The Most Powerful Weapon Any New Writer Can Have

If you’re not familiar with who I am, I’m an 18-year-old writer from Nigeria.

I started blogging in 2010, at 16, and I started my freelance writing career a year later, in 2011.

In 2011 alone, I made over $50,000 as a freelance writer doing all kinds of writing jobs.

That was my first year as a freelance writer; I had no prior experience, my writing wasn’t as polished as it is now, and I wasn’t without my mistakes.

Yet, I made 5-figures freelance writing.

It’s 2012 now, my second year as a freelance writer, and not only am I on track to earn more than I did in 2011, but I’ve actually went from increasing my rate from $50 per article to up to $800 per article.

Yes, read the above paragraph again. And I didn’t say that to brag!

I have never intended to be a freelance writer. Not when I started this blog on the 2nd of April, 2010!

Like many other people, my opinion of freelance writers is that they’re those people who get paid $3 per article on oDesk and eLance. And this has actually cost me opportunities!

I’ve gotten a few freelance writing offers before getting my first client, but I’ve always rejected them.

Until…I got this request from a particular guy who wanted me to help them with a group of sites.

He asked me to get on Skype (I think that was actually the first time I heard about Skype, and it has since been one of my top business tools), and we started discussing.

After asking me a few questions to determine if I was a good fit for them, he asked me how much I charge per article.

Confused, I was thinking something like $30 to $40 per article.  After all, that was on the 6th of December, 2010, and that would be fair for a 16-year-old kid from a third-world country.

But, instead of saying that was what I had in mind, I told my client to tell me what he had in mind.

I was surprised by his response!

He said they paid other freelance writers $100 per article.

Everything seems out of this world, and I immediately told him that I was on board.

I was careful with how I worked for the next few days, and I was afraid that I might actually be cheating someone. Maybe my client didn’t know what he was doing?

But this continued for a few months, and even though how much I got paid by this client eventually reduced over time…and increased again thanks to the tip I’m about to share in this article, I learned something very important.

What I learned eventually opened the key to discovering the point in this article, but let’s go to the lesson first.

What I learned was that;

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’ve always believed they are.

I know I’m not alone, because even when I talk about how much I get paid per article on this blog, I still get a few emails from people who believe I’m lying or have an ulterior motive, but the truth is that this has to do with the opinion a lot of people have about writers in general.

Getting my first client changed this!

I’d like to clarify something before I continue, though.

I did say I’m now able to make up to $800 per article, but I never said the type of article.

Assuming that I get paid $800 for the same article I got paid $50 for isn’t so smart, and quoting me on that isn’t either.

I’ll be sharing more about this in the future (if there’s a lot of interest?)

But now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me get into the main point!

It’s self-confidence.

Like I said above, this has made it easy for me to increase the amount I charge per article from up to $50 – $800 in just two years of being a freelance writer.

It has helped me double how much I get paid by some of my clients, and this powerful method is also what I use to get paid “in full” before I actually start working with some of my clients.

I know there are a lot of variables involved that you probably don’t have, yet, but that $800 article would as well have been $200 if not for this weapon.

You might be expecting something more in this article, but I’m sorry, this actually is what I’ve got for you.

It’s up to you to use it to your advantage, and it’s your choice also to ignore it at your own peril.

While self-confidence is a very powerful weapon, there are also sacrifices to be made.

The journey might seem rough at first, but the results will be worth it.

I’ve gotten requests from potential clients who never replied after getting my rate, and I’ve been working with more than 2 clients for over a year now.

They all pay me what I’m worth, and they keep asking for my services.

No client will make you feel low about yourself or your services; you’re worth whatever you want to charge.

Ultimately, is all about the kind of results you can help your clients get, and how unique these results are.

I’ve talked about how important self-confidence is to being successful as a freelance writer, but blind self-confidence is arrogance.

Sometimes, before actually being able to put your skills to test, you need a step-by-step guide on how to get started.

Of course, you might decide to branch out and go your way in the future, but having that education will accelerate things.

