When I first started freelance writing, it used to take me one hour to write a 500 word article. Now, I realize that this is way too slow. If I really want to maximize my freelance profits then I had to become a better paid high producer. With this in mind, I immediately raised my rates and also started churning out my quality articles quicker (without losing quality of course).The thing that inspired me was that I wanted to make $40 per hour from my ghostwriting projects. So, I raised my rates to $20.00 for a 400 word article and committed myself to writing two per hour.Sound difficult? It really isn’t.I personally know some writers that can write 3 or 4 articles an hour and these are not crappy articles. They are darn good articles that read well and exceed client expectations. My point is, fast writing be quite lucrative if you know the secrets.

Here are some tips that you can use to write quicker too:

1. Conduct your initial research. Don’t spend hours conducting research. Instead you must research quickly and effectively. Limit your research to 5 minutes for a 500 word article. To do so, use sources like Ezine Articles, Associated Content, Wikipedia and Google. Read through the top 4 articles on your subject matter quickly and make a mental note of their most pertinent parts. (5 minutes max.)

2. Immediately flesh out an outline of the 3 main points of your article. Your outline should have a beginning, middle and end. Don’t worry about perfection at this point. Just get that outline out. (3 minutes max)

3. Start writing your article. When crafting your article make sure you have an introduction, body and conclusion. Your goal should be to ask the reader a pertinent question, then answer the question with relevant information in your article and then provide your reader with a brief recap. (10 minutes max)

4. Proofread your work. Last but more importantly, you’ll need to proofread your articles and make sure it doesn’t contain any spelling or grammatical errors. If it does, change them immediately. (2 minute max)

That is. As you can see, you can craft a really great article within 20 minutes or less. (I wrote this one in ten) If you do this, you can significantly improve your freelance writing income. In fact, if you implement the above four tips, you should see a 20% or more increase in your productivity which will equal some serious cash for you!

As a freelance writer, you probably experience work-related stress and strain everyday. Sometimes you have too many projects (or not enough), clients don’t like your work or love it but refuse to pay the balance due, etc. Unfortunately, stress is part of being a freelancer and as long as you continue freelancing, you’ll experience some stress. But, I have good news for you. There are numerous techniques you can use in dealing with everyday stress. Techniques that will help you get and stay in control.

1. Get a grip and better balance your life. If you’re constantly in a state of unbalance and can’t effectively deal with the demands of work and family, you need to take control. If you don’t, you’ll experience the effects of stress and will be very unhappy indeed. By learning to balance your family’s demands with your clients, you’ll experience less stress and frustration.
2. Be more positive. Don’t concentrate on the negatives. Instead, focus on the positives. For instance, if a client doesn’t like your work, don’t see it as a failure. Figure out what you can do to improve it. If you do this, you’ll be using failure as feedback!
3. Identify everyday stressors and how you react to them. For instance, do your muscles become tense or do you get headaches when you feel stressed? Do you feel nauseous or experience stomach pains? Do you feel nervous or irritable when you’re under pressure? Or, does your heart race and your palms get sweaty? Whenever you notice these stressor reactions, take note of them immediately.
4. Plan to eliminate stress and then do it. For instance, some people learn biofeedback which is a relaxation method that teaches you to control your responses to stress. With biofeedback techniques, your brain learns how to control your heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, etc. The result will be less stress.
5. Eliminate stressors now. If you have to drop a particular project because it stresses you too much then do it. Although you might initially miss the income from this project, you’ll soon find better and higher paying projects.
6. Make accommodations. Try to shorten the amount of time you are exposed to the stress. For instance, if you have a client that is constantly stressing you out then don’t schedule a two hour meeting with him. Instead, keep the meeting to 30 minutes or less so that you avoid the situation as much as possible.
7. Take frequent breaks. Although it is always better to take a brief walk throughout the day, you may find that isn’t possible. If so, take some time away from your desk to stretch. Simply relax the muscles in your jaw, neck and shoulders which will help you alleviate stress.
8. Eat healthy foods. Certain foods tend to alleviate stress. For instance, almonds, blueberries, cottage cheese, fish, broccoli, whole-grain rice are thought to have stress-relieving properties.
9. Meditate. You can do this by breathing deep into your abdomen and slowly letting your breath out. Not only will this clear your mind but it will also increase oxygenate your blood too.
10. Enjoy life. Take time out of your day to enjoy yourself single day. Do the things that make you happy. After all, life is precious and you must enjoy it!

I picked up a copy of Writers Digest for 2008 and realized something. I’m really undercharging for my freelance writing talents. However, I’ve found that what you could make in print just doesn’t compare to what you make on the ‘net. I think it has something to do with “perceived value.” Magazine publishers pay you a lot more for your freelance writing services because they value your writing talents and know that it will, in essence, make them a ton of money.

