What Can a Freelance Writer Do For You?

A freelance writer is an independent contractor who usually telecommutes (works from home). You might hire a freelance writer for a small project or on an on-going basis to do regular work, part- or full-time. Freelance writers can tackle any writing or editing project you may have, including: articles, reports, web content, proofreading, press releases, reviews, business plans, ghostwriting, e-books, brochures, letters, print ads, speeches, presentations, newsletters, scripts, contracts, questionnaires, training manuals, and more. Freelance writers can also do research, planning, brain storming, organizing, and branding. Additionally, many modern freelance writers are very knowledgeable about search engine optimization (SEO).

Where to Find a Freelance Writer?

It is fairly easy to find a freelance writer since the advent of the Internet. Some of the most popular web sites for locating freelance writers are Elance, iFreelance, and GetAFreelancer. The way these three sites are set up is that people or companies with writing projects post what they need done. Freelance writers who are members of the web site can place bids on the projects. When the desired time period is up, the buyer chooses a bidder.

Elance is probably the most established of the three sites. Elance offers dispute mediation, an optional escrow service to pay your freelancer, and allows the freelancers to verify their credentials (such as previous employers or degrees earned). Elance does charge a project fee of 6-8%. Ifreelance and Getafreelancer basically just provide a way for buyers and providers to connect (no extras like mediation and escrow). All three of the sites allow the freelancers to create profiles where they can describe their background and skills and provide writing samples. The professionalism on Getafreelancer is, in my opinion, noticeably lower than the other two sites.

Do not overlook Craigslist for posting your writing project. A company called Freelance Daily compiles a list of all the freelance writing jobs posted online (Craigslist, Monster, etc.) every weekday and e-mails them to subscribers. The Freelance Daily goes out to thousands of writers. Additionally, you can also hire a freelance writing firm to handle your project. Many firms bid on jobs on these sites, but some do not.

How to Write Up Your Project Proposal?

The more detail you can provide for your freelance applicants the better. A good project description, like a good job description, is thorough, accurate, and informative. How many pages is the project? How many words should the articles be? Does the project involve research? Do you have a sample you can provide? Do you have a web address you can include? What is the subject matter involved? Is it double-spaced or single-spaced? Will the writer retain rights to the work product or will you? Will the writer’s name be printed on the work product giving him or her credit?

To assist you in providing the proper details, you should know that, on average, a full 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper full of single-spaced writing in 10 or 12 point font contains about 500 words. A similar double-spaced page contains about 250. The average blog post or web content article contains 300-500 words. Also, remember to ask for a resumé and three writing samples in your project proposal.

Some other tips are to consider checking your writer’s work with CopyScape. CopyScape is a website designed to check if a document has been published somewhere else already. Even if just a portion of the document is plagiarized, CopyScape can identify that. Additionally, many providers on freelance writing sites are from India or other countries where English is not the native language. If you only want to hire a native English speaker, please specify that in your proposal. Also, if you want the writer to turn in documents in a non-traditional format, clarify this in your proposal. If you expect anything other than a .doc or .rtf document, let the applicants know. If the writer will need special software, clarify this as well. Lastly, if your project requires proofreading or editing, specify whether you want the freelancer to use traditional proofreading symbols or just “laymen’s terms.” If you want the proofreader to use a certain reference manual like the APA (American Psychological Association) or Chicago Manual of Style, specify this.

Terminology to Know

Be familiar with the correct terminology. Here are a few terms to help you out:

Blogger/Blogging – A blog, or web log, is like an online diary or journal. Blogs may contain personal or business-related content. Blogs are typically updated with new content on a regular basis. Typically, blogs provide a place for readers to leave comments and feedback. People may subscribe to blogs, like newsletters. A blogger is someone who posts blog content. Blogging is the act of posting content to a blog.

Copywriting: Not the same as “copyright,” which refers to intellectual property. Copywriting refers to writing “copy.” Copy is any text that promotes a business, service, person, or concept, i.e. marketing materials. Many copywriters work for advertising agencies, newspapers, or magazines.

