Im A Freelancer Freelance Writing

Using YouTube to Make Money Online

Surely you have heard of YouTube by now and you know that you can use it to get a bunch of views for stupid videos online. What you may not realize yet is that there are a lot of different ways that you can potentially make money through YouTube, even though it is free to use. There is no better satisfaction in life than getting money in return for using a free program. You don't have to go through a four year degree at Penn Foster College just to earn some dough. That is what you can experience if you learn the monetizing powers of this viral video warehouse. Here are a few ideas to help you see the potential that YouTube could provide for you.

YouTube Partner Program
The Partner Program from YouTube is similar to Google Adsense. You can potentially get paid to have advertising around your videos. Any time someone clicks on an ad, you earn money in your account. If your videos go viral, that could lead to huge profits for you over time. Here is some information directly from YouTube that you can keep in mind about this option:

"Created in 2007, we now have 20,000+ partners from 22 countries around the world. Hundreds of partners are making six figures a year, and the number of partners making over $1,000 a month is up 300% since 2010."

Sounds like a good setup to me!

Product Advertising
If you have a new product or service that you are trying to promote, you can get it out there through YouTube. Then you will be able to draw in potential customers that are interested in whatever it is you have to offer. This is a form of video marketing that can be used to generate direct revenue for your business. All you have to do is make a video about your product or service and get it out on the web. If you do this correctly, you should be able to make some pretty decent money from your YouTube videos.

Try to think outside the box, and you should be able to come up with a few options to make money through YouTube. With the amount of viewers this site has every day, there is bound to be a money-making option out there for you.

Freelance Writing Salary Statistics

Woohoo! I have been looking for this particular set of salary stats for forever now, but I can never find more than one or two examples of freelance writing pay scales. Apparently I had to look up "content writer" instead of "freelance writer." Now I know. If you're anything like me, you probably want to know where this silly little career is going to take you financially, which isn't a bad question to ask. That will determine if this should be a part time gig or a full-blown career. Sure, there are a ton of variables to keep in mind, but it cannot hurt to look over average salaries across the country to figure out what you may be making here.

Here are some short salary charts that show what you could make as a freelance writer. Note that these charts represent the money you could make per year, not per hour. I get paid by the project, so that's just how I think. If you want to see examples of hourly pay rates, check out this article on another one of my blogs: Freelance Writing by the Hour – How Much Is Your Time Worth?. Now, let's get back to the stats, shall we?

Salary by Years of Experience

I can attest to the fact that experience makes a huge difference in your pay as a freelance writer. I made $100 the first week I started my career, and now I can make that before I eat breakfast in the morning. The longer you stick with this, the more you will make. Period. Possible salaries by years of experience include:

• Less than 1 year of experience: $12,164 - $79,892 per year
• 1-4 years of experience: $23,125 - $55,096 per year
• 5-9 years of experience: $28,782 - $67,961 per year
• 10-19 years of experience: $40,359 - $90,217 per year
• 20 years or more of experience: $57,162 - $84,500 per year

Salary by Industry

Writers can find themselves in an array of industries, and all of these industries have different needs and pay rates to look forward to. I have worked in internet marketing, MLM, web development, content development, and all kinds of other sectors of the job market, and my pay rates have ranged accordingly. Possible salaries by industry include:

• Communications: $12,080 - $69,531 per year
• Financial Services: $27,500 - $64,750 per year
• Internet and New Media: $29,969 - $41,500 per year
• Marketing, Advertising & Media Management: $18,548 - $48,479 per year
• Multi-Level Marketing: $26,000 - $47,043 per year
• Retail: $30,489 - $44,000 per year
• Web Development: $23,947 - $73,465 per year

Salary by Employer Type

Some employers are willing to pay more than others, so you might want to keep that in mind as you start looking for a job. If you can find a set of high-paying clients and still work on your own, that will be the ideal situation. Possible salaries by employer include:

• College or University: $18,900 - $45,005 per year
• Company: $25,342 - $67,138 per year
• Non-Profit Organization: $43,448 - $69,498 per year
• Self-Employed: $18,502 - $98,264 per year

Salary by Specialty

Some writers choose to specialize in areas that they are talented in or passionate about. If you decide to do this, you need to make sure the pay is going to work out for you in the end. Possible salaries by specialty include:

• Copywriting: $35,000 - $51,500 per year
• Editing: $24,900 - $63,500 per year
• Marketing Communications: $30,521 - $50,421 per year
• Technical Writing: $25,500 - $40,000 per year

Whew, I think that does it. Now that I have finally been able to write this silly article, I feel a little more complete than I did 15 minutes ago. Let's all release a sigh of relief, shall we? Ahhhh.
Now, back to writing you crazy fools!

