Tips on How to Choose A Ghost Writer

photo not mine

Finding the "perfect" ghostwriter to hire is a dilemma that many bloggers, writers and authors experience. You want somebody who will understand you and express your words when you can't. This actually determine the success of an article, a book, or a novel in progress. Here's a few tips on how you can work things out with your potential "writer" and how you can ensure the success of each project.

Discuss your terms. When hiring a ghostwriter, you should be clear with your writer that you will retain exclusive rights to the article, book or song that will be produce. It is your idea in the first place and you have hired them to put into words your thoughts and ideas. 

Experience. A ghostwriter with ample experience writing on various genres should place highly on your list of potential providers. They should also specialize in a certain style or genre since nobody can be an expert at every type of writing or niche. Hiring a writer who specializes in a specific genre will give you better output compared with hiring a generic writer. It is okay to ask for sample articles or work so that you can assess the writer before you hire him or her.

Communication venues. Make sure that you can contact and communicate with your writer for hire. He or she must also provide updates and details about the task regularly through various communication modes.  There are instances when a writer takes up the work and then disappears without any effort to communicate. Updates, feedback and details will ensure that your project is on the right track and any problems will be easily corrected. 

Cost and Timelines. Assess the cost and the timeline of your project. It may also be necessary to pay premium to ensure that you get high quality work, but it rarely means that you have to hire the most expensive provider. Try to work in installments so both of you can adjust to each others needs and requirements. This way you also minimize potential risks and ensure the success of your project. 

Que Horror: A No-Internet Connection Horror Story

Recently, I took a vacation to my parent's hometown in the sleepy island of Ticao Masbate. With the crowd of people taking the time off as well, it was a rough ride going there. I looked into the possibilities of taking freelance online writing jobs but decided against it. I know how backward the island is, and reliable internet connection will only be wishful thinking.

I finished all my assignments before heading out and travelling all of 16 hours via ordinary bus plus 2 hours sea travel via an outrigger boat and 30 minutes of motorcycle ride to finally reached my destination.

I discovered there is some-sort-of-an-internet connection via my mobile phone and made do browsing facebook and messaging/chat through it. I had a few relaxing days with my son and explored the beach in the afternoon. I got a message from one of my clients on facebook a couple of days before I'm due to travel back. I thought it was an easy task and I only need a few sources to come up with the article required so I accepted it. I brought out my alternative broadband stick(Smartbro) and a bunch of patience for I know it's going to take some time for each page to load. I retrieved the tasks the night before I left the island and started my search. Started working on it, sent it out after finishing and turned of my lappy.

The next morning, I work up extra early for my trip starts at 5am. While on the boat I checked my facebook messages and surprised that I need do a couple of changes on one of my articles. I replied and promised my client the revised article after 2 hours because I was still on the boat. When I finally reached Bulan port in Sorsogon - I almost cried! No internet connection available! Que Horror! Really it was crazy and I don't know what to do.

These situations should be expected but I didn't expect it this time. I hastily send another facebook message using my mobile and informed the client of the situation and asked for a couple more hours extension. I hurriedly hopped on the next bus to Legazpi and after 3 hours, I was able to finally send the article to my client.

How about you, what freelance writing horror stories do you have? Did power shut down or unreliable internet connection also disrupted your schedule and your work?

Cost-Effective Tools Newbie Freelance Writers can Use

There is an overwhelming number of freelance writers today. You can't ignore the fact the many will even under price themselves to get a project. How much harder it is for these newbies to purchase freelancing tools then?

As newbies to the world of freelance writing, there are still tools that you can use to upgrade your services for free or inexpensively. These are my top tools for working more productively and write more effectively:

1. Netbook and wifi connection. These of course, are important tools for wandering freelance writers. Those who have a home office already set up, you may still want to consider getting a netbook for those times when you need some change of scene to boost you creativity and writing power.

2. Online Thesaurus. Aside from the synonyms and antonyms that you can use via MS word, there are other online thesaurus and dictionaries that you can use to help you as you struggle to find the right words. There are free sites but there are also those that require a subscription. The Visual Thesaurus for instance gives a free trial so you can decide if you want to push through with their monthly subscription.

