Predominantly, you’re going to find that blog writing gigs don’t pay very well. From what I see of the market, if you want to have great chance of earning $10 per post or more, you’re going to have to have your own website where you offer your writing services, and a client base that is not made up of the average crowd of blog content buyers.

There are some real problems that face blog writing gigs, though, especially for new writers:

1. A large percentage of blog writing gigs require that you already have an established blog yourself. In other words, quite a few of these gigs require you to post content on your own blog.
2. Many times, you’ll have to do extra work for blogging jobs — meaning that you’ll not only have to write the blog post, but you’ll have to post it on your clients blog(s), if they don’t request that you post their work on your own blog.
3. In the majority of cases, by taking on a blogging job means that you must be familiar with SEO copywriting. However, as most website owners are exceptionally ignorant, and trust the false SEO advice that prevails online, they probably want you to write content using a pre-determined keyword a bunch of times, not true SEO Copywriting. While repeating a keyword phrase within content is not difficult in the least, you still must know how to do it without messing up the readability of the content.

It’s not likely that you’re going to find blog post writing jobs that require a conversational tone, and no additional work, though, they are out there.

So, even with all of this additional work that you’re likely going to need to preform, blog writing gigs generally do not pay well, especially for new-to-the-game freelance writers. Realistically, you’re probably going to earn between $3 per blog post to $6 per blog post, depending on the client and the length of the content that they need. However, as blog content is well-known for being shorter than for-the-web articles, you probably won’t have to write out 400 words — in fact, 250-350 words is generally the max word count that many of these blog owners are looking for.

In my opinion, the reason that these rates are so low are as follows:

1. There are so many freelance writers online undercutting each others’ prices, that the prices for writing services have dropped in certain markets.
2. Blog post writing is quite easy, and arguably easier than writing a 400-word article.

I’m going to stretch my hypothesis a bit further here by saying that the lower rates also have to do with the lowered word count, both directly (as mentioned above), and indirectly. See, when you have non-native English speaking writers, you can usually tell with a longer article — even at 350-500 words, it can become very apparent. However, with 200-word “blurbs”, not really articles, there is a chance that a mediocre, non-native English speaking writer may be able to adequately perform these low-word count jobs. And, because they might charge $0.50 – $1.00 for 200 words, this can really drive the prices down in the low-to-mid range markets. Another thought is that because the prices are so low, buyers are willing to spend the $0.50 – $1 and spend 30 seconds tweaking the content.

These are really opinions on my part, but I see the trends — blog post writing, in the biggest market for it, predominantly pays $3 – $6 per post. It’s not something that you can get rich on, but with the right gig, you can make a few bucks to tide you over until you find something that pays better.

If you want to earn more money writing, and want to learn how to find a ton of freelance writing jobs, check out the Daily Writing Jobs Membership. I offer a getting started guide for new writers, and updated writing job-finding guide, and a daily writing job desktop notification system (some features coming in June, 2009).

• Why do online freelancers earn so little?
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• You’re stubborn, and that’s why you’re broke
• When clients try to take advantage of writers
• Importance of revising and proofing your writing projects (get more clients)

There is nothing wrong, at all, with the DIY (do it yourself) approach.  In fact, certain personality types compulsively have to do everything themselves — whether it’s because they want to learn a skill, they need to quench their thirst for knowledge, or because they’re of the belief that — if you can do it yourself, there is no reason, whatsoever, to pay for it.  I understand the first two, but I can’t, being a logical-thinking person, understand the necessity to do something just so I don’t have to pay for it.

Now, there is the argument that sometimes you don’t have the money to pay for something — a service, a product to improve your efficiency, or information. And, I wholeheartedly agree that sometimes — you just can’t pay for something — it is physically impossible given your situation.

However, when the argument changes a bit — say, you have the money to pay for something that’ll help, and you’ve clearly demonstrated your inability to do the job effectively in the past, yet you continue on walking the same, unsuccessful path that you’ve been walking for some time now, and hoping for a different result.  That’s almost the verbatim socially-defined meaning of insanity: doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

Yes, I am primarily talking about this report and how some writers,  who have a ton of experience under their belt, won’t spend $9, $30, or $100 to break them out of the never-ending path that they’ve been walking.  However, while they won’t spend this marginal sum, comparatively speaking, on a product or service to better themselves, they’ll spend days, or even weeks looking for a single writing gig. Those days and weeks could have been invested in actually doing work and getting paid instead of merely looking for work and going hungry.