The Work of a Freelance Web Developer

Web developers are in increasingly high demand at the moment because the internet is expanding every day. Software developer jobs are slowly being replaced with web developer jobs, which makes this the perfect tie to jump into this career. If you have a passion for the internet and a drive to help people succeed on it, you could do quite well as a web developer. You just need a clear idea of the work involved with this profession. Here are some answers to FAQs about freelance web development so you can decide what you want to do in the future.

What Industries Are Web Developers Needed in?

Web developers are needed in just about every area of the job market. If there is one area in particular that you want to specialize in, you can do that and still find work at the end of the day. Here is a list of some industries that you might come across in your hunt for freelance work:

• Education
• E-Commerce
• Internet and New Media
• Marketing, Advertising & Media Management
• Software Applications
• Web Design

What College Degrees Work for Web Development?

You don't technically need a college degree to be a freelance web developer. Having one definitely won't hurt you though. Clients are more likely to pay for your services if they know that you have a good educational background. A college degree can provide you with just that. Listed below are some degree programs you may consider in college, but feel free to search for others on your own.

• Associate's Degree
• Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems
• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
• Bachelor of Science in Information Technology
• Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems
• Master of Science in Computer Science

Where Do Freelance Web Developers Work?

Most freelance web developers work at home, which is why they have "freelance" in their job title. Nevertheless, these freelancers can work for other companies on a contract by contract basis, depending on how skilled they are. Here is a list of organizations you may find work through as a web developer:

• Colleges
• Companies
• Contracts
• Government Offices
• Hospitals
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Private Practices
• School Districts
• Self-Employed

Are There Any Specialties in Web Development?

Of course there are specialties in web development. Geesh! Web development encompasses a wide range of computer programming languages and site genres, so there are many areas you may be able to work in as a web developer. The list below shows just some of the many specialties you may pursue in this profession:

• e-Commerce
• HTML
• Internet Information Server
• Java
• JavaScript
• Linux
• Microsoft Active Server Pages
• Microsoft SQL Server
• SQL

What Certifications Do Web Developers Need?

If you want to verify how badass you are online, you may want to get some kind of certification related to your experience. There are plenty of them to choose from, and they could all increase your job opportunities in the future. Here is a list of certifications you may pursue as web developer:

• Cisco Certified Network Associate
• CompTIA Security+
• Macromedia ColdFusion Advanced Certification
• Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet
• Microsoft Certified Professional
• Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
• Microsoft Windows NT
• Sun Certified Java Programmer

How Much Money Do Freelance Web Developers Make?

Of course, the biggest question of all involves how much money you can make as a web developer. For the most part, the earning prospects for this profession are pretty high. You just have to find the right clients and get through your work efficiently. The charts below show what your salary may be in this profession.

Salary by Years of Experience

• Less than 1 year of experience: $29,284 - $56,183 per year
• 1-4 years of experience: $30,290 - $66,652 per year
• 5-9 years of experience: $38,879 - $80,815 per year
• 10-19 years of experience: $41,576 - $85,649 per year
• 20 years or more of experience: $41,217 - $92,136 per year

Salary by Location

• California: $39,337 - $84,276 per year
• Illinois: $32,982 - $68,833 per year
• New York: $34,774 - $78,521 per year
• Pennsylvania: $31,984 - $73,034 per year
• Texas: $29,362 - $72,529 per year
• Virginia: $35,971 - $84,392 per year
• Washington: $30,339 - $74,415 per year

The Difference between Technical Writing and Other Writing

In the world of freelance writing, there are several different styles you may be asked to work with: blog writing, technical writing, article writing, email writing…I think you get the idea. With this vast assortment of writing styles to choose from, it may be difficult for you to change the way you write to accommodate each situation. For this blog post, I want to focus on technical writing and what makes it unique. Not everyone is cut out to be a technical writer because it is one of the hardest styles out there. If you have what it takes though, you may be able to make a pretty good living in this field. Here is a look at some of the differences between technical writing and other writing styles.

