At Home Freelancer

Do you know what it takes to become a successful freelance writer? There are traits that one must have to become a profitable freelance writer. These traits include:

Talent– Do you enjoy writing and reading? How were your grades on term papers in high school and college? Are there any achievements you are most proud of? Do you like doing research and can you analyze material? Do you currently write letters to the editors of magazines or newspapers? While reading articles do you wonder about the issues that are not mentioned?

Tenacity–You need to be persistent when gathering information. If you can not find an answer with one source you need to look for another one. Self-direction–Are you a task oriented person? Can you develop your own plan for getting the work done?Ability to be Self-critical–You need to ask if what you are writing about is believable and is it clear. Make sure you include everything that is important.

Organizational Skills–Can you read several articles and find a common thread? Can you keep track of what you are doing and who you are doing it for? (Assuming you have more then one project you are working on.

Networking Skills–You need to become adept at obtaining contacts through contacts. The better you become at this the better you will be at obtaining assignments. This means that as you are interviewing one person you should be asking yourself if there is someone else in this field they could recommend you talk to.

These are just some of the traits you need to have or acquire to become a successful freelance writer. I will discuss some others next time.

Happy reading! Have a great weekend!

So, you believe you have talent and skill and are entertaining the idea of freelance writing to bring in some extra income. Before you jump into the field of freelance writing it may be prudent to look at the advantages of a freelance writing career.

1. You are the boss. You decide what you want to write about and who you work with. Unlike a traditional work situation, you make the choice who is good to work with and who is not so good.
2. You can set your own schedule. You must make sure you meet deadlines, other than that it is up to you when to write.
3. Freelance writing is fun (most of the time anyway). Your title, “ Freelance Writer“ , “ Journalist“ , “ Contract Writer“ , “ Entreprenurial Writer“ , (or whatever other title you want to use), can gain you entrance into many places the average person never sees. You get the interview amazing people, either in person, by phone, or even by e-mail.
4. You get paid for your work and get lots of mail. Through the periodicals and newsletters etc. that you subscribe to, you can get loads of information. Don’ t forget the checks that arrive via mail (this is quite exciting once they start arriving).
5. Savings on expenses and reduce stress. There is no need to race around in the mornings frantically trying to get ready to go to work. Because you work from home, there is no traffic to fight to get to the office. You reduce the wear and tear on your vehicle, gas and oil and other related expenses of maintaining a vehicle for use each day. There is also a reduction in your clothing budget. You can wear whatever you like except when doing a face to face interview (you will need to dress up for these).
6. Enjoy more time with family. As long as you meet your deadlines, you can take time to care for sick family members or even plan a family vacation whenever you want to. You decide when to work and when to spend time with your family.
7. There is recognition gained through your work. Your name is visible for all to see with the publication of your very first article or book. This is a thrilling experience. Fan letters start to come in. If you have written a book, other writers can read and review it (hopefully favourably).
8. Success can often come fast. You may not have to wait long at all for good assignments, of course, there is always a chance you may need to struggle for several years before you become successful.
9. You create your own work environment. The choice is yours on how you want your office to look. If you want tons of plants hanging around, go ahead and have them. Do you like to listen to rock music while you work? When working from your own home office you can. No one will be able to stop you from doing it.
10. You get the opportunity to let your creativity flow. Writers come up with new ideas or new ways of looking at things.
11. Writers can change lives. Words are powerful and a story you do on one persons success may encourage someone else to make changes in their lives so they too can be successful.These are the advantages to a freelance writing career. You may be able to think of some others on your own that would be unique to you and your circumstances.Along with advantages, to freelance writing, there are disadvantages which will be discussed next time.Have a great weekend!

So you find yourself out of work and entertaining the idea of working from home. You believe you have a talent for writing and are considering freelance writing as a work from home career option.

Are you considering freelance writing for the right reasons? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons you may have for becoming a freelance writer:

• get away from an awful boss
• believe that it is glamorous to be a writer
• enjoy planning your own schedule and are good at it
• want to be famous
• want to be rich
• writing is your best skill
• Mom thinks you would make a great writer
• you have special knowledge or expertise in certain areas
• hate getting dressed up for work
• want a challenging career

 Some of these may be credible reasons for wanting to begin a freelance writing career, others are not good reasons at all. For instance, just because your mother thinks you are or would be a great writer does not make it true. Mothers can be a bit biased when it comes to their children and what they can do well. As for becoming rich and famous–well–maybe, over time.

Freelance writing is not always easy and requires one to work hard. Freelance writing should be run like a small business and researched to ensure that it is the right fit for you. There are advantages to freelance writing which I will discuss in my next post.

Happy reading!

Well I have some good news today, looks like we will be moving into our own place on the weekend. Hubby and I are going to put a deposit on a small suite we found this past weekend. I will finally have a space where I can set up my computer and be able to spend time on it anytime I want. That is going to be just great!

In the spirit of having a place to telecommute I went on a search for websites with telecommuting or work from home lists. I found two that I was able to spend time on today and check out. They seem to offer some interesting leads for one who is looking to telecommute. I will list them at the bottom of the page for anyone interested in checking them out as well.

One website was a Canadian based website offering work from home positions-indeed.com. The other site was jobboom.com. They too offered jobs that where Canadian. So when I get settled I will definitely spend more time on these sites for my telecommuting job search.

