Any Other BlueLight Freelance Writers?

[Growth In Recovery]

So back in December I decided to quit my $13.13 an hour job to go after my dream of being a freelance writer. Some people would call this reckless, even insane. However, I can honestly say that I am happier being a freelancer than I could have ever been wasting my life at a carpet mill. I have the freedom that I have always wanted, enjoy what I am doing, and am getting paid for it. Granted, I am still not making as much as I was but I am steadily building closer and closer to it every week. Believe it or not I have even got a few writing jobs that were related to cannabis and products to pass a drug test.

Anyone else freelance write as their job? For the BLer's who may have been freelancing, or just writing in general for awhile, have you been able to make a decent living doing so? Right now I am about at $250 a week and since freelancing is considered being an independent contractor, I do not have to pay taxes on it right away. What are some tips that you may have for getting published or noticed in the writing world? Or does getting noticed for your writing even matter to you?

 

[Growth In Recovery]

It really isn't that hard if you are already a writer that can research, format, and write a variety of styles. There are tons of places online that you can get projects on that do not cost anything to join: Elance, Odesk, and Freelancer to name a few. The good thing about those three sites is the way that they pay. An apparent drawback to many people would be worrying they would do some work and not get paid for it. However, if I remember correctly, all three of those sites have an escrow that the money for the job gets deposited in. There are also tons of opportunities on Google + communities for freelancing jobs.

It is important to remember that if you cannot sale and market yourself properly when bidding on jobs that you are not likely to get much work. You are literally going against everyone else on the site that may want the same job as you. It is also ideal to have a varitey of samples that you can post as a personal portfolio. Here is a rough draft of an article I did about Cannabis Propaganda. There are a few jobs on there that are on topics similar to the ones discussed here, but they are few and far between. I have also had projects writing press releases, product descriptions, essays, regular articles, and SEO articles.

The most interesting job I had was for a niche dating site. It was kind of odd having to pose as a female or male furry 0.o It still creeps me out to think that some of the guys on the site were masturbating to the things I would say to them *shudders at the memories, covers himself in scalding hot water to make himself feel clean again, and then takes a power drill in hopes that it will forcibly remove the memories from his head once again*

Once I have enough posts to get a blog on here I plan on posting some articles about freelancing and sharing more tips & tricks. In the meantime, anyone with questions can message me or add me as a friend.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

that's cool that you're making a go of doing it for a living.

certain twitter spheres are dominated by organizations. and starved for individuals. making valuable a profile that can deliver a marketing team's message to a mass of accounts viewed by actual twitter users instead of fellow marketers. i've seen quite a few accounts run by freelancers used as that conduit. posting interesting, random shit to develop their civilian following. retweeting business tweets to gain their organization following. and of course making it very clear that they are available for freelance projects. to a huge audience, significantly comprised of businesses. i'm not sure how often they actually pull clients from that route. i see them trying.

i've made some money freelance writing. never advertised. word of mouth and people just randomly ask when you talk about your major and field of work. people need copy. you just need a variety of appealing writing samples ready to send on demand. i've never made anywhere near close enough to quit my day job. nor tried. i think that, because i've never advertised nor bid for jobs, i've only gotten a certain subsection of clients. that make it not worth my while. meet for breakfast and talk about the advertorial they want written. ask for a reference issue of the publication it will run in. they say, "yeah, i was meaning to get to that. where will you be able to get this published?" sweet. breakfast's on you.

 

[Corazon]

I want to hear more about this man

 

[Growth In Recovery]

Have you found it to cheapen the joy you get out of the practice in any way?

No not really. I am the kind of person that enjoys learning about all kinds of topics and enjoy writing no matter what (in the majority of cases). For instance, I have a 1,200 word academic essay about Lyme Disease, how doctors fail to diagnose it, and how they fail to treat it, despite it being a boring topic I find it interesting to absorb the info like a sponge.