Suite 101

I know we've talked about passive income and if it's worth it to write articles only for residuals before and I wanted to give you all an update on my experience with Suite 101. When I was in Florida, I told you all I would be posting my passive income earning each month so that we can get an idea of whether or not it's worth the time spent and I plan on adding that to my sidebar later today.

Suite 101 is a passive income site similar to sites like eHow. They pay their writers by ad revenue, meaning that when someone reads an article you write and then clicks on an ad on the page, you earn money. I personally have to say that I am seeing more income from Suite 101 than I ever have from eHow, Bukisa, or Associated Content. I currently have 10 articles posted (2 of which were just posted this week) and my July income is at $9.94. Not a lot, I know, but when you compare that to my income a eHow where I have 37 articles posted and a July earnings of $9.21, I'm thinking that Suite 101 will be more worth my time than eHow.

Plus, with Suite 101, you aren't limited to writing How-to articles, which I like. While How-to articles are fine, I find that I enjoy writing different styles of articles and I like having that option. I will continue to write for both sites however, so that we can get a good comparison and see how fast I can grow a decent passive income!

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Have You Tried Online Tutoring?

I'm not sure if I mentioned to you guys that I am going back to school! (I'm taking a freelance writing class that I can't wait to share with you guys!) In addition to me going back to school, it's almost time for the kids to start school. This will mean a lot of homework around our house! The one thing we can use is free Online algebra help!

The problem with homework is that I suck at math! I actually have to take two developmental math classes before I can begin my normal classes. For me, the fact that I have the option to use an Online algebra tutor is amazing. Believe me, I'm going to need it.

So, I recently found a company called Tutor Vista. They offer online tutoring for grades k-12 as well as college tutoring. I immediately found myself an algebra tutor and the great thing is they are able to give me the algebra help I need 24 hours a day 7 days a week! In addition to algebra tutoring, they also have algebra 2 help. Although, I don't know that I'll make it that far in my college math classes, since it's not required. I am very excited though, not only can I use a little online tutoring, but the girls will be able to excel academically because of it!

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Today is the Day for Demand Studios!

Awhile back Demand Studios promised to reveal the writer ratings to the writers and today is the day the rating will be unveiled. I have heard various opinions from writers about how they feel about being able to see their personal rating.

Some writers are nervous. They are concerned that they are doing worse than they thought and they will have a lot to work on. Others just don't care because it doesn't effect how much they are paid per article. Personally, I'm excited. Not only do we get to see how we score, but it will give us an idea of what things we, as writers, need to work on. It may not effect how much we are paid per article, but I think it's a good tool that we can use to help better ourselves. In the long run, the things we improve on may just be the skills we needed to land the higher paying jobs.

What's your opinion?

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Finding Private Clients

One of the biggest questions I hear writers ask is, "Where do you find private clients?" After all, content sites are great because there is always work to choose from, but private clients have a lot of benefits. While there are plenty of places online you can find private clients (craigslist, bidding sites, and writing job boards) one of the best places to look is in your local area.

Create a package to mail to places in your area like advertising agencies or graphic design companies offering your services. Advertising agencies and graphic design companies frequently use freelance writers for a variety of reasons and marketing your services to them can easily land you a client or two. Any business that needs sales materials or even brochures written can also use your services. Take some time to research how to write and effective sales letter and include a few samples or your work.

After you mail or email your packets, you should give a follow up call. Normally, a good rule of thumb is to wait a week or so before calling. You'll want to make sure the company received your packet and then simply discuss it with them. Let them know the reasons they need you as a writer. Highlight your strengths as you talk to them and make sure you tell them how your services can benefit their specific company.

Don't get discouraged by the "nos." Not every company will want your services, but don't be scared of rejection. All they can say is, "no" and if they do, it will be politely. As long as you are determined and have a little patience, you should be able to land your first private client in no time!

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I'm Back!

I wanted to stop in and tell everyone that I'm back from vacation! We had a great time in Florida and on the way home I thought of some exciting topics for new posts! I know everyone will enjoy them!

Me and the girls have spent the first pat of the weekend visiting with friends and trying to settle back in the house. On Monday, I will be writing in full swing and that includes new blog posts and the releases of my new blogs! I'm very excited and hope you all check back Monday to see what's in store for Am I Really a Writer? See you then!

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Promote Your Articles in 5 Minutes Per Day!

Promoting your articles can be a full time job on its own, but it doesn't have to be. For the freelance writer that concentrates on passive writing, it can benefit you to promote your work, especially if you are a new writer trying to build an online reputation. Most websites make it simple to promote your articles, but you can also use some of the various social networking sites as well.