Here are the links to the above two sites. If you have any experience with these sites please let me know what your experience has been. Good or bad, I am really interested in any information you can give me about these sites.

http://ca.indeed.com/jobs?q=work+from+home&l=Alberta

http://www.jobboom.com/mod-bin/prod/poste_detail.pl?langue=A&p_noPoste=1299608&p_classe=sjmj9zYKAYlpE&cid=JBFlux09CanEnIndeed&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed

Happy reading! Have a great day!

Are you thinking about telecommuting as a way to generate income while staying at home? This is certainly one option open for those who need to earn a pay-cheque but are unable to leave home either because you have young children at home or you are physically disabled and find it hard to get out to get to a job.

I currently find myself in a dilemna-I need to be able to bring in some type of income from home and now am finding that I have limited time to spend on the computer. We are currently living with family members and I am able to use their computer, but it is difficult finding time when it is quiet enough or not so many people around. So if I am having trouble now with just finding time to blog here I certainly will not be able to find the time to use the computer long enough to work 4-8 hours a day. Hubby and I are working on changing this. So hopefully soon I will have my own computer room and will be able to spend the time I need to do a telecommuting job.

For those of you who do have the time and and office or some quiet space to work from to telecommute, I found a site which offers blogging jobs. You can sign up with them and receive a basic package for only $14.95 per month and receive the same fantastic features and excellent customer service as with the Premium subscription, which is priced at $49.95, but on a month to month basis. You can click their link here for more information.

http://www.flexjobs.com/jobs/online-blogging.

Happy reading and have a great weekend.

While doing research on freelancing and where to find jobs for myself that I can do from home I came across an interesting article about something that I had never given any thought to before.

Do you know how to set up a freelancing contract? Well I had not even thought about needing a contract for freelancing work done from home. This article gives great advice on how to create a freelancing contract. ( I will post link at the bottom of this post.)

There seems to be so much to learn or know when working from home. Researching a topic, such as freelancing, can be a useful tool to use before just jumping into something and realizing you have no idea what you are doing. Using a freelancing contract may save you a great deal of grief should your endeavor not turn out as planned.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2082028_create-freelancing-contract.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

Well it has been some time since my last post. I had a great time at my sister-in-laws wedding. It was so great to see her walk down the aisle.

Now it is back to finding something I can do from home that will generate income. Today I found some great sites that offered freelance writing jobs and something that I had not even thought about. I had never thought of taking a course to show me how to become a freelance writer, but that is exactly what I found during my search. http://www.icslearn.ca/freelance/index.html. They do ask for payment of $988.00 for the course but offer payment plans and a discount depending on your payment plan. This may be something that one would want to take a look at if you had the finances to do so.

Writersmarket.com offers you a chance to get published and paid for your writing. There is a payment associated with this, however they say they offer payment plans. http://writersmarket.com/?r=wmlppcy.

I also found Freelance Writing Organization-Int’l. They offer a variety of authoritative writing resources inside a searchable database. This is free. http://www.fwointl.com/index.html.

If you want to write to generate income from home you may find something at one of these sites that would be a benefit to you and your freelance writing career. Good luck in your endeavors! Have a great day!

This is going to be a quick post. I am getting ready to leave for BC later today. My sister-in-law is getting married on Saturday. We spent last night packing and today I am trying to keep myself from panicking about the flight to BC. I am incorporating some self-talk techniques designed to help me feel more comfortable with the thought of flying. “This will be a fun experience, and we are going to have a great time flying to BC.” “I am not afraid to fly.” “Flying is fun.” You can see where I am going with this.

Aside from the flight out there I am looking forward to this wedding and my husband is quite excited too. He gets to walk his sister down the aisle! He is hoping he does not break down  and start crying. He is so happy for his sister. This is going to be a good thing in her life and he wants her to be happy. I am sure she will be.

I wanted to take a look at what a freelancer is and what they would typically be hired for. Wikipedia offers a definition that a freelancer is a self-employed person who pursues a profession without a long term commitment to any particular employer.  It then goes on to offer a rather interesing background story surrounding the term freelancer. You can check it out here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer.

What types of businesses would hire a freelancer?

Fields that use freelancers include: journalism, writing, editing,copyediting, proofreading,and graphic design just to name a few. So there appear to be a great deal of options available for someone looking to become a freelancer.

While I was doing my search today I came across a site that is new and has no openings now in the US but you can put your name on their list for job offers when they do open here http://www.freelance.com/__C125675B0014F649.nsf.

Have a great day!

Well it has been some time since I have been able to blog. I normally try to post something everyday but I have not been at home and as a result did not have access to a computer until today. In my last post I had mentioned that I had applied to Tele-pros for a telecommuting position. They had asked in their application for me to give them a date and time to call me for an interview. Well, surprise, the call did not come in at the specified time. I sat around for a short time and then had to go run some errands. I am not sure if they called later that day or not. I am not sure what happened. I was going to send in another application but now is not a good time. I believe my husband and I are looking at moving to another place. If a move happens it will be within the next 2-3 weeks. When we move I will send in another application. It may be better to wait until after the move and I have an actual room where I can set up a computer and phone system. If you have ever moved you know how out of control rooms and things can get.