Since I’ll be posting regularly to freelancing and more, I thought a quick introduction might be in order.

Currently, I write for Helium and a few contract clients. I also publish articles on Triond every now and then, and have accounts with various other online writing sites that I’ve never quite gelled with, as yet. I have a blog (paying-hobby.blogspot.com) which I’ll get onto it’s own domain at some point, and a website www.fresh-weightloss-approach.com that’s in it’s fledgling state and looks set to stay that way until I get a quiet hour or two at least.

But much like Doreen, and if you haven’t read Doreen’s inspiring story, you really should, I came late to the freelancing game, and never had any intention of freelancing at all. I didn’t even want to be a writer.

In fact, if you’d asked me as a child what I wanted to do, you would have gotten the same answer every time: either a sculptor or an archaeologist. I loved history, and loved making things with my hands. It was only in my late teens I discovered a love of words, and a small talent for writing. But back then I wrote poetry.

Throughout my somewhat erratic career, I amassed some great material for small talk. I managed to become a published poet, an award winning website designer, (neither as grand or exciting as they sound) the only Librarian in the UK with a certificate to change abrasive wheels, and the only florist in the country trained as a Hostage Negotiator. Oh, I also did quite a bit of public speaking, and even “appeared” on the local radio.

What can I say? I’m an Aquarius.

The strange thing was, in amongst all this, I somehow became a ghostwriter. Mostly for clients of the web design company whose sites I’d designed, but not exclusively.  Eventually I found myself writing web copy for catalogues, sales letters, recruitment materials for Network Marketers, and from that came the first exposure to article writing online.

Even then I didn’t jump at the opportunity to become a freelance writer. I wrote a few articles for directories like ezinearticles.com and that was about it.

My freelancing career proper, like Doreen’s started as a result of a lack of work and after the end of a long term relationship. having closed my own Florist shop and moved 100 miles to a new city with a new partner, I discovered mine was not the only shop to close as a result of the sudden and deep recession in 2008/2009. After months of fruitless searching for a job, I told my mother one day if I couldn’t find a job, I would make my own.

Not wanting to return to web design, I turned to writing instead, and quickly built up a respectable income from promoting articles on various web sites, and finding regular clients. Of course, when I say respectable, it’s not earth shatteringly impressive, but it covers my basic bills, and that’s what matters. Fortunately my bills are very, very basic

So my posts for you come from the perspective of a long time Internet ghostwriter who’s come out from the shadows. Hope you find useful information in them, and I’ll speak to you all next Monday.

It’s always interesting to find out how people wound up doing freelance work and my story isn’t much different from others except that I have a few varying twists in my tale.

I never considered being a freelancer! In fact, I simply couldn’t imagine depending on chance for a paycheck every week, I really liked the stability of the brick and mortar workplace.  What changed?  Well for me there are multiple changing points in my road to freelancing.  The first occurred in 1991 when I was informed that I had retinitis pigmentosa.  Web MD Says this about RP: 

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is one name for a large group of inherited vision disorders that causes progressive degeneration of the retina of the eyes. Peripheral (or side) vision gradually decreases and eventually is lost.

Rather frightening prognosis! But then again, such is life – I had to give up my driver’s license but frankly, I felt lucky I could see at all! At the time I worked full time for a financial services firm and had been there for a few years so I continued to plug away at my job day after day – something of note here: I was a telecommuter – which was very convenient since I could no longer drive. In 2005 I was laid off. I was not too worried, I was actually doing some heavy duty volunteer work at the time and decided that I would in fact take the next year (2006) off as well, I could afford it at the time and this would allow me to focus more on that. I really did not consider the challenges of working after that!

So in 2006 I did my volunteer work (and separated from a very long term relationship) and towards the end of my time in that role (July 2006) I decided it was time to start searching for real. I was fortunate in some ways that I had been in financial services for so long that I had a strong background. I did however have two distinct problems! (A) I was getting really close to 50 and I was looking for a substantial amount of money (B) I was competing with students graduating college with MBA’s (and I’m degree-less). None the less I plugged away and I finally wound up in a very unlikely job – I was hired to build an internal database for a high tech company (which had a lot of low tech filing solutions)! I was told I could work at home and that while I would be temporary that in March of 2007 I would be able to go permanent! Perfect – just what the doctor ordered!

Alas, this was not to be – In February of 2007 I was laid off as part of a ’sweeping’ cost cutting measure my position was cut – interestingly enough I still hold the theory that had they gone ahead with their original premise that they would have saved a bundle but that’s another story for another day! So I was back on the job hunting trail again. My unemployment benefits ran out quickly and my savings was a tad strained but I was determined to get back to work. I bet I sent out some 800 resumes and cover letters between February and July. I am convinced they went into some ‘black hole’ someplace!

In July, a friend of mine notified me about a class that was being conducted online for people who had visual ‘disabilities’ that helped them promote themselves better for obtaining jobs. I figured I had nothing to lose, the registration fee was very minimal and what could it hurt? Well, it was a great class – and after the first couple of assignments my instructor asked me if I’d ever considered freelance writing. I laughed at him and said no – I wasn’t a writer!

Ya, right!! Anyway, someone mentioned oDesk in a chat room one day (one of the attendees in the class I mentioned above). I already had profiles at LinkedIn, eLance and frankly, I wasn’t too excited about oDesk at the time but when I saw it was free I decided hey, why not try it. My first profile overview was awful (and so was my first job!) as I basically focused on my data entry skills. But, then I picked up an SEO job from CraigsList in August and the person convinced me that I could actually write and I could do SEO work as well, so I started building Squidoo Pages and Hub Pages (many of which I’ve since converted to articles on Helium). Thus began my freelance writing!

Since then I’ve changed my focus to more article writing (though right now the bulk of my work is blogs), I have substantially increased my rates. Currently, I’m practicing use of voice recognition software. I am doing this because my eyes are getting much worse and I see no other alternative to continue my freelancing. Loss of vision is going to mean that I’ll need to find a way to have my assignments read to me and my work will have to be read to me as well. My proofreading will have to literally be done by computer – I’ll have to depend on my ears to pick up words that are not where they belong. So, that’s my story (and I am sticking to it!).

Onward and upward! Happy Freelancing

My Profile/Portfolio: Doreen Martel