The Purpose of Technical Writing

Technical writing is designed to discuss technical matters, like medical procedures and scientific equipment. If you have ever read a document outlining a certain process in technology or a manual for medical assistant training, you have read technical writing. You may not have known that's what you were reading, but you were. Most people assume that writing projects like this are handled by professionals in a certain field, but they are usually handled by writers that know their way with words. They are able to break down technical processes into steps that people can actually understand and follow. That is what they get paid for.

The Style of Technical Writing

If you are ever asked to do a technical writing project, you will need to make your writing a little more formal than normal. (Improv rhyme – ya, I'm the shizz) With a blog or other form of writing, you can usually keep a conversational tone about the work without detracting from its value. You can't do that in technical writing though. You have to make it very formal but still explanatory enough for people to read. This is a difficult balance, but eventually you can get the hang of it.

In a technical writing project, you will need to assume that the audience already knows a little bit about what you are writing about. You don't have to break down every single term into simple words. You can use industry-specific terminology to get a point across. I have a hard time doing this because I don't really know how to use that terminology half the time. Thus I have to break it down just so I know what I'm writing about. If you have to do the same, just make it sound like you know what you're writing about, even if you really don't have a clue what is going on.

The Pay for Technical Writers

Technical writers tend to make more money than traditional writers because they have a harder job to do. If you have been looking for a way to make a lot of money as a freelance writer, this is definitely the style to strive for. Here is a look at what you could make every year if you became a full time technical writer:

• Less than 1 year of experience: $27,353 - $54,763 per year
• 1-4 years of experience: $31,340 - $62,602 per year
• 5-9 years of experience: $38,354 - $76,586 per year
• 10-19 years of experience: $45,505 - $92,122 per year
• 20 years or more of experience: $48,626 - $98,434 per year

Pretty nice, huh? Think about a project like this in the near future, and you could call those earnings your own. You're only a few moments away from an exciting new career.

Do Freelance Graphic Designers Make Good Money?

If you have an eye for design and a general understanding of the computer, you may be tempted to work as a graphic designer in the future. You could get a degree and then go to work for a local company, but that may not be necessary. The degree is still great to have, but you may be able to make money just working freelance. There are tons of jobs on oDesk and other freelance job posting sites that cater to graphic designers. The only question that remains is whether or not those jobs will pay well enough for you. Here are some pay statistics that you can keep in mind to decide if this career is fitting for you.

Annual Earnings by Years of Experience

The amount of money you can make as a freelance graphic designer will have a lot to do with the amount of time you have worked in the field. Even in a freelance state, clients prefer to work with people that have been around the block a time or two. This chart shows how your salary may change based on your experience in graphic design:

• Less than 1 year: $22,023 - $42,903 per year
• 1-4 years: $24,919 - $48,822 per year
• 5-9 years: $29,330 - $56,403 per year
• 10-19 years: $30,812 - $68,539 per year
• 20 years or more: $31,401 - $70,474 per year

Annual Earnings by State

Economic conditions fluctuate throughout the country, and so do graphic designers salaries. The catch in the freelance world is that your salary will be based on where your employer is, not necessarily where you live. This chart shows how your salary may change based on your client's location:

• California: $28,945 - $68,254 per year
• New York: $27,951 - $65,919 per year
• Texas: $27,722 - $52,230 per year
• Illinois: $28,245 - $54,906 per year
• Pennsylvania: $25,582 - $51,736 per year
• Florida: $24,948 - $50,024 per year
• Ohio: $25,182 - $50,367 per year

Annual Earnings by Industry

There are tons of industries that need graphic designers, from marketing to web development and beyond. You have to be selective in the industry you work in because it may dictate the money you make as a freelance graphic designer. This chart shows how your salary may change based on your industry of choice:

• Advertising: $26,745 - $55,004 per year
• Graphic Arts: $26,023 - $58,751 per year
• Marketing and Media Management: $26,157 - $54,103 per year
• Printing and Publishing: $27,171 - $57,717 per year
• Web Development: $27,488 - $61,578 per year