3. Skype (YM, Gmailchat, etc). Skype has been one important communication tools that's cost-effective. When an Aussie asked me to become her VA for a short time, we used skype all the time. It allowed us to make calls for easier guidance and better work relations through effective communications.

4. Copyscape. This paid tool is actually my favorite. It helps ensure that my work is plagiarism or duplicate free. You can also subscribe to help protect your writing or type in a URL to check a specific document.

5. MS Excel, Google Spreadsheet. I don't have any invoicing device so I just use a spreadsheet to create my own invoice. Sometimes google spreadsheet is also an excellent invoicing tool where I update it and share it with my client so he/she can also check it and make necessary changes.

There are so many tools that you can explore to help you work more productively as freelance writers. With these simple tools you can upgrade the quality of your output and gain more satisfied clients. As you move along, you may also start more effective and extensive tools which require subscriptions and fees.

Freelance Writing and Location Independence

I wish I could easily claim to be location independent when it comes to my freelance writing job. Though I love to write, I still love my full time job so still I stay where I am. The biggest benefit of having freelance writing assignments for me is that it allowed me to take vacations, have the funds to pay for them and work tasks and jobs while I'm somewhere sunny and sandy - that's as close as I can get to being location independent i guess.

Being location independent allows web-savvy professionals to work anywhere they want by setting up a virtual office. However, not every job can be taken anywhere, thus I stay weekdays to report to my office. For those who have the capacity, training and opportunity start a mobile office, kudos to you.

Location independence greatest allure is the promise of travel and adventure while you keep your job. But I think it's not all pros of course. The shift into being a virtual worker should be taken slowly. Unlike me who keeps a full time job, freelance writers, web developers, researchers and so forth can easily tweak and turn their schedules to accommodate tasks and jobs even while they're exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat or testing the sweet waters of Maldives.

But freelance writing for me is more of past time, a hobby and a way of putting thoughts into words. I love writing and travelling, and I'd place a lot of consideration on being a location independent full time researcher if I lose my job. Presently however, I love my job the way it loves me, and I won't be losing it anytime soon.

Freelance Writing: Realizing When Less Means More

One of the worse mistake that freelance writers can probably make is to bite off more than they can chew. One can easily get hung up, (not to mention burnt out) with the lots and lots and the more and mores.

Big project are not always good especially if you talk about the quantity of the projects that you single-handedly write and edit. In many instances, fewer is actually better. But can fewer projects be better in terms of earnings? While most new freelance writers complain about not having enough projects, what many of us really need is a lot less but gives us more earnings.

Quality vs. Quantity
An online writer's monthly earnings can go for as much or as little as possible. Let's imagine that you aim to earn P25,000 in a month as a freelance writer(just a figure i thought of). There are many ways you can earn this in a month's time. Depending on the clients you have, there are some situations for earning that are more desirable than others. (Figures are on an average)

• Short Articles. You can write 25-30 short articles (100-150 words) and earn around P60 for each.
• Mid-size articles and blog posts. You can write around 10 articles of 300-350 words long for P150 each.
• Full page web content and SEO articles. These articles range from P250-300 each and you can write at least 5 articles per day to achieve your target earnings for the month.
• Many established freelance writer also offer bundles writing services and high-end-turn-key projects for 2-3 clients in a month and earns as much as P25,000 on each client.

But can you really handle all the requirements of the job to reach your desired earnings and more?

Until you're drowning with too many projects at a time, when you'll realize that having too many writing projects is in fact, bad. Having too many writing projects and juggling a number of clients at a time can -

• Lower output quality. Because you're rushing to get things done and reach the daily quota you've set for yourself and earn enough, it's highly impossible for you to maintain your quality of work.
• Less time to find high-end clients and market their talents. Freelancers working on multiple projects at a time are usually left with every little time for themselves much less for marketing their skills and talents to other high-end clients.
• High Impact of break-ins. For freelance writers relying on their daily quota, missing a single day of work can significantly impact their targeted monthly income. 
• Stagnation of skills. Because of a freelance writer's commitment to high volume of assignments, they also have very little time to update their talents.
• Burn outs. Happened to me and can happen to any freelance writers churning out volumes of work everyday just to reach their goal. I can say that your target figure can work as a motivation, but for many it just ain't enough. 

