Make an Extra $1,000 a Month

by Mridu Khullar

The economic outlook is grim. Publications that have been around for decades are closing their doors. Journalism is facing a crisis.

So what else is new?

As freelancers, we're used to market ups and downs, we're constantly reinventing ourselves, and we engage in "job" searches on a daily basis. And that's why, on message boards, in writers forums, and in conversations, some freelancers have been reporting more work than ever before.

The market may have changed, but the opportunities haven't. If you've been feeling the pinch, take a look at what these successful freelancers are doing, and how you, too, might increase your income this month.

Write for online sites that provide news and other information.

To give your income a quick and easy boost, pitch one or two of these types of sites. Examples include http://Orato.com, which describes itself as a "citizen journalism" site featuring stories from around the world; http://Mahalo.com, which calls itself a handcrafted search engine; and The Women's International Perspective (http://www.thewip.net), which calls itself "the global source for women's perspectives."

While they're usually low payers, such online publications need content on a daily or biweekly basis, they can be great to work with, and they're known to publish quickly, pay promptly, and require minimal or no edits.

While you'll miss out on the prestige of the nationals, you'll also be spared the grueling edits, the constant to-and-fro on fact-checking, editing by committee, and other problems that plague them.

The deadlines for the type of online sites I've mentioned tend to be short, and while some have a focus on service features, you'll mostly find news pieces and opinions to be popular. Even better, because they are typically small outfits and need freelancers, they're nice to their writers and will respond within days to your queries.

A caution: It's easy to get sucked into writing regularly for these publications because of the ease of effort, but remember your bottom line. Use research from older articles, sell them reprints, or write op-eds. Use these publications to add that extra $250 or $500 per month, but don't focus on all your energy here.

Add value to your stories.

When I used to teach magazine writers how to sell their stories, I used to ask them to visualize that published article on the page -- what the headline would look like, the art, the cover tease. They didn't have to produce the graphic or design the cover, but just by thinking of it, they were seeing whether or not the article would fit into a magazine's lineup.

As focus shifts online, publications are putting money and energy into the Web. The New York Times does extensive slide shows, The Christian Science Monitor likes to publish audio interviews with reporters, and several news magazines have new video sections. Are you pitching any of these elements?

Despite the bad economy, the basis of good pitching is unchanged: Learn what the editor wants, and package your idea in the way that fits it.

"Now is the time to learn new skills and tools," says Erik Sherman, a journalist and author who has written for The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and USA Weekend. If you're thinking only about tomorrow, he says, you'll forever be stuck in a rut. "You have to start looking farther ahead. Take a class in video or audio editing. Volunteer at a community radio or video station to get hands-on time. Try putting together your own videos and put them on You-Tube to hone your skills and maybe even start developing an audience."

You don't always have to be skilled at all of these added elements, but it's a good idea to pitch them. Start offering complete packages to your editors, which can include multimedia aspects like photo slide shows, videos or graphic elements, and ask whom you might work with to integrate them into your stories. Many editors will pay you more simply for coming up with these ideas. Start learning, though -- more and more, freelancers are being asked to provide full packages. If you can, you're gold.

"On one hand, it's all storytelling," Sherman says. "On the other, the ways in which you tell stories change significantly."

Check out new media projects.

Because the old markets seem to be drying up, a lot of new media projects have come up, either as new companies or as entirely different approaches to journalism. Whether or not you decide to write for them, it's in your interest to make note of them and see where they end up.

Consider the fact that there's little to lose. I recently pitched a story to a new Web site, http://Spot.Us, which is experimenting with a "crowd-funding" concept -- asking users what they want to read and having them donate to the story.

Global Post (http://www.globalpost.com), another new media venture, hires reporters around the world and pays them a monthly retainer. And then there are the many blog networks that need writers constantly.

The negatives to getting involved with these projects can be that they're still in the testing phase. But if they take off and you walked in at the ground level, that can be very beneficial. I'd recommend looking at the various new projects that are out there, seeing where your work and vision might be the best fit, and taking a bet on them.

Pitch the online editions and editors of the nationals.

Because the traditional print story is very different in format and style than the typical online story, and because publishers want to offer fresh content to their online readers, it's not uncommon for magazines and newspapers to have online-only content or sections.

While there are a few, such as The Christian Science Monitor, that have taken most of their operation online, for now at least, publications are keeping their print editions as well as putting original content online. What does this mean for you? Added opportunity.

Here's the interesting part: Most of these publications have separate editors and departments dealing with online content. While there will be an overlap in editors and often, discussions about content, the assigning editor for online is likely to be a different person than the assigning editor for the print version. So pitch the online editors!

As with the online dailies, the work you do for the online editions of magazines and newspapers is typically done faster, edited quicker, and posted online within days, if not hours. That means, of course, that it pays less. For newspapers and news magazines, you can expect anything from $150 a day and up, but for magazines, try negotiating a per-word rate.

Write the blogs of the nationals.

In addition to taking their articles online, magazines and newspapers are finally joining the ranks of bloggers. Almost all major magazines are now adding blogs to their Web sites, sometimes by editors, but mostly by freelancers who specialize in certain subjects. The most popular topics so far include health, relationship advice and personal finance. Even The New York Times has blogs. Who says you can't write for one?

"Blogs are really where it's at right now," says Jane Boursaw, a freelancer for 25 years. She blogs for AOL's http://TVSquad.com, has blogged for http://People.com, and teaches an online blogging class.

"I still write some feature stories for consumer print magazines, but that portion of my income has dropped off in the past few years, mainly because magazines -- the ones that are still around -- are using more in-house writers and assigning less. It's easier to get a blogging gig on a magazine's Web site than a feature story in their print magazine."

How do you do it? Boursaw recommends starting your own blog first to get a feel for it, learn the ins and outs, and then start applying for jobs on writers' and bloggers' job boards.

If you do it right, become known as an expert in a certain area, and develop a following, it's quite possible editors will find you, not the other way around.

As for income, Boursaw says, "Blogging can definitely supplement a writer's income, and even replace it, if that's what you want." Like anything else in the industry, rates vary greatly, but, Boursaw says, a friend of hers earns $1,200 a month blogging three times a week for a consumer magazine on a topic she specializes in, parenting. Some blogs pay per post -- anywhere from $5 to $300.

Apply for grants, fellowships and other opportunities.

When I was living in India in 2007, working on social injustice and human-rights issues, I found an African media group that wanted journalists from around the globe to go report on child labor in Ghana. I spent two months working in the capital city, Accra. In the meantime, I'd applied for a visiting scholar position at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism -- and received it.

Freelancers often get lost in the querying and submission process and fail to look at other options. Grants and fellowships are available to writers for specific projects, for travel, and even to cover certain beats.

"I think of a grant as permission to go research and write an article that I want to write, but have not necessarily been able to find an editor to give me that paying assignment," says freelance writer Yvonne Pesquera.

To find grants, she suggests looking at nonprofit groups. But you won't find them all on Google. "Their Web presence isn't necessarily the strongest or best," Pesquera says, and notes that writers need to do legwork -- talk to your librarian, make some calls to local foundations, ask around, do it the old-fashioned way. Subscribe to the free Funds for Writers newsletter (http://www.fundsforwriters.com) as a jumping point. Also, check out local ethnic, veterans and alumni groups. There's free money to be had, and all you need to do is look for it.

Since she has diversified as a writer, Pesquera says, not all her writing pursuits are journalistic. "I use some of my time for short-story writing, essay writing, poetry, and to work on my novel. As we writers are painfully aware, that is, by and large, unpaid time. A grant makes it paid time."

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