Hello,
I'm William Cain, and I'm new to this freelance writing gig. But I'd better get good at it, because I have 500 dollars of bills due every month and that's not even counting food or travel. Fortunately I can work from home as I'm unemployed and have all the time of the day to myself.
I'm trying to get gigs with a number of places to build up a great many income streams instead of limiting myself to one 'magic bullet,' and I heard CC recommended on good authority.
That said, who has some advice for putting out that first article and getting going on CC as a full time, professional writer?
Thanks a bunch, looking forward to working with you all.
William Cain, RHP
Salutations
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant
Re: Salutations
Hi William,
Welcome to CC! I am fairly new myself, so I hope some of the seasoned CC authors will chip in with some good advice too, but your question caught my eye. This is what I've learned at CC so far:
- Read ALL the guidelines before submitting anything. Search the forums for "rejected" and "guidelines" to see what's worked and not worked for others. I spent several hours getting to know CC before submitting anything, and I found it very easy to get articles accepted. Wait until your first couple of articles have been accepted before submitting too many. Once you are familiar with the guidelines, focus on writing and submitting as much as possible.
- Don't spend too much time polishing one article. Nobody is going to pay you $3000 for one article. But don't rush either--that's a recipe for sloppy mistakes. I've gotten my average writing time down to 40 mins for one 400-600 word article and I'm trying to reduce that to 30.
- Patience is key. It can take several weeks or months for an article to sell. Set aside a certain amount of time to write CC articles, but don't be discouraged if nothing sells immediately.
- Set goals for yourself that have nothing to do with sales. For example, my goal right now is to get to the 100-article mark. This motivates me and keeps me writing even if my sales are not high. I also have a goal of a certain number of articles per day, though I sometimes don't hit that goal.
- Track your efforts. In addition to tracking my sales on a spreadsheet, I track my average writing time, the number of days between sales/offers, and the number of articles I write per day. If I just looked at my sales I would probably feel discouraged. But looking at my stats, the number of days between sales decreased in one month from 10 days to 2 days. This keeps me hopeful and focused on the big picture.
I have not yet reached the point where I'm making anywhere close to a full-time income. But I know that it's possible because plenty of others are doing it! CC is a great community and people are more than willing to share their success stories. Check out the "Eureka moment" thread, there's some inspiring comments in there.
Welcome to CC! I am fairly new myself, so I hope some of the seasoned CC authors will chip in with some good advice too, but your question caught my eye. This is what I've learned at CC so far:
- Read ALL the guidelines before submitting anything. Search the forums for "rejected" and "guidelines" to see what's worked and not worked for others. I spent several hours getting to know CC before submitting anything, and I found it very easy to get articles accepted. Wait until your first couple of articles have been accepted before submitting too many. Once you are familiar with the guidelines, focus on writing and submitting as much as possible.
- Don't spend too much time polishing one article. Nobody is going to pay you $3000 for one article. But don't rush either--that's a recipe for sloppy mistakes. I've gotten my average writing time down to 40 mins for one 400-600 word article and I'm trying to reduce that to 30.
- Patience is key. It can take several weeks or months for an article to sell. Set aside a certain amount of time to write CC articles, but don't be discouraged if nothing sells immediately.
- Set goals for yourself that have nothing to do with sales. For example, my goal right now is to get to the 100-article mark. This motivates me and keeps me writing even if my sales are not high. I also have a goal of a certain number of articles per day, though I sometimes don't hit that goal.
- Track your efforts. In addition to tracking my sales on a spreadsheet, I track my average writing time, the number of days between sales/offers, and the number of articles I write per day. If I just looked at my sales I would probably feel discouraged. But looking at my stats, the number of days between sales decreased in one month from 10 days to 2 days. This keeps me hopeful and focused on the big picture.
I have not yet reached the point where I'm making anywhere close to a full-time income. But I know that it's possible because plenty of others are doing it! CC is a great community and people are more than willing to share their success stories. Check out the "Eureka moment" thread, there's some inspiring comments in there.