Basics of Making a Career Out of Writing

 

I just landed myself a writing job with a blog that deals with online credit report and stuff related to personal finance. The pay is good and I am happy with my boss who sends me assignments on a daily basis. Finally all those years of hard

work in the mortgage industry did pay off. I got to see and learn a lot about credit reports during this tenure which gave me a lot of insight into them. This came in handy when I was asked to submit a sample of my writing for the post.

I would like to jot down a few pointers of how other stay at home moms can get into the writing industry with ease. It’s not that hard, the pay is good and it’s all about researched writing. This means you don’t need to be an expert on the topic you are going to write about. You can always get information from the internet and then write your own article. It’s as simple as that!

Okay, here are a few simple steps on getting yourself a writing assignment:

1.) First off, sign-up with Paypal. This is free and considering that pretty much all Companies have Paypal accounts, it’s your best bet to accepting payments online. The next option is Moneybookers which is less used but is definitely the second best. You can use this if you do not have paypal operating in your area. Both these gateways will need you to verify you account, which you can do using a credit card.

2.) Now you need to go to websites that allow Companies to post their writing requirements. One of the best places to start off is online-writing-jobs.com. This site is very simple and gets a ton of ad postings everyday. I found this site much better than other similar freelance websites like elance.com, getafreelancer.com etc. These other websites work on a bidding model that can be really frustrating.

The best thing I liked about online-writing-jobs.com is that it allows authors to directly get in touch with the Companies. So there is no middle man. Of-course there is a major disadvantage to this as well. Like for instance, the Companies can take you for a ride without paying you the said compensation and you will have nowhere to go to fight this out. So for starters, you really need to be careful.

Few tips to safeguard yourself and ensure that you get paid:

• Always make sure to ask for advance payment
• If you have not worked with the Company before and the company is not ready to pay advance, make sure to work on an article by article basis. Submitting bulk articles and not getting paid can be a pain. Once you are sure that the Company is genuine you can go forward and do bulk assignments
• Collect your advance by sending an invoice through Paypal. Mention all your terms in the invoice
• Check out the past records of the company or the website by doing a simple search in Google. You never know what a simple search can reveal at times
• Read all contracts properly before signing them

3.) The third step is to apply to job postings and then negotiating prices once the client approaches you. To do this, keep a set target in your mind. Find out if you will be able to do quality projects at the rate you decide to go for. Just keep in mind never to undersell yourself.

4.) Fourth step is to grow up the ladder by developing a portfolio. Keep records of work you have done and show them to your future clients. Try and increase your rates with every new project.

Hope this helped :)