Its early yet here on the west coast, and not even dark yet, so I have a wee bit of time before the trick-or-treaters descend upon us. Actually, there probably won't be much descending as certain of my neighbors have the utter gall to turn out their front porch lights and head to the bar down the street. How rude is that?
The good news is that it is not raining in Portland tonight, and this is rarity on Halloween. Generally you can count on it raining on Halloween and Fourth of July here, like clockwork. Today was the kind of day where the entire population of the city was hanging out at sidewalk tables of coffee shops. Oh wait, I forgot, that's what the entire population of the city does every day, rain or shine.
But you didn't tune in to learn about the weather in this beautiful slacker town.
You tuned in to read the second half of Chapter Three of Make Money Online, I know you did. When last heard from, we were in the middle of a rousing post on the benefits of internet freelancing, but the list got too long and onerous to be continued in one post. So here's the last five benefits.
Internet freelancing is open to newbies.
The web is a hungry, hungry beast and its favorite food is words. Thousands and thousands of 'em. A lot of experienced freelancers are still relying on the pain and misery of a traditional freelance career and so there is a constant need for writers all over the internet. This means there is plenty of room for newbies. You'll work for less than peanuts at first, but that's true in with the traditional media, too.
You can create your own content and make lots of money.
Or so they tell me. I'll let you know about that. It is the point of this series I'm writing after all. Not to make money, but to create my own content in the form of an Ebook. Okay, once I start selling it, it will be to make money. Ebooks generally present very specialized information that can thus be sold at a relatively high price and disseminated with low overhead. Thus, the opportunity is there to make more money than in the traditional publishing world. Like I said, I'll keep you posted on that.
Blogging can be career making.
It takes a lot of time (oh lord does it take time) and a focused effort, but writing a blog that becomes popular can lead to all kinds of other opportunities. I get clients from my blog all the time. Many other bloggers have gained the attention of traditional publishers and been offered book contracts. It happens.
You will write learn about many fascinating (sometimes odd) topics.
I love internet copywriting because I've learned about some topics I never would have known a thing about otherwise, such as Voodoo and How To Grow a New Gut (as in stomach) and odd facts about credit cards, and that is only just for starters. I've also written about art schools and pre-fab houses and quilting and bathroom decor and kitchen remodeling.
You'll learn how to write fast while maintaining quality.
Internet copy writing is often done on short deadlines. But don't let this scare you--you'll get the hang of it. There's something inherently satisfying in banging out some good quality copy on a deadline. Which leads directly to the last benefit:
It is an excellent way to improve your writing skills and gain writing experience.
I've seen a huge improvement in all of my other writing because of the need to produce quality copy quickly. When you write fast you let the good stuff out, the stuff that your editor or critic will squelch if you are laboring over a piece.
It is also a great way to get writing clips, those all important samples of your work that you'll be sending to prospective employers.You'll need clips and writing samples to get work, and as you start to amass more and better clips you'll start climbing up the pay scale. These clips can also be used for traditional freelancing, should you so desire.
Okay, so it has long since turned dark and the trick-or-treaters have come and gone (not so many of them this year.) Oh, and I have a Halloween trick for you. On the first half of my post on the benefits of internet freelancing, there are several words that have been linked to Amazon. And guess what? I didn't do that linking. As far as I know I didn't download any code that allowed them to do that, either. Gotta go figure out what is going on...
Here are the links to the previous chapters:
