An aspiring freelance writer recently sent me an e-mail to ask if it is advisable to jump into the adventurous waters of freelance writing. I thought it best to share my answers with all of you since his questions are the usual concerns posed by a newbie freelance writer, as I once was.

One of the usual questions I get when I tell others that I write for international publications is how I get paid.

Well, here are the main ways you get to be remunerated once your article is accepted:

Now that you’ve got the job and have come to an agreement with the editor regarding your feature article’s angle (how the article is to be written), and the business side -– payment, etc., it’s now time to do the interviews which will provide the material for your feature article.

At last, after sending your article proposal to a number of international publications, you finally get a yes! One of the publications’ editors e-mails a reply, and tells you that they love your feature idea.

Now what? What do you say to the editor? What are the things you have to keep in mind when negotiating with her? Well, as a guide, I made a checklist of the things to consider once your article query is accepted.

Publication rates

So now you’ve found an international publication where you can pitch your freelance writing idea. How do you write that query letter, or that article proposal to the editor?

Say, after looking for a freelance writing idea, you already came upon one, a topic which would make for a very interesting feature article. How do you go about finding a publication to propose or pitch it to? Well, there are lots of ways of finding publications, or writing markets as they are called. But for our purposes for this article, we’ll discuss finding a publication when you already have an idea.

Basically, there are three ways of looking for writing markets online.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that ideas are everywhere. Once you start writing for dollars, you'll get a sixth sense, as it were. Call it a freelance writing radar or antenna, its function is to enable you to easily spot a story when you run into one. This article is about honing this particular ability.

So where does one get ideas?

I’m re-printing below, a slightly revised version of an article which got featured in WritersWeekly.com as a Success Story, round four years back (December 17, 2002 to be exact) when I had just started freelance writing. It’s my personal reply to the question, “How do I know if I’m really meant to be a writer?” It can even be applied to the perennial question, “How do I know my real purpose in life?”

What a time to be a writer! There are so many opportunities to make money off your main skill – writing, of course – that all you have to do is choose. And one of the hot items on the freelance writing menu right now is blogging. Although it entails a lot of work and patience, earning from blogging is entirely doable.