Through my research of various topics I realized that many people are looking for advice as to how they can become successful as freelance writers. At the same time, I discovered that many people are willing to share that information – but for a price. Well I am going to tell you my story and not charge you a dime for it.

I retired from teaching in 2004 after spending 30 years in the classroom. I was only 48 at the time and although I was ready to give up teaching I did want to keep busy. I was very interested in writing and searched the Internet for opportunities for writing thinking of writing teacher resources or textbooks. During this search I subscribed to Worldwide Freelance Writer and Sunoasis, online magazines that have classified sections for writers as well as details about contests. In one of those issues I cam across an ad for a writer to write an ebook on Tarot Cards for $300. The only thing I knew of Tarot cards was that they were used in fortune telling, but I applied anyway and got the writing gig.

The lady who hired me for the project asked if I would keep writing for her after I completed the project and I wrote several ebooks. Each one took me about a month and I earned between $300 and $600 a month. Then she asked if I would write articles and I agreed to do so. It was then I realized what an opportunity exists for making money as a freelance writer. By this time I was up to about $1000 per month. Through conversations online, I learned that this lady was a middleman bidding on projects and then passing them out to a team of writers, of which I was one. She was very secretive about the information but by asking pointed questions that didn’t reveal I was searching for information, I discovered she bid on projects posted on a site called Elance.

Elance is a site where buyers post projects and interested writers bid on them. At that time, the fee was somewhere around $100 for three months. I took a chance on it and start placing my own bids. Lo and behold, I started getting contracts and repeat clients. However, there is a lot of competition on elance and I looked for other avenues. Then I discovered Guru. It is the same kind of site as elance, but cheaper, about $75.00 every three months.

I received many contracts on Guru and one of clients I started with in 2005 is still a repeat customer. For several years, I was earning $1200 a month just from this one client. He recently sent me the current project I’m working on that will pay $2040 at the end of the month. At the same time, I’m working for a client in Wales through elance to the tune of $600 per week. This month alone, I will earn over $4000.

I only discovered Triond in February of this year and I haven’t had time to submit very many articles. I discovered Helium at the same time and I have made some money on that site as well. This is a free site, like Triond, where you can submit articles to paying markets for as much as $20 per article. Competition is tough here too, but if your articles don’t get accepted they are posted online and you get a share of the advertising revenue. There are also writing contests and great list of article topics that you can use for your Triond articles if you don’t know what to write about.

The key to becoming a successful freelance writer is to write informative articles that are free of spelling and grammar mistakes. For a while, I did have several writers working for me, but I had to spend so much time correcting their mistakes that I felt as if I was still teaching and grading student papers. Now it’s just me and when I get really busy, my son and daughter help out for extra money.