Annual Earnings by Degree

You don't have to have a college degree to work as a graphic designer, but that will definitely boost your chances of getting a job. This chart shows how your salary may change based on your education:

• Associate's Degree: $25,154 - $54,371 per year
• Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design: $26,579 - $52,165 per year
• Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design: $28,670 - $52,104 per year
• Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design: $26,312 - $53,688 per year

Do freelance graphic designers make good money? Yep. Can they find wok easily online? Absolutely. Should you consider this career for your future? Looks like an mmmmhmmm to me. There is a great earning potential in graphic design, more so than most people realize. If you can learn the basics of the job, you should be able to find some kind of work on the web. With the right opportunities at the right times, you will have a full PayPal account calling your name in no time.

Maximize Your Earnings as a Freelance Writer

Becoming a truly successful freelance writer takes time. I have been in this business for three years now, and I can't say that I actually started making "good" money at it until year two. I know there is still a lot of room left for my earning potential, but I have at least found ways to make the most I possibly can at this time. In this article, I am going to highlight a few ways that you can adjust your work and you pay rates to make the most money you possibly can. Here are some tips to help you maximize you paychecks so that you can lead the happiest life possible.

Think While you Type

A lot of writers take forever to construct their content because they have to think about what they say before they actually type it up. I never do that. I come up with a topic, and I just start typing about it. I may do a little research at the beginning for something I am unfamiliar with, but that does not happen very often. In most cases, I literally just get on the computer and type what I think. That is why I can get through a 600 word article in 12 minutes if I'm working efficiently – 15 minutes if I get distracted. If you aren't anywhere near that fast at the moment, you need to learn to think while you type. Once you master that process, you can earn a lot more money in the future.

Edit at the End

If you edit your work while you write, you are going to waste a lot of time. Read over it when you are done and correct any problems you find at that point. That way you can just get all of your thoughts out on paper without having to stop and restart. The occasional spelling correction is not that big of a deal, but don't correct a whole paragraph of red if you have it. Wait until then end so you can be efficient with your time.

Get Paid by the Word

The reason the tips above are geared towards improving your writing efficiency is because you can make a lot more money if you get paid by the word. Clients don't care how long you take on an article if you get paid by the word. If you get done with $20 worth of work in 20 minutes, so be it. As long as they end up with articles that they can use for their marketing campaigns, they are going to be happy. Thus if you can work out a way to get paid for the volume of work you do, all you will then have to do is make sure that volume is enough to pay your bills. Otherwise you may be scrounging for easy scholarships to keep you afloat each month.

Work on the Weekends

I know that the weekends are supposed to be everyone's days off, but they can be great profit portals for freelance writers. You can pick up a lot of excess work for clients over the weekends, and that will greatly improve your chances of getting paid well for what you do. I have one client in particular that gives me all the leftover work from his business to do over the weekends. Anything that his in-house writers didn't finish throughout the week goes to me to knock out on Saturday and Sunday. I get paid more to do work over the weekend because I am fulfilling a need for the client. Thus I am able to make more just by using my time effectively.

If you want to take a day off, make that a Tuesday or something. Don't lose out on great weekend opportunity just because you really want to catch the premiere of the new Twilight movie. I promise that the extra money you see on your paycheck will be well worth the time you have to slave away on the weekends. Follow the tips above, and you will be rolling in the dough in no time.

Making the Best oDesk Profile Possible

Every freelancer in the world eventually learns about oDesk.com. This is a giant job portal on the web that connects buyers with freelancers so that everyone can get what they need in the end. I got my start on oDesk, and to this day, it is a place where I go to land my highest paying clients. If you use the tools on the site properly, you could easily make good money on oDesk.

The key to all of this is to have a good worker profile that buyers can look over when they're searching for workers or reviewing your application. The better the profile, the better the jobs. Here are some tips to help you make the best possible impression with your oDesk profile.

