Post: #26

(10-29-2013 10:37 AM)Magyarphile Wrote:  Woot, I am not referring to ESL teaching. I mean state-licensed English subject teaching which basically means English literature. It's a dream job for a writer because you get to read/discuss real literature all day. Basically, you get to educate yourself while getting paid for it..

My bad! That does sound nice indeed.

Post: #27

Hi Vincent,

I've just had a look at Warrior Forum and it looks to have become like Elance, in terms of low fees.

The first 2 writing threads I have come across are offering deals such as a 500 word article for $4 and $1.95 for 100 words.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

I'm new to writing and my rates are low at $3 per 100 words. I'm going to get a thread up ASAP to experiment with higher prices and see if people buy nonetheless.

C

Post: #28

(10-29-2013 03:09 PM)PompeyChris Wrote:  Hi Vincent,

I've just had a look at Warrior Forum and it looks to have become like Elance, in terms of low fees.

The first 2 writing threads I have come across are offering deals such as a 500 word article for $4 and $1.95 for 100 words.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

I'm new to writing and my rates are low at $3 per 100 words. I'm going to get a thread up ASAP to experiment with higher prices and see if people buy nonetheless.

C

You should read the posts by Beyond Borders in the Freelancing on Elance thread. Lots of advice on how to get higher rates.

Post: #29

(10-29-2013 03:37 PM)scandibro Wrote:  You should read the posts by Beyond Borders in the Freelancing on Elance thread. Lots of advice on how to get higher rates.

I have done, and am working up the rates as BB has suggested.

My questions aim is to find out whether the warrior forum is still a good site to gain writing clients from?

C

Post: #30

(10-29-2013 12:41 PM)invictusiii Wrote:  As a web developer, I'm struggling to come up with an idea for an app or service I can sell in order to pay the bills while living wherever I want. All I need is one solid idea that I can crank out a functional site for. It seems everyone is trying to put out the same kinds of apps. Invoicing or something similar and I find it uninspiring.

A couple of different ways you can go on this.

1. Some programmers/developers built wordpress themes and sell them on themeforest.net

2. Some guys develop niche solutions for internet marketers or other hungry markets, like these guys who come up with great plugins for internet marketers:

http://internetmarketingwizard.com/

3. Some guys write apps and then upload them to PPI (pay per install) sites. I don't know much about this business model, just know that some guys do well with this.


The reason developers are writing invoice apps and similar is the same reason there are 20 different cereals in your supermarket. People want them. That's where the money is.

You can write an app that's fun for you to make but what's the point if you spend 3 months on it only to find out there's no demand for it? You have to fill a common need or solve a common problem (common to that niche, that is). Most people do it the other way around and then wonder why they don't make any money.

(10-29-2013 03:09 PM)PompeyChris Wrote:  Hi Vincent,

I've just had a look at Warrior Forum and it looks to have become like Elance, in terms of low fees.

The first 2 writing threads I have come across are offering deals such as a 500 word article for $4 and $1.95 for 100 words.

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...lable.html

I'm new to writing and my rates are low at $3 per 100 words. I'm going to get a thread up ASAP to experiment with higher prices and see if people buy nonetheless.

C

Chris, you're going to need to offer 5-10 review copies (free articles). That means you write the hell out of these free copies, and then the recipients come back and post a review on your thread, which you then add right into your sales copy.

Look at my old writing thread for an example:

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...nover.html

If you just ask for a higher price without any justification or proof of quality, why would anybody pay. Also make sure to state that you're a native English writer, and any other accolades that can improve your value proposition.

Post: #31

(10-30-2013 04:10 AM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  Chris, you're going to need to offer 5-10 review copies (free articles). That means you write the hell out of these free copies, and then the recipients come back and post a review on your thread, which you then add right into your sales copy.

Look at my old writing thread for an example:

http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors-hir...nover.html

If you just ask for a higher price without any justification or proof of quality, why would anybody pay. Also make sure to state that you're a native English writer, and any other accolades that can improve your value proposition.

