Good money writing

A few years ago, I had the joy of working as a full-time freelance writer for a couple of years. I never made so much money (but I did have to pay self-employment tax which took a bite out of it), but it was very hard.

I firmly believe you can make plenty of money as a freelancer, either full-time or as a supplement to your regular income.

Here's some steps on how to do it.

• Put a value on your time.
I'd suggest establishing a rough hourly rate you'd like to be paid. Now most magazines pay a flat rate or by the word and that's ok. Estimate how long it would take to write an article, what the magazine pays, and then you can see if you'll the per hour rate you want. As an example, back then, martial arts magazines paid me about $125 per article. With my knowledge of judo, I could knock out a judo article in 2-3 hours...not a bad per-hour rate. However, if I got outside of judo, and had to spend 2 hours writing, 3 hours researching, a little time polishing...well, suddenly "do you want fries with that" started to look lucrative.

Also, this means avoid writing for free. If you establish a name in an industry, you will be approached to do projects pro bono. By and large, I avoided these, unless there was some other tangible benefit to doing the piece.

• Query first.
Why spend one second writing an article a magazine does not want? Writing a query letter will give you at least some idea that the magazine is interested in the topic. I always queried before I wrote the first line of any article.

• Query A Lot
When I was freelancing, I sent out a minimum of two queries per week, usually more. This is vital to creating a consistent and constant flow of work coming in. Of course, if you are doing this part time, you may want to reduce the number you send out.

• Recycle research material
I cannot tell you how many articles I wrote on stamp collecting. I wrote about collecting stamps with martial arts on them (Black Belt), cats (I Love Cats), fish (Tropical Fish Hobbyist), and the list goes on. I recycled the same material into several articles, all serving different audiences, and made quite a bit of money off it.

• Look to the Trades
Trade magazines serve people working in specific businesses and professions, and generally are not available on the stands. Many of these magazines pay quite well and the competition with other freelancers is much smaller than with consumer magazines. It is also easy to recycle materials. My article on writing a press release that works appeared in about a dozen trade magazines...and only required minor rewriting for each different magazine.

• Look at when you are paid.
Most magazines pay on acceptance or on publication. I eventually set myself up to write only for those magazines that pay on acceptance, since publication may occur a year or more after your article is approved. When I wrote for publication, it was under the understanding that the article would be published by a set date.

• Don't be afraid to walk away
The martial arts magazines were very good to me. I got my first publication credits on their pages. I made friends with the editors and enjoyed the work. Eventually, consolidation of magazines reduced the number of markets, and the magazines wouldn't come up on their rates, and they paid on publication -- one article was published more than two years after accepted. I finally had to come to the hard conclusion -- it was not profitable for me to write for these magazines anymore. Sometimes, you have to walk away.

• Be professional.
Study the magazines. Keep good notes. Be accurate. Meet the criteria set in guidelines. Make all deadlines. Revise happily. Establish good relationships. Set up a good query tracking system. Have goals. Maybe even a business plan.