My Life as a Freelance Writer

(UPDATE - 21 May 2009: As of now, I have currently stopped the hiring of writers because of some unexpected problems. As much as I wanted to have everyone else to be my writer so that I could extend more earning opportunities for them, I have also promised my current writers to keep the team small so that they could get lots of opportunities to earn as a freelance writer. Rest assured that as I expand in the near future, I'd be hiring new writers so that they too could earn more than what they are earning now from their current jobs.)

This is really it. Finally, I'm having my own business - my own company to be exact. After 3 years of my experience as a freelance writer who is very frustrated with the low salary and compensation, I have finally decided to put up J.D. Lim Creative Solutions.

---

I had first started as a freelance writer for academic papers when I was in first year college. I'm kinda new to the profession but I was brave enough to take on the challenge. Someone had noticed my ad at Sulit, a free classified ads websites. The ad was about me looking for a part time job. Nothing in particular. She had offered me to work with her as a freelance writer for academic papers.

Good thing that my beautiful English teacher in high school, Mrs. Rona Gallego-Sabino, (haha.. full name talaga at may pambobola pa, haha.. :D Well, that's my way of showing how grateful I am to her.) had taught us a few things about MLA academic style of writing and it really worked to my advantage. Kaya salamat po ng marami Ma'am Rona. :)

I earned some during my short stint, I had not encountered any problem but after the last order was done but good thing is that she paid me - unlike the others who would just disappear when the payment time comes.

---

My next stint was a content writer for websites. She is based in Malaysia. Blame it for my stupidity, I had never asked her how she could paid me. I did quite a lot of articles for her and the pay is really low. Nevertheless, even though she hasn't paid me, it gave me lots of experience on how to write website articles for Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

---

But for almost a year I had stopped doing it. Well, it is because of the many problems I had encountered then - which would be the subject of another story.

---

Then after coming out of the storm, I decided to resume my 'career' as a freelance writer. I applied for several freelance writing companies. Some had also seen my ad and offered me to work for them. I accepted them all. But unfortunately, bad things happened.

---

I signed for a quite popular freelance writing site. I saw their ad on a popular blog and I became interested to join. I thought I would be having a great time working for them. But, the opposite had happened.

What really pissed me off is that it would take them a long time before they can actually check your submitted articles. What's more is that they require you to finish it within 24 hours because it is alwayas 'urgently needed'! Yet, it took them weeks before they can actually check it. So is it really urgent? Or they are just forcing their writers to produce more so they could earn more? It is a clear case of exploitation.

Aside from that, their rates are REALLY low. Imagine, 60 pesos for a 500 word article? Your creative juices is just worth 60 pesos! Whereas, later I found out that writers can actually be paid a minimum of 100 pesos per 300 word article! Again, that got into my nerves.

So when they had been able to check my submissions, more than two weeks had gone by. Then, they are returning it to me for revisions! So, I thought it would be right for me to complain about their unfair policy. But then and there, they had terminated me for 'insubordination.'

Anyway, this experience had made me decide to put up a company one day that would value its writers and not treat them as robots - which had been finally realized last Friday.

---

J.D. Lim Creative Solutions Inc. is founded on these core values: I want my writers to feel that they are being valued, their works are well-compensated and give them the best opportunities to enhance their skills as a writer. It is a one-man company that is set to break barriers and norms.

It is a one-man company run by a 19-year old. But he believes that this company would grow and diversify its services and help others find a job and earn for their living.

I just hope, with the aid of that loving Guy from above, things would go well and our team would be able to hurdle all the obstacles awaiting us in this new journey.

---

If you're interested to be with us, please see my ad below.