If you want to learn the ropes of freelance writing on your own, that’s understandable.  If you want to learn how to find writing jobs on your own, I completely sympathize with that as well — I have the same, “I can do it all myself”, “I want to see how I can improve the system” mentality.  However, in your efforts of self-advancement, don’t be ignorant.  There are plenty of times in life where it’s completely justified to pay for something –  pay somebody to fix your vehicle, pay somebody to change your oil, pay somebody to prepare your complex taxes, purchase a list of updated  paid-survey opportunities, purchase a tutorial on how to improve your website’s SEO, or invest in a membership that’ll  show you how to find writing jobs and make more money as a freelance writer.

My point here is this — don’t spend more time on a necessity than it’s worth.  If you have no money, and no way to obtain it, spending days or weeks to find a writing gig may very well be worth the investment.  However, if you would rather spend time making money than figuring out how to find people willing to pay you for your skills, maybe it’s time to consider a service like Daily Writing Jobs offers — the opportunity to learn the freelance writing trade, and help with finding jobs that’ll pay you, without the steep learning curve.

• You’re stubborn, and that’s why you’re broke
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• When clients try to take advantage of writers
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem

For me, personally, I receive numerous compliments on my work that I submit to clients.  I’m not meaning to toot my own horn because, in reality, my ability to write has more to do with my genetic makeup and the talents bestowed upon me by the Higher Power than my education or training in the field.  However – one thing that I am very good about is my dedication to going over my work multiple times before I call it ‘finished’.  On short articles, I probably only go over these pieces three times, but when I get into longer content, such as documents containing in excess of 1,000 words – I revise these pieces a minimum of four times.

By the time I’m making my second pass, I do not find a lot of mistakes – but a missing comma here, an awkward phrase there, and a run-on sentence in the mix really adds up, and can hinder the opinions that your clients have of you and your work.

I’m not saying that my methods are best, but I receive a number of compliments for my work – and I attribute that to the extra time I spend going over my work before I send it on as completed.  At least in my field, clients do not like to have to touch anything after-the-fact; essentially it is my job to forward a perfect document, from the angle and focus to the quality of the writing and accuracy of information, each and every time.  Because I save my clients time by not having to deal with ‘tweaks’ and after-submission revisions, I get a lot of repeat business.  What’s more, though, is that I receive a great deal of referrals from previous clients, which, referral-based business is largely how I come across new clients.

Here is, in general, how I proof my work before shooting it off to a client:

1. I will take my rough draft, and read through it in my head.  At this point I am mainly looking for sentence structure and clarity of purpose.  If the work is for an international audience (non-US English speakers), I’ll eliminate any regional dialect, idioms, etc., that sneak into my work.

2. I will go over the work again, this time paying closer attention to punctuation, unnecessary contractions (depending on how formal the work is), and so forth.

3. I will go over the work again, though this time, I read it aloud.

4. Again, I read over the work one more time, out loud, so that I am not only reading it in my head, but listening to the content with my ears.

That’s about it.  Sure, revising your work multiple times will add time to your project, but the dividends that it pays by way of satisfied clients and word-of-mouth referrals, is well worth it, in my opinion.

Disclaimer: I do not proofread these blog posts in almost any capacity… sometimes I’ll read through it once, but that’s about it. I’m just saying – these blog posts are not indicative of my professional work.

• You’re stubborn, and that’s why you’re broke
• When clients try to take advantage of writers
• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem
• Find Freelance Writing Opportunities Here

We’ve lowered the price on our report, and added an optional 30 day email support package for new writers who want some one-on-one help to get started in the online writing field.

All customers who purchased the Daily Writing Jobs Report at the higher pricing (that included support) will receive the Writing Jobs desktop notification system on October 15th if they signed up for the notification list.

