Quote: (01-02-2012 04:43 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:
I make the bulk of my income freelancing - mostly writing web content but I dabble in web design, seo, etc as well. The money is pretty good. On my writing jobs I typically average about $50 an hour and if you position yourself right you can make quite a bit more.
The biggest challenge when it comes to freelancing while living in places like Thailand, where I've been living most of the last 4 years, is maintaining your focus. It's really easy to end up working a day or two a week and spend the rest of the time screwing off.
But if you really give it your all it is definitely possible to build a 6 figure a year business with online writing alone.
To get started, set up a profile over at Elance.com and possibly guru.com. Fill out your profile as thorough as possible, do a few jobs cheap to build up some good feedback, and then start raising prices.
Don't compete on price! You only want to price yourself cheap for a few small jobs so you can that good feedback - reputation is everything online. The real key is to set yourself apart by offering more value - underpromise and overdeliver.
Other great places to get jobs include the Warrior Forum, Craigslist, and emailing local businesses (offline businesses are the best customers you can target). Eventually, you should put together a professional-looking website but you can get started without one.
One of the better books out there about commercial writing is "The Well-fed Writer." I haven't picked it up yet, but I'm planning to read it before starting a campaign to double my current rates, and from what I've heard it will really be a game changer.
How do you do health insurance/visas/ taxes while living in Thailand? Do you pay taxes through you home country and have insurance and everything else based on there? Do you do visa runs all the time or something else?