My natural beauty business keeps me busy throughout the year. However, the colder months is hectic. During these times, I don’t do too much personal writing. Besides spending time with family, the majority of my attention is focused on my business.
Recently, I decided to kick things up a notch with my writing, so decided to take on a few freelance writing projects. In addition to writing on a few sites I own, I’m writing for others too. I’ve always been a fan of residual income, since it means I get paid whether I work or not, so you’ll tend to see me focusing a lot of energy on writing projects that way. Up front pay is nice, however when it comes to online work I tend to gravitate towards projects that will offer keep paying me no matter how long it’s been since I’ve written an article (or updated a website.)
Using freelance writing to purchase another 17″ MacBook Pro
I decided that I’d finally update my 17″ MacBook Pro, although I have the money to do that now. I’m holding off, and will use one of my newer freelance jobs to make that happen. I recently got accepted at Livestrong Magazine as a media writer. In order to work for them, you have to apply with Demand Studios.
I had thought I’d already done this, but when I went to their log on screen last week, I realized this wasn’t the case and so I had to go through the process of submitting an application, which included attaching a writing sample, and linking to one of my sites that is solely focused on heath related issues. Less than 24 hours later, I received an approval letter from Demand Studios. I also received an approval letter from Livestrong magazine. It’s an online magazine I’ve been following since it was created, so naturally I’m happy to work for them. The beauty of it is; I can work when I want too. I don’t have any quota. The money I make writing articles for them will go towards the purchase of my new MacBook Pro; I should have it within a few weeks.
Getting accepted at Demand Studios; Writing for Livestrong
Unlike a lot of your freelance writing sites, Demand Studios is on the higher end of the pay per article scale. The articles average about $15 per article of 400 – 500 words. For online content, that is considered “good pay.” Livestrong is part of Demand Studios, and their articles start at $25. When it comes to writing for others online, $25, and above is what I’m used to receiving, so Livestrong fits me perfectly, and it’s writing about topics I’m completely comfortable with; Health & wellness, and natural products. Although accepted, I haven’t started writing for them yet. My business has been keeping me busy, however, once my daughter goes back to school this week, I’ll start submitting a few articles.
Patricia, a lovely lady who writes about the lavender herb and the many things you can do with lavender essential oil recently commented on an article I’d written about freelance writing. Did you know lavender can be used for hair loss prevention? It’s true, I have a product that does exactly this, although I don’t market it as such even though there are scientific data to back up the claims, making those claims on a product can get you in a lot of hot water.
Patricia had mentioned she’d check out the DS. Unfortunately, Demand Studios is only open to those who live within the United States, however, Suite 101 is open to international writers.
Making money with residual Income
DeAnna over at WriteMoms has done a great review of Suite 101, and I’d encourage you to drop by her site and check it out. I can’t forget Felicia, at NoJobForMom, she has a huge lists of articles focused on writing for Suite 101. Suite 101 is a great site to check out if you want to make some residual income. I have articles at one website where I don’t write anymore, however, I still get an average of $250 monthly from those articles, and that’s only one site. Although $250 monthly might not be significant, remember I’ve been getting that monthly for around two years. I don’t write there anymore. With those articles, I made more money over time, than I ever would have made upfront. I have residual income coming from other places too (mostly my own sites).
How profitable is residual income? Well, I can pay 75% of my monthly bills that way. That’s not bad at all, residual income can be extremely profitable, however it’s not going to fall in your lap. It didn’t happen overnight with myself; you’ll have to work to make it happen. If you listen to the naysayers, you won’t make it. Be prepared to make sacrifices, like dipping into your me time. For myself that meant cutting my gaming time, and a few other social activities I did. I wanted to turn my dreams into a reality and that wasn’t going to happen if I acted like the grasshopper who spent their time partying, gaming, etc., Just like the industrial bee, you’ll be busy, but it can be worth it.
But back to Patricia… She happens to be writing about one of my favorite herbs, so you know I have her site, Lavender Uses in NetNewsWire (my RSS feed aggregator). I also follow her tweets on Twitter.
The Vanishing of the Bees
The Disappearing Honey Bees: Beekeepers on what’s happening.
