


Then there's the big "story" about that writer buying her dream wedding dress from a store in Australia, but she had no way of paying off the amount owed as the exchange costs for sending US dollars to Australia were higher than she could afford. My friend offered to make those payments in Aussie dollars out of money owed after work was completed. Each week, the pretend writer would do a little bit of work and then ask my friend to make a payment in Aussie dollars to go towards paying off her dress (still without bothering to repay the first loan).

After a little while, the amateur writer decided she couldn't afford to keep paying off the dress, so she emailed the store and cancelled her order, asking for the money she's already paid to be returned.

But this isn't the same story she told my friend. No, she came out with an OUTRAGEOUS set of lies, crying and bleating about how the store was ripping her off and cancelling her contract for no reason. She moaned about having to lose her dream dress after all that's happened and they were being so mean to her for no reason. So my friend called the store, willing to try and help out. The store contract clearly stated payments were non-refundable. They also explained that the loser writer had tried to cancel her own order - not the other way around.

The store owner was professional, friendly and very helpful, actually. She said she'd tried hard to help this pathetic, lying writer who came up with a lame story about how she had lost her first wedding dress when the America store she was paying it off from "burned down". (yet, another lie!) So the Aussie store gave her a nice discount and tried to help her out from the US exchange costs with Australian dollars instead. And that's how their kindness was repaid by a pathetic lying sack of wastefulness.

Then there's the great story about really needing extra money and begging my friend to give her extra work. The work was given - time and again - only to find that the work sat there, untouched until deadline had passed and the amateur writer then tried to pass it over to any other writer on the team who would take it. At the same time as this, multiple status updates on Facebook appear about going camping or motorbike riding or shopping or hanging out on Pinterest or just being a general loser.

In the meantime, this same selfish, childish writer has decided to spend lots of money on other stupid bullshit - again bragged about on Facebook status updates at every opportunity. Now, I don't really care what she spends her own money on. But she's the one who moaned about needing extra work, got it, ignored it, didn't do it, and then complained about being broke, only to beg for more money later. That's just childish and seriously irresponsible.

Her response to my query to her on Facebook? She deleted me as a friend, blocked me and abused my kind-hearted friend as a result. I actually don't care about people who waste their lives sitting on Facebook all day, so that doesn't bother me one bit. But, can we say "grow up little girl"??

I seriously hope this young idiot grows up at some point in the future to realize the effect she's had on adult writer's lives - those who have tried to help her to their own detriment. One day, karma will bite - and she won't like it much.

Be warned. I'll help karma find you. Inconsiderate little girl.

Paying Tax As an International Freelance Writer

Here's the question: If you live in one country and you're earning money from another country, where do you pay tax?

I know we've covered this topic before and you can even find the original post right here (http://ravens-writing.blogspot.com/2009/03/international-freelance-writing-and.html). Unfortunately, I still receive a LOT of emails asking me to answer this question again.

So let's get into some detail. Please understand that I'm going to get just a little bit repetitive here, but there's a reason for it. You see, the original example I gave in the post noted above didn't seem to make sense to people. For this reason, I'm going to try hard to make it as clear as I possibly can.

Before we get into it, I need to point out that as a freelance writer, you are self-employed.

You may get lots of work from one company, or you may have lots of clients paying you in various currencies, but your tax bill is not their concern. It's yours. You're a business owner, selling your products to clients.

With that said, let's take a look at an example of one international writer working for various international companies.

Example One:
Let's say you live in Australia and you want to work for a UK company earning UK pounds. You also have another client who is in the USA. Does this mean you have to pay tax in the UK and in the USA?

Easy answer: NO. You do not.

Detailed answer: If you live in Australia and you're earning UK pounds and US dollars, then chances are you need to convert those currencies over to regular old Australian dollars before you can spend them. This means you need to write down or keep track of the number of Australian dollars those different currencies added up to. This amount, in AUD, is the amount you report to the Australian Tax Office.

Now....

No matter WHERE you live in the world and no matter WHAT currency you earned from an international company, you can easily convert that to your own local dollars so you can spend it. This local-dollar amount is the amount your OWN taxation department, right there at home, wants to know about.

I'll explain why:


Exporting 101


When you write something, you're creating a product. That product was created right on your own computer. Let's say you live in America. This means your product was created right there in America.

If you live in India, your product was created right there in India. If you live in England, you have an English-made product. If you're in Singapore or Malaysia or Canada or South Africa or New Zealand or Zimbabwe, you still created that product wherever it is you live.  If you live on Mars, you are the proud owner of a Martian product. You get the point, right?

Okay. So YOUR product was created wherever it is you work from and it's a product of the country in which you live.

Then you went and sold it to a foreign company and they paid you with foreign currency. This is called exporting. You made a product locally and you sold it overseas. Cool, huh?

But the money you earned was brought back to your local workplace and spent locally. This means you would have exchanged it over to your local currency so you could spend it. The amount of money you exchanged DOES have a local-currency value. This is the amount you report to your own local taxation department.

You don't need to report it to the country from which that foreign currency derived. You don't need to pay tax in that foreign country, because you're not earning it from there. You're simply an international exporter, selling your written products to buyers who don't live where you live.


Now It Gets Tricky


When you exchange a foreign currency amount over to your local currency, you'll find that the exchange rate is not the same from day to day. This is important to remember. As the values fluctuate so often, you simply can't expect to write down all the bits you earned internationally at the end of the tax year and get it right.

You really need to do it on the same day you exchange it. Write it down. Enter it into your spreadsheet or accounting software immediately. But don't just write down the amount of local money you received. Your taxation department will need more information than this.

You see, if you earned 100 British Pounds for your writing and you converted that to US dollars, you would have received $154.13 US dollars
(correct as of 30 December 2011 = 1GBP=1.541USD)

Your taxation department will want to know that you have records documenting how much you earned in foreign amounts, but also how much you declared in your LOCAL currency for tax purposes.

It seems like a pain to do this, but many tax offices around the world will offer some very cool incentives to people and companies that export goods around the world. I'm not going to go into that here, as I'm in Australia and I only know lots about our own cool incentives. Your accountant can tell you more about your own cool exporting benefits.


Example Two:
Let's make this example a little trickier than the first. Let's assume I'm an Australian and I'm taking a working holiday in Thailand, where I need to spend Thai Baht in order to eat and pay for cool day trips to visit tigers and elephants, or to buy umbrella drinks from the pool bar. But my client pays me in UK pounds. Then another client places an order and pays me in US dollars, but I'm still partying my way around Phuket, writing in style from my resort balcony only when I'm not in the pool.

Now where do I pay tax?

1) In Thailand? That's where I was when I created the product.
2) In England? That's where the UK pounds came from.
3) In America? That's where the US dollars cam from.
4) In Australia? That's where my exporting business is registered and where I am a permanent resident.

The answer is number 4: where my business is registered and where I live normally.

No matter which country you change it to, no matter where you live, and no matter what currency you need to spend to pay your bills - if you earn a foreign currency and you convert it over to your own money at home, you pay tax right there at home in your own currency amounts.

Easy, huh?


I hope this clears up the international tax questions a bit more for you all :)