P.J. Aitken - The Online Writers Companion: A Complete Guide to Earning Your Living as a Freelancer

Copyright 2016 by P. J. Aitken

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Print ISBN: 978-1-62153-528-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62153-529-4

Printed in the United States of America

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I dont consider myself to be particularly tech savvy, but Im not completely clueless either. I was an Internet child, a loner who spent his days and nights battling with a 56k modem and hogging the phone line. I was born in 1985, so Im still fairly young (although my gray hairs and the noise I make when I sit down would beg to differ), but in my teenage years it was still considered geeky to use computers, and I became a whizz kid purely because I knew what RAM stood for (or so they thought) and that a hard drive was not something be giggled at.

I lost my way somewhat over the years, but I like to think that I knew a little more about the net than most.

Fast forward to 2012. I had been writing for many years, mostly as an aspiring novelist whose only purpose was to write a novel, find an agent, and then repeat when that process inevitably failed. Toward the end of the year I decided that enough was enough. I had won short story competitions and had seen many stories published in magazines, but I was broke and I was going nowhere. I self-published, and to cut a long story short, it went rather well for me. I was making more money than I had ever dreamed of and my work was finally being read.

I didnt want to spend all of my days writing novels thoughcreativity is a fleeting thing and I had gaps in my schedule that needed filling. I was also worried that my books would stop selling and I would be left with nothing but the regret that I didnt make more of the opportunity when I had the chance. So, I decided to freelance, and thats when my lack of Internet knowledge surfaced.

I knew nothing about the websites that will be the focus of this book. I actually resorted to Craigslist , better known for producing serial killers and posts that make the human race look like an experiment in absurdity and sexual perversion. I found jobs that offered pennies, including one that paid $50 a month for what amounted to two articles a day. I figured I needed the experienceI needed something on my CV other than doodles and the words Published Author, and I was sure that my experience as a novelist would get me that job and others like it.

As it happened, I didnt get the job, and Im thankful for it. After that, and thanks to a chance Google search, I discovered Freelancer. This is a website that is devoted to freelancers of all professions, a community where people post jobs for writers, artists, programmers, and more, and one that deals with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of projects a week. This opened my eyes, exposing me to sites like Fiverr, People Per Hour, and to an entire industry I never knew existed.

This was a gold mine for me, a realization that I didnt need to settle for shitty jobs on Serial-Killers-R-US. After a little more searching, I discovered Elance. I thought that it looked like the best one out there, and I was right. There were over 300,000 writers on Elance, all competing for millions of dollars worth of projects, and in eighteen months I had made it into the top five. I also branched out into other sites, trying not to keep all of my eggs in one basket, which is very important in this industry, as discussed later (see ), but Elance always remained my main site, my main source of income away from my books. Elance then became Upwork, and in the changeover I remained one of the most sought-after and most highly rated writers, earning even more money than I had earned through the success of my novels.

In this book I will tell you how I went from a clueless idiot who didnt know these sites existed to a leading freelancer at the very top of the industry, and I will show you how you can do the same. I didnt use anything but hard work and common sense, and Im confident that anyone can do what I did with the right guidance. This isnt a self-help book; it isnt a golden ticket. Im not going to tell you that its all about positivity and eating your greens, and Im certainly not going to tell you the secret that will have clients queuing outside your dooralthough I can tell you how to make them interested in you. Making it as an online freelance writerand any sort of online freelancer for that matterrequires a lot of hard work and commitment. In fact, being reliable and hard working will do much more for you than being a great writer ever will.

This book will show you the basics. It will tell you what sites to use and how to get the most out of them; how to make an eye-catching profile; how to set your price in a highly competitive market; how to find the right projects and the right clients; how to outsource; and how to increase your score and your reputation. It will also look at blogging and content websites, an industry that all freelance writers should consider getting involved with on a part-time basis. To round it off, I have included sections on tax, investments, and other resources. This is more than just a book about freelance websites; its a book that will guide you into the life of an online freelancer. It will help you to succeed in that role and ensure you live comfortably with the sort of financial security that every career deserves, but one that isnt usually given to freelancers.

There is a lot of content to sort through, a lot of tidbits, guides, tips, and more. To make things a little more accessible, I have included small references to later chapters within the text, and there is a summary section at the end of all chapters, highlighting the key areas. There is also a comprehensive index at the back of this book that will help you search through the content, which means you can keep the book to hand when you begin your career and even beyond that. Despite all of this, the best way to read The Online Writers Companion is from the first page to the last. That way you will learn everything you need to know about working in this environment. Once youve done that, read through again, taking time to go through each chapter as it corresponds to your current situation. On this second read, you should pay more attention to the references in brackets, visiting the pages and chapters mentioned, before going back to where you were.

0.1 MY JOURNEY AND YOURS

I dont like to brag. Actually, I probably do, at least a little bit, but Im sure you dont want to listen to it. However, my own situation is incredibly relevant to this book. I wouldnt have written it and I certainly wouldnt have been able to publish it if I hadnt come a very long way in a very short time. It wasnt easy and I made a lot of mistakes on the way, but those mistakes shaped me and my career and they allowed me to better understand this industry.