Calculate your revenue

Changing your status from a full time employee to a freelancer may be a challenge for many. For instance, you should be aware that, unless you have some healthy savings put aside or some big big projects going on for at least one year, your revenue may not be as secure as it used to be.

I mentioned several time the problem of being paid late even one month after the project was finished, but also about the special situations when you are not paid at all, as the proud employer deleted his/her account on the network of freelancers or simply did not answer your e-mail. It happened for me very often in my first year of full freelancing, and it still happens - more about spams in a next post.

One of the biggest questions when you start freelancing is how to evaluate your work. For instance, do you need to set up some prices that may be negotiated with the employer or not. 

If you are part of a network of freelancers as Freelancer.com that I use regularly, some projects do have already the price set and it is up to you to accept or not the quotations. At the beginning, when I was very enthusiastic to put my writing skills on trial, I accepted quite law payments for my articles, but after I realized that one month and several dozen of articles later my revenue was the equivalent of a modest pair of Converse, I put on hold all the attractive and cheap projects - 0.50$ for 100 words sounds familiar to you?

If you have a trustworthy employer and a good system to evaluate your work, working per hour is a good opportunity. Honesty, I prefer to use this system because I am quite good to time management and I am more than scrupulous when it comes to the strict counting of the hours and minutes. Especially for my PR and customer service projects I love such a counting. 

However, when it comes to translation and proof-editing projects, my preference is for pay-per-page calculations. In the case of proof-reading it is very easy to show how much did you work with the help of the track changes. The translation projects are also suited for a pay/word, but in the majority of cases, most employers will prefer for the sake of simplicity a very clear counting.

As for the price itself, even though you are a very beginner, the evaluation should be realistic: be sure that your evaluation covers a minimum of needs that will bring you the necessary energy to continue the project - meaning that you will not starve or work in a park because no more money for food and/or rent. Even if you do such jobs for your perfect fun, be aware that once you set the stake low, your example can be used against freelancers auctioning on the market and it is not a good advertising for the freelancers' rights.

As a junior and middle level employer, you will need to wait a couple of months, or more than one year till you will be able to really enjoy your freelance life. Make sure that your career advances with decency and stability.

Good luck, freelancers!

Pros and cons of freelance writing

Freelance writing is what I always wanted to do. As a non-English speaker I fought hard to find my way in the world of writing. The beginning was ridiculous from the financial point of view, with 500-word articles paid for $1 and a first 'salary' of $20 and other potential frustrations for someone used with high financial revenues. Add to this the long nights spent searching for new opportunities, struggling to balance the time dedicated to learning and reading with the enormous amount of time required for writing and editing my texts. The last months were for me an amazing journey in humility. 

Freelance writing is not a job when you should expect a decent salary within months. You should be ready to wait 4-5 months until you will have a decent income for covering your basic needs and even more until you will enjoy convenient life standards. Most probably, this situation is available for experienced writers as well, as the competition is very tight. For each ad on Elance addressing English language editors more than 6 offers are submitted instantly by people with apparently high credentials.

Thus, I completely agree with the earlier advices from experienced freelancers that were warned that unless you have some savings for at least one year, you better try to keep your old job while freelancing. 

On the other hand, I am sure that my life as a freelancer will be much easier if most people I am working with would have a minimal responsibility and business ethics. Apparently, I am not in the right freelancing place, as most people I am dealing with prefer to pay weeks after their very high emergency job was delivered flawlessly in due time and for more than a convenient price. Add to this the high chances that, if you are taking freelancing jobs through various networks, you will for sure stumble upon some very kind persons that after 1-2 weeks will disappear without paying. It happened at least once the month in the last five months of freelancing and besides the feeling of deep frustration it prevents me at a great extent to take new work unless I am not sure that the employer is 100% verified. 

However, I will continue freelancing and I am more than delighted to observe my improvements and the new opportunities that I can't wait to cope with. I don't want to be outrageously rich, but only to enjoy my life as a writer, meaning to have enough money for me and my family, my trips and, of course, the healthy provisions of books for my Kindle.

The unhappy true about web content authors

As part of my various professional experiences, writing web-content articles, as a professional and at a professional level was part of the menu. I've found a couple of companies, many of them located in India, happy to hire me for covering their high demands for articles. Generally speaking, in the last three weeks I've covered an impressive amount of topics and issues: technical reviews, real estate, history, entertainment, TV sets and so like.

My acceptance rate increased significantly, the companies are happy. But what about me? After a moderate enthusiasm at the beginning, for a couple of days I am struggling with a deep feeling of sadness. Not because I am wasting my time and words writing about things that usually I never read. But because the prices are lower than the average. For example, what do you think of being paid, for one hour of writing and documentation with the perfect offer of $0.60? The highest level of gain is $2 for 1,000 words that I should write in maximum four hours. Usually, this kind of article is very sophisticated and require an impressive amount of time for reading, organizing the materials and writing as I should deliver THE BEST, as I am told on a very capitalist tone for the success fee I am offered.

Despite the need to be involved somehow in profit-oriented projects, I decided today that it is better to stop this collaboration. For the sake of the words I am asked to polish every day.

Freelancing is interesting, but not always rewarding.