Monthly Update
Yes, it’s that time again: a new month means a look back at how things changed last month and what’s new in the World of Spike. That was one of the original reasons for starting ScrawlBug, after all: to show how the financial side progressed as I floundered through freelancing!
May was an extremely odd month. I suddenly went from having one low-paid blogging job and an occasional extra task to having two blogging jobs, a huge editing project and a bunch of wildly interesting openings!
The second (also low-paid) blogging job came through GetAFreelancer. Another month there has proved that 95% of the work available – at least in the writing category – is badly-paid. The nice thing is that the site has no membership charge. Nothing to lose by keeping an eye on things.
The editing job is a bunch of animal profile files for a veterinary project. Most of it is just copy/pasting into a pre-formatted template, but they also need proofing and occasional rewriting. It’s a bit of a time-sink, but the people are really nice and have a great sense of humour. They pay on time and have a lot of work, so it makes for excellent background income.
That one came through Elance, which is fast becoming my site of preference. Not only are the jobs generally of better quality (though there’s a fair amount of crap, too), but the pay is often more reasonable. Their profile system makes sure that even newcomers can land a decent job or two.
The big news, though is elsewhere.
For the first time, a potential client found me and contacted me directly. He’d seen my profile on Elance and Googled me, then came here to ScrawlBug and sent me an email. How cool is that?
Secondly, May was the first time I gained a potential client by Twitter. Yes, Twitter. Just by chatting to someone, it turns out that he might need some writing done. At the very least, I’ve made a new friend who has complementary skills to mine, which could mean some really good time-trading in the future to help us both out!
Add to that a couple of really high profile (for me) openings that I’m waiting to hear about and you have a really successful month. The Earnings Blog has been updated (link’s over there on the right).
There’s also one more thing going on, which I’m keeping quiet about for the moment. It’s a Secret Project. Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone. There’ll be a big announcement when it comes to fruition, don’t worry.
Lessons learned in May? Make sure your are contactable via your blog or website and any contact could turn into a job, so be generous and friendly!
(Go on, have a guess at what that secret project is…)
Twitter account – check!
Contactable – check!
Paid posts – err, none…
Blogging job – working on it…
Editing job – none…
Okay I better shape up. I guess, what I can do is make or sell my poems right?
Z
Hi Zorlone. Thanks for dropping in – been a while since we spoke!
The paid posting jobs are usually on someone else’s blog – they hire a writer to produce daily content. Often it’s just news regurgitation, although with a bit of a personal angle. For example, I’ve been guest-posting on Newssup for months now.
There are paid-to-blog things for your own blog, too – but they’re advertising-based. Blogsvertise is the only one I’ve had any luck with: three offers from them on various subjects.
Blogging job? I don’t think I have the marketing skills for it. Hence the remarkable lack of adverts on this blog: I will stick to writing for the moment, I think!
Editing? Well, that’s just me letting my Grammar Nazi personality out of its cage for a while… grrrrrrrr!
Selling poems? You could always put together an anthology and publish it as an eBook (either for free or for money). Worth considering – it’d make a nice “freebie” on your site, for example, or a giveaway prize. All you need is time, a bit of design skill (of which I have none!) and a PDF writer!
Sounds like you’re turning into a success story. It’s good you have a lot of energy to chase down projects. I looked at GetAFreelancer again and I think I got a headache looking at the small pay alongside the intense competition. What did you do and how did you manage to forge through it to get the business? and… how long did it take you to get that first job?
Hi Steven. Good questions, all. I find the best way is to switch on the email updates for the categories you watch: that way you get regular emails with a dozen or so (at most, usually) projects at a time. It’s much easier to handle than trawling through.
There’s definitely a knack to avoiding the crap. Anyone who says “easy job” or “won’t take long” should be avoided – they’ll want to pay a pittance. Aim for the ones who clearly state their budget and what they want. Don’t be too afraid of missing something – there are SO many postings, reading them all fully would drive you nuts.
My first gig there took a month or so to get. It took me that long to see the range of bidding and work out what level to aim at, and to learn to filter the junk. These days, I honestly only look at job titles, to see if there’s something interesting. Elance pays better.
Winning the bid is like anywhere: a combination of lowish bid and a decent text which *isn’t* a template response. 99% of buyers filter out the standard-text responses.
If the wage side is the stopping point, look at the graphics work. Most people on my illustrations project were bidding $200-$250 or more for 15 b&w line drawings. Dunno if that’s a decent rate, but it’s a heck of a lot more than writers earn.
Ya know, Spike, as entertaining as your stories are, your comments about how to use GetAFreelancer is gold. If you’re open to story suggestions, I’d say you ought to think about putting together a guide as to how you use them as you just did in your comment.
Cheers!
Ditto to Steven’s comments Spike! :- ) Damn Fine Gold if you ask me. My friend who is a burgeoning Freelancer is benefiting greatly from your uncommonly candid approach and practical guidance.
