We all have our different methods of obtaining work, but I can speak from my experiences. You should know that some private clients require writers to sign confidentiality agreements or provide additional information before work can be assigned. The work is often exclusive, meaning you are giving full-rights to the client. Charging for private work depends on the writer and the agreement signed. I have done work on flat fee basis or per word, that is something you’d have to discuss with your client. If you write for the websites mentioned, you will often hear from other writers how they have a private client. Where do they find these high paying jobs though?

You Own Website – I have talked about this extensively, but a freelance writer honestly needs a website. Not a blogspot blog or another free site. A professional website, that can serve as a portfolio and a way for clients to see samples. Do not send free, unpublished samples to anyone – unfortunately there is people looking to scam writers. Send your clients to your website, so they can see work you have done, which topics you can cover and the work quality.

The website can serve for marketing purposes too. My website has a services section where I explain exactly what I as a writer can offer. Freelance writers can be bloggers as well, it honestly helps with polishing SEO skills. I get plenty of private client work through my website,

Forums – Some writers will advise you to find a single niche and stick to it. I am against that. I believe you should be flexible to write about any subject, in any category and learn to research topics you have not covered before. You’ll be surprised at all the new things you will learn – but you will also show writing skills in covering those topics.

I have joined several different forums where I can advertise my writing services. For example, one forum is technology-related and this is an area I can write about while blind-folded. You will be surprised at how many website owners and entrepreneurs are hanging out in forums, looking for qualified individuals that can write web content for their websites.

Sales person – Be a sales person, not just a writer. Present yourself as an expert in a certain category, and show off your quality work. This can be used in direct approach to business owners, utilizing social media and doing some hard work through e-mail. Think about how many business owners are in your area. You could approach them in person, over the phone, e-mail or through a sales letter. Most businesses have a website but have no clue what SEO is or how it can benefit them. Explain this to them, and state that you can turn their website content into SEO friendly content that will bring Google attention to their business. To a business, this can mean beating out competition and bringing in more sales.

Offer other services besides writing, such as helping them out with social media. Do not be afraid to approach people directly and sell your services. It takes a little hard work but it always pays off. And if you do get a private client that is local, treat them well. They will always refer quality services to another business owner.

Textbroker and Elance – I like these two services because you can find decent work, but you can also build up a relationship with the clients through these two services. I have seen often writers being approached after completing and turning in good work.

Craiglist – Some will say that Craiglist is full of scammers, and honestly it does have its share of bad apples. It also has a lot of honest business owners and people who are looking for skilled writers. Be smart though, as I said before – do not send free samples to anyone! Send them to your website instead.

Do not be afraid to try something completely out of the box. Your approach may be different, but that does not mean it will fail. Be brave enough to try something different and work on your own technique. Your first try may not be as polished as your 5th, but it can bring in a good client that will be willing to pay top dollar for your services.

From now on, Demand Studios will pay twice a week; on Tuesdays and Fridays. Here is the official statement:

“We are happy to announce twice weekly payments. Work completed/approved by Sunday (11:59 PM Pacific) will be paid on Tuesday. The first new payday is Tuesday 9/29. Friday payments will continue as usual.”

So now you have the ability to write a lot and get paid for it TWICE a week! I can’t say how happy I am with this news. It’s great to see Demand Studios always implementing changes and improving their system. I’m excited to have the ability to get paid faster, and have money in my account for bills.

I have a feeling that this change came from editors waiting for the last day to approve work. I have heard complaints that writers were waiting for an entire week to get an approval or re-write notice, making it harder to get work approved by the Wednesday night cutoff time. So again, this change is for the better and it will allow faster approval and faster payments in everyone’s Paypal accounts!

I’d like to meet my daily goal of writing 2,500 words for Demand Studios. I’d like to achieve my second goal of writing at least 1000 words a day on Associated Content. With Demand Studios paying so well and on time, I push Associated Content aside to have more time for DS assignments. Writing for Associated Content though can be a relief, especially since I can write about celebrity news or any gossip that interests me that day. But I dislike Associated Content views because I feel like their daily views counter needs some tweaking. That is the only thing that discourages me from writing daily articles and publishing on AC consistently.

