Thank you for responding.

Yes, these options are, of course, obvious. I wasn’t referring to me; instead, I was making a point that such strategies, although sound, are not easy for everyone to initiate, depending on a writer’s particular set of circumstances. That doesn’t mean that such achievements are not possible.

Again, I praise the article for its valuable information and for your sharing it with us. It’s much appreciated.

As for finding better-paying clients, various job lists, I have found, constantly offer ads from independents (either individuals or website owners) who have larger budgets and are open to negotiation. As you have said, too, magazines and journals generally pay more, as do corporations. Sometimes, too, regular clients who know and trust a writer’s work will refer said writer to associates who will pay handsomely. The better-paying jobs are there, but one has to search for them and maintain attempts to contact them whenever possible. And, yes, I know you mention several of these in the above article, but I thought they were worth stating again.

Of course, from my experience, I have found that publications quite often pay so much per word (generally .08c to .20c, although this is in constant flux, too), so the hourly rate depends on the type of client a writer has. Again, this is from my experience.

Take care, Anna, and keep up the great work!

If you stay away from content mills maybe you’d like to do a guest post on where / how you find clients?

I hope your holiday was a pleasant one.

As you know, I have been an avid subscriber for a while now. This series of articles is very interesting–and important.

I simultaneously laugh in amusement and scowl in annoyance at the content mills, as well as the many online businesses, who insist on paying a paltry sum situated around the $1.00/100 standard or even less. How can anyone live on that?

Just a couple of questions: How can you get business by charging per hour when many of these entities insist on paying such dismal rates as two or three cents per word? My expenses, insurance, taxes, savings, vacations and retirement mean absolutely NOTHING to them. How did you break away from these cheapskate losers? I don’t work for content mills, and I stay as far away from them as possible, but even many independent prospects hold similar attitudes.

By the way, after four years of freelancing, and several years of tutoring and translating, I am starting to expand my online persona: I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, and have two blogs so far. I will be starting on my personal site next. Slow, perhaps, but I always thought one needs money to set up a professional site, and that’s difficult to do when one has no money (or minimal amounts of money) in the first place (my personal life is a long story, sorry). A friend recently told me about free hosting. This doesn’t provide one with a personal domain, but it is a start.

Thanks again, Anne.