My friend, Carol Tice from MakeaLivingWriting.com, is releasing a 4-week bootcamp (affiliate link) that can help you get started as a freelance writer.

If you’re just getting started and don’t know where to start, or if you’ve started but think you need some help, you need to check this bootcamp out!

I’m not sure I’ve said this before, but Carol’s help has been phenomenal when it comes to my freelance writing success.

No, Carol isn’t mentoring me personally, but her tips alone has helped me grow.

It was a tip I learned from Carol that made me realize that clients aren’t to be feared; that you have a service that is valuable, and that you shouldn’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth for it.

This is why I couldn’t be happier when I learned that she’ll be releasing a 4-week, step-by-step bootcamp on how to start freelance writing.

If you’re looking to get started as a freelance writer, now is the time.

Carol doesn’t run a bootcamp on the same subject twice, and her co-presenter is the awesome Laura Spencer from FreelanceFolder.com.

If you don’t opt in now, you might be missing an opportunity of a lifetime.

Here’s a link to opt in now!

I have a few killer tips coming up in the coming days and weeks, so make sure you keep checking out the blog daily for new updates. Also, refer any friend you think will benefit from my articles, and blog about any article you enjoy!

I’ll also be answering unique comments in the form of blog posts, so feel free to ask in the comments if you have a question related to this post or freelance writing in general.

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The Best Subject to Blog about to Get Freelance Writing Clients

I published my first Slideshare presentation yesterday, and the feedback so far has been awesome.

The slide has been viewed over 2,300 times at the moment, and I’ve embedded it for you below if you’re yet to check it out.

Aside from compliments I got about the slide, another thing I got was questions, and one question that was especially interesting was from a Medical student who wants to build a successful freelance writing business by blogging, but who isn’t sure whether that is possible.

I’m sure others will have the same thoughts; that the fact that my blog is about writing makes it easy to get freelance clients, but the truth might surprise you.

Having a blog on writing doesn’t make it easy to get freelance writing clients; if anything, it makes it difficult.

The majority of people who read this blog are fellow writers like me and you who want to build their own business, and who want to get their own clients.

Till date, I haven’t been hired by a single writer, so having a blog on writing doesn’t make it any easier to get clients who are interested in my work.

The answer might surprise you, but there is no best subject.

Read that again, there is no best subject!

I know you might be disappointed, especially considering the title of this post, but, if you read on, I’ll be sharing a powerful technique that can help you get an inflow of clients in any niche.

I can back it up with data.

For example, at the moment, there are over 1.5 billion overweight people in the world today.

Also, over $137 million has been spent on weight loss products in the US today alone, and the weight loss industry has grown significantly by at least 200% in the past 20 years.

That’s a growth of an additional $30 billion in the past 20 years.

In other words, the weight loss industry is now a $60 billion industry, and it is growing every day.

As a health writer, this means there’s great potential to make money in the weight loss niche.

I can list other examples, but I think you’ve gotten my point?

Personally, I have clients in various niches I know nothing about.

For example, I have clients in the accounting niche, in the weight loss niche, and in the communications niche.

These clients pay more than market rate to have me write for them, and I know nothing about any of these niches.

In other words, they pay me just to write and research.

Now, imagine, how much value do you think clients will place on you if you’re in any of these niches, and are passionate about it?

You don’t need to answer that, but it’s worth finding out!

The value of writers (smart ones!) is increasing every day, and there’s always someone somewhere who is going to pay you to write, no matter how much you charge.

So, instead of worrying about getting into a niche you’re not passionate about because a fellow writer is making money in that niche, start focusing on building a blog in a niche you’re confident about.

This blog alone averages 15k visitors from search engines monthly, and it was built over the past 2 years; any result I get now, is as a result of years of work.

It doesn’t have to take you that much time and effort, though. After all, the purpose of freelancing is usually to make some quick cash to take care of your immediate needs.

You’ve probably heard this before, and you’ll hear it again, but that doesn’t make it less effective.

