By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dwight_Arvin]Dwight Arvin
Earning a full-time salary as an online freelance writer is within your reach as long as you don't get lost in the forest of opportunities. By following the set of guidelines below, you will be well on your way towards achieving financial freedom by securing legitimate writing jobs online. My particular freelancing sites of choice are Elance and Odesk, but these principles will hold true wherever it is that you are submitting your proposals.
1. Spend more time working and less time searching. The first key towards piling up significant income is to spend as much time writing as possible. While freelance writers may feel the urge to only take on the best jobs that best match their skills, the reality is that such a mentality will cause one to overlook well-paying projects that may not take much time to complete. Even better, once you have several of a particular type of odd-job in your freelancing portfolio, you will me more likely to be selected for similar projects in the future. If you spend all of your time searching for only the most perfect opportunities, you'll simply end up scrolling through Elance or Odesk most of the day without doing much else.
2. Try to earn as great a percentage of your income as possible from a select group of clients. There are several inherent benefits to working for a client who has already been satisfied with your work in the past. First, it allows you to charge a higher rate for your work, since your client is already aware that your fee is worth his or her money. Second, it means that you'll be able to spend more time writing and less time bidding and submitting proposals, since the client is already confident that you will be able to complete the project as desired.
3. In the same vein, it's a general rule of thumb that you are better off submitting fewer, well-written proposals than you are in haphazardly applying to a stream of jobs without putting much attention to each particular proposal. As mentioned above, the goal of a freelancer is to spend as much time writing as possible, and the most efficient strategy towards reaching this end is to submit fewer, but extremely personalized proposals that truly highlight why you are qualified for the job.
4. Try to excel in a particularly category, keyword or type of writing. This will not only allow you to charge a higher rate for these jobs, but you will also possess a significant advantage over other freelancers bidding for these same projects. Before long, you will be receiving invitations to bid on these types of projects, as it will be clear from your portfolio and client testimonials that you are an expert in the particular niche. Moreover, the more experience one has with a particular type of writing, the easier it is to complete similar jobs in the future. In the interest of time, it is always best to stick to a type of writing with which you are already familiar.
5. Bid on jobs which have the fewest number of freelancers qualified to successfully take on the project. As mentioned above, this often specializing in a particular niche which requires more than just the ability to pump out articles suitable for nothing besides content mills. For example, specializing in grant writing, copywriting, political writing, academic writing, or in product descriptions are just several of the niches which pay significant greater per job than producing standard web content.
6. Create a website which combines all of the feedback you have received from clients on various websites, so that it exists independently of any particular freelancing site. It is best not to have all of your eggs in one basket, and this can be achieved by producing a portfolio that brings together everything you have accomplished in your freelancing career. A personal website is a freelance writer's best marketing opportunity, and it is not to be passed up. Moreover, a website can instill further confidence in potential clients during the selection process, as it provides the client with plenty of writing samples in the form of blog posts.
7. Keep in the mind that the random jobs which will inevitably arise do add up, and they are not to be passed up. Even if you are absolutely certain that you won't be undertaking a similar writing job in the future, it is not a sufficient reason to pass up on the opportunity to complete a job presently available. These out of the ordinary writing opportunities can add up to a significant chunk of income over time. Additionally, these jobs often have fewer freelancers bidding for them, which means that you have a very high chance of being selected if you submit a personalized proposal.
Put simply, reaching the point where one is bringing in a full-time salary as an online freelance writer is within the grasp of anyone with high-caliber writing skills. By choosing the right opportunities and by sticking with the most valuable clients, a full-time salary is not only possible but inevitable.
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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Seven-Tips-for-Becoming-a-Full-Time-Freelance-Writer&id=7689499] Seven Tips for Becoming a Full-Time Freelance Writer