My other goal that I would like to achieve is daily blogging. A daily blog post here about freelancing and all of the helpful tidbits that I find along the way. Also, I’d like to have some time to blog every day on my pet project about reality shows. It’s such a fun idea but I can’t seem to find the time to do it all. Husband and child need to be fed and played with…

I do write every day, no matter how large or how insignificant a task may seem. I also realized something today. No matter how many words I write or how many articles I have written, I will have spelling and grammar typos. That is so damn annoying.

I’d like to say that the points of my post are that every writer should have goals, but they should also write daily. Even if you do not meet your daily writing goals, keep on typing those words! You do not have to write a 10,000 word masterpiece every single day. A 250 word blog post can do wonders for your writing career and it can help warm your fingers up in the morning.

The first requirement for a Quick Guide is to find a picture. I prefer using third party sources, such as creativecommons.org that offers royalty-free images. You can use this website to find photographs for Demand Studios, but carefully read legal instructions under each photograph and credit correctly back to the image owner.

The second step is writing a short but engaging introduction, which should be 30-50 words. In some samples of Quick Guides that I ran across, the text is there to encourage people to click on article links below.

The worst part about Quick Guides is the third requirement – searching and selecting articles and videos that relate to the topic. Finding this information is not the problem, it’s the broken search function. I searched for “water fountains” and found a lot of garden topics but nothing that even mentioned the word “fountain”. Apparently, Demand Studios staff is aware that the search function is no working correctly and they are working on fixing it.

Quick Guide style pays $7.50, which would be really easy money to make if the search portion of it worked properly. I’ll wait until the issue is resolved and I’ll give one a try. They seem to be really good for search engine optimization and driving traffic to some of the already published work on Ehow.com that may not be getting as much notice anymore.

I was self-employed before becoming a full-time freelance writer. My self-employment taught me the basics of having to fend for myself, pay taxes, get health care on my own, and controlling my income. With freelance writing, the uncertainty of your income can be overwhelming. I know I can make $1,000 a week just by writing for Demand Studios. I know I can, but sometimes I just can’t. My income is negatively affected if I take a day or even an hour off. Some weeks I have other obligations and responsibilities, so I can only make $150 from Demand Studios alone. That is a huge drop in income. Such is the life of a freelance writer, if you want to get paid every day you have to work every day.

The same can be true if you are writing for a private client. Private clients can give you a huge contract, but it comes with rules such as deadlines. You have a set amount of time to turn work in and once that is done the ride stops. That contract will only bring in money while it is valid and while you are working for the client. Once the client is gone so is the paycheck. It can take weeks or months to find another private client. And then again, what happens if you do not get paid?

Scams are always out there and unfortunately for us, freelance writers can fall victim to jerks. You can be the nicest person in the world and very honest, but that does not mean the individual you are dealing with is on the same value level. You can work your tail off on writing projects for someone, only to have them not pay you for any of it. Despite warnings and red flags, it still happens. Scam is another freelance writing fact that affects your income in a bad way.

I will say that freelance writers should never depend on a single website for a paycheck. It is always a good idea to put your eggs in multiple baskets. Mixing upfront, flat-fee payments and residuals is a good way to always get money coming in. It may be a trickle effect instead of a waterfall, but it is still a good idea to have multiple payments coming into a single account.

The way freelancing affects your income can also affect your entire household. I’ll be dead honest and say that some days our household is a little manic depressive and stressed out. We both have to bring in a weekly paycheck in order to pay bills, eat, enjoy life and put money into the savings account. It’s not always roses when mommy’s payments are smaller than expected.

“It’s either feast of famine”, is the quote we like to use in our household.

I’m thinking of hiring someone just to tell me “You’re effin awesome!” every hour or so. My productivity level would be skyrocketing.

