That sounds crazy, but I understand about not wanting to go without your laptop. I’ve let things go too (some of the idiot lights on my laptop aren’t working, for instance) because I can’t stand to go laptop-less for any amount of time.

Well trying to type without an ecks AND a sed key was tough at first.

I really need to get them ficsed but I just can’t bear to be without a laptop for any length of time so, yeah I haven’t got round to it yet. :S

What I do is copy-paste in the letters whenever I need them, usually from a Word doc.

For instance, if I need a sed, I type wiard and it underlines it in red so I choose the correct word wisard (with a sed obviously) and then just copy and paste it wherever I need it.

Much easier and more convenient than having esses and eckses everywhere!!!

LOL

This means that the editor’s suggestions are worth looking at and that rewriting is part of the job. I know that many freelancers specify how many rewrites they will do in their contracts, which is great if you can get the editor to agree to that language.

My first editor really helped me become a better travel writer. She took a chance on a brand-new freelancer, and that first gig gave me a lot of confidence that I badly needed.

One more tip: Get smart about business licenses and taxes. If you don’t have time, find a good CPA who works with freelancers on a regular basis.

-Jeremy

I have a question for Sarah, though: How on earth do you get by without an X key?????

Let everyone you know know that you’re a writer.

Note: not trying to become a writer, but that you ARE a writer.

Gigs will not fall into your lap.

Networking as a very important part of getting clients.

In fact, I mentioned what I do tonight to someone I was writing a mere article for and it turns out this person needs me for some copywriting work for her charity!

I only mentioned my copywriting business on the off-chance that she’d have a tiny interest in what I do!

When you least ecspect it (sorry ecks key broken!) telling random people will have a major effect on accruing clients!

2. Don’t rely on just the job boards online. (sorry deb) Do your own searching as well. Not every board will list a job that might just be right for you. Use Google and other search engines. Type in as many different variations of writing positions you can think of. ‘writer needed’ ‘blogger wanted’ ‘hiring writers/bloggers’ are a good start.

3. Leave no stone unturned. A lot of writers do not like Craigslist, while others love it. Check out every single city, you can be pleasantly surprised in what you find.

4. If you are just starting out, go ahead and swallow your pride now. Some people get awesome gigs right off the bat with the first query, then there are those who will need to work the cruddy 1.00 per hundred word jobs for some time before they get a break. A writing job is a job, take what you can until better things open up.

5. Use your name on everything you write. You will eventually have people know who you are and anticipate what you have to say.

6. Most importantly, if you are using your name all over the net, be careful with your reputation. If someone is hiring for someone to write online content and provides a byline, they will do some background checking. One nasty streak in Google can ruin many career opps.

Whew. That’s it for now. I think I might cut and paste this over on my blog now, lol, if you don’t mind, Deb.

We have the same experience. LOL. I quit after 5 hours after having written two 500-word articles.

As a web content writer, you can rest assured that I know full well the potential of the Internet. I have clients in all four corners of the globe. Locally? The farmer’s cows really don’t care about my writing

At the beginning, 12 hours was a short day, mainly because the sales, administration, bookkeeping and other necessary aspects of running a business that have nothing to do with writing.

Also remember that you may be a writer, but unless you’re a salesperson, too, you’re not very likely to be a financially successful writer.

By the way, notes to James and Ann G…while rates in your areas might be low, the Internet lets you look elsewhere for work. I have clients throughout the country, so I can set rates higher than local norms would permit. I don’t have any local clients.

That reminds me – NEVER work without a contract. And be very careful what you’re signing. Don’t ever hesitate to ask for changes if the contract doesn’t suit you. Kristen King just did a great blog post on asking for contract changes (www.inkthinkerblog.com).

NEVER work for free. Ever. You wouldn’t show up for a shift at McDonald’s and not expect payment. Give yourself a lot more respect. If you need “clips”, as these pseudo-employers promise, get your own website and put your own work up there. It’s only cool to work for free for yourself – no one else.

2) Don’t quit your day job…right away. I have been a full time freelance writer for about a year, and there are many people who seem to think I just woke up one morning, said “I think I want to be a writer,” quit my job, and found myself with enough work and money to pay the bills. Not even close. I worked at it for a few years, and right before I left my office job, was putting in about 65 hours a week between it and my writing assignments. I also had numerous credits and some good clients.

3) Apply for everything you can. When I first went full time, I was spending at least an hour and a half a day looking here and on Craigslist for gigs. On average, I sent a resume to about 20 people a day. After I began to luck into more jobs, and my list of credits grew, my response rate was higher. But in the beginning at least, be prepared to apply for many, many, many jobs. If your lucky,they might respond. Most you just don’t hear from.