How can I make myself seem more valuable in the writing business?

I am an English teacher. I hold a BA in International Relations and an MA in Linguistics with specialism in Teaching English. I have a TEFL, a CELTA and a Diploma in English language and literature. Are these valuable for my resume as a writer?

I'd love to write articles for a living. I can type at around 70 words a minute so that would mean I could do a 500 word article in around 10 minutes, + 10 minutes for editing and 40 minutes for researching, therefore I'm fairly confident that I could write a 500 word article on almost anything within an hour. The problem is my current hourly rate is $40-$50 for my regular location dependent job. Is it possible to hit $50 or more per 500 word article on a consistent basis (I'm talking 4+ articles a day at this point in time)?

Thanks for your continued input!

Post: #32

(11-05-2013 12:25 AM)2014 Wrote:  How can I make myself seem more valuable in the writing business?

I am an English teacher. I hold a BA in International Relations and an MA in Linguistics with specialism in Teaching English. I have a TEFL, a CELTA and a Diploma in English language and literature. Are these valuable for my resume as a writer?

Your credentials might help a little but in the online world they're not that important. In fact they can work against you, because online the idea is to write in layman's terms for a non-technical audience. I facepalm hard when I work with writers who think that writing a stuffy, vocabulary ridden, essay-style article is somehow equivalent to good writing. It isn't.

Online, it's about engaging your audience, solving their problems, and communicating with them conversationally, not talking at them. I'm not saying this is how YOU write, just something to think about...

Much more important is your reputation, social proof, good word of mouth and quality of your writing. And also, getting gigs with companies and corporations who have budgets, instead of wading through the nickel and dimin' solopreneur crowd.

Quote:I'd love to write articles for a living. I can type at around 70 words a minute so that would mean I could do a 500 word article in around 10 minutes, + 10 minutes for editing and 40 minutes for researching, therefore I'm fairly confident that I could write a 500 word article on almost anything within an hour. The problem is my current hourly rate is $40-$50 for my regular location dependent job. Is it possible to hit $50 or more per 500 word article on a consistent basis (I'm talking 4+ articles a day at this point in time)?

It would take you a while to get those kinds of rates. And if and when you did, you can count on longer research times than 40 minutes per 500 words. I don't actually recommend writing articles as a long term business.

With what your current gig is paying, I'd stick with it, and take your free time to create content that you can SELL.

In another words, write a few Kindle books. Create some eBooks. These are business assets with the potential to bring in long term, passive(ish) income.

The beauty of writing is that any time you sit down and put pen to paper, you're creating something that you could potentially sell. Every word you write is a business asset. To me, that's why writing is so damn magical.

To wit: for no reason at all, one morning as I was having coffee and doing my morning hour or so of writing, I started writing about productivity. Fast forward a month and 30 cups of coffee later, and I'm about to hit publish on my new productivity book on Kindle. You dig?

So you can use your skills to build up passive income without having to take a pay cut and trade your time for money. Nor do you have to corrupt your love of something fun because you have to write shit you don't care about to pay the bills.

Quote:Thanks for your continued input!

My pleasure, brother! Good luck!

Post: #33

(11-05-2013 12:25 AM)2014 Wrote:  How can I make myself seem more valuable in the writing business?

I am an English teacher. I hold a BA in International Relations and an MA in Linguistics with specialism in Teaching English. I have a TEFL, a CELTA and a Diploma in English language and literature. Are these valuable for my resume as a writer?

I'd love to write articles for a living. I can type at around 70 words a minute so that would mean I could do a 500 word article in around 10 minutes, + 10 minutes for editing and 40 minutes for researching, therefore I'm fairly confident that I could write a 500 word article on almost anything within an hour. The problem is my current hourly rate is $40-$50 for my regular location dependent job. Is it possible to hit $50 or more per 500 word article on a consistent basis (I'm talking 4+ articles a day at this point in time)?

Thanks for your continued input!

With those credentials, you could pretty well name your price in the middle east as an ESL teacher. May I ask why you are trying to make the switch?

