Finding Success
Though I did take some time off from the internet during the holiday season, I am making a comeback with some financial reward!
In a previous post I had mentioned being approved for a freelance project on upwork to write 10 articles. I submitted the articles, got paid, was given nothing as far as criticism, and although I was under the impression that I was "ghost writing" these articles. I found them on comicvenue dot com and each of the articles published so far credit me as the author! The agreed upon amount was for $100 for the 10 articles, average of about 1,000 words a piece. Not great, but I was willing to accept less to get a 5 star review to show history on my upwork profile. (and I was given a 5 star review)
One question on this before I move on; Should I list myself as an author for this site on my google plus profile?
Onward I go! I was hired to write 1 article for a top 10 weirdest pets list for $64. The article was to include a 200 word intro and roughly 100 words per pet with images included. (6.4 times more money than the first ten articles!)
Bing, bang, boom! I knocked that out in about 3-4 hours and submitted my work for review. Anxiously awaiting the clients response, thinking to myself things like "he's going to hate it" "He's going to want me to redo x animal" "what if he doesn't like the images?".
As it turned out, he was more than happy with the work and asked how I liked the work, to which I replied that I enjoyed writing for him.
Here is out back and forth a few hours after my submission of the job:
Me: I'm glad you're happy with the article. I enjoyed the writing as well as the research and I'd be happy to continue writing top x lists for you. I'd gladly consider anything else you need written as well, should you happen to present any other article styles to me.
Client: Ok thats great. You write well, I would like to give you a slightly different job next. I would like you to write content I can use as a script for a youtube video.
Me: I'm on board with that.
Client: kk great
what topics interest you the most
i can probably tailor work to this
don't worry about time commitments
just work when u have time, with the focus being quality content
This is the gist of the important stuff. The end result being that I am currently writing 3 scripts at a time for him at approximately 1000 words each. All for top 10 lists. I can choose from topics he provides or I am free to choose my own topics. $50/script. I just knocked one out in about 2.5 hours with sources. The fact that I don't need to find images cuts out quite a bit of time. Needless to say, I hope that this is a good long term relationship!
I certainly didn't expect to be writing professionally with decent pay with such little effort and such little work history.
I'd love to hear from other freelance writers about their experiences. Did I get lucky with this specific client? What have been some struggles in freelance writing that you have come across? Any information and experience from fellow freelance writers is appreciated and I thank you in advance!
Recent Comments
20
Congratulations Zach! Sounds like the time spent getting this going has been well spent. When you can add the writing to your sales, it all gives one the incentive to move forward! Your hard work is paying off!
Sami
It is most certainly a very encouraging feeling! Thank you for the support Sami! It's always nice to hear from you :^)
Right on, Zach, that is awesome. Can't really give feedback for what you are currently doing since I don't know anything about upwork. The fact that you are excited, and getting paid, looks like a door is opening for you to move further up hill. Rock-n-Roll, my friend, am happy for you.
I have hired many Upwork/Odesk people over the last 8 years but usually I am very unhappy with people from the US.
Well I guess I am happy to be on the positive end of the U.S. workforce. Though I certainly care much more about the quality of my work as an individual, rather than how it reflects my country's reputation ;^)
I don't know if it's on the pot o' gold scale just yet but it's certainly a step in the right direction!
I also write on Upwork and have to say that you sound as if you got lucky pretty quickly! Most clients are unwilling to pay that amount to someone with little feedback. It's fab for you and will allow you to ask for more money in the future. Well done and keep on pushing :)
That's incredible. I would be very interested in this kind of work. Geoff. As long as I still have time for WA.
That's the beauty of that type of work; You can submit proposals for jobs of all types on any scale from excel data entry to writing an eBook. Whatever time you want to put into it!
Look into it my friend!
Didnt you say you were approached? I have seen 1 site where you can apply for such jobs, forget rhe name.
No, I just made a profile and started submitting proposals. After my first job with the one client in specific, I was asked to do more work and was told that I could write scripts for (direct quote) "Anything people are interested in".
Pretty vague, right? I took this to mean that I could write about anything I want, and that has proven to be the case so far...
I decided to use upwork . com
I didn't care too much for freelancer . com & yes it is true that there is a lot of shit to sift through to find quality clients that are willing to pay. But developing those relationships leaves you open for more work in the future without having to search so much.
This is great. Sounds like you have generated interest and may have a fairly consistent stream of work if you want it. Keep up the good work!
See more comments
Praying that this is turning into a huge event that will bring you the financial freedom that you were working towards here at WA. Am still trying to get on a page with "Google" Lol. Have 2 Sites am messing with. http://usinganewtheme.siterubix.com & http://I-Love-To-Eat.siterubix.com Hope yer getting some of that precious time with yer little one. :-)