4) Low pay: I know many writers would never think about working for pennies a word, but I must admit that is how I got started. I knew I deserved more,but I found it hard for people to give me a chance without credits. I did write a few (3) $1 articles, but I quit after a day. It was horrible! However, I used them as published samples to get better paying jobs. I guess my advice on those types of jobs would be that it’s fine to do them for a (very) short time, but try to move on as fast as you can to something better.

I think the biggest mistake aspiring writers make is underestimating the amount of work involved. As I recall Deb saying “It’s not all PJs and bonbons.” Or something like that.

You have to REALLY want to do it. It took me several years to get to the point where I can comfortably support myself, but it was worth it! It’s a dream come true…just make sure it’s your dream.

@James – Rich… If only! We had the propane mess up that I mentioned a few days ago and as it turns out after talking to the atty. general office, even though our propane company messed up and delivered to us by mistake, we are still responsible for the payment. The only other option was to pay their $75 service fee and have the extra propane pumped out. My husband’s not willing to have to drop $75 on Ultramar’s mistake.

Which leads me to “rich,” apparently since our fill-up in early November, the price of propane jumped from $3.09 to $3.85 per gallon. I don’t know what other areas are paying for propane, but in Vermont it’s not like we have a choice, we NEED to heat our home in the winter. I’ve been keeping the thermostat at 60 this winter, but never expected propane to jump almost 80 cents per gallon in one month’s time.

I write to pay the bills, it’s that simple for me. If I ever happen to pull a Nicholas Sparks moment and have my first book sell for a million dollars, I’d be overjoyed, but it’s not likely to happen. And Nicholas would be the first to admit, he dropped to the ground when he got that phone call from his agent.

I get the “don’t write for free” ~ but it did work for me to get started. (I didn’t know any better!) Plus, I was able to sell two of the articles for pay later.

I live in a rural area where $10 an hour is a damned fine job and people are thankful to make that kind of money. While as a writer, I always look at suggested industry rates (see writers.ca) of about $45 an hour, my own rates lie in a range where my goals of turning a profit and being able to live comfortably are realized.

Do I want to be famous? Sure, that’d be nice. Rich? Come on, let’s be realistic. Able to not have to think twice about buying that CD I wanted or realize that a pizza night just blew my grocery money for the week? Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I’d be perfectly happy with. My kids have what they need and lack for nothing. That’s more important to me than taking the high road any day.

On a separate subject, I do recommend Elance as an auction site. I know many writers who have had very positive experiences there and it’s a safe place to learn.

Anyway, about 5 years into it, I’d suggested branching the website out to include genres other than romance and the owner went ballistic on me for having stupid ideas. So I bowed out and started my own website where every genre is reviewed. After dealing with a number of authors and publishers, one of them asked me if I’d ever looked into writing as a career and pointed me to a freelance job posting site where I got piddly little jobs. One job was pretty good, until I learned that the woman was taking the work I did and selling it to Associated Content as her own material and making a profit by doing nothing.

Over time, I learned that the little jobs were pointless and went to Elance.com. NOT a suggested site. While I landed a job, the woman kept loading me with work but complaining that she never had enough money to pay me more than $10 per article. When she upped the word count from 500 words to 1,000 words, I told her that I wasn’t willing to work for that length of time for that little pay. The articles were for remote Spanish towns that had little information, so the research to find enough to fill her requirements was taking days.

So moving on, this job put enough on my resume that I started landing better jobs. Through Craigslist (I’ve had incredible luck through Craigslist) I landed two solid jobs paying $25 to $80 for 300 to 1,000 word city or hotel guides (travel agency websites), I happened to be a travel agent before I became a stay home mom, so these articles are easy for me. Now, I have three steady clients, two found through craigslist.

My advice to those who want to get started. Even the smartest get caught into situations where they don’t get paid. You learn from them. One thing that I’ve really learned, I’ve had other freelancers tell me that $25 for a 1,000 word article is incredibly cheap and that I’m underselling myself. Here’s what I say. I live in Vermont and if you’re lucky you can get a job as a secretary for $10 an hour. My mom lost her job at the bank when headquarters opted to move the bounced check division to India. She was on unemployment for 8 months struggling to find something else. The best offer she received was for $9 an hour as the front desk for Pepsi. With travel, an area with which I am very familiar, I can turn about an article every hour. This means I’m making $25 an hour for one of the sites I work for and the other that needs longer articles generally take me 3 hours, so that’s $80 every three hours ($26ish an hour.) Those are fabulous wages around here. I always use the hourly wages in this area as my guideline for taking jobs.