Write a Good Objective

Your objective is the little blurb on the top of your profile that employers will most likely look over before hiring you. It is the big introduction to who you are and what sort of work you want to do on the web. This makes it a highly important part of your profile, and something that you should spend some time carefully crafting. You want it to highlight significant information without being too long. Here is what my objective says:

I started writing online in February, 2009 and have since turned it into my full time job. I am able to complete 200+ articles per week, and I am experienced in HTML, HTML5, XHTML, CSS, CSS3, some PHP, and WordPress. I have now worked in just about every facet of web writing, from generic SEO articles to eBooks. I have had clients from around the world, and I have worked on projects ranging from one article to over 500 articles.

From the beginning, I have remained punctual, communicative, and cooperative with every client I have worked with. I make my writing my passion, and that is reflected in the content I develop. Feel free to contact me for any specific examples you want of my work.

As you can see, it explains my experiences writing online, and it tells people to contact me with any questions. Formulate something similar that reflects your talents and expectations, and you should be able to impress buyers from the first glance.

Take Appropriate Tests

oDesk has a large assortment of tests that you can take to show people your skills. Every freelancer on oDesk has to take the oDesk Readiness Test, but there are tons of other tests you may want to explore. When my husband and I tried outsourcing years ago, we would always look at writers' test scores to see if they are in fact competent enough to work on our articles. If they had 50% scores in English and vocabulary, we knew to decline the application. I honestly need to take more tests on the site because I only have one or two on there, and those have scores that aren't really reflective of my current writing skills. If you want to be ahead of me (jerk ), you may want to take four or five tests to show people what you're made of. Taking these will increase your job application limit, so they're definitely worth a shot.

Upload Work Samples

A lot of people like to see samples of work before they hire someone for a job, just to get a feel for what they can do. If you have work from the past, upload a few samples of it so people can see. If you don't have work from the past, you may want to make up a few samples to put on there. You will still need to attach samples to your job applications, but this will give new employers a chance to see your writing skills if they come across your profile. You never know. They may hire you for a huge job just because your samples were good.

List Your Skills

oDesk has a really neat system that allows employers to search for workers based on their skills. If you make a list of skills on your profile that correspond to the oDesk search option, you may have a much better chance at showing up for buyer searches. Here's my list:

1. article-writing
2. seo
3. blog-writing
4. editing
5. email-marketing
6. ebooks
7. article-submission
8. link-building
9. microsoft-excel
10. microsoft-word
11. microsoft-powerpoint
12. management
13. article-spinning
14. technical-writing

Feel free to copy it if you like. Just come up with a set of skills that reflect your overall abilities as a freelancer, and you will be landing jobs in no time.

A Beginner’s Guide to Article Spinning

Have you ever browsed for work on oDesk or another freelancing site and seen a posting for article spinning? Of course you have. These things are all over the place! Article spinning is a portion of article marketing that involves writing an article and then "spinning" different words or sentences within it so that it can generate several different articles from the same content. This is a hard concept to wrap your head around, but it is something that could enhance your freelance writing skills.

If you have been turning down jobs like that just because you don't know what the heck you are doing, the guide below should give you enough skills to apply in the future. Here is a beginner's guide to article spinning, courtesy of one of the best in the business (if I do say so myself).

How Article Spinning Works

Article spinning is the process of taking one article and tweaking it to make hundreds of other articles. The new articles have the same content overall, but the wording for them is slightly different. This is all done through the use of spintax, which is a way of writing that allows different words to be replaced with one another in an article. For example, let's say I want to write the following sentence in spintax…

"I love article spinning."

I can spin individual words within that sentence to create new words in the same sentence. The spintax version would look something like this…

"I {love|like|adore} article spinning."

The words in the bracket separated with whatever this bar line is called | will be switched out randomly when that sentence gets put into an article generator. That would result in the following sentences:

1. "I love article spinning."
2. "I like article spinning."
3. "I adore article spinning."

Get the idea? Basically the words in the spintax create new combinations for an article so that the content looks different, even though it says the same information in the end. The more words and sentences a writer spins, the more combinations the article will have. If we turned that sentence above into…

"I {love|like|adore} {article spinning|spinning articles|using spintax}."

We could get all of these combinations:

1. "I love article spinning."
2. "I like article spinning."
3. "I adore article spinning."
4. "I love spinning articles."
5. "I like spinning articles."
6. "I adore spinning articles."
7. "I love using spintax."
8. "I like using spintax."
9. "I adore using spintax."