Occasionally you might see me slip bees in my titles or see them woven within some of my articles. The reason is simple; I have a lot of respect for them. Although I’m not like the honeybee where I’m constantly working. I do work a lot to achieve the goals I’ve set out for myself. Honeybees have to be my all time favorite insect (ants are a close second). As a child I spent a lot of time just studying the bees in the yard. I admired their work ethic, and was fascinated at the way they were constantly working. My parents, seeing my interest in these amazing insects supplied me with the books focused on bees that further encourage my fascination with them.
Unfortunately, Colony Collapse Disorder has seen a significant decrease in the honeybee population. On a local level, I started noticing a decline even before hearing the term. Next year, I’ll be adding honeybees to our property and am hoping I can do my part to increase their population.
Hi Healthy Opal~ thanks so much for the freelance tips, sometimes my online tutor:mentor business gets a bit slow. And Megan is so encouraging for me to get writing!
I couldn’t watch the bee video~ sadness
Hi @Char (PSI Tutor:Mentor),
Megan is a wonderful cheerleader, so glad you stopped by. It’s always nice to have something else to do, in case things slow down with your main line of work. Yes, the bee videos are sad, but there’s a message in them too, hope if we’re willing to make changes.
HealthyOpal recently posted..Busy as a bee Taking care of customers and additional writing projects
Thanks so much for your generous comments about my site. It’s a pity some of the good sites for writing are only for the US. I find that with a few things I have planned so have to go to Plan B. Sounds like it might be worth investigating some of the other you have recommended. I like the idea of residual income while I am establishing my lavender blog. Thanks again.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia recently posted..Lavender……aromatic herb or noxious weed!!
Hi @Patricia,
Yes definitely check out the options that are available to you. You might be able to find more in Australia too, just Google to see what you come up with. That’s what I’ve done for the sites I mentioned. Residual income can make you a lot of money, over time. Don’t forget you can make that from your own sites too. I tend to favor doing it on my own sites, in case another business decides to change how they pay people.
Hi Opal, I agree with you that honeybees are very admirable for their wonderful traits as hard workers and their nonstop activity to care for their hive. Thank you for sharing a review of Suite 101. I’ll be checking it out soon.
Felicia @ No Deposit Poker recently posted..Tony G about Phil Hellmuth- Hes mentally unstable and needs professional help
Hi @Felicia @ No Deposit Poker,
You’ve got to respect the hard working bee! They are amazing creatures. I hope you like Suite 101. 🙂
Hi Opal,
It’s just sad to learn that some of the friends I’ve recommended Suite 101 cannot be accepted into it because they’re not in the US, just like Patricia. I do hope you get to know some other residual income writing sites that accept writers from other countries such as Canada, Australia, etc.
Felicia @ No Deposit Poker recently posted..WPT Hollywood- Erik Seidel finished as runner-up
I think I’m finally caught up with your blogging! Goodness. It’s been a long break. Sounds like you’ve been keeping pretty busy lately! Congrats on the new freelancing gigs! I would love to do freelancing but never really knew how to go about it, and this post was very helpful. The residual income bit was especially interesting to me. Thanks for the great tips!
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Hello @Amber,
It’s always nice to take a break, brings you back recharged. Of course times, the breaks can be unexpected those can make you frazzled, lol. 🙂
On my older site, VeganMomma, I used to write tips on how to break into freelance writing. I’ll try to include some of those tips here at Celebrate Life!
Hi Opal,
I’ve been wondering where you’ve been. I acknowledged you in one of my posts. “Top Responders.”
This is the 3rd article that I’ve read this morning about Freelancing. I’d better make that move. Thanks for sharing this helpful information!
I didn’t know that lavender helped with hair loss either. I know one thing, I do love me some lavender. 🙂
Wishing you the best in all of your endeavors!
Take care,
Evelyn
Evelyn recently posted..Staying on Your Path to Self-Improvement
Hi @Evelyn,
Yes, it’s been nonstop busy in the real world. Outside of family and work, I really haven’t had time for much else. I try to pop by a few sites daily just to let my blog pals know that I’m still alive. 😉 I’ll be by your spot before the weekend. The only way I know whether someone links to me is if they tell me, via twitter, comment, etc., I need to set up Google Alerts so I’m automatically alerted. I know there’s a feature in WordPress that shows you incoming links. However I’m rarely in WordPress, I do all my posting via an offline blog editor – MarsEdit.
