Residual income reality

I hear a lot of writers refer to residual income when justifying why they write for sites like Suite 101 or Examiner.com. They say that the stories they place on these sites generate revenue indefinitely. That's better, they say, than landing a story for a one-time fee of $20.

Well, there's some truth to that, I suppose. But what if you query and land a story for a one-time fee of $500? How long does it take, say, an article on Suite 101 to generate $500 worth of income? Will that ever happen? I don't know.

If you want a real look at the negatives of sites that promise writers residual income, check out this post at Jennifer Mattern's All Freelance Writing Blog. She breaks down the real numbers far better than I ever could. You might be shocked, and certainly disappointed, at how little money most people ever make writing for residual income sites.

A different kind of content writing

I've written two stories so far for a publisher who, I think, takes my content and provides it to other Web sites, my byline excluded, of course.

I don't care much what happens to the content after I write it. They're not stories that I'd be able to sell anywhere else. One story focused on new trends in fireplaces, and was supposed to be about 400 words. The second focused on eReaders, and was also supposed to be about 400 words.

Neither story required interviews. The only research I did was on Google.

And, even better, the editor is easy to work with. I haven't had to deal with any revisions on either story. That's the way I like to do business.

The money isn't much: I've made $41 from the two stories. But like I said, it's easy work.

I lump this in as content writing because it's fast, simple and kind of ... filler? I'd suggest to any writer who's working for Suite 101 or Examiner.com to find publishers like this, ones who give you a flat fee for short, quick stories. This money, no matter how small, is guaranteed. That's more than I can say for Suite 101, Examiner.com, Triond or Helium, where you never know how much money you're going to earn for a story.

Publishers like this, which I found through the Absolute Write forums' help-wanted section, won't make you rich. But I treat these little projects as filler money. It's appropriate, I think, for what is largely filler work, right?

If you think freelancing is bad, try working for a newspaper

There are days when I hate being a freelance writer. They're the days when my phone doesn't ring, my e-mail messages go unanswered and the mailman delivers me the credit-card bill when I was really hoping for that check from a late-paying publisher.

But then, every time I even contemplate chucking the freelance life, I get a reminder of why working for myself is the best job I've ever had.

A former editor of mine -- my very first, actually, from back when I worked for $13,000 a year at my local community newspaper -- sent me a message. He knows that I sometimes write for the comic-book industry, and he wanted to know if the publisher I work with needed any writers. Turns out, my former editor was on an unpaid one-week furlough from the newspaper chain for which he works as an editorial page editor.

Yes, my former editor is nervous. With the state of the newspaper industry -- with solid papers like the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Seattle Post Intelligencer failing -- he's worried that he'll soon be out of a job. He's already survived one round of staff firings this winter. He's not sure he'll escape a second round.

So, yes, freelancing can be a tough go. And, yes, there are times when you wonder where your next month's payments will come from. But no matter how bad it gets, at least you're in control. You can scour the Internet, hit the phones, pester former editors and do everything it takes to find work. You can try online writing options for the first time. You can create blogs, equip them with Adsense and hope they take off. You can submit stories to places like Triond or Suite 101 in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they'll generate at least some spending cash.

People who work full time at newspapers and magazines can do all this, too, of course. But if they don't already have that freelancer's risk-taking spirit, they might not diversify their writing lives until they're already out of work and desperate for a paycheck.

So next time your 18-month-old son wakes up 45 minutes early from his nap -- as mine is doing now -- remember, it could be worse: You could be getting a pink slip from your boss this morning.