Ghostwriter: Someone who is hired to write for someone else. The writer allows the person who hired them to claim his or her writing as their own.

Proofreading:

Light Proofreading–Correcting misspellings, grammar and punctuation mistakes, verifying references, and ensuring consistency

Medium Proofreading–Light proofreading plus checking for tone, structure, run-on sentences, voice, tense, disjointed ideas

Heavy Proofreading–Medium proofreading plus condensing wordiness, smoothing out transitions between paragraphs, readability, eliminating cliché s, and any other correction or comment that may be noticed by the proofreader

Re-Write: Many companies are in need of having news items or similar content re-written. If this is what you need, specify that candidates will not need to create original content but rather just re-work or re-arrange existing content. The price for this should be less than drafting original copy.

Web Content: Any content on your website, to include text, pictures, videos, or logos, is considered web content.

White Papers: Articles that express an organization’s standing or philosophy on an issue. White papers are in some ways reports that may provide results of a recent project or conclusions made by recent research.

How to Select a Writer From All the Qualified Candidates?

Most likely any clear and concise project proposal you post is going to leave you inundated with applicants. Expect anywhere from 5 to 40 applicants per post. How do you determine who is the best match for the job?

What many buyers do is ask the freelance applicants to write a sample article, give 10 ideas for sample blog posts, proofread a sample page, etc. By creating a “sample test,” you can weed out applicants in a number of ways. First of all, some applicants will be too busy to do your sample. Dedicated applicants who really want the job will make time. Second, applicants will turn in the test after your due date, misread directions, and otherwise expose their weaknesses. You can also consider conducting phone interviews at the final stage of the process. Still unsure? Hire the top 2-3 candidates on a conditional basis for a short project and decide after that.

How to Charge and Pay for Your Freelance Writer?

You have a lot of flexibility on how you pay your freelance writer: per word, per article, per page, per project, hourly, or on a pre-arranged flat fee. As far as paying your freelancer, PayPal is probably the easiest way, unless the writer is going to be on your payroll getting paper checks. If you use Elance, you can use their escrow system.

Other Issues to Consider

If you are doing a long-term project, consider setting milestones for the project, i.e. breaking it up into a series of small projects with intermittent due dates. You can also use a website like BaseHQ to keep track of the project with the freelancer. This site provides a common workspace for two parties working long-distance on a similar project.

Also, if your freelance writer is working with sensitive material for your company, consider having them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This document will bind the freelancer into keeping your trade secrets private.

Another tip is to not be so specific with what you want done that the freelancer has no room to pitch ideas or give feedback. Freelance writers have extensive expertise in projects just like yours and may be able to add a valuable outside opinion. Take advantage of what you’re paying for.

This article was written by freelance writer Staci Marquez-Nichols. For more information, visit Staci-Marquez-Nichols.Com.

http://staci-marquez-nichols.com

Article Directory: EzineArticles http://ezinearticles.com

Do you love to shop online? Isn’t it great to buy products from home where you never have to get in the car, fuel up, drive through traffic or stand in a long line to pay for your items? In fact, you can surf the Internet from the comfort of your home, make your purchase and still be in your jammies drinking coffee! How cool is that?

Internet marketing will be be offering the United States a different market place soon. This type of business will be an internet marketers dream come true. Strictly an all internet business that you work from home, it takes e-commerce to an all new level in worldwide global trading allowing you to cross international borders, different languages and other currencies.

All you have to do is purchase a business license and you are now in business. You will have your own personalized web site and you can begin to refer customers and earn commissions on the items that they purchase. These are your customers for life! The online auction that will has is not the same old type of auction that most folks are used to. Nope, this is a whole new business model. The person with the lowest unique bid wins the item. Yes, the lowest bid!

Sign up for your customers is free of charge and there is no fee to look around and kick the tires, but if they want to bid on an item, everything is done in credits which can be purchase in blocks.

