While it's nice to have a full freelance writing schedule with clients constantly keeping you busy, there are other income streams you should consider. By diversifying where your freelance income comes from you can build residual income (work once and continue getting paid), be protected in an unexpected client drought, or even potentially earn more than your clients currently pay you.
Here are five potential income streams you may want to pursue as a freelance writer:
Blogging - As a blogger, you'll write articles much as you would for clients. You simply won't get paid on a per-post basis when blogging for yourself. Instead you'll earn money most often through advertising (per click, per 1000 impressions, per sale, etc.). I've found the most reliable and most profitable form of advertising on my various blogs has been affiliate advertising (promoting affiliate products through honest reviews and earning a portion of any sales made through your affiliate links).
Writing E-books - E-books are one of my favorite income streams as a writer. They take a lot of work (depending on how long the e-book is), but they also offer greater rewards than other income streams. E-books also help you cement your image as an authority source in your niche (as do blogs for that matter), which means they can even help bring in new clients on top of their direct earning potential.
Pre-written Article Packs - If you specialize in a niche, another income option is to pre-write article packs that might be of interest to your target market. These are generally sold for a little less than custom articles (because the client didn't have any choice in the subject matter), but they can be a good way to fill some un-booked time with potentially billable work. You can sell the articles exclusively or non-exclusively as you see fit (as long as they're advertised accordingly).
Private Label Rights Products - Private label rights (PLR) products give the buyer more freedom than typical pre-written articles and e-books. In most cases, the buyer receives the right to edit them in any way they please, and they can claim authorship. You're essentially ghostwriting. Prices for PLR products are usually very low for the buyer. The benefit to the seller, however, is that you can sell a large quantity (you may limit it to 25 buyers, 100 buyers, or not have a limit at all).
Article Marketing - I already mentioned that promoting affiliate products through your own blog can make for a decent income stream. But what if you don't have a blog yet with a built-in reader base? Consider writing articles to promote those same affiliate products through another type of article marketing--publishing articles to article directories. The benefit is that you don't need an existing audience. The downside is that you don't have that existing audience and the trust that comes with it. You'll likely need to write several (or many) articles to promote a single affiliate program this way. To really reap the benefits of article marketing, you'll need to promote several affiliate products, all with their own articles.
Some of these income streams for freelance writers will earn residual income with little to no work beyond your initial investment (such as article marketing through article directories). Others, however, require an investment of time (and occasionally money for best results) in marketing. For example, you'll have to continually market your blog (and continue to post new articles) to attract new readers and maintain the readership you have.
Writing for yourself can offer you a great deal of added independence. Just understand that these income streams won't bring in huge cash sums immediately. The products or content take time to create, market, and sell. The bulk of the reward comes later. But if you go into them with an open mind and realistic expectations, you won't regret it when the additional income starts to roll in.
About the Author
Jennifer Mattern is a freelance business writer and blogger behind AllFreelanceWriting.com and WebWritersGuide.com. She is also the author of the Web Writer’s Guide e-book, designed to help freelance writers launch a successful Web writing career.
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