What would you do if you had an extra $1000 bucks each month? Perhaps you’d go on vacation, spend more time with the family, buy that new gadget everyone has been buzzing about.
It’s really up to you but if you put enough effort, it is possible to make an additional $1000 by writing online every month.
I’ve been writing for just over two years now (it’s one of my favorite ways to make money online) and have learned quite a bit about running my own freelance writing business.
However, don’t let the time frame scare you because if you can type you have everything you need to begin your own.
Look at the smaller picture
One thing I tell people all the time is that you shouldn’t always look at the big picture.
I know, sounds completely contradictory to what so many others say right?
Well, think of it this way:
If you want to make $1000 a month by writing, it doesn’t have to be on one fell swoop. Break it down a bit.
What if you sold 100 articles at $10 a pop? You’d reach the $1000 mark.
What if you sold 50 articles at $20 each? You’d still reach $1000 a month.
You see where I’m going with this?
When you break down the larger picture, it becomes bit size chunks that you can easily manage. The important part is to get into the mindset that making money from your writing doesn’t need to be this huge effort.
The money is in the details
Now that you’re in the right mindset, consider how many actual articles you should create each month and the time you’d invest by working from home.
For the average person or beginner, it’s very plausible to write articles worth $10 each. The more experienced writers can command much more.
But because I want to make sure you can get started, let’s stick with the $10 ballpark.
To make an extra $1000 a month selling articles at $10, you would need to write an average of 3.3 articles a day.
Three articles?! But it takes me long enough just to write one!
Hold on for a second because there are ways to train yourself into pumping out quality work day after day.
The art of writing an article in 20 minutes
To be blunt, the easiest way to write an article in 20 minutes is to know what you’re talking about. But since I figure you’d know that, I want to share with you one of the ways I write at such an alarming rate.
- Pre Plan your actions. Every day keep a pen and paper handy to write down article topics, titles and a small blurb of the article’s focus. Don’t do any additional work at this time, just let the thought sit in your head.
- Get in the ‘mode’. There’s no way you’re going to write an article in 20 minutes if you’re not in your ‘mode’. This is the time of the day where ideas pour from your head, the planets alight and words fly out like a bat outta hell. This is your sweet spot, find it and use it to your advantage.
- Turn off the distractions. The main killer of writing articles are the distractions from every day life. Because we’re working online, you’ll get instant messages, email alerts and the general temptation to check your Twitter status. Shut em all down so you can focus on your work. You may also want to use a program like DarkRoom.
- Outline your article. Think of your article like a mini book. You’ll generally have the same structure: title, intro, body, outro. The title, intro and outro are easy but the body usually trips people up. My tip is to break each of these down prior to writing with headlines – this will keep you focus and create small ‘milestones’ while you write.
- Write without self editing. The key to writing quickly is to get over this sense that you have to edit as you go. This is a big no-no because every time you stop to edit, you lose out on a precious thought. Just write with a free mind, everything that pops into your head – only edit your work after you’re done.
- Write first, research later. When you have knowledge of your information you can easily bang out an article in 20 minutes. This is done so easily because you reinforce your points by finding the research later. This isn’t to say make up something and find the support later; this means write factual content you know to be true and then find your supporting information.
- Choose your clients well. Some clients want simple articles while others want behemoths. If you can write an 800 word article in 20 minutes and get $10 that’s great. However, if someone offered you $20 to write a 2,000 word article, you may want to jump on it but remember that it’s going to take you more than twice as long. Find clients with smaller, manageable tasks.
- Stick to what you know. Here’s the biggest tip I can give about writing an article in 20 minutes: stick to topics you already know about. It may seem boring to write within a scope but since there are so many clients looking for the same type of information, you will be able to blast out articles from previous knowledge.
Think of this for a second – if you can write an article in 20 minutes, you’ve completed your base 3 articles in an hour! Would you spend an hour a night to make an extra $1000 a month? I know I would.
Stepping up your game
So now that you have the knowledge of writing an article in 20 minutes, it’s time to perpetuate it.
Being the young entrepreneur that I am, I’m always on the lookout for ways to take the work that I’ve already completed and gaining as much out of it as I can – this is the art of upselling.
Selling article packages
If you want to take your game to the next level, consider selling your articles in a package.
The trick to doing this is to find out what others are highly interested in so do some searching in Google, forums and blogs.
Packages work well with content buyers because finding someone to write extensively on the long term can be difficult.
By providing a package with 10 – 20 articles, you can make a huge chunk of your $1000 with a single sale.
In the end, the buyer benefits from having a queue of content for their websites and you don’t have to seek out individual jobs.
Keeping your rights as a freelance writer
Whenever you write content, by copyright it’s yours forever.
In many article marketplaces, you will have various options when you sell your articles.
One overlooked way to make more money from your articles is through keeping the right and later reselling or republishing them on various websites.