Twitter is a great way to promote new articles you have written. You simply send a "tweet" with the link to the article to all of your Twitter followers. Not only does this give you the potential for a good amount of people to view your work, but if they like the article they may re-tweet the post to their followers as well.

You can also post links to your articles on Myspace and Facebook. Some websites, like eHow, give you the option to automatically post the article to Facebook. There are also options on many sites to create a personalized widget. This widget can be pasted onto your Myspace pages and even blogs to keep people updated with your latest articles.

If your articles are well keyworded, you shouldn't have to spend a lot of time promoting your own work. Google constantly crawls the web looking for keywords in articles. If your article is properly keyworded, you can easily rank in the top 10 for searches. However, it does take some time to build a good reputation and learn all the ins and outs of getting your articles placed high on the search engines. Promoting your own work is important, but it doesn't have to take you more than 5 minutes per day!

What ways do you promote your articles?

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Multiple Sources of Income....

As a freelance writer it's important not to keep all of your eggs in one basket. Why? The answer is simple. Even though you may have a great client that pays you weekly for your work, that client may not always be around. If you don't have other streams of income it could really hurt you in the long run. Preparing yourself for tough times is an important part of making it as a writer, but how do you ensure you have enough work for the future while keeping up with the workload of today?

The first thing you should always remember is to set time aside each week to look for new opportunities. Even if it's two or three times a week, at least you are keeping your options open and are aware of what is available in the writing market. As you find new jobs or land new clients, set your schedule accordingly. Private clients aren't easy to land, so you should always put the jobs you have for them before anything you can pick up on a content site. The content sites should come next because you'll need the upfront pay in order to make ends meet, but you can't leave out the passive income sites either. Try to take a few hours each week to post articles at passive income sites.

The longer you write or a living you will be able to decide which areas of writing are more important to you. There's no right or wrong answer here. There are many freelance writers that put a lot more effort into passive writing sites because they can build a lucrative monthly income that doesn't require a ton of work to be done each day. Ultimately, how ever you decide to grow your writing business is up to you, but you should always make sure you have money coming in from multiple places, that way if the worst comes you'll be prepared and can still be a success!

Do you have multiple streams of income? If so, how do you manage your daily work load?

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Are Passive Income Websites Really Worth it?

A lot of people question if passive income sites are really worth their time and effort and it's something I struggle with as well. I have articles listed at eHow, Bukisa, and Suite101, but find myself wondering if it's really worth my time. Some people have been extremely successful with eHow and continue to be on a monthly basis. I am not one of them. Tha's not because the site is a bad site to work with by any means. It's simply because I'm too lazy to keep up with it.

I recently found Suite101 when I read some information that some of the ladies there are making around $1400 per month with a little over 100 articles. I applied and decided to see how it went. Since I only have 8 articles and have only been with them for one month I only made a little over $8, but I have to say that was almost double my eHow earnings for the month with 36 articles. I think that passive income is worth the effort. it's somethign that will continue to pay you each month even when you aren't busting your chops typing away at the keyboard all the time, that's why I have decided to build on the passive income sites. I didn't add it to my goals this month, simply because I planned on writing this post.

Here's the plan: For the month of July I will be commiting myself to writing 3 articles a week at both eHow and Suite101. I will keep a running tally of my earnings and post them here weekly as I post my updated weekly goals. We'll be able to tell if I start concentrating on it if the passive writing will pay off!

There are various passive income sites out there, which is your favorite and why?

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July Goals!

Well I have been VERY off track posting on this blog, as well as creating the new one I have planned. For those of you who don't know, I'm in FLORIDA at the beach! While I have been working, it's been very here and there so unfortunately my blogs have been extremely neglected. I will be giving them more attention though, and will be back home by mid-month.

Goals this month are fairly simple and since I am away for half the month, I will be working my way up to them. I hope to be hitting them fairly consistantly by the end of the month.

1. Demand Studios: Since this is my number 1 money maker lately I want to TRY to write 50 articles per week. It's not unusual for me to write 7 days a week so it shouldn't be hard.

2. Suite 101: For me this has pretty much replace eHow, simply because in the one month I've been with them I've doubled what I made on eHoe. (more on this tomorrow) For July I want to post 3 articles per week to Suite 101 because I plan to apply for a featured writer position soon.

3. Quality Gal: I haven't written much for them lately , but would love to commit to 5t articles per week.

My goal is to work my way back up to hitting the $1000 mark per week. When I first quit my job, I started out strong and I guess burnt myself out. These ast couple of months have been super slow going. Fear not though, coming to the beach has done me A LOT of good and I'm back on track! Stay tuned for some exciting articles this week, including tomorrow's article about passive income sites!

What are your goals this month???

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