Do you want to make $5000, $10,000 or more every
month as a freelancer? Does your current published materials earn you
that much or are you still struggling looking for new jobs every month?
Well, ghost writing articles and books for businesses could earn you a
lot of money and end your painful quest for writing jobs.
Making money as a freelance writer can be tough
especially for newbies with no samples or prior experience. Most
editors want published writers with a proven track record. And the few
acceptances you will receive may get you paid $50 or $100 an article.
With these figures you can only imagine whether you can make a living
freelancing.
Well, its not all doom and gloom as there are
other better alternatives. One of these, is ghost writing of articles,
books, manuals, e.t.c. for business for fees ranging from $500 to $5000
or even more for big work. A single how-to article could be ghost
written for businesses for a fee of $1500 or $3000 depending on the
work involved writing and the publications placed in. Surely this is
much more than many magazine and newspaper editors pay for single
articles from newbies. Sell four or five articles per month and you can
consider going full time into freelancing.
GETTING STARTED
To begin with, you need to identify a niche area
of you expertise .It could be in medical writing, business writing or a
narrow area which you are knowledgeable in or you can make easy inroads
into. Not that this limits your market potential but having a niche
area of specialization would make it easier to operate, as you will be
constantly drawing ideas from a rich and ready knowledge base.
Next, you should research a few ideas and convert
them into a few how-to articles in your market niche. Post the finished
articles to article submission databases such as:
Use the published articles as samples of your
writing ability and work. At the same time the articles will be picked
and published in hundreds of ezines and high traffic sites, thus
gaining free publicity for you and your business.
FINDING BUSINESS
To get business you will need to send letters or
e-mails to your local businesses and even those beyond with proposals
to write articles for them. Explain to them the benefits of your
business such as boosting their business's image and credibility as
well as generate leads for later follow - up. Enclose a few samples, a
tentative contract agreement and a cover letter.
You can also purchase or rent business names and
addresses from direct mail list brokers, fish out names from your
business and yellow pages directory.
Before writing to them, you could do some
background check and find out the status and details of the business.
If they have a website, you could check it out and get the name of
their marketing executive. Address your letter to him/her and offer to
call or visit for a detailed business presentation. For businesses
which are far away, you could refer them to you website or offer to
send them more information by post or e-mail.
WRITING THE ARTICLE
Once you have secured the business's acceptance
and you have signed a contract, you should ask them to send to you
brochures, press releases, manuals, e.t.c. Write down a list of
questions and send to the marketing executive seeking answers about the
business or industry.
You can also do further research at the local
library, online libraries and databases and read trade and industry
publications for further information to write an outline for a how
to-article.
However, do not make a mistake to think that the
article will be about your client or load it with so many facts that
bore you reader. That could be suitable for a custom -made booklet,
manual or newsletter for the client. For articles, it is a different
matter. Offer tips, solutions to consumer or business problems or give
a valuable insight into a common issue or problem. The article could be
about self-improvement, making more money, improving health, planning
finances, training e.t.c.
The article would contain the client’s by line and
bio. The bio would explain briefly who the client is, the client’s
websites URL and e-mail address. This is very useful and will be the
centrepiece of the credibility and viral marketing campaign.
Once you have written the article, you need to
send a draft to your client for suggestions and revisions. Adopt the
suggestions, proofread it and prepare a final draft. Send the final
draft to your client and post it to article databases, ezines and
syndicates online and offline. In the course of time, the article will
be distributed and circulated online and off generating wide publicity
for you client.
How long should the articles be? For how-to
articles 500-750 words is the standard but where the subject needs
exhaustive treatment 1000 to 1500 words is good length. For a higher
word count, you should advice your client to consider an ebook, booklet
or book. Of course, the longer the article, the higher the fees.
SETTING YOUR FEES
There is no standard way of pricing your article
writing services. You should set your fees based on the research work
involved, the hours you spend on the work, and expenses involved in
producing and publishing the article and a profit.
For a 300 to 500 words article $200 to $300 is
fair but as the word count leaps into the hundreds, figures of $1500 to
$5000 are reasonable. To convince your customers to cough such amounts,
you will need to tell them the benefits of your service and business
promotion through articles. You could also offer them various packages
laden with bonuses and offers. For example, I offer a package, which
includes paid placements to article databases and syndicates, ezines
solo ads and press releases writing and posting. All this is done to
assure the client cheap maximum and wide exposure no matter what. For
booklets and ebooks of less than 50 pages, rates of $3000 to $10,000
are not uncommon. For books a ghostwriter may be paid anything from
$20,000 to $100,000 depending on expertise, length and research
involved.
At those rates obviously, you will not get
everybody in, but for prospective clients who are used to paying
hundreds of thousands in advertising dollars they would see it s
reasonable and beneficial in the long term.
To ensure that you do not miss business from those
who have small budgets to spend on promotion, you can structure your
packages according to ability to pay. Those who pay less would get good
exposure with no assurance of leads while those who pay more will get
an almost guaranteed response.
BENEFITS
Everyone wants to know how he/she will benefit
from a product or service. For yourself as a freelancer, you will get
booming business and enjoy making money as a freelance ghost writer.
You will get more business by collecting and showing testimonials of
your satisfied clients and establish a reputation as a prolific writer.
For the clients, you will need to explain to them
the benefits of your service. Here are some benefits you can tell them:
- Free publicity to millions of prospects online
and offline.
- The published articles may be used by the
client to mail to existing and prospective customers as a free service,
building credibility and a positive image of the business in the
process.
- Leads will be generated for future follow -up.
Enquiries will be made about the business and some sales will be made.
- The publication of the article online which
contains relevant keywords with the clients website URL will increase
its link popularity and improve its search engine ranking. This may
bring in more targeted visitors to the website.
- The client will be given progress reports for
at least six months on the places where the articles has been published
.You can inform him/her to also search for it on search engines using
his/her by-line or article title.
The article could provide spin-offs for other
article ideas, which you could slant for various businesses and
markets. You could also write new articles every month, post them to
article databases and send to prospective clients with a cover letter
to market your services.
This ghost writing service could be very
lucrative. You could earn tens of thousands of dollars every month from
it. You could even get clients worldwide through your website and
e-mails to direct response mailing lists.
Only the sky the limit!
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About The Author
Abdallah Khamis Abdallah is a freelance
copywriter and ghostwriter. To learn more about how you and your
business can benefit from our viral and credibility marketing
solutions, and how your business can benefit from infinite publicity
visit his website at: http://www.qualitywritingsolutions.com.
quantumpro@lycos.com
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This article was posted on April 26, 2004