That smart way is to work on increasing your search engine traffic.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Free: Free search traffic is the best, because it increases over time, and it costs nothing to maintain.

In other words, you make money from months/years of hard work.

How to Get Free Search Traffic

Here are a few ways to increase your search engine traffic.

Write More: That blog you’ve abandoned for a year, or that you only write on “when you feel like it”, start updating it more regularly.

The more content you can write, the better.

If you can write an article a day, go for it! And if you can write two smart articles a day, go for it!

It is important, though, to not discount the quality of your content because of the quantity.

Your clients will only hire you if they find your work helpful, so recycling articles from E-zines and article directories won’t take you anywhere. The key is to focus on writing smart articles!

Build Links: Via guest blogging, article marketing, article syndication or any other means that you think is convenient for you.

In fact, go beyond convenient and consider it an investment. It’s not in any way convenient to write 31 guest posts in one week (no matter how much you enjoy writing), but the results can be phenomenal just a few months after.

Start a guest blogging challenge, submit a unique article to 30 different article directories in one month, and start learning more SEO!

Focus: You probably think you need a lot of visitors to get results, but you don’t! My hire me page has made me at least $10,000 since putting it up this year, but guess how many total visits it has got? Less than 2,000!

In other words, what you need isn’t to get a gazillion visitors, but to direct the few you can get to your hire me page.

Link your hire me page in almost every post you can write, and look for ways to keep channeling traffic to your hire me page.

Having a link to your hire me page in your nav bar just won’t cut it! Be creative; write case studies and promote your services, design creative banners and add it to your sidebar, and link to your hire me page in your guest posts.

2. Paid: The other approach towards getting quality traffic to your blog via the search engines is to pay for it.

I know, it sounds funny. You probably won’t read on any other site to pay to get traffic as a freelance writer, but your “blog-based freelancing business” is a business, and every business needs an investment to grow.

To be honest, I haven’t tried this before, but I’m sure it’ll be effective.

If you can invest $100 into PPC traffic, and channel some quality traffic to case studies on your blog and your hire me page, then you’ll make several times that amount when you get your first client.

No matter what your choice is, there’s a sacrifice to be made.

Free takes time and effort, but paid seems almost instant. But what matters is what you’re willing to give to take your business to the next level.

The best way to get nothing is to do nothing!

Have any question you’d like me to address in detail in future posts? Ask in the comments or send it to me via email!

Also, don’t forget to take a look at the above slide if you haven’t. If you have, please help me spread the word about it.

There are a few ways to spread the word about it, and here are they below. It all depends on you which one you want to use.

1. Tweet it

2. Facebook Like it

3. Blog about it: This is the best option. The slide is 29 pages of pure content that took 3 days to create and it is professional. You can help your readers benefit from the information by embedding it on your blog.

Embedding it on your blog also won’t affect you negatively – you won’t get Google slapped by doing so, as the slide won’t be seen as duplicate content – on the contrary, sharing it will make you look cool to your readers.

It has been viewed by 2,300+ people, so don’t hesitate!

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How I Made 5-Figures Freelancing in 2011, Revealed

I’m on track to make even more this year.

This is all thanks to a very effective systematic approach I have in place, that a lot of other freelance writers ignore.

This is all thanks to BLOGGING!

The reality is that you probably know a dozen other freelance writers who have a blog, and you probably have one yourself, but blogging in itself isn’t going to bring the clients.

There’s a right way to it, and a very wrong way to it, too!

I have never believed in the idea of pitching clients to hire me, which is why I focused my efforts on making blogging work for me.

I have learned a lot over the years, and I’d like to think my business has improved by a long shot since last year.

After 3 days of hard work, I have finally released my first presentation.

It’s a 29-page presentation, titled How to Use Blogging to Fuel Your Freelance Writing Business, sharing how I’ve been using blogging to build my freelance writing business without ever having the need to pitch clients.

This presentation is as real as it gets, and I can say I gave it my all without trying to take too much space.

The tips in it are also very practical, and can be used with success no matter how old/popular your blog is.

You can view the presentation below.

It’s my goal for this presentation to make it to the homepage of Slideshare, and I know this is possible with your help.

If you enjoy the presentation, I’ll very much appreciate it if you can share it on Facebook and Twitter, especially to other freelance writers.

That’ll not only help get it into more hands and change more lives, but will also help land it on Slideshare’s homepage, and help me get more exposure.

I have a lot more stuff (similar to, and better than this) planned for the future, and your encouragement all along the way will be really appreciated!

Thanks to Carol Tice from the MakeaLivingWriting.com blog, I was recently featured on Forbes, and I’ll appreciate if you can visit the feature post (and hopefully share and comment on it) here!

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5 Guest Posting Strategies you can Steal

This guest post is written by Grant Hensel

Guest blogging is quite literally taking the world by storm. The model makes perfect sense: the host gets free content and the guest gets exposure.

If you already knew that, congratulations! You’ve mastered Guest Posting 1.0…and it’s time to take your game to a whole new level.

The following 5 guest posting strategies have been implemented successfully by some of the best bloggers in the industry. Each approach by itself will make your guest posts far more successful, but used together they can provide a quantum leap in effectiveness.

The first major mistake many bloggers make when guest posting is only focusing on generating traffic or links or attention. A good post will give you all of those benefits, so why not maximize overall effectiveness?

7 Ways to Write Clear, Attentive Content without Resorting to Fillers and Fluff

This is a guest post by Samantha

I have read lots of articles over the years that have been full of fluff. In fact, that includes some of my own articles. I’ve had my fair share of 700 word articles that could have been cut down to 300 words producing a more coherent, readable, and interesting article.

Clear writing has one huge advantage. It has a better chance of keeping our attention. A lack of fluff leaves our minds clear of confusion and boredom. No matter what type of writing you do, learn how to keep your readers’ attention with clear, concise writing.

Introductions are important. They tell readers what’s in store for them if they keep reading. It should pull them in. It should not be so overflowed with excessive explanations and planning that they fall asleep before they get halfway through the article.

Be direct. Introduce the main point of the article and immediately begin tackling the supporting points. Interesting writing and an attention-grabbing topic will get the reader’s initial attention just fine. Now you need to give them what you promised.

The same goes for individual paragraphs and sentences. Don’t write more than necessary. Here is an example of a proper direct sentence and a drawn-out one.

106 Powerful Quotes to Inspire Your Writing Today

Writing can be lonely sometimes.

You write and write but can’t get results, or you just can’t shake off the feeling that you’re inadequate.

You’re not alone.

We all feel the same way, and even successful writers and philosophers who were the best of their time couldn’t shake of these feelings either. No matter how much you achieve, it isn’t enough. And no matter how successful you are, that feeling of inadequacy will still be there.

The solution to this, however, is motivation. Instead of worrying about perfection or inadequacy, why not get inspiration from those you look up to? Why not see how they’re made, and what they’ll do in the same situation as you?

Here are 201 writing quotes to keep you motivated today.

How To Write An Article That Sells

This is a guest post by Anne

You’ve done the hard part. You found a brilliant idea for your article and you know exactly what your keywords are going to be. Now all you need to do is to put together an article that makes sense, one that gives all the information you want to share, in a way that is readable and succinct. You want to write an article that will be accepted by your editor or client – one that’s so impressive they’ll keep coming back to you for subsequent jobs. How do you do this? How do you write an article that makes your writing stand out above all the other brilliant writers on the web?

You can have great article structure with everything in the right place. You can also be the best at keyword-littering throughout your article. However, if you haven’t got the skill and technique for actually writing the article, your work is dead before you’ve begun. I really admire successful writers on the Internet who’ve to write competitively in English against native speakers like myself. There are millions of writers who fall into this category and we have to take our hats off to them. Developing the skill can be one of the hardest stumbling blocks to writers who publish online, but thankfully, there are lots of ways to combat this.