You can access the new website and the new options on Daily Writing Jobs

• Last Call for Free Freelance Writer Support
• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem
• Why do online freelancers earn so little?
• Free writing tips mailing list

Overall, the pricing for the report itself will go down significantly, but the fees and benefits of the one-on-one support option will change drastically.

New freelance writer support and consultation features:

• Free placement evaluation – based on your skills and interests, we will suggest the recommended course of action for you. A new writer’s freelance writing plan to success, if you will. This is optional and available upon request.
• 60 day email support – You will have a direct line to us for any questions you may have about getting started in the writing field, how to establish yourself, etc.
• Free access to a freelance writing job finding feed that we will make available in early October.  We will be selling this resource, but any writer who purchases our report and opts to receive our support services will receive this time-saving tool free of charge.

The costs of the report will shoot down to $8.95 and right now we’re thinking that the optional support and bonuses will run between $47-$67.  Quite honestly, we’ve really expanded the reach of our support services, and I personally think that by lowering the costs of the report and offering support services as an optional charge, we’re enabling newer writers to get a very useful resource in their hands without a lot of out-of-pocket expense.

Now, our report on this website’s home page is $35, and the info contained within it is worth exorbitantly more than this amount.  However, due to sluggish sales (which, may be in part due to the horrendous formatting and layout of the home page), we’ve decided to mix things up a bit with our offer on DailyWritingJobs.com.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, feel free to let us know.

If you have already purchased the report, we will send you the freelance writing jobs feed free of charge, upon request, once it’s ready – but we cannot offer these expanded support services for the current purchase price of the report.

• Find Freelance Writing Opportunities Here
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• Free writing tips mailing list
• Why do online freelancers earn so little?
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem

Here’s my little story of one demanding client

This has actually happened to me twice in the last month.  I’ll give you a summarized version of one of these situations:

Client A has been ordering writing services from me since 2006 (nearly two years!).  He apparently loved my work and because we had been working together for such a long time, this person occasionally received very nice discounts on my writing services.  I use a fluid pricing schedule as opposed to a flat-rate schedule as this has worked out well for me.

In any case – this person wanted somewhere between 50-70 articles, probably more, but I could only verify about 70.  I was giving him a heck of a deal at only $10 per article for a couple of reasons:

1. The topic was very familiar.

2. We have an extensive work history and this guy had paid me thousands upon thousands of dollars over the years.

After I delivered about 20 articles, the guy wanted to change things around – he wanted me to lengthen my articles (agreement stated a minimum of 350 words); 17 of the articles were over 400 words, and several were actually over 550 words.

The end result – I dropped him.  Now, to be fair – I had a problem with him about a year ago as well, basically he started treating me like a $5 article writer.  If you do not know what that means, it basically means that the buyer changes the terms of the deal and expects the freelance writer to bend over backwards to save the contract because they are hard up for work.  However, at that time I told him that the way he was treating me was unacceptable and gave him an ultimatum – he changed his tone.

Why “cheapskate” buyers are bad for your business as a writer

So-called “cheapskate” buyers will suck you dry; once you give in to them, they will walk all over you.  They will expect the world from you and give you next to nothing in return.  There are good clients just as their are bad clients, and sometimes, such as the case here – there’s a fine line between the two.  Sometimes you’ll run into clients who will go along with your terms for a while, and then they’ll try to throw in a couple of additions here and there.  As a writer, you have to judge where your line is and weigh out the potential losses and gains by taking a certain action.

Quite honestly, by me dropping this client, I literally gave up thousands of dollars.  I’m ok with that.  I mostly cater to SEO companies, web development firms and professionals – I can make up those losses with a few writing projects.  If I were a new writer, or my clientbase was made up of “freebie seekers” where my clients had a hard time imagining paying $20 for an article, I probably would have sucked it up to get the $500 – $1,000 and then I probably would have called it quits.

I’m not in any way suggesting that you should drop your clients every time they want a little bit extra from you – that’s absurd.  With the right clients, there should be a little bit of give and take – plus, you can always make up for any current losses by increasing your bid a little bit on a future project if you are a decent writer who enjoys repeat business.

