Writers Unbound

Hi Writers, Once again I’ve received questions on freelance writing bid sites such as elance and guru.com. They’ve obviously got a bad rep in the freelance world, and I am one of the very few who is happy with my experience.

The main reason for my happiness is one of my biggest customers. I edit materials for a company 4-5 times per year at an hourly rate of $30-80 per hour- depending on the subject of said materials. Obviously that’s a big range, but this is an educational curriculum company, so the subject and level (K-12) has a lot to do with the amount of fact hcecking I have to do. Either way, it’s not a rate to sneeze at!

This company found me through iFreelance last Spring, and has used me for about a year now.

Last fall I met a mortgage/real estate broker who offers short ebooks on his website. I edit and format his ebooks for $150 per book. They usually take me anywhere from 1-4 hours. Again, not bad. This customer found me on elance and has used my services twice.

You do have to invest money in a bid site. That alone can throw people off. I don’t particularly like paying for jobs. I struggle with it every day. However, when I did my 2007 taxes, I used my records to compare the cost of elance to the customers I obtained from elance. The cost was about 6%  of my total elance income.  

Bid sites can work. However, you need to be smart about how you use them. Here are some ways to make bid sites work for you.

• Begin at the beginning. Veteran writers are not going to get the rate they  deserve on bid sites without any feedback on the bid site. That’s really silly, but that’s the way it works. Join a site when you are just starting out, that way you don’t have to compromise your rates.
• DON’T COMPROMISE YOUR RATES. Come up with your bottom hourly rate and stick to it. Most of the complaints about bid sites focus on the low paying buyers. Who cares? Ignore them. 
• Focus on the companies. I have found that the most reliable and best paying buyers are mid-sized American or UK-based companies.

I think my success with elance is due to these 3 guidelines. I have noticed that little by little, as my company grew, I needed elance less and less. I generally use elance for some quick turnaround projects that I need to meet my monthly income goals.

Good luck. And, if it’s not working for you— DON’T waste your writing time on it.

Ok, so I actually cleaned out the mailbag when I did FAQ Friday last week. However, I did have a fellow writer ask me an interesting question regarding my personal blog post showing a picture of my office. I thought those who write at home may find the answer somewhat interesting.

Allena, I saw the gorgeous picture of your office at this link. I am working on starting up my freelance writing business, and wondered how much such a set-up set you back? I mean, I know it’s completely deductible, but do you feel that it is worth it for a writer to set up a home office?

Well, I’ll start at the end. I do think it’s “worth it” as far as the deduction goes. My writing business really didn’t make all that much profit last year, my first official “full time” year, but I still made enough of a profit to have to pay taxes. Which I didn’t like much, I may add. Had I been able to write off this office, it would have helped me out alot.

You read that right- I don’t get to write off my office. It’s not used exclusively for my business. My husband’s office is also in here, along with a treadmill and a storage closet. I wish I could write it off. I want to write it off. I just can’t. I’ve looked into some rearranging of the rooms in my house, but have not yet come up with a solution for this.

Meanwhile, I just enjoy my office as is, treadmill, tv and all.

Thanks for the mail! Keep sending Q’s here or to gwpublications@gmail.com.