However, clients on the ‘net are so conditioned to working with cheap writers that they sometimes balk at paying adequate freelance wages. This is really sad, in my opinion. I mean, the potential for clients to make money on the ‘net may even be higher than those offline. So, what is a freelance writer to do? I believe that your best bet is to study freelance writer rates and then choose your own rates based on your overhead (office supplies, rent, internet access, etc.), background, financial needs, and qualifications. In addition, here are the preferred rates from Writers Market:………………………lowest……..average…….highest

Business Articles…………$N/A……….$750………..$N/A

Newsletter writing…………$800………$2,000………..$5,000

Web page writing…………$100………$1,251…………$7,000

Ghostwriting (as told to)…$5,500…….$22,800………$80,000

Ghostwriting (no credit)…$5,000……..$36,229………$100,000

Source: Writer’s Digest 2008

Amazing isn’t it? Well, about a year ago, one of the warriors, Dee Powers, conducted a modest survey of online freelance writers to determine their rates and here’s what she came up with: ………………………………..lowest…..average…..highest
250-350 word article…….$5………$13……..$17

500 word article ………….. $7………$20 …….$30

1,000 word article …………$12…….. $54 ……$125

2,500 word short report…..$25……. $141 ….. $325

5,000 word report …………. $50……. $380 ….. $800

10,000 word long report …$100……. $797 …..$1,600
ebook per page
400 words on a page………..$10……. $25 ….. $40

Source: http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=162503

So, as you can see, there is a big disparity between online and offline earnings for writers. The question is, what will you do about it?

A lot of people wonder, what was it that made me want to switch from full-time ghostwriter to soon-to-be full-time Internet Marketer. I can honestly say that it wasn’t one single thing but a combination of things that made me want more. More for myself and more for my life. Here’s my list of favorite 10 reasons that I made the switch.

1. I got tired of being the blunt of gurus’ jokes. I was tired of being “one of those cheap ghostwriters who they could hire to do all their work while they reaped all the benefits.”
   
2. Every day I started to dislike myself even more. The more and harder I worked as a writer, I could never penetrate the mindset that I was working for someone else’s benefit.
3. I started losing my passion for writing. Writing for everyone else but me was frustrating and depressing. It became more of a burden than a joy. Like I’ve said previously, I can write for myself forever, butit takes a bit of pushing to write for clients.
4. I became frustrated with my clients calling all the shots. For instance, they could pay me or not, they could steal my work, and they could even ruin my reputation just for the heck of it by leaving bad feedback.
5. I got really tired of making everyone rich but me. Every day, someone else made money off of my efforts and although I would get paid for my efforts the payment was miniscule for the hard work and effort that I put into pleasing my clients.
6. I was tired of competing for low-paying projects on bidding websites.
7. I became frustrated with impossible and cheap clients. You know the ones that want something for nothing. Those clients that complain about your rates, promise long-term projects when they don’t mean to, leave undeserving nasty feedback, don’t pay the final balances, and complain the whole time.
8. I got tired of my debt growing and my bank account depleting. Every month I worked my fanny off for these clients and I had absolutely nothing to show for it.
9. Although I had 16 years of education, I realized that my massage therapist, hairdresser, dog groomer, and gardener made more per hour than me, and I was determined to do something about it.
10. I wanted more for myself and my kids. I wanted to use my God-given talents to help us achieve financial peace and make a difference in the lives of others.

After nine years of freelancing, it still amazes me when a client does something totally unexpected. Here’s the situation. I have been working on a book project with a client for over a year now. This project was supposed to be completed within three months.Now, I admit that a couple of delays were my fault. The project was a bit harder than I initially thought, so it took me about three months to just understand the subject in order to write about it. However, once I had a better understanding of what I was doing, it was smooth sailing.

I then created a great rough draft. I thought so and so did the client. He read it over and told me that it looked great on first glance but that it would need tweaking. Well, that was nine freaking months ago.

To make a long story short, this client jerked me around for over a year now. And I had little choice but to keep working because my final payment was held “hostage.”

Well, today I just got sick and tired of this client. I gave him an ultimatum. I told him that the stress of this project was just not worth it to me. I told him that I was slowly losing interest in his project and that we needed to get this done or he needed to find someone else to assist him.

Well, he chose the latter, so now I’ve lost my $1500 final payment. But I’ve gained something else…a new outlook and peace of mind.

Good riddance, dude. The money I lost will be made up with my IM efforts as I now have more time to get my own books and reports written so that I can receive residual income for my efforts.

This experience has taught me that as hard as you try, you can’t please all your clients all the time. You will have some good days and some bad ones. Sometimes clients can jerk you around but you have the power to simply say, “the heck with it, it isn’t worth my time and effort.”

In the future, I will be clearer with my terms. I will set limits as to how many “free revisions” are covered and will request that clients submit revision requests within seven days or the project is considered complete. I’ve also learned that by refocusing my time and energy into my own efforts, I will reap a hundredfold.