Demand Studios is the place to be for freelance writers.

The company is changing into a very professional freelancing outlet. In a recent e-mail sent out to all contributors, DS wants its writers to have professional biographies. A professional biography gives more weight to an author, especially if someone is interested in browsing through your other DS contributions. That someone could potentially be a private client, or a high-paying job opportunity. You never know who’s looking, so constant professionalism is a must, but it should start from the biography. After all, it is what you have chosen to write about yourself, and those words represent who you are.

I also ran across this AARP article, titled “Earn Extra Cash by Selling What You Know“. Freelance writing was competitive enough before, but now it is also an opportunity others are willing to try out, and make some extra money on the side. Look at it this way, our country is in a recession and people are losing jobs. Even if they still have a job, they might have bills piling up or are looking to make money to put into a savings account. Demand Studios is making noise, and getting talented writers every day. Keep your fingers busy with work, and turn in professional material. If not, someone else will be willing to take your spot.

Reducing amount of Rewrites on Demand Studios

I particularly love the fact that Demand Studios is willing to inform, and properly train their writers on what exactly they are considering as quality work. In particular, the recent changes also brought out the need for further fact checking by Demand Studio Editors. A way for Demand Studios to remain as a source of talented writers and great articles is to have their work created in a professional manner. No one should be offended by a rewrite request, it can tell you exactly what DS is looking for and it’s very easy for anyone to miss a mark on an occasional article. DS is however giving your free advice on how to reduce rewrite requests. The information is easy to follow, easy to understand and priceless in terms of learning a good writing skill and applying it to other websites that you write for.

All DS contributors were e-mailed a link to a Power Point Presentation, “11 Tips for Surefire Success in Demand Studios.” Learn from it, apply it to your writing and enjoy the success.

Longer Review Time Complaints

I have heard from several writers about longer wait periods, and articles sitting in the queue. The new fact checking is now a must for every Editor, so longer wait times are to be expected. While I am never a fan of waiting, I understand why it is necessary. Again, DS is moving in a very professional direction and the changes will only benefit us. So patience, grasshopper. The queue change is most likely as a result of review delays, so writers do not complain as much about being able to write 10 articles only.

Overall, the changes are good and I am onboard with learning to adapt. Demand Studios is excellent when it comes to communication, and informing writers about upcoming changes. I cannot stress the importance of taking the time and reviewing the free information they provide. If you know exactly what DS wants, you’ll have no problems making money by writing for Demand Studios.

I am singing Demand Studios praises today, for all the great improvements and new features that freelance writers can benefit from. It is nice to see an article publishing website working on improvements, and offering new monetary incentives. The new, ubertastic features that I have noticed so far today are;

Fact Sheets Pay Raise at Demand Studios

It used to be that Fact Sheets at DS paid $5 flat fee. This morning, new titles are showing $7.50 flat fees, which is a nice pay bump. I am a huge Fact Sheet fan, as I can write up a 10 of these beauties quickly. DS Editors also approve Fact Sheets fast, often within hours of me submitting work for review. Never discount Fact Sheets, the pay may seem small at the start but the fast review can allow you to write up a large batch.

The fact sheets at DS can be written up quickly, as they require around 200 words.

Changes In Assignment Queue

At Demand Studios you are given a queue of 10 assignments. It means that you can have 10 working assignments at one time, and the articles have to be completed before other assignments can be added in. This used to cause complaints, because a writer could fill up their 10 assignment queue and have to wait on approvals in order to get a chance to write more.

Well, the new improvement is that articles marked as “Under Review” are pushed and space is freed up for you to claim more work. For example, I have 3 currently “Under Review” and the system is allowing me to find additional 3 assignments to fill up my active batch.

This particular change at Demand Studios is spectacular, and makes unlimited earnings at DS a true possibility. I know of several writers that are dedicated to DS, and have always wished to turn this gig into a full-time money earning opportunity. The two big changes with Fact Sheet pay raise and assignment queue should make those wishes happen.