You can see how quickly things can grow from there.

How to Spin an Article

If you want to give article spinning a try, you can either use a spinning software or manually spin the article. For manual spinning, all you have to do is put brackets around the words, sentences, or paragraphs you want to spin and separate the spun versions with one of those little lines (|). Make sure that you close all of your brackets and separate with that line or you will end up with weird looking articles.

Most spinning software programs cost money to use, but they will allow you to just type into a little text box rather than creating the actual spintax. You can just click on a word and hit Enter in the box every time you come up with a new replacement for it. The program generates all of the spintax for you. You can also use this program to generate synonyms for you, in case you get stuck on a word. I don't like doing this because the thesauruses in those things are total crap, but that is something to keep in mind.

If you practice enough with article spinning and think you're good at it, you might as well apply for a job and see what happens. You could make some pretty good money doing this, and you will find that it is a lot of fun in the end. Hopefully this guide and the example below will give you all the tools you need to be a successful article spinner in the future. At the very least, this is a cool skill to put on your administrative assistant resume.

An Example of a Fully Spun Paragraph

To put things into perspective, I wanted to show you an example of a piece that I spun a long long long time ago, back when I was first learning how to spin in general. I'm actually a lot better at it now, but it has been a long time since I have done a full blown spinning assignment for a client (I charge more than most people are willing to pay). Check out this example…

{What is it {about|with} candles that make them so {soothing|calming|comforting}, so {desiring|intoxicating|{enticing|alluring|seductive}}...so perfect?|Why are candles {deemed to be|} {so {soothing|calming|comforting}, so {desiring|intoxicating|{enticing|alluring|seductive}}...so perfect|so {desiring|intoxicating|{enticing|alluring|seductive}}, so {soothing|calming|comforting}...so perfect|so {soothing|calming|comforting}, so {desiring|intoxicating|{enticing|alluring|seductive}}, so perfect }?|What makes candles so {soothing|calming|comforting}, so {desiring|intoxicating|{enticing|alluring|seductive}}...so perfect?} Is it their {{alluring|{enticing|alluring|seductive}|seductive} {smells|aromas|odors} or the pretty colors|pretty colors and {alluring|{enticing|alluring|seductive}|seductive} {{smells|aromas|odors}}}? {What|How} about their {{versatility|flexibility} or {decorative|stylish} functions|{decorative|stylish} functions or {versatility|flexibility}|{chicness|style} and {versatility|flexibility}}? Most likely, {people {enjoy|love|like} candles because they have the ability to transform any room from a {shabby|dull|bland} box with {furniture|chairs|cabinets} into a warm and {inviting|happy} {place|spot} to relax.|people like candles because they give instant character to any room {they're|they are} in.|people {are drawn to|like|enjoy} candles because of their ability to {completely|totally|entirely} transform any environment {they're|they are} in.} {{That's|That is|Thats} why people love them so much.|{That's|That is|That} what makes people {adore|love|like} them.|{That's|That is|That} what make them so {enticing|alluring|seductive}.}

How to Format an Online Article

When you start writing online, you will most likely format your articles like you would format an essay for school. This may work for your English professor, but it isn't going to work on the web. Internet articles are formatted differently than other articles because they are meant to be read online. This requires a different look and a different flow to the writing. I have perfected the art of writing online over the past few years, so that most of my clients get the exact setup they want from the start. Here are some tips to help you format your articles to cyber standards in the future:

• Keyword placement: Most clients will want their keywords in the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and somewhere in the middle. Some of them may ask for the keyword to be used once or twice per paragraph, depending on the density they need. If you use the first, last, middle rule though, you should cover the basics.



