Freelance writer success story: Breaking out of the peanuts-per-word market on bidding sites

It’s success story time again! If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, the “success story” edition of my newsletter is where I step aside and let another freelancer writer tell their story.

This week, I’m going to let Maricel Rivera, a freelance writer from the Philippines do the talking. Marciel got in touch with me a few weeks ago and told me about how she was able to break out of the “writing for peanuts” category and charge competitively for her work.

And get this: Maricel started her freelance writing career on oDesk.com.

Now, I’ve heard a few not-so-great stories about bidding sites such as Elance or oDesk. I haven’t tried any of them personally, but from what I’ve heard, they can be home to stingy clients and freelancers competing for the lowest bids.

However, Marciel proves that it IS possible to find gigs that pay relatively well on such sites. Want to learn how she did it? Read her story below:

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How did you get started freelance writing?

I started out in April of 2012. Beginner’s luck maybe, but the first ever oDesk application I sent out landed me my first client at $10 per 500-word article about job hunting. After that, I got to review a website for $30. The guy who had me do the review also gave me hundreds of article rewriting jobs. At the same time, we did SEO work for his friends through article posting on blogs. When he took on the role of Chief Marketing Officer for a software startup, the other guys we were working with, he had them directly contact me. He sent other marketers my way even when we were no longer working together.

Can you tell me more about how you were able to break away from penny-per-word articles? What were the steps that you took in order to charge more?

Everything I do online, every article I write, I see them as opportunities to better my craft and improve on my writing skills, whether that be about getting big blogs to agree to publish my articles, writing faster, or breathing new life to a “horse that’s been beaten to death a hundred times.”

I don’t know, but not stressing myself over my freelance writing rate and instead focusing on the quality of my work surprisingly got me better rates than others in my circles.

As for charging more, whenever I finish a job order, say, 20 articles in a month, I ask my clients how we fared in the search engines and other stuff. More than anything, this is to make sure that I deliver what I promise. When they tell me we’re doing great and that they want to continue working with me, I see that as an opportunity to ask for a raise. Luckily, I haven’t been turned down yet.

I know oDesk isn’t a good place to land well-paying clients, and I probably won’t enthusiastically recommend it. But there was this other client that chose me despite my asking price being far more than the average asking price of all the applicants. Perhaps one in a hundred, but I think there are still good opportunities at oDesk. You just have to really look for them. And when you find them, stick to your guns. The employer will respect you for doing so.

Where can we find you online?

You can find me blogging at the The Sourcing Pen, a fairly new blog about writing and freelancing.

Image:  Asim Bijarani on Flickr

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