Freelance Writng Challenge End of Week One

So, week one is over and let me tell you it was a long week. Like I said in my last post, I now remember how hard it is being a new freelance writer. As you know my weekly goal for last week and the next four weeks is $875 per week. I end last week with....drum roll please....$873. Yeah, somehow I miscalculated by $2.00. Did I mention that math was not my thing? I ended up working a full day on Saturday and some hours yesterday to hit that goal due to wind-related power outages and something else I had to take care of that cropped up. For the challenge last week, I used the following sites: Yahoo Contributor Network, Demand Studios, BrightHub and Skyword (Daily Glow and Gather).

Okay, so let's talk about this week. I am going to focus on the sites I used last week of course, but I also decided to try and give Examiner another go. Not sure why yet, but I have had a gut feeling for a few months now that I should revive my Examiner page and post at least two to three times a week. Call it women's intuition I guess.

I am also going to add some WriterAccess articles to the mix.

The month at a glance. I will continue to work the sites I discussed above. I will also be applying to new sites and private clients. As promised, any private client income will not be included in the $875 per week total. I will be doing the queries and sharing the experience and results with you only as a way to help you learn to do it. I will also share my experience and results with other sites I choose to apply to.

I also have several new blogs, and a few old, but neglected ones, that will take off this month thanks to Marie Anne St. Jean's new blogging challenge for May. I highly recommend checking that out if you did the A to Z Challenge and just are not ready to stop with the blogging challenges yet.

So all in all, week one was a success, minus $2.00 due to my severely lacking math skills. I am ready to take on May head on and am looking forward to all of you and your individual challenges and goals too. Please comment and share your goals and progress with all of us here on the blog. As always, if you have any questions, drop a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

So I leave you with a beautiful tropical beach. I cannot think of a better way to start a new month and a new week!

Image Credits: Image Source

$3,500 a Month Challenge

I always see writers talking about how they just are not making money. How they keep getting distracted or they had a bad day so they didn't write, etc, etc, etc, the list goes on. Let me pose a question. If you were working a brick and mortar, would you call off of work every time you had a bad day? No, you wouldn't. You would be fired if you did. You absolutely have to take the same approach with freelance writing or else you will not make any money. I am not saying this to be harsh and trust me, I have the opposite problem: I never take days off. Never taking a day off isn't exactly healthy either, but that is an issue I will tackle at a later date. My point is, freelance writing is a real job and has to be treated like a real job. We will discuss this more throughout the next five weeks as well.

So, I am going to show you how to be a full-time freelancer. No excuses. If you have the sniffles, get the Kleenex. If you are having a bad day, take that energy and turn it into productivity. If you want to be a full-time freelancer you have to treat it like a full-time job. Taking off willy nilly is not helping you at all.

Why $3,500 you ask? Well, it is $875 a week. $875 is an amount of money that is achievable and it is an amount that the majority of people could live off of. Now, for the next 5 weeks (rest of April and all of May) I am only going to write online content. No hospital work, no pharma work, no fancy stuff. I am going to make sure this is fair. Online content only. To make it even more fair and more in tune to really new writers, I will concentrate my efforts on content mills and farms. I will not even include my private client work in the $3,500 total. Basically, I will be farming it to show you that a no excuses, hard-working writer can make a living do this.

Now, for the last week of April, we will just look at making $875 of course. Then, for the month of May, we will focus on making the full $3,500. This is based on the online content terms. No medical trials, pharma, etc. I will take PayPal screenshots and all that so you will see where the money is coming from.

I am also a full-time student so I will talk about the challenges this presents. I will provide tips to shorten research and writing time, tons of links to cool resources, helpful tips and advice for you, info on the clients I am writing for during the challenge, etc. By the end of May, you should be able to mimic exactly what I did and succeed at it.

Main sites I will be concentrating on for this challenge include: Yahoo and YCN, Demand Studios (both Livestrong and Ehow to keep it fair because not everyone has Livestrong permissions), BrightHub, Daily Glow, Gather, Examiner (yes, I decided to give it another go), TextBroker, Content Current, Writer Access and I believe that is it. I will also be applying for new gigs throughout this time and will be reporting to you on this because all freelance writers should also be always applying for new gigs.

I will be reporting in several days a week letting you all know about my income, energy levels, who I have been writing for, gigs I've applied for, tips and advice, etc, etc, etc. You will basically be living vicariously through me for the next 5 weeks. I highly suggest you either follow my blog or bookmark it so you can find it easily.

Shortly, I will be providing you with my writing arsenal. Some sites I use religiously to ensure I am on point and on my game that provide tips and points that are critical for online writers.

I hope this helps some folks. I know I preach often about how you CAN be successful as a freelancer. Well, now I want to show you how it is done. Also, if you have questions or comments, drop a comment. I am happy to address them.

Photo Credits: Jorg Greuel