Let’s say you wrote a great post about how to make money online with a service. If you keep full rights, you can republish this on a ton of web 2.0 websites like Squidoo, HubPages, InfoBarrel and others.
In some ways it is duplicate content but if you don’t intend to compete with search engine results, this is a great way to get your message across various communities.
Promoting affiliate products
If you don’t have your own product to sell, there are plenty of opportunities to place an affiliate link within your article and perhaps gain a sale down the road.
Not many clients will want articles with affiliate links but if you’re building passive income by writing on various web 2.0 websites, it’s a great way to add an additional element to make money.
Affiliate marketplaces like Clickbank or E-Junkie offer a wide range of products you could promote throughout your articles.
Finding clients and work
Now comes the trickiest part about making money with your writing – finding the clients.
Clients come in a dime a dozen. Sometimes they’ll order one article, sometimes a hundred.
When you’re first starting out, it feels great just to have a single client but the real work comes in finding them.
Here are a few ways to find clients.
- Paid-to-write sites. PTW sites are those which offer you passive or upfront payment for your articles. Sign up for sites like Examiner (please tell them Murray Lunn & ID: 52488 sent ya!). Test out a few of these PTW sites to see which one works best for you.
- Don’t forget craigslist. Craigslist is still a great place to find writing clients within the ‘writing gigs’ section and ‘writing’ job boards. Depending on your area, you have the possibility to find some great work if you spend the time looking.
- Article marketplaces. Article marketplaces give you the power to sell your articles to clients through the marketplace. You get to determine your own value and subject for each article which gives you a lot of freedom and chances to make money. Check out websites like ArticleMe or Constant-Content – these will get you started.
- Twitter search. Searching on Twitter for clients can be very lucrative. Visit Twitter’s search or set alerts in your Twitter client to monitor keywords and phrases of potential clients looking for freelance writers.
- Paid to blog services. Paid to blog is a bit of a grey zone but it still offers you a lot of potential to reach your goal of $1000 a month. With paid to blog, you can choose a subject and simply write about it on your own blog. Once it’s up, you get paid.
- Paid to review. Much like paid to blog sites, pay to review websites are ones where companies want to buy your time to review their products and services. Check out websites like SponsoredReviews to get started with paid to review articles.
- Freelance job boards. Websites like FreelanceSwitch and FreelanceWriting.com have great job boards that offer a ton of work. Be sure to check these out regularly.
Within each of these is the potential to spread further and make even more money. After you’ve completed an assignment, ask the client politely if they could reference any other person that could use your service.
Remember, whenever someone buys from you, they should go on your list. Keep this list close to you and call on it whenever you need additional work.
Setting up your base of operations and brand
If you’re ready to make a huge impact on your freelance writing, consider installing a blog.
A blog will become your ‘base of operations’ much like a business front – well, to be honest, you should consider your blog as your store because it offers a gateway for people to get to know you.
Once your blog is up, try offering a freemium service or product to start building your list. Contact these people and see if they need any work done for them.
Secondly, using a blog will build your personal brand. The top reason why people are so successful with their online careers is through their branding.
Imagine, anything you produce becomes a hit simply because people are highly passionate about you and your work.
You can leverage this into finding new clients, demanding a higher price or promoting the hell out of your work.
Finding a respectable price
If you’ve spent the last few years mastering your writing, don’t settle for cheap, little jobs. You worked hard to learn your skills, you did the time, it’s your turn to make some real money with your writing.
Ten bucks each article is fine (in my eyes) for a 600 – 800 word post but consider what benefit the client is getting.
If you wrote a post that hits #1 on Google and sends them tons of leads for their business, that $10 article just turned into thousands for the client.
Demand more for your work!
If your clients disagree, oh well, move on to the next one.
You’ll be busting less ass if you’re able to sell a handful of articles for large sums of money vs. creating hundreds for pence.
The book that helped me the most
Celeste Stewart is a master of her craft. For years now, she has been making a living online writing for Constant-Content.
I picked her e-book up not long ago and was blown away by the attention to detail to every bit of information on how she makes great money writing about anything she wants.
Hands down, this is one of the best books I’ve read about making money online with freelance writing.
I highly suggest if you’re serious about getting started in freelance writing and defining your goal of making $1000 or more each month writing that you should pick up her book:
(Click on the book to jump read about and buy the book)
Final thoughts and motivation
I believe, with all my heart, that if you follow these guidelines, test out new opportunities, seek out clients and hone your craft you will begin making $1000 or more each month from your writing.
It all has to start from the first step. Whenever you feel like you’re tired and can’t go on, suck it up and dive right back into it.
The harder you work now, the less you’ll have to in the future.
Great information. One thing I would add is that it isn’t the worst thing to start by writing article per day this month, two articles per day next month, and then three articles per day the third month. Some people I’ve talked to have burned themselves out (and created some horrendous writing) because they were trying too hard in the beginning. One article a day will get one started and help develop a steady routine.