• No bold or italic words: Your bold and italicized words will most likely turn to plain text whenever your client uploads an article to his or her website. Avoid using these unless you are instructed to do so.
• No exclamation marks: Exclamation marks are usually only fit for blog posts, when writing is meant to be more casual. If you are writing an article for a directory or website, you should probably avoid screaming at the audience!!! (See?)
• No indentions: Most web text is flush with the left side of the page, so there is no reason to indent your paragraphs. As long as you have proper spacing, your paragraphs will stand apart from one another.
• No smart quotes: Smart quotes are those little curly quotes that show up standard when you type in Microsoft Word. They may look better than straight quotes, but they do not show up well online. You need to go to your AutoCorrect options and turn off your smart quotes. That will prevent your clients from getting a funky symbol on their site when they upload your article.
• Subheadings and bullets: Subheadings make your writing easier to follow by breaking up information into chunks. Bullets give web users the quickest method possible to find the information they are looking for. Unless the client says otherwise, plan on using one of these devices to make your writing more readable.
• Spacing: Make sure that there is an actual space between all of your paragraphs, not something that looks like a space. MS Word puts something that appears to be a space between paragraphs under single spacing, but it does not put an actual space there unless you hit "Enter." Your writing may look more spaced out this way, but it will transfer well to the web. You have to always keep that in mind when you format your articles.

Learning proper article formatting takes time, but it is something you can easily get the hang of over time. What you have to remember is that your clients are going to taking your text and putting it into a plain text editor. That means that it will look just like it does if you copy it into Notepad. Try doing that a few times, just to get a feel for what your writing is actually translating to. You have to get out of essay mode. You're writing on the web now. Once you get familiar enough with the process, it will come second nature to you. Hopefully the tips above will help you get acclimated to writing on the web pretty quickly.

25 Websites Every Freelance Writer Needs to Know About

I have been a freelancer for a long time now, and there are some sites that I seem to find myself coming back to time and time again. No matter what kind of freelance writing you like to do, you will inevitably use some of the sites listed below to do your job. I probably use half of them on a weekly basis, and some of them I use every single day. You might as well use as many resources as you can because that will ultimately lead to your success. Here are 25 websites I don't think any freelance writer should be without:

1. Blogspot: A free blogging platform that anyone can use.
2. Buzzfeed: A social bookmarking site writers can use to promote their articles.
3. Copyscape: A plagiarism checker that verifies the originality of an article.
4. Craigslist: A free classifieds site where writers can find virtual and local jobs.
5. Digg: A popular news bookmarking site where writers can marketing their work.
6. Ezine: A popular article directory site where writers can post articles for free.
7. Facebook: A well-known social networking site that can be used for personal promotion.
8. Fiverr: A site where writers can post projects they would be willing to do for $5.
9. Flikr: An online image directory that offers free images writers can use in articles.
10. Gmail: An email platform that a lot of online businesses use for communication.
11. GoArticles: A free article directory, similar to Ezine.
12. HubPages: A site similar to Squidoo that provides writers with money in exchange for views to their articles.
13. KuKuKlok: An online alarm clock, perfect for quick power naps at the keyboard.
14. MTurk: Amazon's mechanical turk – a great place to go for quick money.
15. oDesk: A virtual workplace where buyers can order articles and writers can find jobs.
16. PayPal: A payment processing website that allows for instant money transfers over the web.
17. Skype: A video chatting site that can be used for communication around the world.
18. Squidoo: A free article publishing site that allows writers to create "lenses" of information.
19. TenBux: A site similar to Fiverr where writers can post jobs they would be willing to do for $5 or $10.
20. Textbroker: An article site where writers can pick up work one article at a time.
21. TheContentAuthority: A site similar to Textbroker that offers article jobs one assignment at a time.
22. Thesaurus.com: A great site to go to when you can't think of a word to use in an article or scholarship applictation.
23. Twitter: A popular social network that can be used for promotional purposes.
24. WordPress: A completely free blogging platform that can turn any website into a working blog.
25. YouTube: A free video submission site, most often used for vlogs and music videos.

Explore some of the sites above and combine them with the sites you may already be using. Eventually you will get to the point where your internet usage is customized to suit your needs.

Should You Get Paid Upfront for Freelance Work?

If you have ever looked for work on oDesk.com or a similar freelancing website, you may have noticed the option to request upfront payment for your work. This is something that a lot of writers do to ensure that they will actually get paid for part of their efforts, but it may not be an ideal move to make. I make a pretty substantial income a month freelance writing, and I have never ever asked for upfront payment. Why, you ask? Let me explain…

Upfront Payments Scare Clients

If you start requesting upfront payments, you are going to scare away your clients. My husband and I tried the whole outsourcing thing when we first started working online, so I have been on the client side of freelancing. I don't do any remote sort of outsourcing now because I found out I actually made more money using my natural talents, but it was still something my husband wanted to try. Any time we would look at a writing candidate with upfront payment requests, we would tell them we couldn't do that before we even started the project.