Post: #34

(11-05-2013 06:01 AM)Magyarphile Wrote:  With those credentials, you could pretty well name your price in the middle east as an ESL teacher. May I ask why you are trying to make the switch?

I want to make the switch towards passive and location independent work because I want to work for myself as well as travel while I am still relatively young (mid 20s). I wouldn't mind going back to ESL teaching in my 30s at a uni gig or other kind of instructor in the Middle East or wherever pays the best at the time, but now I want to travel again. I've travelled to around 25 countries so far and have had the last 2 years in the same location at a location dependent job tutoring. I've tried online tutoring but pay is way too low to do for a living. Hence the attempt at a switch. I have a major travel itch to scratch!

Post: #35

(11-06-2013 12:20 AM)2014 Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 06:01 AM)Magyarphile Wrote:  With those credentials, you could pretty well name your price in the middle east as an ESL teacher. May I ask why you are trying to make the switch?

I want to make the switch towards passive and location independent work because I want to work for myself as well as travel while I am still relatively young (mid 20s). I wouldn't mind going back to ESL teaching in my 30s at a uni gig or other kind of instructor in the Middle East or wherever pays the best at the time, but now I want to travel again. I've travelled to around 25 countries so far and have had the last 2 years in the same location at a location dependent job tutoring. I've tried online tutoring but pay is way too low to do for a living. Hence the attempt at a switch. I have a major travel itch to scratch!

Many of the university positions in Korea or Saudi have 3-4 months vacation...paid. How much travel time do you need? And this also leads to one more problem with location independent gigs: working while traveling. You are never really on vacation. Sean Ogle has touched on this a bit. When other people are going kite surfing, he is looking for a wifi connection. Imo, that is a huge compromise and really a deal breaker. When I am traveling, it should be all about fun. There are enough unexpected surprises to worry about when exploring a new land than whether some bitchy client is satisfied with her SEO articles on toasters. End of rant.

Post: #36

Just wondering what a better idea would be. If you had a website on a specific subject where you're giving great info, would it be better to try and get your traffic up and generate money with ads? Or would it be better to give just a little bit of info and try to sell the people on an ebook?

Post: #37

Hey guys, new to the forum, but been reading for a while. This independence location thread as well as the whole movement on this site for location independence is really interesting to me.

I have had a business for the past two years in addition to my day job. It's finally getting to the point where I could potentially quit my job, support myself and focus all my efforts on the business to continue to grow it. I could be location independent within the US, however my ideal situation would be moving to Mexico for a year or two.

If I were a web designer or something I could do this no problem. My problem however is that though I don't reallly need to be in a specific location, just have interenet I have to ship items for my buisness. Not only would living in Mexico be international shipping on all my packages but I wouldn't trust shipments from my supplier or my shipments out to customers not being stolen by the Mexican post office so I guess I could be location independent as long as I'm cool staying in the US. Not really my ideal goal though.

Post: #38

(11-06-2013 11:31 AM)outhustleu Wrote:  Hey guys, new to the forum, but been reading for a while. This independence location thread as well as the whole movement on this site for location independence is really interesting to me.

I have had a business for the past two years in addition to my day job. It's finally getting to the point where I could potentially quit my job, support myself and focus all my efforts on the business to continue to grow it. I could be location independent within the US, however my ideal situation would be moving to Mexico for a year or two.

If I were a web designer or something I could do this no problem. My problem however is that though I don't reallly need to be in a specific location, just have interenet I have to ship items for my buisness. Not only would living in Mexico be international shipping on all my packages but I wouldn't trust shipments from my supplier or my shipments out to customers not being stolen by the Mexican post office so I guess I could be location independent as long as I'm cool staying in the US. Not really my ideal goal though.

Have looked into something like Shipwire.com for storing and fulfilling your orders?

Post: #39

(11-06-2013 12:22 PM)invictusiii Wrote:  

(11-06-2013 11:31 AM)outhustleu Wrote:  Hey guys, new to the forum, but been reading for a while. This independence location thread as well as the whole movement on this site for location independence is really interesting to me.