My advice for new online writers:

Beware.  There are people who will eat up the majority of your time, your energy and your resources and give you next to nothing in return.  If you show them that you are desperate or unsure of yourself, they will take note of that and use that point to their advantage.  While this isn’t the norm – there are plenty of good clients – this is something that is a part of the online writing field.

Bottom line: writing opportunities abound – if you have a client that is impossible to please, cut them loose.  There are plenty of people willing to pay you for your services – let the freebie-seeking cheapskates go and look for clients that appreciate the services that you provide for them.

• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• You’re stubborn, and that’s why you’re broke
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem
• Last Call for Free Freelance Writer Support
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer

So – to compliment the report we have decided to launch a free email series that offers writing tips and insights for new online content writers. Whether you’ve written a few articles for pay or you haven’t figured out how to make money online as a freelance writer, our free writing tips newsletter will help give you the footing you need to make more money as a content writer.

There’s no catch, no commitment and no requisites other than you sign up via our form. We’re not going to bombard you with advertisements nor are we going to insistently beg that you purchase the Daily Writing Jobs Report.

To sign up for the Daily Writing Jobs Writing Tips newsletter, just visit the blogs home page and fill out the form at the top of the page there.

Thanks for visiting our website and good luck with your writing career!

• Last Call for Free Freelance Writer Support
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• Can I Write Full-Time Online?
• Finding Writing Jobs using Search Engines
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem

Web Content Writing Semantics

Really, web content writing is the all-encompassing phrase that represents a variety of freelance writing services:

• Blog post writing
• Article writing
• Website copywriting
• News story writing

You could get all technical, but the majority of freelance writing projects that you’ll find online for website owners revolve around writing articles for online business owners.  Writing articles is where the money is at for new online freelance writers – there is an abundance of article writing jobs available today and if you’re looking to make your first dollar online as a freelance writer – writing articles is a great place to start.

If you’re looking to get paid to write articles online, we highly suggest that you check out the Daily Writing Jobs report – not only does it show you, in great detail, on where to find article writing jobs – it includes a “quick start” guide for new writers so that they can start earning cash for writing articles right away.

• How much do blogging gigs pay?
• Get Paid with No Writing Experience
• Can I Write Full-Time Online?
• Importance of revising and proofing your writing projects (get more clients)
• Yes, you can get paid to write online – but here’s your problem

We’ve put together a report on how even an inexperienced writer can find writing jobs online – it’s a short and to-the-point report outlining various resources that help you to find writing jobs online – regardless of your current experience level.

So – if you’re a stay-at-home parent, retiree or college student looking for a bit of extra cash – go ahead and pickup your own copy of the Daily Writing Jobs report and we’ll prove to you that there are an abundance of paid writing jobs available, regardless of your experience level.

• Get Paid with No Writing Experience
• Why do online freelancers earn so little?
• What do online freelancers get paid?
• Last Call for Free Freelance Writer Support
• If you can write, you can get paid

Today’s content publishers, especially of the online variety (website owners, online business owners) don’t have the tools, the time or the resources to find a “qualified” content writer. Now, this may not be true for large online companies or corporations that hire writers – but it’s overwhelmingly true in situations with average Joe or Jane, sole proprietor type businesses.  In the majority of cases – they don’t care how much training you have; they don’t care where you went to school, they don’t care if you’re a stay-at-home parent or a full-time professional – they just want the content that will help them for their purposes.

This tidbit of information really is good news for the budding writers amongst us, especially if that’s you.  Now, it’s unrealistic to think that a no-experience writer will get $20 per article straight out the gate, even with offline writing experience or training – but it’s certainly not unheard of.  Really, how much money you make as a writer starting out depends more on where you find your writing jobs than your qualifications.  Even if you’re a mediocre writer, you can make that ever-coveted $20 per 400 word article if you market your services to the right people.

Bottom line – you don’t need a lot of experience as a writer to get paid to write online content.  If you head on over and pickup your own copy of the Daily Writing Jobs report, you’ll find a ton of resources that will help you to find writing jobs in no time flat, regardless of your current experience level.

• If you can write, you can get paid
• Open for Business
• Get paid to write articles
• Getting Established as a Freelance Writer
• Can I Write Full-Time Online?