Focusing more on the quality of work for quality clients is the better way of doing freelance jobs. You get a better working environment and you provide better work results for your clients. Many freelance writers choose to work on multiple project types in a month, but hopefully, more would be enlightened to work more for quality than quantity.

Researchers and Writers Don't Catch the Punchline Right

I work as a full time researcher and this puts my online writing on the side lines. I didn't realize recently how serious the role of researchers are in our field of work. Being one of the newest in the department and having no experience in research analysis at all, I find myself always at lost when the "older" ones discuss work matters. I think, if it wasn't for my writing abilities (which is actually more on creative and free-form) I wouldn't be placed were I am right now.

Just a few days ago, I was sent to start schooling for researcher analysts. The course will be an in-depth study of our systems and aims to create effective and efficient personalities from us. Their basic requirement of course is that the student must be a writer (yey! I think I'm qualified for this --- WRONG!)

Okay, a few days after we convened, my nose is all but bleeding. I have migraines every now and then and I dread the upcoming weeks where we'll most probably have our brains squeezed out! (lol) Well during one lecture on the basics of research analysis, our lecturer kept on hitting on jokes, and almost all of us stayed serious, no reactions - nada. And not until he explains himself do we all snicker and laugh - and yeah our lecturer kept on laughing at us and keeps on mentioning that researchers and writers don't catch the punchlines right every time. I know he's speaking from experience and I'm starting to believe that it might actually be true to most if not all researchers and writers.

Downsides of Freelance Writing Jobs

Working freelance and loving what you do can easily keep you motivated and passionate about your writing. It has indeed a lot of perks and advantages over any regular day jobs. But there also some downsides which you must prepare for.

Many articles and writers do rave about the perks, benefits and the great things about working online, but trust me it is not always like that. There are days that really suck! I do love writing, but well, like everything else, there's always a good and a bad side to it.

Keeping Yourself Motivated

Working without a boss or a superior can entail a lot of distractions and temptations. You are free to work at your own time just as long as you meet your deadlines and provide what your client needs. There will be no one else to tell you what needs to be done, there won't be anyone to push you around. Might be a great arrangement, but for those who are new to being their own bosses, this can be a big drawback. You must keep yourself focused and find ways to stay motivated to work for online writing jobs even during the laziest days.

Building a Clientele

Finding clients and keeping them is probably one of the most significant issues that freelancers have. You need to learn to promote yourself and handle difficult clients accordingly. Be ready to deal with clients who are not sure what they really want as well as clients who are never satisfied with anything you write. There will clients who suddenly disappears and those who will not pay for your work.

It was a lesson learned the hard way. So be cautious with whom you're dealing with and make sure you verify your clients capacity to pay, and understand what they want to ensure that you provide the best results for them.

Variable Income and Lack of Bonuses

Freelancers are not entitled to bonuses that regular employers receive from their companies. There are no awards or recognition given. Feedback may be great but they usually don't come in with any financial value.

Apart from this, you also have different income ranges each month. Depending on the flow of your assignments and your clients. Large swings in your monthly income can make budgeting difficult. For newbies in the field, earning and finding decent freelance writing jobs can be very frustrating.

Longer Work Hours

Contrary to what many people think, working on freelance writing jobs will also entail long and sometimes round the clock work hours. If you have clients from other time zones, you need to meet their schedules and probably sync your time with them as well.

Moreover, you also need to deal with marketing, billing and other administrative needs of your home business.

Lack of Job Security

Many businesses fail within the first two years of existence so if you want to move into full time freelance writing, you might want to hold on to your regular day job first. Make sure that your freelancing is already stable with an established client base before pursuing a full time freelance writing job.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Assignments?

