Making a full time living as a freelance writer can be difficult, and intimidating to a beginning writer. There are a lot of places to sell writing online, but you may often come across conflicting advice, and many online places “only seem to pay peanuts,” as one friend of mine wrote in frustration while trying to break into the market.

This can be a problem, and I’ll be the first one to admit that there are sites that I support that do indeed pay “peanuts” up front, but I don’t go to these sites for my main income, I have a plan and a system to get the most out of my writing. For those new beginners to freelance writing, or for some of us veterans who occasionally wander off the path a little bit, here are some quick tips to make sure you have your freelancing business running smoothly.

Tip #1: Sell and re-sell your articles. If you have usage rights to old articles, especially if they haven’t been printed online, load them up to Constant-Content for usage rights, Associated Content after that, and even Helium to get a little bit of traffic. See if you can re-write the information for web pages or blogs.

Tip #2: If you’re getting started online, look for “content requests” when you’re out of ideas. All three of the earlier mentioned websites have times where they request content. If you’re burned out on thinking of ideas and want articles that will get accepted, here’s a good place to start.

Tip #3: Maintain a blog or website. This is a huge bonus to not only getting discovered for work, but by having a place to show your portfolio you can display your skills to potential employers. A blog is also great because you can write about your frustrations, and maybe while ranting you’ll come up with some great ideas for articles and be back on fire again.

Tip #4: When was the last time you took a full day off? The theory of “ten articles a day at $12 an article” is great, but your mind needs a rest. After twenty straight days (if you lasted that long) you’re going to be exhausted and hitting road blocks left and right. Sometimes the best way to get going is to stop for a couple days.

Tip #5: Be straight forward. Especially with online writing, more isn’t always better, and don’t say in 15 words what you can say in 5. That time and effort is better spent on more writing and thinking on how to re-sell old articles.

These five tips are just some basic advice to help jump start you when you’re lagging.
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