Lavender, rosemary, geranium, etc., are a few essential oils that can be effective for hair loss/hair growth. The evidence isn’t anecdotal, since it’s been well documented. Natural Medicine Comprehensive Database, publishes a book annually. The book is massive, and is an amazing resource of proven natural ingredients. It’s something I keep on my bookshelf.
Oh by the way, thanks for the mention. I’ll pop by there 🙂
Hey, I’ve been missing you and now I see why it seems you’ve been (in my terms) quiet.
I’d like to hear more about lavender being one of your favorite herbs and why. I probably will soon know more anyway, Patricia has me pulling out my Essential Oils Bible. One day I’ll have to share the Fung Shei phase of my life. 🙂
I’m packing for a trip and on my way to work and my computer is stalling BIG time, it’s been 10 minutes since I started this comment, I’ll have to come back to finish. I think I’m growing weary of Google Chrome. (Part I)
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Hi @Kissie,
You’ve been missed too, always enjoy seeing your tweets on Twitter. I haven’t been on there too much.
Let’s see, I was raised around lavender. My mother grew it when I was a child. I also found wild lavender in our woods as a child. The smell, was relaxing and I noticed that insects didn’t like it. I remember bruising the leaves and rubbing it on my skin to prevent mosquitoes from biting me. 🙂 It’s great in a tea. I occasionally mix it with ginger, and add some freshly squeezed lemon to it. Ginger and lemon are both cleansing. Lemon can be an effective way to pull mucous out of the body, and be helpful for the digestive tract (keeping you regular.)
I hope you have a safe trip.
I tried Google Chrome for a few weeks. I didn’t like it. 🙂
Hi Healthy Opal,
Interesting array of posts you have here. I like that you have fingers in many (honey) pots, and you are saving up, instead of borrowing for a new Mac Notebook.
I plan to book-mark this page so I can keep up with your posts. I didn’t see a homepage for Celebrate Life — would you mind telling me, briefly, more about it?
Good luck with starting your hive. Does this mean you live in the country? We’re about to take the chicken plunge in a couple of weeks. The new coop is finished, so we’re ready for some food-producing outdoor pets. I live in a rural development where you’ll find lots with horses, cows, sheep and the like.
Thanks for posting on my site. I plan to add a new hand exercise each week now that I am back to regular postings.
Good luck with your new writing (and other) ventures!
Hi @Sensible Sadie,
Thanks for stopping by, I’m really happy I bumped into you at Felicia’s site. I’m really enjoying your website.
Oh I have the money now for the MacBook Pro, so there’d be no borrowing, but since I don’t feel like using that money I decided to wait until I get it with the freelance projects I pick up. Besides, my old one is still fine. Although the hard drive is running low on storage space, thank goodness for external hardrives. 🙂
Yes, we live in the country. In my twenties, I lived in the city for about seven years. However, I always missed country living. My neighbor has chickens. When I was a child, we had a lot of farm animals.
Celebrate Life is a blog, so this is the main page. I have thought about turning it into a website, since I can think of a few directions I’d like to go with CL, but that’s on my long term list. 🙂
Opal, I know this is TOTALLY off topic. But did you see the movie… Secret life of Bees… such a good movie. That movie came to mind while I was reading this post…. 🙂
Dee@ Prayer Shawl recently posted..Prayer Shawl Pattern- “V” is for Victory
Hi @Dee@ Prayer Shawl,
I didn’t see the movie, but I did read the book. I have wanted to watch the movie though. I’ll try to watch that next weekend. I don’t watch too much television, but I do enjoy a good movie. 🙂
It’s on Stumbleupon, and it’s a really interesting read! It’s great you’re so open about how the whole process works for you.
You might want to write a post about getting a new computer: I can safely say one of the worst things I did to myself was buy a cheap PC that had all sorts of problems, and attempted to blog with that for 3 years. It was pretty awful, and it did injure productivity. It didn’t occur to me until after the fact that having the right tools to do the job makes a big difference.
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HI @ashok,
Nice to see you, haven’t seen you around or posting in a while, although I stll pop in to see what you’re up to via RSS Feed.
I do have a post about that subject, it’s currently in draft mode.
I definitely agree with you here, one thing I do like about Apple computers is they come fully loaded. You don’t really need to add anything else. I have, but I take a lot of pictures so I purchased Aperture, and since I do a lot of video editing I purchased Final Cut Pro. Those are their professional versions, the normal versions do everything most people need.