How to Make Money Online as a Freelance Writer – Beyond Writing for Clients

September 22, 2009

If you’re a regular reader of my articles, blogs, websites, etc. you’ve probably read where I discuss making passive income online as a freelance writer. I’ve been doing it – in earnest – since January of this year and on some weeks, my “passive” income exceeds what I make writing for clients.

What do I sell online? Mostly I sell my ebooks and a few affiliate products that teach newbies how to make money online.

Note: Passive is in quotation marks because I do put some marketing muscle into it; it’s not automatic money. But, the effort I put in pays much more dividends than say what I make writing for clients.

This is a real comfort mentally because I don’t rely so heavily on client projects to make a living. In fact, I really don’t do any real marketing anymore as an SEO copywriter. I take what comes my way, but the majority of my time is spent promoting my own products and other affiliate products.

Today, I want to discuss a couple of the tools I use to do this.

How I Make $100-$150/Day Promoting Affiliate Products Using FREE Classified Ads

Forever a fan of free and low-cost methods, I stumbled across the free classified ad site Backpage.com while I was promoting an affiliate product. I got such great results from it that I started using it almost exclusively.

Then, I ran across a software that allowed me to post more ads quicker using this site. So, I bought it and used it. It has allowed me to keep my income the same, but cut down on the amount of time I spend placing ads (which to be honest, can be a real drag).

You can learn more about how I use the free classified ad site backpage.com to make money.

Putting My Free Classified Ad Marketing on Steroids: The Classified Connection

One day while surfing for new products to promote on Clickbank, I ran across the free classified ad posting software, The Classified Connection. I was intrigued because I knew that posting ads on free classified ad sites worked from my experience with Backpage.

Make Money Placing Free Classified Ads Online

Make Money Placing Free Classified Ads Online

But instead of placing hundreds of ads, this software allows you to place thousands, in minutes. I tested the demo, which made it seem so easy.

So even though it was a little pricey, I thought, let me buy it so I can really see what my results will be. FYI, when you buy a product from Clickbank, you have a 60-day window to return it, so I knew it was “risk free.”

I bought The Classified Connection software on September 8th. A couple of days later, I finally revved up my brain to open it and place some ads. I say this because most technology befuddles me. I hate learning new software programs it always takes me a few days to gear up my brain to learn  something new.

The Classified Connection Software: A Review – The Specifics

Once you know what you’re doing, the software is easy to use. But, you do have to figure out some things for yourself. I don’t know why but many software developers can’t give clear instructions to save their lives. This program really could use a straightforward Step 1; Step 2; Step 3 instructional guide. More on this later.

But again, once you know what you’re doing, it literally does place thousands of ads on hundreds of sites in less than 5 minutes.

It takes about 10 minutes to key in an ad (less if you pre-write and cut/paste them), then you hit the submit button and it shows you exactly where and how many ads it’s submitting in real time.

THEN, after the program finishes running, it generates a report that tells you how many sites accepted and rejected your ad. And, you can click on the site to see your ad – the proof that it got published.

FYI, you have to check the sites soon after you place your ads because they disappear pretty quickly from the first page (because many others are placing ads as well).

What I Don’t Like About The Classified Connection Software

1. Unclear “How to Use” Instructions: As I mentioned above, it could use some detailed instructions on how to go about using it. Because I’m computer literate and can figure out most things, I was able to figure some things out that weren’t patently obvious.

If you’re online a lot, you will be too.

2. Ad Delay: Sometimes, there’s a delay when you place your ads. For example, one night around 10, I placed some ads, but couldn’t find them. I looked for like half an hour, then gave up. But, when I logged on the next day, I found them.

I don’t know if it’s a system delay or a delay by the classified ads sites themselves but so far, every time I’ve placed ads, I’ve been able to find them sooner or later.

3. The Inability to Save Different Ads: You can’t save different profiles in this software. What I mean by this is, every time you go to place an ad, you have to rekey it in if you’re placing different ones.

This is important to know because you can’t place the same ad more than once every 7 days. The last ad you keyed in will always be there, but if you’re placing ads more than this, you need to put in a different ad (even if it’s for the same product).

All of these are minor things when you consider the advantages of this software, ie . . .

What I Like About The Classified Connection Software

1. It’s Quick! The software says you can “. . .  eliminate thousands of hours of manual work and expose millions of internet users to your products within minutes (emphasis added). And it’s so true.

2. Promote Multiple Products: You can promote as many products as you want using this software. To do this, simply create different profiles (you’ll see what I mean if you try the demo or buy it) and you’re off and running. So far, I’ve used it to promote 4 products.

Again, the time consuming part is creating/writing the ads for each product.

3. Works Internationally: The Backpage free classified ad posting software only works from the U.S. and Canada. For example, I can’t post to the site from Jamaica, where I am now. I’ve been able to use The Classified Connection software from here with no problems.

Making Money with Free Classified Ads: Conclusion

I want to conclude this post with two final observations:  

Spend Money to Make Money: I started making more money online when I started spending money on tools that allowed me to work smarter, not harder. I still do a lot of what I think is “stupid stuff,” because I am notoriously frugal I (years of living a “feast or famine” existence as a freelance writer, I’m afraid).

But when you invest in something that really works, you’re like, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” I’m starting to loosen my purse strings a bit, especially once I have proof that something works.

Not Everything on the Net is a Scam: I’ve received quite a few emails about the backpage ad posting software along the lines of “Does it really work?” or “Can I make money promoting this product?”

What I believe underlies a lot of these types of questions is fear that “it really can’t be that easy to make money online;” it must be a scam. Well I’m here to tell you, it IS that easy, especially if you know the “secret tools of the trade.”

I no longer turn my nose up at ads that say, “Make $500/day doing X, Y or Z.” I know, because I’ve hit this mark several times – and come close to it many more times – and I’m still a newbie to internet marketing.

Now, I’m still very skeptical of outrageous claims of making say, $50,000 a week. But you know, this probably has more to do with my skeptical nature and the limitations I place on myself than the claims of “known” gurus.

The reason “known” is in quotation marks is because if you do your research, you can always find out who is legit, and who isn’t online.  

I stumbled onto making money placing ads on free classified ad sites – and boy I’m glad I did. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I want to do now that I know this is a system that works.

I hope this provides some insight into how you can get a sideline, passive income going as a freelance writer.

A Note about Affiliate Marketing: A lot of success in affiliate marketing depends on the product or service you’re promoting. No matter which techniques you use, if the market is too small for a particular product/service, or the product/service is no good, or  you’re a terrible ad writer, then you’re not going to make sales. A lot of it is trial and error, so if the first product doesn’t work, try something else. The key is to keep testing until you do find a product that does sell. 

Along these lines, in a future post I’ll give some ideas about WHAT I think sells online – and why.

P.S.: Want to train for a recession-proof freelance writing career? Get the FREE Report, Learn SEO: 6 Reasons SEO Copywriting Is the Ideal High-Paying, Work-from-Home, Recession-Proof Career (pdf file).

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Related Posts

How to Make Money Placing Ads on Free Classified Ad Sites
Freelance Writers: How to Use Technology to Make Real Money Online

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