Be Wise When Looking for Freelance Work

I have stressed many time before that when you are looking for freelance work, you need to set a reasonable price for yourself. Everyone's time is valuable. When you apply via websites such as oDesk or elance, many of the clients are only looking for the cheapest price and unfortunately there are many, many freelancers out there who will gladly work for pennies. I've made it a point to tell some clients that the cheapest is not always the best. 

There have been times that I have been desperate for work but I will not work for mere pennies. I can find better things to do than bust my butt to get work done just to earn a little bit of change. I try to make my fees reasonable for me and the client purchasing the work. 

Many potential clients will try to get free work out of people. I can't stress this enough. If someone asks you to write a "test" article for them based on a keyword or phrase that they have chosen or any kind of "test" run for whatever service you are offering for free, don't do it!! You don't know what they are going to do with the work that you have given to them. They may be using it for profit of their own. Regardless of what they are doing, that is still free work that you spent your time doing. I've had quite a few clients ask me to do test runs for them. Some of them offer to pay me, while others understand that I can't work for free. Then you run across people like this:

Suzanne Glathar to Deanna3 days ago

Hi Deanna,

Thank you for responding to my job application. Please complete the pre-interview questionnaire and return to me.

I would also like for you to write 2 articles, 200 words each. The first article is “what is Copywriting”? And the second is your choice related multi-level marketing lead generation strategies. I am looking for articles that connect with the reader and captivate them in to read more. The articles are designed to build a relationship with my readers, so keep that in mind when you write the mini article. I do not pay for the articles, they are your articles, I will not keep them to use for my own personal gain (unethical).

Once that is completed and all is good, I will set up a time for an interview on Skype.

Best regards, 

Suzanne Glathar

me to Suzanne Glathar 2 days ago:

I'm sorry but my time is very important to me and I don't have time to spare to write articles that I won't get paid for.

Suzanne Glathar to Deanna 2 days ago:

No problem I probably wouldn't like your work anyway.

me to Suzanne Glatharabout an hour ago:

Wow, that was rude. Glad I found out now.

Mind you, this woman contacted ME first asking me to "interview" for this position. There was no reason for her to be rude about it and I'm glad I found out how she was before I did any work for her!

When applying for freelance jobs, make sure that you have a full portfolio for potential clients to look at. I have numerous writing samples in all of my freelance profiles and this woman could plainly see if I was capable of handling her job. I understand that some people may want to see a test run before starting a contract but it should not be expected to be done for free, and YOU should not do it for free!

When I first began bidding on freelance jobs, I did become discouraged because it took awhile for me to get actual work. Once I began getting paid jobs, I received great feedback and began getting invitations to interview for other jobs. Don't give up!

Anyone else ever had problems like this?

NaBloPoMo! Say what?

I have joined this:





I decided to join for a few reasons. First of all, I really don't write a lot of personal things on this blog; I try to keep it more on topic regarding working from home. I thought this would be a great way for my readers to get to know ME a little better. Secondly, hopefully, this will keep me on track with posting every day (I know everyone will be in shock!). Thirdly, I can win prizes! eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Of course, there may be days where I'm so busy I may not have the time to get a post written. I promise though that I will try my best to post every day, even if it's just short and sweet. Each day, there will be a new prompt for bloggers to write about. We don't choose the prompt, it is given to us. When I signed up, there were over 2,000 blogs joining this, so it's exciting for me to be the part of something so big. I hope my readers enjoy it. Is anyone else participating in this?

Make Lists: Get Paid!

I am loving this new website I came across not long ago. It's called List My 5. The name says it all. You make a list of your top 5 things. It can be anything! It can be your top five favorite movies, your top five favorite animals, anything you wish to make a list about you can do. You then get paid a share of the ad revenue that is generated from your lists via paypal. This being said, you should try to make your lists interesting enough that others will want to read your list. Here are a couple of my lists so you can get an idea of what this site is like:

Top 5 Ways to Relax and Alleviate Stress

Top 5 Things to Do on a Snow Day

You can make them funny, you can make them serious, you can make them informative, you are free to make whatever kind of lists you want. It is actually fun to do. TIP: If you write articles on other websites, you can write a top 5 list around a specific topic and then link to your other article. This way, you may get traffic two ways!

I wish I had more time to dedicate to this website because I really enjoy making up random lists on here. You don't have to worry about editors critiquing your work here, you are free to do whatever you like.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you have had any luck with List My 5!

Ehow switching to Demand Studios?

An email just went out a few days ago stating that ehow is switching over to Demand Studios. Kind of ironic that these two companies are the ones I have recently been posting about!

I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work with ehow, but from what I have read and heard, some of you who have an ehow account have been automatically accepted to demand studios, while others haven't? Ehow articles will now be written and posted via the Demand Studios platform. The bad thing is, those of you who have not been accepted to Demand will not be able to write for ehow any longer.

This change could be a good thing, or a bad thing. From what I have read, Demand Studios will be able to generate more traffic, and additional revenue than what the ehow website had. The bad thing is the dreaded Demand Studios' editors. I have conflicting opinions on the Demand editors. None of them follow the same guidelines, and they all have their opinion on what is right and what is wrong. One editor may tell you to do something one way, then another editor will tell you to do something completely different, so you have no way of knowing whether you will make the editor happy, or not, since there are thousands of editors throughout Demand. Plus, you only get one chance to fix the problems in the article. Some editors will be very vague in their suggestions and there is no way to communicate with the editor. If you misunderstand something, or simply don't know what they are wanting, you only have one chance to guess and if you did not read their mind correctly, the article will be rejected. Once it is rejected you are out that time, work, and money. Even if you appeal it, and win the appeal, you still wont get that money, or work back. Doesn't really sound fair, does it? The only good thing is that you can use that rejected article somewhere else such as suite101, ehow, constant content..etc.. That is my only complaint with demand; there should be a way to communicate with the editor to verify what they are wanting.

Another thing with Demand is that they require references and citations for everything, even something that may be common knowledge. Ehow has not required that in the past, so I don't know if demand will require it for all ehow articles from now on. To be honest, I wrote for ehow when I wanted to get a break from Demand. I will be trying out the new ehow publishing in the next few days to find out exactly how it is going to work.

On other note, if you currently have articles on ehow, you will not lose them, and you will continue receiving the same revenue sharing as before. I think the deadline is April 13 for having the ability to publish new articles through the ehow website, after that it will be strictly through Demand. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this change, or if you have any extra advice or insight, feel free to leave a comment and tell us!

And now, my MARCH 2010 earnings:

Demand Studios: $307.50
Text Broker: $188.26

For a monthly total of: $495.75