I have had a business for the past two years in addition to my day job. It's finally getting to the point where I could potentially quit my job, support myself and focus all my efforts on the business to continue to grow it. I could be location independent within the US, however my ideal situation would be moving to Mexico for a year or two.

If I were a web designer or something I could do this no problem. My problem however is that though I don't reallly need to be in a specific location, just have interenet I have to ship items for my buisness. Not only would living in Mexico be international shipping on all my packages but I wouldn't trust shipments from my supplier or my shipments out to customers not being stolen by the Mexican post office so I guess I could be location independent as long as I'm cool staying in the US. Not really my ideal goal though.

Have looked into something like Shipwire.com for storing and fulfilling your orders?

Can't really go into too many details without giving away my niche and products but long story short my industry is pretty unique, high percentage of credit card chargebacks, lots of problems with banks, constantly getting accounts shutdown, orders for merch comming from my supplier are upwards of 100k per shipment, it's not a real clean cut and dry inventory taking as it's not a boxed or packaged product so for those reasons I think my only option would be having a trusted family member or friend run the business for me and even then it would be a a bit of a headache unless I got their name on my paypal accounts, bank accounts, ebay accounts, merchant services accounts, etc. I wish I could automate my business as right now it's just my partner and myself hand packing all orders which is pretty crazy considering were a 2 mill a year business. This whole thing is kinda new to me, this was basically a hobby making some decent side money and in the past 6 moths has really exploded.

Post: #40

(11-06-2013 06:04 AM)Magyarphile Wrote:  

(11-06-2013 12:20 AM)2014 Wrote:  

(11-05-2013 06:01 AM)Magyarphile Wrote:  With those credentials, you could pretty well name your price in the middle east as an ESL teacher. May I ask why you are trying to make the switch?

I want to make the switch towards passive and location independent work because I want to work for myself as well as travel while I am still relatively young (mid 20s). I wouldn't mind going back to ESL teaching in my 30s at a uni gig or other kind of instructor in the Middle East or wherever pays the best at the time, but now I want to travel again. I've travelled to around 25 countries so far and have had the last 2 years in the same location at a location dependent job tutoring. I've tried online tutoring but pay is way too low to do for a living. Hence the attempt at a switch. I have a major travel itch to scratch!

Many of the university positions in Korea or Saudi have 3-4 months vacation...paid. How much travel time do you need? And this also leads to one more problem with location independent gigs: working while traveling. You are never really on vacation. Sean Ogle has touched on this a bit. When other people are going kite surfing, he is looking for a wifi connection. Imo, that is a huge compromise and really a deal breaker. When I am traveling, it should be all about fun. There are enough unexpected surprises to worry about when exploring a new land than whether some bitchy client is satisfied with her SEO articles on toasters. End of rant.

Eh, I'll take 3-4 hours of work a day and then free time to 2 weeks of vacation and then back to Saudi land.

I don't get the work then vacation idea. Seems strange, you are working for what? Those 3-5 weeks of vacation every year to spend everything you made the rest of the year?

I prefer to have a lifestyle where my everyday life is comfortable and free. And I can go kitesurfing if I want, I am just probably going to fire up the laptop on the bus or in the airport and crank out some work while everyone else is sitting around playing candy crush.

I think the idea that never having time off is bad, comes from the fact that most people hate their job. I don't, I find it interesting, though not exciting. I don't mind 'working' for the most part.

Post: #41

(11-06-2013 11:31 AM)outhustleu Wrote:  Hey guys, new to the forum, but been reading for a while. This independence location thread as well as the whole movement on this site for location independence is really interesting to me.

I have had a business for the past two years in addition to my day job. It's finally getting to the point where I could potentially quit my job, support myself and focus all my efforts on the business to continue to grow it. I could be location independent within the US, however my ideal situation would be moving to Mexico for a year or two.