I've been an online writer for several years now. I admire top writers and freelancers I've seen in Odesk, but I know they've also struggled to reach their status. Finding freelance writing jobs online can be a little daunting especially for beginners. My first try with some online job markets placed me on the lowermost level - with no feedback, means lesser chances of getting a job. So where can you really find freelance writing assignments that actually pays?

where to find freelance writing assignments?

Referrals

Mine was a lucky start. I got referred to someone looking for writers. They seemed satisfied with the articles I produce and became a regular provider for their projects. And because they are local clients, I also got to meet them personally. I think being referred is one of the most effective way to land writing assignments that pays. Ask your friends and colleagues about writing gigs, copywriters and editors who may need writing services you can provide.

image from http://www.inst.org

Bidding Sites

After months of having a writer's block, I slowly got back to writing and finding freelance writing jobs which are very demanding. I checked out Craiglist, eBay and Sulit.ph for possibilities. I know these are not the places where people looking out for jobs would probably check out, but I got one of the most productive job from a Sulit.ph job posting.

Online - Freelance Job Markets

After establishing myself back and learning more about writing styles, techniques and more about SEO, I tried applying for writing jobs posted in online job markets, most specifically - oDesk. There are other job markets that have hundreds of freelance writing job assignments that you can check out such as:

• Freelancer
• Guru
• Elance
• Pro Blogger

Among the many online writing job markets, I am actively pursuing oDesk. I was hired for several projects here and also got re-hired by many satisfied employers. I was really happy working for their projects and they seemed to be quite happy with the output too, thus I've raised my feedback score to 4.8/5!

One thing that you should always remember is to to accept only assignments that you can do and avoid overlapping your tasks to ensure that you write only quality articles. This way you can keep your clients happy and would never hesitate to give you more writing assignments in the future.

Online Writing Jobs: How I Started as an Online Writer

Going back almost 6 years ago, I can still remember my struggles to find a decent part time job to supplement my income. I had a growing baby and I need to earn a little more to ensure that I can save despite the ballooning expenses.

I tried a couple of rackets gimmicks including:

• Online selling on eBay and Multiply
• Blogging (Mommy Cotz and Teloyski), and
• Online Job Markets (Odesk and Freelancer)

Starting from scratch truly is frustrating and depressing especially if you don't see any results at all. I earn a little by selling used stuff, but blogging was another story. I was overwhelmed by some of the technical stuff (page rankings, back links, SEO and a lot more). I keep a personal blog and ruled out monetizing it and just proceeded with online job markets where I also failed to make some income. The competition was tough and many other nationalities offer really low prices for their services.

I was lucky enough to be offered a  writing assignment by a local client. I was referred to her by one of my office mates and for the next 3 years my writing world revolved around the assignments she sends me.

I wrote different types of content - press releases, short articles, SEO articles and more. I wrote about different topics - freelance writing, shoes, bags, health, fitness, solar and wind energy and many others. I learned about writing original content, keyword placement and densities. I loved what I do and I was happy to earn and learn with my writing.

But at one point, I also went through what many would call a "writer's block." I felt I could no longer write - I struggle with words, much more in composing articles. Nothing comes out of my brain anymore and I wasn't satisfied with my writing. It lasted for a year, may be more.

I got my vibe back slowly and painstakingly. I started activating my blog once again and wrote little by little. Travel and spending more time with my son provided motivation and ideas for writing. I started applying on local online markets - Craiglist, Sulit.ph and eBay for content writer and got another local client with a good pay. It was a good motivation as well - money.

Soon I thought about having direct clients and tried one more time with Odesk. I elaborated on my extensive writing experience and provided some of my works. I also created a portfolio for clients to check. And this time I succeeded in getting more clients and assignments. I also got an overwhelming number of invitations for interviews and some of clients re-hire me with an upgraded contract.




But since I consider writing as a hobby and not as a primary source of income, I learned to choose my assignments and dealt only with topics that I like and I want to write about. This way I was able to give it my best and provide quality, creative and value-for-money services.