Thanks for the review on Celeste’s book. I keep meaning to pick it up. Perhaps tomorrow.
.-= Tammi Kibler @ Write More. Write Fast. Write Now.´s last blog ..Freelance Marketing: Market Your Writing With Business Cards =-.
Thanks for the comment Tammi.
Your advice is really great. If you start with one a day for the first month, you can begin to get the feel of writing regularly. As you begin to write more and more, going to two posts a day will feel just as easy as the previous month – then it perpetuates from there.
Burning out is a major concern for all of us writers – if you shut down, your income stream is going to take a large hit. It’s best to pace yourself so you can keep a consistent income vs. burst.
If you do pick up Celeste’s book, let us know what you think of it
Hi Murray,
This is an awesome resource for anyone who wants to make money writing online! $1,000 is a great number because it’s something that will make a pretty positive impact in a lot of people’s lives.
I think finding clients is the hardest part, especially when first starting out, but sometimes they FIND YOU. For example, my blog alone attracted both a very high paying web design client as well as a high paying article writing client… and I don’t even advertise freelance services on my site!
So imagine if I was advertising freelance services? Therefore, it helps to have a web presence set up and a portfolio of some kind… and market it as best as you can (while taking your advice on finding clients).
Thanks again for another awesome post Murray… take care!
.-= Jonathan Beebe´s last blog ..Earn Money by Promoting My FREE Service =-.
That’s awesome Jonathan! Over-delivering and leaving a lasting impression in people really does pay off in the end. So many people don’t want to “waste time” networking but just from your example, it works.
With patience and persistence you can also make that kind of money with Associated Content through upfront payments and monthly residuals for pageviews.
.-= Brandon Connell´s last blog ..Guest posting gone crazy! =-.
Hey Brandon,
I had an account on AC a few years ago – it’s actually still active but I haven’t had much time to put an effort toward it.
I’d love to hear your take on it. What kind of return are you getting from it? How’s the passive side to it?
I dunno about Brandon, but I get pretty good returns from AC. Between up-fronts and passive income, I make $75-100 there a month and I don’t even write that often (yet).
Now that they’ve been purchased by Yahoo, it looks like there are going to be some pretty big opportunities.
Something that might be of interest to you is the Featured Contributor program. I remember you saying something about being a fan of electronic music – if you became an FC in music you’d earn at least $30 a month there, plus have new bonus opportunities.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5508286/hello_from_yahoo_music.html?cat=33 <— about the new partnership for music contributors
.-= Jillian´s last blog ..Choosing a Domain Name =-.
Yahoo picking up AC was a real surprised to me and I agree with you, I bet this new purchase is going to really open a lot of opportunities for both the site and writers.
Now Yahoo is going to place a lot of relevance into the site which could result in better results in Yahoo search. Even though Yahoo isn’t the most used search engine, higher ranks in AC articles would be great for the passive income side.
I’ll have to take another look into AC; I have a few plans for both new posts and some side projects with sites like those
AC is good over time because they might pay just $2 for your exclusive, but they pay a CPM rate as well. As you know, over time that pay will increase as your pageviews increase. You also get paid better for articles over time when you have established yourself. If however you want to make $30 per article then you need to check out http://www.brandonconnell.com/constantcontent because they are filled with buyers. You can sell them outright or just give usage licenses and still make like $20 each time it’s sold and resold.
.-= Brandon Connell´s last blog ..Building massive twitter followers in 24 hours =-.
I like that 20 minutes concept
will try one this week end for sure.
- Robin
.-= Robin´s last blog ..iOS4 Available for Download =-.
writing articles is not a matter, we want to sell them,, there comes the problem,, peoples won’t pay more than $2.5 for 500 word articles,,
.-= Ashok´s last blog ..How to search Movies, TV shows, Videos in Zshare =-.
Yeah, that’s one of the main problems Ashok.
A lot of people don’t take writing seriously because they figure we just write an article in a few minutes without any real skill. Contrary to this idea, there’s a lot of work that goes into articles and the reason why articles can be written at such a fast speed is the skill gained over a long period of time.
Maybe one day people will respect content writers heh
Murlu, there is something wrong with your replies. It shows a white background and you have to highlight it to see text.
.-= Brandon Connell´s last blog ..Building massive twitter followers in 24 hours =-.
Hey Brandon, thanks for pointing this out, I’m going to take a look at the code to see why it’s doing it – hopefully fix it soon cause it’s definitely a bummer.
Love your post! I find that using a timer really helps me when I need to create a fresh article fast. You’re right, 20 minutes is doable if it’s an online article – it takes a lot longer for anything that’s going to be published offline, but a timer helps regardless.
Thanks for providing fresh inspiration for me.
Christina, the Almost Wealthy Writer