If I were a web designer or something I could do this no problem. My problem however is that though I don't reallly need to be in a specific location, just have interenet I have to ship items for my buisness. Not only would living in Mexico be international shipping on all my packages but I wouldn't trust shipments from my supplier or my shipments out to customers not being stolen by the Mexican post office so I guess I could be location independent as long as I'm cool staying in the US. Not really my ideal goal though.

Look into Pick and Pack warehouse services. You pay them to store your stuff and they pick the order, ship it, even take returns. You just pay them a premium.

Post: #42

Scandibro, I know English is not your first language but where I did I say anything about a measly two weeks vacation? In the field of education, 3 to 4 months is standard(paid). And yes, I am working for that. That is a quarter of the year where I can go anywhere I want and not have a care in the world. It is important to enjoy your work but a lengthy downtime is a tonic for the soul.

Post: #43

(11-06-2013 01:09 PM)scandibro Wrote:  

(11-06-2013 11:31 AM)outhustleu Wrote:  Hey guys, new to the forum, but been reading for a while. This independence location thread as well as the whole movement on this site for location independence is really interesting to me.

I have had a business for the past two years in addition to my day job. It's finally getting to the point where I could potentially quit my job, support myself and focus all my efforts on the business to continue to grow it. I could be location independent within the US, however my ideal situation would be moving to Mexico for a year or two.

If I were a web designer or something I could do this no problem. My problem however is that though I don't reallly need to be in a specific location, just have interenet I have to ship items for my buisness. Not only would living in Mexico be international shipping on all my packages but I wouldn't trust shipments from my supplier or my shipments out to customers not being stolen by the Mexican post office so I guess I could be location independent as long as I'm cool staying in the US. Not really my ideal goal though.

Look into Pick and Pack warehouse services. You pay them to store your stuff and they pick the order, ship it, even take returns. You just pay them a premium.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check them out. I am thinking about branching into some other products since I have the ebay account with high feedback, discounts, etc plus ecommerce sites already setup. With another product might be easier. Problem with my current business is like I said the type of product I sell I don't think anyone else would be willing to deal with for me nor would I trust anyone. A small slipup in packing by someone who isn't familiar with what they are doing could easily cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Post: #44

(11-06-2013 01:14 PM)Magyarphile Wrote:  Scandibro, I know English is not your first language but where I did I say anything about a measly two weeks vacation? In the field of education, 3 to 4 months is standard(paid). And yes, I am working for that. That is a quarter of the year where I can go anywhere I want and not have a care in the world. It is important to enjoy your work but a lengthy downtime is a tonic for the soul.

I know, it wasn't directed at you in particular, though it may have come out that way, not my intention to attack you.

I agree that complete time off is a great luxury and one that is hard to find as self employed, location independent or not. In fact, I think you're quite right that total time off is a nessecity to be happy, but you can get that too as selfemployed, it just takes a bit more willpower not to check emails.

Personally, I just choose that I would rather make that sacrifice to being locked down in a job for months at a time unless it was something I was truly passionate about like playing in the NBA ;-)

Post: #45

Other than being a doctor(which you can do pretty much anywhere in the world if you have Western credentials), what are some other occupations in the medical field which would allow you to live anywhere you want?

Post: #46

(11-07-2013 04:40 AM)speakeasy Wrote:  Other than being a doctor(which you can do pretty much anywhere in the world if you have Western credentials), what are some other occupations in the medical field which would allow you to live anywhere you want?

Medical science? The qualifications needed are going to be biological/chemical as opposed to a more specific medical qualification which might be more area dependent.

Certainly a good chemistry/biology/biochem degree from a good institution is going to be widely accepted.

Post: #47

I've decided to write for myself, on my own blog, while learning HTML5, CSS3, and Python, and making youtube videos with adsense.

This way I can show my development as a web developer, write with my own name to it and build my brand on whatever subject I like and build subscribers via youtube videos I put out. It's going to be all passive and I'm going to do it part time. My goal is to make a constant passive income averaging $120+ a day in the next few years, combining youtube revenue, ads on my website, writing articles, increasing my web development and design skills and via sales from the course I am going to publish.