Each time they bid, they are charged one credit. This is a small amount of money and it depends on the currency of the country that you are bidding from. For example, in Europe it is 50 cents. All products offered are well known brands, top quality items. Things that everyone is clamoring for, you know TV’s, cell phones, even automobiles! The winner is the customer having the lowest bid. You would be amazed at the prices these items go for!

This internet marketing platform has several different online shopping and auction options. The Unique Lowest Bid is just one. With Xpress, you can watch and follow along with your favorite items that begin at retail price and then decrease each and every time someone checks for a price. To check on the price will cost you one credit, of course. When you like the price you see on the item you want, just click buy now, and it is yours for that amount. Spiffy!

There is also a nifty auction called ZerO. This bad boy starts out with the item at retail price and then goes down with each person that looks in. To peek in will cost you one credit. When the item gets to zero, it is yours, for free! You can’t beat free, guys! This auction really heats up for the last ten dollars or so.

These internet marketing auctions create such excitement with shoppers it is hard to keep them away from their computers. Isn’t that what all internet marketers want in a home based business? What would you give for a customer that really, truly wanted to buy. Someone you never had to convince!

The time for action is now in the United States. Get involved, build a strong team and secure your future.

Denise Clarke is a retired Paramedic/Firefighter and is currently a successful internet marketer, writer and blogger. Visit her blogs at: http://www.dubli-network.blogspot.com http://www.top-10-internet-marketing-tips.blogspot.com

Article Directory: EzineArticles http://ezinearticles.com

With the growing popularity of blogs and the ease to obtain links through comments on blogs, it didn’t take long for programmers to come up with automated tools to blast link packed spam comments to unsuspecting blogs.

Some just turn comments off for their blog but to me that eliminates one of the great features of making your blog interactive for your visitors. Comments can open discussion between the reader and the blogger. Your blog’s visitors can even subscribe to a post’s comments, getting notified of any new comments, keeping your readers coming back.

The WordPress plugin, Akismet checks comments posted on your blog posts against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

To activate Akismet from your WordPress blog dashboard, click Plugins, scroll down and click Activate next to the WordPress Akismet plugin. After you do that you will see a box near the top of the dashboard that reads:

Akismet is not active. You must enter your WordPress.com API key for it to work.

Click the link in the message, and then the Akismet Configuration panel will open. You should then see this in the middle of the screen:

Please enter an API key. (Get your key.)

On the top of that page click the Sign Up tab, fill in your information and if you have a self-hosted blog choose the Just a username, please option.

Be sure to use a good email address in here to get your login information and WordPress API key, click the box to agree to legal junk and click next.

Check your email and click the confirmation link from WordPress to activate your account. You should then see a page that reads,

http://www.otiscollier.com
I took the dog out for a walk this morning and on my way back I stopped at the mail box. To my surprise there was a check from ClickBank. I am surprised because I just got a check from them a couple of days ago. Man, they just made my weekend. How would you like to go to the mail box and get surprises like that?!!!

Check out my video to see the checks and see what I have to say about building a profitable internet marketing business.

http://www.SuperSuccessfulSecrets.com
I cash about ,000 in checks that I made from making money online.

Yay!

Fun times.

Check out my site if you’re interested in doing the same.
http://www.SuperSuccessfulSecrets.com

WHAT IS LOVE! BABY DON’T HURT ME!

http://www.otiscollier.com
I took the dog out for a walk this morning and on my way back I stopped at the mail box. To my surprise there was a check from ClickBank. I am surprised because I just got a check from them a couple of days ago. Man, they just made my weekend. How would you like to go to the mail box and get surprises like that?!!!

Check out my video to see the checks and see what I have to say about building a profitable internet marketing business.

http://www.SuperSuccessfulSecrets.com
I cash about ,000 in checks that I made from making money online.

Yay!

Fun times.

Check out my site if you’re interested in doing the same.
http://www.SuperSuccessfulSecrets.com

WHAT IS LOVE! BABY DON’T HURT ME!