Expanding Your Blogging Plans - Writing Full-Time
After about 6 months of steady blogging, I've come to the point where I've started to branch out to write for other blogs, as I mentioned in my last post (links below). I've mentioned before that there are a number of sources of blog revenue:
You might be able to think of other sources. Let's focus on the last item. This activity might include a number of things:
But let's focus on the last two items of the above list. Here's a made up example. Let's just say that you're getting at least US$5 per post, and you're able to maintain a rate of 20 posts per day in a 10 hr day. That's 2 posts per hour. This is extreme for some bloggers/ writers, and easy-as-pie for others.
Remember, you want to produce your best quality writing, especially when you're writing for someone else, and especially if you want to continue writing. On the other hand, at a rate of 2 per hour, only the most seasoned of writers can produce more than short summaries and some commentary for each post. What would you expect for $10/hr?
If you can maintain this rate for, say, 5 days/wk, week in and week out, that's at least US$5/post x 20 posts/d x 5 d/wk x 4 wk/m = US$2000/m or more. That's not a lot for a job that you are doing full-time, but consider how much freedom you have, compared to a salaried job. You're also saving money on expenses such as parking and gasoline, or other transportation costs (tolls, bus or train, etc.)
Also, if you're working out of your home, and have a clearly defined "office space", you may be eligible for a number of tax writeoffs. You can deduct some portion of your "professional expenses" such as your Internet connection bill, phone bill, computer lease, home office furniture lease, rent, and more. (Check with your accountant to be sure what you are eligible for as a freelance writer.) Since you're eating meals at home, your monthly food costs are also a lot less than if you went to work and had to buy lunch everyday - and sometimes breakfast and/or dinner.
The $2000/m will go a lot further than you might think, even if you are not eligible to deduct some of your expenses. Depending on the country you live in, you may or may not have to deduct quarterly income tax payments. But you still have more cash flow than if you had a job paying $2000 gross monthly, since you'll lose some of that to weekly income tax deductions.
If you can supplement this $2000/m income with a higher-paying article each week, you could very well push yourself into the $3000/m territory - an amount that's sufficient for a single person or for one income in a two-income family. If you're earning any percentage of ad revenues as well, this could be the big payoff over time. If you're retaining copyright, those same posts may earn you additional ad revenues on your own site in the future.
Of course, the drawback of this sort of career is the same as for any self-run business: lack of security. Not everyone can manage it. Learning to save any extra bounty is crucial, especially when one blog or another stops accepting outside/ freelance writers, forcing you to find other gigs. The additional problem is that if you're blogging for smaller/ newer sites, they may have a limit on the number of contributions per week.
For example, a couple of the sites I blog for only allow me 2-3 posts per week, each. That means that at this low frequency, I'd have to blog for nearly 50 different sites, and be able to keep track of them all. But don't ignore these sites altogether, because posting frequency may change as the site gains in popularity and revenue.
A more manageable endeavour is to build up to a portfolio of 10 blogs/ sites, plus your own, as well as a few sites that pay higher rates for longer articles. With your remaining time, hire yourself out as a copywriter blogger for companies.
Also consider writing for "free article" sites such as EzineArticles.com to build up backlinks and traffic to ALL of the sites you write for, not just your own. Or at least to do this for sites that are paying you a percentage of ad revenues instead of just a flat fee. If you own the domain and are part of someone's network, even better.
When you've accumulated a large body of articles/ posts, and a sufficient number of regular visitors to one of the blogs for which you own the domain, you might consider compiling and editing a selection of your better writing into a book. Depending on the topic, you just might be able to find a suitable publisher. As an ebook, you could publish it yourself, or team up with an e-publisher that has some experience in this regard.
There are many ways you can make freelance blogging work for you, provided you are organized and disciplined, and can weather the lean early times. This advice is not much different than advice that used to be given to new freelance writers before the Internet.
Links: BlogSpinner - Writing For Another Blog, Bloggers For Hire.
(c) Copyright: 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
Technorati Tags: blogspinner, blogging, pro blogging, multi blogs, blog revenue, writing
- Ad revenue from existing ad networks.
- Ad revenue from your own ad network.
- Sales of your products and services.
- Merchandise sales through another party.
- Affiliate fees for someone else's product sales.
- E-books and for-fee subscriptions.
- Blogger for hire.
