In around November I am going to start copyrighting here on DP. I will start out at $0.01 per word and from previous experience, a reasonable amount per day would be 5000 words. I have until March 2009 until I go from full time to part time again. I believe I am a good writer and can write on a number of topics. With my earnings I want to do the following: - Buy 2x 24" Monitors ($1000) - Buy Photoshop ($500?) - Invest the rest in buying sites ($xxxx??) How much will I expect to make during this time?
No one can answer that for you, b/c it has very little to do with how much you're charging, or how much you think you can write in a day. It has to do with whether or not you can market yourself well (and if you're going in assuming you'll be writing all day every day, you're wrong - you'll be dealing with marketing, admin stuff, etc. and you won't always have clients to fill every billable hour in the beginning).
Jhmattern is correct. You will only know your earnings for sure, when you near the end of your writing period. There are too many factors involved, so it's impossible to predict anything for certain.
Unless you are feeling that you will be doing some heavy graphics work, I would factor out Photoshop and yse Pain.NET or Gimpshop.
copyrighting ? $0.01 per word for 5000 words, 10 articles a day @ 500 words per article. You want to work all day for $50 Go to wordpress.com and create a blog for yourself and start writing about a topic which you know. Once you have 50 odd pages of content, then go to one of the many affiliate programs and start promoting products that relate to your blog. This is far more worthwhile to you than working for 1c per word. When people work for 1c per word they realise halfway through that they are working for nothing. (unless you live in India where 50 bucks a day is better than the average wage) In Australia, 50 bucks a day isnt worth pi$$ing on. Try working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day sitting in front of your computer writing about topics you know nothing about for 450 bucks, you wont last into the second week. Now if your getting $1500 per week you find a way. Go get yourself a blog kid.
I appreciate your help. The only reason I have said 5000 words is because I do not want to be working all day, only 4-5 hours. I know it is not much but that is what the copyrighting business is like, you have to start out small and gradually increase your prices as you build your reputation and clients. As for the blog idea, I do not like blogs. I code HTML myself and have several websites that are extremely filled with unique quality content.
It's probably better to mix both. Do blogging/building and expanding websites when you're not writing. See which works out better while not abandoning the other. Neither is guaranteed to work out great, it depends on the opportunities, clients, returns and many such factors.
Yeah, I agree with that. Although I want to earn $$ by copyrighting it is only short term so I can buy a new computer (monitor x2) and buy photoshop so I can move into other areas that can be more profitable.
You mentioned that you have to start small in copywriting, and raise rates later. That's not true, and is actually one of the biggest misconceptions out there with new writers - and why many fail. Most never significantly raise their rates, b/c they're too busy working at the low rates so much to get by that they never have time to market themselves to higher-paying audiences. That's just reality. I also think you're seriously overestimating yourself as in what you can do in a few hours. If you want to write lousy content, 5000 words a day in those few hours may be realistic. If you ever want to make more than that cent per word range, you need to account for more time going into research, editing, etc. It also doesn't sound like you're being realistic on the time front. I'm getting the impression that you only want to work 4-5 hours per day, and you think that's all going to be spent on client writing... that's not even close to realistic. For basic content writing, you'll probably have to spend at least a third of your total working time on marketing and admin issues if you want to be serious about it, and if you want to actually have your billable hours regularly filled. Don't fall into these common traps of new writers. Think about it this way: even though you're only planning to write in the short term for something specific, you may very well prove to be good at it, and it may prove to be enjoyable. So don't set yourself up to fail in the long run... you may find in time that you want to pursue it further, but that you've screwed yourself over by being shortsighted.
The most important thing which I know is one needs to develop the experience before actually targeting to get into the market of freelancing. I have been blogging for around 1.5 years, currently have two blogs and I have a reputation among my friends and many bloggers which respect my hardwork. This is the reason why I recently got a job of writing two articles of 200 words each daily for $6. The articles need not be centered on any niche so it won't consume time. All I mean to say is develop some experience first and use that to grab jobs at higher rates. Soon you will be on the road which you plan to go through..
Again, that's just a very common misconception. Most writers who get into writing with that mentality set themselves up to fail. If you're happy with $6 / article, then that's great, and congratulations. Many writers aren't. For me, I currently don't write articles for less than $50, and that's only for very short pieces that must include my byline. Anything ghostwritten starts at $90 and goes up unless ordered in bulk. I'm not saying that everyone should charge what I do. Some will charge much more. Some will be happy charging much less. I know what my time is worth, and I charge accordingly, and that's what you really need to figure out for yourself... how much are you worth, is your writing worth, etc. based on the amount of work you're willing to put in? Then charge that much. If people aren't willing to pay it, you're overestimating your quality or you're targeting the wrong market. Regardless, you should always target the right market... never wait around thinking you'll change later. You decide what type of work you want to do. You decide what type of clients you want to work with. And you decide how much you want to earn doing that work. The rest is all about the marketing, and being new is no excuse to slack on that front.
$50?? is that a review on your high PR blog or an article which you give to the buyer so that it is published on his blog as per his licenses?? and how many words for that $50?? and could you give more details?? like how much experience you have and what proof you show to the buyers and which is the place where you get such projects???
Everyone wants to know how to get high-paying writing gigs. And I've told people here over and over again how to do it. Specialize. Then network, network, network! The high-paying gigs are rarely ever advertised. You find them through your connections. I even have a post about it on my blog where I try to help other Web writers earn more - How to Get High Paying Freelance Writing Jobs And no... it's not a review on my own site. That's what I charge for content to be published on a client's site or whatever they want to use it for. That's actually very low compared to the minimum rates I used to charge (I lowered them this year to target webmasters other than with large sites, b/c I wanted to spend more time writing and less time on PR consulting). You can see all of my basic rates at www.FirstRateContent.com in the services section to get an idea of the length that covers. (And yes, even DP clients are willing to pay the higher rates... just not the same folks you see advertising in the BST area for $5 articles.) As for my experience, I've been a freelance writer for about 9 years. I've only been writing on the Web since late 2004 - starting for my own sites, and then moving into client work. For the record, I never took anything like a $5 / article gig... no one has to start that way. You just have to be persistent, and you have to be willing to work your ass off early on (and after) marketing yourself.