The thing that stands out most for me (no, not that!…I wish!
), is your approach. I don’t feel that I’m being seduced or ‘prepared’ or ‘led’ down some carefully constructed ‘marketing’ pathway. It’s just good, useful information couched in what is IMHO, the most credible ‘couch’ there is: Your actual experience.
One of my favourite quotes (vaguely attributed to Albert Einstein – http://bit.ly/11hCIN – I’m sure I read it in one of his books years ago), is – “Knowledge is experience, anything else is just information”.
I was especially surprised to find your ‘Earnings Blog’ today (http://www.employees.org/~spike/scrawlbug/index.html). I hadn’t looked at that before. It’s a brave new world mate, and you are definitely one if it’s brave, new pioneers.
Cheers
Stephen G
Both of you: Thanks tons for the compliments – makes me all shiny and happy!
Steven: I should probably think of doing something like that, I suppose – there’s already the Beginner’s Guide in the Free Stuff, so it’d make a good accompaniment!
Stephen: There’s two reasons for the content being like that:
(1) I believe in being honest and sharing with people, rather than deliberately hiding what I learn, publishing it in a eBook, pretending I’m clever and charging $50 for it. (Which, in turn, stems from my firm belief that kindness begets kindness and life will, one day, hand me back any generosity threefold – but that’s another story).
(2) With no offense intended to anyone in that job, I loathe marketing. It’s a business of lies and deceit and is only equalled in its putrescence by politics.
Oh, and if I’m a pioneer, can I get one of those Davy Crockett hats? And a musket? That’d be cool… just the musket? Please?
If you don’t want the hat, I’ll wear it. I’m not a fan of guns, but the hat sure looks cool.
I think your edge over me, Spike, is your marketing ability. I have none. What’s worse, is I have a short temper. I think you’ve got one of those oily feathered backs, like a duck, which is good for the rain. I’ve always thought of myself as an otter: an animal capable of existing in different ecosystems, but not altogether great in either. I also like to smash dinner against a rock when I’m upset.
I concur with Stephen, though, that your grass roots approach is far more interesting than many of the other approaches, and I think it’s becoming clear that you’ll succeed.
May I ask how long you’ve been trying to do this? Did your effort begin with this blog and this is your testament, or have you blogged before?
The hat’s all yours, Steven! That’s an interesting comment about my marketing ability: I thought I had less than none. As in, a negative score – since I’m uncompetitive! Maybe I’m just deranged or have a distorted view. Intriguing.
I agree with the duck’s back. Being the youngest of five sons, it takes an incredible amount of effort to upset or offend me (which drives my lady up the wall when she’s sporting for a bit of a barney!). I’m also that way inclined, spiritually speaking. In some ways, it’s a bad thing – the desire to (as you so excellently put it) beat your dinner against a rock sometimes is something which can really help in a lot of the more competitive areas of life.
In answer to your question, I started freelancing (or trying to) at the end of November 2008. It took about six weeks to figure out some of the worst ideas, decent sites and so on, so I’ve been “officially” doing it since around Jan/Feb. I had, however, blogged before (back around 2000) and also used to write and edit on Wargamer.com around the same time (for a couple of years).
In return, might I ask about you? I’ve gathered you have a business, but I’m a bit confused as to the setup – whether it’s freelance, bricks-and-mortar and whatnot.
Well, in September 2008, I went to Indonesia to recruit an artist to illustrate a few children’s stories I’d written. While I was there, I rented an office, put in some furniture, and before long we had someone working inside full time. I now have two people working for me. The second I’m still not entirely happy with. The first I’m not 100% happy with either. But, when I get them to work on the same images, I’m generally pretty happy with the results. So, Harry does the rough painting by hand, and then Adit takes the scans and reworks them. So, yes, it’s brick and mortar.
Harry is 62 years old, so he’s not as quick as he might have been. But he’s also got an awful lot of professional experience behind him, and he teaches part time at one of the universities in Jakarta. So, that project that I gave him which consisted of 60 pictures will take him an estimated 5 more months to complete. Adit is still kind of in training. He’s got some rough edges. But as I said, when they work together, I get a really good product.
As to marketing – this blog that you set up is an excellent marketing tool. You’ve also done a good job of listing yourself on different services, you’ve built the start of what looks to be a promising career in freelancing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see you making some real money by the end of the year.
I would have liked to have gotten into freelancing, but I just don’t have the patience for it. I spent many hours looking and applying for jobs last winter when I was trying to find a way to stay independent, but I wasn’t able to find anything at all.
Ideally, I’d like to be able to sell enough copies of kids’ books once they’ve been completed to sustain me and my business, and perhaps expand it. Should it prove successful next year, to the tune of a hundred thousand or so – heck, even in the 10s of thousands I’d be doing just fine, I’d like to move up to animation, maybe some graphic novel series, etc. Literature and creative writing is really where my strengths lie.