Taking a Day Off as a Freelance Writer

I have a huge problem with taking days off as a freelance writer. Here I am at my mom's house and I should not be working, but my mind is wandering off all the things that I should write about and that need to be done. I am going to take the afternoon off and spend it with my kiddos forgetting about work as much as possible.

Since I work on residual earnings for the most part, I will still make money today. I will make less than if I worked, but it will still be a good day! I need to remind myself sometimes of the blessings of this job.

Do you have problems making yourself take a day off? I think it is good for the soul and something we all should force ourselves to do sometimes. (Even though I will admit that you will catch me working late tonight)

Starting to Work at Home as a Freelance Writer

Today I want to have you check out a couple of articles I wrote that will help you if you want to get started as a freelance writer.

Working at Home as a Writer a Guide to Getting Started


10 Legit Places that Hire Writers

Both of these articles can really help you out if freelance writing is the job for you.

New Writing Opportunity

Today I was approached about a new writing opportunity. Someone that I know has a new magazine that they are starting locally. They contacted me on Facebook to see if I would be interested in writing for them. This will be an ongoing job that I will do every month and eventually bi-monthly.

I am so excited about this new venture! I could not be more happy that she had the faith in my ability to come to me with this job. Life is good right now. It is a wonderful thing to love what you do!

How Associated Content Works

When you first start writing for Associated Content, it can be a bit overwhelming. You are allowed to pick assignments off the desk or write about anything that you want to and submit it yourself.

If I am writing about coloring pages, parenting, travel, or product reviews just to name a few, I submit them up upfront payment. You will get anywhere from $2 on up to $7 or more. Your upfront payments will increase as your clout increases and your page view average. I have seen mine going up lately.

You can also submit as display only. This is what I do on articles such as television reviews, music reviews, movies, and book reviews. They do not pay upfront on these. If a popular show such as "The Bachelor" is on, I can write a recap of it. I will get over 3,000 views in one day on it. You want this type of article to post right away plus they won't pay upfront on it anyway.

I have received upfront payment on a few articles that are music or movie related. One example is this article about Lady Antebellum. Another article that I received upfront payment on was Top 10 Quotes About Love from the Movies. These are considered evergreen which means people will still look at them months or years from now and not just this week or month.

I get paid to write a few TV articles on AC, but this is because I am part of the program with a beat desk. They contacted me about this on their own. To get these options and also articles targeted to you, the best way is to write about what you love. If they like your writing and have more in this area, they might contact you.

They are also changing their featured contributor program. I do not know much about how the new one will work, but will blog on it when it goes live.

Sharing Figures

I know that many work at home people shy away from sharing figures of what they actually make places. I am NOT one of those people. I feel like when a friend tells me that they made $1,000 with a company that means a lot more to me than simply saying they make a living. The money I need to live on is going to be different than the money someone else needs to live on in their situation.

I think that we should all share with each other how well we do. Toot your own horn! Be proud of yourself for the work that you do and encourage other work at home moms to do the same for themselves. If you have a bad month, do not be ashamed. We are all busy.

I will say that I only made $500 in January. I took over a week off for my cruise and did not work a lot. On that same note, I have already made close to $1,000 for February and the month is not even over yet.

We all have to figure out what sites work best for us and make it work. I used to write a lot for content mills that want boring articles about printers, tape, cars, and other things I just don't care about writing. I am now focusing on residual and upfront with what I love writing about which is travel, parenting, and television. If you don't love what you do, you will have to force yourself to work which is not fun at all.

Please feel free to ask me questions about anything that you ever to know. I will make future blog on the information or answer you on here. I love helping others and love the ones I have found who have helped me!

Taxes as a Self Employed Freelance Writer

I have spent a lot of time today researching taxes as a freelance writer. I have used a tax professional in the past and watched them claim things I know are not right. I have been through the training at Jackson Hewitt for working for them and see how little they train their "tax professionals." For this reason, I feel a lot better doing them on my own.

I did not claim a lot this year in the way of expenses since I only worked from home the last few months of the year. This year I will be working from home the entire year. My "home office" is just a small desk area so I probably won't be claiming that expense, but now I am trying to figure it all out. I think I might have to buy a book.

I want to make a ton of money, but I also love my tax return at the end of the year :-)