You might be able to think of other sources. Let's focus on the last item. This activity might include a number of things:
- Promoting a company on one of your own blogs for a monthly fee.
- Promoting a company on their blog for a monthly fee.
- Under your own name
- As a ghostwriter
- Writing articles for free article sites in order to build backlinks and traffic for a company's website. Charge a monthly fee for a set number of articles.
- Writing posts for a blog or online community.
- Payment is a flat fee
- Payment is a percentage of ad revenues (usually just the contextual)
- Payment is a combination of the above two.
- Writing articles for an online magazine.
But let's focus on the last two items of the above list. Here's a made up example. Let's just say that you're getting at least US$5 per post, and you're able to maintain a rate of 20 posts per day in a 10 hr day. That's 2 posts per hour. This is extreme for some bloggers/ writers, and easy-as-pie for others.
Remember, you want to produce your best quality writing, especially when you're writing for someone else, and especially if you want to continue writing. On the other hand, at a rate of 2 per hour, only the most seasoned of writers can produce more than short summaries and some commentary for each post. What would you expect for $10/hr?
If you can maintain this rate for, say, 5 days/wk, week in and week out, that's at least US$5/post x 20 posts/d x 5 d/wk x 4 wk/m = US$2000/m or more. That's not a lot for a job that you are doing full-time, but consider how much freedom you have, compared to a salaried job. You're also saving money on expenses such as parking and gasoline, or other transportation costs (tolls, bus or train, etc.)
Also, if you're working out of your home, and have a clearly defined "office space", you may be eligible for a number of tax writeoffs. You can deduct some portion of your "professional expenses" such as your Internet connection bill, phone bill, computer lease, home office furniture lease, rent, and more. (Check with your accountant to be sure what you are eligible for as a freelance writer.) Since you're eating meals at home, your monthly food costs are also a lot less than if you went to work and had to buy lunch everyday - and sometimes breakfast and/or dinner.
The $2000/m will go a lot further than you might think, even if you are not eligible to deduct some of your expenses. Depending on the country you live in, you may or may not have to deduct quarterly income tax payments. But you still have more cash flow than if you had a job paying $2000 gross monthly, since you'll lose some of that to weekly income tax deductions.
If you can supplement this $2000/m income with a higher-paying article each week, you could very well push yourself into the $3000/m territory - an amount that's sufficient for a single person or for one income in a two-income family. If you're earning any percentage of ad revenues as well, this could be the big payoff over time. If you're retaining copyright, those same posts may earn you additional ad revenues on your own site in the future.
Of course, the drawback of this sort of career is the same as for any self-run business: lack of security. Not everyone can manage it. Learning to save any extra bounty is crucial, especially when one blog or another stops accepting outside/ freelance writers, forcing you to find other gigs. The additional problem is that if you're blogging for smaller/ newer sites, they may have a limit on the number of contributions per week.
For example, a couple of the sites I blog for only allow me 2-3 posts per week, each. That means that at this low frequency, I'd have to blog for nearly 50 different sites, and be able to keep track of them all. But don't ignore these sites altogether, because posting frequency may change as the site gains in popularity and revenue.
A more manageable endeavour is to build up to a portfolio of 10 blogs/ sites, plus your own, as well as a few sites that pay higher rates for longer articles. With your remaining time, hire yourself out as a copywriter blogger for companies.
Also consider writing for "free article" sites such as EzineArticles.com to build up backlinks and traffic to ALL of the sites you write for, not just your own. Or at least to do this for sites that are paying you a percentage of ad revenues instead of just a flat fee. If you own the domain and are part of someone's network, even better.
When you've accumulated a large body of articles/ posts, and a sufficient number of regular visitors to one of the blogs for which you own the domain, you might consider compiling and editing a selection of your better writing into a book. Depending on the topic, you just might be able to find a suitable publisher. As an ebook, you could publish it yourself, or team up with an e-publisher that has some experience in this regard.
There are many ways you can make freelance blogging work for you, provided you are organized and disciplined, and can weather the lean early times. This advice is not much different than advice that used to be given to new freelance writers before the Internet.
Links: BlogSpinner - Writing For Another Blog, Bloggers For Hire.
(c) Copyright: 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/
Technorati Tags: blogspinner, blogging, pro blogging, multi blogs, blog revenue, writing