The reason why upfront payments scare off employers is because they represent putting out money into something that is fairly unknown. One of the main reasons I stopped outsourcing years ago is because I had far too many writers try to turn in plagiarized or poorly rewritten work. My reputation was on the line, and so was all of the money I had to pay for CopyScape and anything else I used for the articles. Adding upfront payment on top of something like that just seemed stupid. I don't care how good you think or know you are. You can't expect clients to take a gamble on your work.

Upfront Payments Are Not Guaranteed Payments

I have been paid for portions of projects up front, without actually asking for that to occur. One client recently just sent money to my email address via PayPal without actually asking for the email address. Luckily that email was linked to my account, or I could have missed out on a decent chunk of change for no reason. In any event, that person paid for part of the project and I completed the whole thing. I still haven't heard from him to get the rest of my money. If you think the upfront payment is going to provide you with some security, don't. You'll be better off researching the client's feedback and determining how trustworthy he or she is from there.

Upfront Payments are Motivation Killers

This may be something that only I have experienced, but I have a tendency to procrastinate on work once I know I have been paid for it. There is no real goal to reach towards at that point. I already have the big reward, so I don't really feel like doing anything to earn it. This is laziness at its finest, but it is the truth about what happens. Unless I have to work toward a financial goal, I don't want to write. You may feel the same way if you actually do get paid up front.

At the end of the day, you are providing a service for someone else, and that service needs to be completed before you get any form of compensation. You wouldn't pay a plumber to fix your toilet before he actually got the job done, would you? This follows along the same lines. In this case, you're the plumber, minus the stereotypical exposed crack. At least, I hope you don't have your crack exposed. That's another topic for another day though…

How Copyscape Works

Have you ever come across a job application that said something along the lines of, "I run all of my articles through Copyscape…"? Most online employers use Copyscape to check the plagiarism of the work that you turn into them, just to ensure that it is in all original. Even committees for writing scholarships use this sometimes. Hopefully you create completely original content every time you write for someone, but it is still nice to understand what Copyscape is and how it works. The program is fairly simple to use, and knowing about it will help you see things from a buyer's perspective. This may make you a better writer in the future. Let's take a look at how Copyscape works so you can write around it effectively.

What Copyscape Does

Copyscape is designed to compare the text of a piece of written work to work that is already on the web. If there are any word for word comparisons online, the program will pull up a link to them so you can compare the texts. Then you can see what percentage of the text is already on the web and make adjustments accordingly. The program does not look at common words and phrases you may use because those are everywhere. It just examines the primary components of an article and makes sure it isn't anywhere to be found.

How to Use Copyscape

If you want to test Copyscape out for yourself, you will need to sign up for a free account. Even though the account is free, the use of the program is not. You have to pay $.05 every time you run something on Copyscape, and you have to buy at least 100 runs at a time. Thus you need to make sure you at least have $5 to spare on a credit card or in your PayPal account before using this.

Once you have your account set up, you can go to the checker page and put information into the text box. I usually try to limit that information to about 600 words, but you can put more in. It just doesn't come up with completely accurate results that way. Once you submit the text, the program will either show you the results for the plagiarism scan, or it will say "No results." Then you can determine if you need to make any adjustments to your work.

How to Get Articles to Pass Copyscape

If you are the kind of writer that just rewrites other works online, Copyscape can help you see how original that work looks. This will prevent clients from seeing what you wrote so you don't get in trouble for the rewrite. If something doesn't pass Copyscape, compare text on the top search result to see what all is coming up wrong. Look over the highlighted text because that is the part that comes up plagiarized. Try to pick out phrases that have keywords in them or long chains of information. Those are the ones that may hold you back from passing.

When you find chains of three or more words you think may be causing you to not pass the test, you need to change the words in your article so that they don't match the original. Then you can run the new article and see if anything happens. Sometimes all you have to do is change the order of words, and other times you can't even change anything because the issue lies within a keyword. Now that you know how to use this program though, you may be able to make your writing better as a whole. It just depends on how you utilize the tools around you.