Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr
My freelance writing business plan has two sides: Showing my face in my blogs and columns and hiding behind pseudonymity, or plain anonymity, through content production companies and ghost-writing.
For a while I was planning to quit writing for content sites. But this 'evil twin' (or unavoidable shadow?) of my freelance writing self can pay more bills, for now.
Like a seagull, I scavenge with gusto what others have tossed away and fly away free.
Seagulls swoop to scoop opportunity where others refuse refuse.
Anyway I have determined that, for me, content production is more than a necessary evil or ineludible shadow, and better than selling myself short. The pay rates can rise and even low rates per word or piece can work out to an ample hourly wage.
This is true when I look-again through my "clever eye" and:
- Work quickly, allowing no more than a half hour per 300 to 600 word article
- Factor in reduced overhead costs (no travel, office supplies or meetings)
- Consider the self-educational value of researching unfamiliar topics
- Revel in the flexibility
And I know there are more advantages I have been overlooking or underestimating.
Yes, this is work, but it can be play, too. And I can do this fun work at home as an independent contractor, living the liberty to call anywhere I can connect to Net my home office.
When I charge local customers $.50 to $1 per-word, as a flat-rate, based upon the project's word-count, research and other tasks or expenses required, the fee includes unlimited face-to-face or phone meetings and re-writes. After the space, time, energy and matter I expend working locally are reckoned, my net gain can drop almost as low as the highest content site payments.
Next: The Content Authority
Today I received a recommendation for The Content Authority so I am signing on there next. Their rate per-word ranges from $.0007 to $.003, by four Tier levels. New writers are assigned to the lowest Tier, with a review for an upgrade after getting five articles accepted.
The Content Authority's customers can buy articles staring as low as a penny per-word.
Even at Tier 1 pricing, I could make about $15.00 per-hour completing five or six articles an hour. I believe I could do that competently soon, and produce pieces with information value (not junk). Today, this notion is re-presenting itself to me as a worthy challenge.
According to my anonymous tipster, this company has paid reliably (through PayPal). He claims he has received very few rewrite requests while rising to Tier 4 in a few months, claiming assignments sporadically, only during cash-flow dry spells. He added that writing for them is less frustrating, by far, than dealing with Demand Studios (which has changed its name to Demand Media Studios or DMS and made many more changes recently) which helps offset the the lower pay rates.
A possible drawback: Articles are due within eight hours (with 24 hours allowed to complete re-writes).
