Freelancing – The Pay Me Now Business Model

Using Your Skills as a Service Provider

Most of the business models we’ll look at on this site take some time to start generating cash.

If you need money now, if you feel the walls closing in on you, providing some sort of service may be where you should start.

Sometimes, you have no other resources or knowledge besides the talent you possess as a writer, graphics designer or customer service representative. If you don’t have the money or desire to invest in a site to launch a product from or promote as an affiliate from, you can get started working for others who already have a business online.

It’s said that in the Gold Rush days, the people that made money weren’t typically the gold speculators. It was the people that sold them the picks and shovels that got rich. In this business model, you provide the picks and shovels.

Many people get these jobs through word of mouth when a friend in need of a provider connects them with a person who has the skill to fulfill their job request. It might be that they need an eBook written, an eCover created, or their inbox handled with customer service requests.

They might be searching for someone to act as an affiliate manager – recruiting potential top affiliates to come on board for future launches. If you can handle any of these tasks, then you may want to start with a service providing business model.

Although it’s great if you can get it, word of mouth isn’t the only way you can get a job offering your services, though. There are sites such as Upwork and even Fiverr where you can set up an offer or profile to accept gigs and jobs to do work for those who want to hire you for them.

You might find an ongoing job where you’re working routinely for an established marketer, but it might be a series of one off gigs where you get hired by one client one day and another one the next.

It all depends on what you’re offering and how long they need help with the task or service. If it’s for something like writing or graphics, it will often be a temporary exchange of money for the service until the job is done.

But if it’s for customer service or affiliate management, then it might be an ongoing position where you’re paid on a regular basis. With affiliate management, there might be a deal where you’re paid a set amount or one where you get a portion of the earnings.

If it’s the latter, make sure you negotiate upfront so that you’re able to get a down payment on what you’ll make. Don’t allow a marketer to promise to pay you after the fact because some unethical marketers will take the money and run.

I’m a member of Jon Dykstra’s Fat Stacks forum. The members of the forum focus on making money with niche websites. Most of them have several sites. They make their money from display ads on their sites. The successful sites have hundreds of posts. It’s a numbers game.

It would be nearly impossible for a person to write all that content themselves. So they hire freelance writers, and order a lot of content. There is a strong, steady market for quality writing.

Here Jon explains how he hires writers, and what he usually pays.

Please notice:

• The video is from the point of view of a content buyer, not a writer. Use it to learn what strong buyers are looking for.
• Jon usually hires through an agency. The prices he quotes include agency fees. The writer makes much less.
• He (and all the publishers on the forum) pay writers by the word.
• If you have specialized knowledge you can make much more.
• The more you can do, the better you get paid.

Many of these niche website publishers want their writers to write directly in their site’s WordPress editor. Are you comfortable with publishing content on WP? It’s a valuable skill.  You get extra credit (and pay) if you can format the post and source and add images.

Many of the heavy hitters in the PLR content business got their start doing ghostwriting and freelance work.

Tiffany Lambert is one of the most respected PLR vendors out there. Her store has been called the Amazon of PLR, because she has tons of content covering just about any niche. She started as a ghostwriter.

Back then her pages were around 450 words. So she was putting out around 7000 words on a “typical” day. You can feed your kids on that if you produce quality content, like Tiffany does.

Let me bring you back to planet earth here. You won’t be able to write as much as she does. The lady is a machine. But at the same time, it gives you an idea of what is possible.

If you’re setting up a profile on a site like UpWork, be very thorough in setting it up so that it offers a lot of information that puts the client at ease. Remember, many marketers have saved up to outsource, so they don’t want to risk paying a freelancer who disappears with their money.

If you’re offering a service like ghostwriting or graphics, make sure you fill your portfolio with a wide range of options for them to consider. For example, if you can write about almost anything, showcase articles on health, success and relationships so they can see your style.

You also might want to showcase different types of writing, too – like an articles, sales copy, email autoresponders and more. This gives the prospective client an idea of how well you can write for conversions versus simple conveying of facts and information.

If you’re on a site like Upwork, you can go out and bid on jobs rather than waiting on someone to find your profile and reach out to you. Bid carefully and don’t use canned responses to have the best success.

You’re not reliant on platforms to get jobs, either. You can set up your own website where you offer services, and charge whatever rate you want, unlike how you have to be competitive in a bidding scenario on another site.

Set up a portfolio of examples so they can see your work. These don’t have to be from real clients. In fact, most clients won’t want their work put up to represent your business, because ghostwriting is usually done discreetly.

The client will also want to know a little bit about you. There are many scammers online, so while you don’t have to divulge any personal details about where you live exactly, you should give them adequate details about your experience with the service you’re offering.

Make sure you also have a contact form. Some people put an order form right on their site, but you might want to be careful about doing this. It’s always good to discuss a project with a client before allowing them to buy so that you know if the two of you are a good fit to work together.

As well as Upwork and Fiverr mentioned earlier, the members of the Fat Stacks Community mostly mentioned these these places where they look for writers:

• Writer Access
• Text Broker
• ProBlogger
• Craigslist, yes you read that right. Choose a nearby big city and look under JOBS in the “writing/editing” section. You can also post your jobs under the SERVICES section.