Crystal: Well, I use the written word as a tool to help my clients reach their goals and get their message across. I do this in several ways – I can write advertising copy, I can provide content for websites, I can blog on a client’s behalf, I can ghostwrite under the client’s name, or I can polish something that the client has written themselves. The term freelancer simply means I’m not on their regular payroll.

Crystal: Not necessarily. Some of my clients pay me once a week or once a month for regular work. But I’m not an employee in the sense that I don’t get benefits and I don’t have to sit in a specific client’s office to work. I’m flexible, I can work from home, and I’m allowed to work with several clients at once. You can’t really do that when you’re an in-house writer or editor.

TMA: How did you get into freelancing?

Crystal: When I left my editing job in Tanzania, I had a few leads for new work, but they fell through. I didn't really want to be employed, so I got some part time office work with a former employer and tried to get other writing jobs. I talked to the people at Like Chapaa and they advised me on freelancing. I was already blogging on four different sites including my own, so they helped me get a domain and suggested other sites where I could look for writing work.

Crystal: Not too well a first. The website was a strong presence, especially since I’ve been blogging since 2007. I already had an online persona, and I’d won a BBC Award and published my first novel. It meant I wasn’t a novice. I had a kiosk on my site to market my e- books, but the website was a passive market, so it didn't bring in much business.

Crystal: I had the part time office work, which I did until 2.00 p.m. every day. I also got projects from my two former bosses. The projects were erratic, but they paid quite well, so I could get by. After a while, I stopped the part time job and went into freelancing full time. I got accounts on www.freelancer.com and www.elance.com.

Crystal: I was lucky. I opened both accounts in July then ignored them for a while. I’m a perfectionist, so I never want to try stuff out until I’m completely sure that I know what I’m doing. Unfortunately, that means I procrastinate a lot. I was afraid of failing and making a fool of myself. In August, I finally made my first bid on GAF (Freelancer) and I won my first job within minutes. I went on Elance and won 4 jobs the first time I tried, so I was pretty excited.

Crystal: Most jobs are keyword related. You’re given a word or phrase and asked to write 200 or 350 or even 600 words on it, depending on the client. You could get a phrase like ‘golden key chains’ or ‘Black Mamba Mountain Bike’ and be asked to write 100 words. Instructions vary. You could be told to use the phrase in the first and last paragraph, or to use it five times. Sometimes you’re told how many paragraphs to write, and how to start and end them. Other jobs include rewrites, where you take a passage that’s already online and reproduce it in your own words, while keeping the same number of paragraphs. You can also get product reviews where you have to write 225 words about lasagne in a bottle or a Nokia tablet or something. Other jobs are more fun. I was once told to write an essay about my imaginary boyfriend, and I often write about Legos, Barbie dolls, and Ben 10.

Crystal: It varies. Keyword articles and rewrites usually pay between $1 and $5 per article, sometimes less. They’re tricky because sometimes you have to do 75 articles in two days, and that can get taxing after a while. Other times you get a single project that pays $500 for a week’s work. After a while, you learn to bid on the jobs that pay more. But it’s a gamble, and the low paying jobs are much easier to get. You can end up working 24-7 if you’re not careful, especially if you get a job that asks for 300 or even 500 articles in 5 days. It’s easy to get overwhelmed because you can’t just say no to a paying customer.

Crystal: A lot of online clients like to use Paypal, but we can’t make Paypal withdrawals in Kenya. You can use Moneybookers, or you can have the money wired directly into your bank account. You should always confirm the payment method before you start working. When I started, it took over a month to get my first payment, and even then I had to try three different methods and eventually siphon it through a friend in the UK and receive in via Western Union. There are always fine prints, so look for them and save yourself the hassle.

Crystal: Hardly. I got lucky, and it cost me. I soon had too much work to keep up with and I started to miss deadlines. I ended up having to cancel jobs, and once I had finished my backlog and started bidding on new jobs, the bubble had burst. I sometimes went for weeks and even months without winning a new bid.

Crystal: I had to look for other alternatives, and I ended up back in employment. Funnily enough, once the pressure was off, I started writing a lot more, and it was easier to meet deadlines. I’m a lot more productive now that it’s a side hustle.

Crystal: I do some ghostwriting on two local blogs. I got one through a friend’s recommendation and another through a random conversation on Twitter. I’d like to get some more local clients since the work is consistent there’s no exchange rate to worry about.

Crystal: I didn’t find this out until it was almost too late, since most of my work came to me by default. Cold calling is a good place to start. Find a company that could benefit from a blog and offer to start one for them. Find a piece that is badly written and improve it so the client can see what you’re capable of. Talk to people on Twitter. You’d be surprised how much business you can get simply by broadening your network. But don’t spam people with links and adverts. Talk to them as human beings and they’ll be far more likely to engage your professional services. For sites like Elance, the only way to get more work is to make more bids. Don’t give up, and don’t be afraid to try. I get lots of calls and emails from people asking me for tips, tricks, and training. There’s no secret to working with online freelance sites. Just find a legitimate one, log on, and start bidding. It’s what I did, and it turned out okay.

Crystal: I love setting y own hours and working from home. Many people say hustling makes you your own boss, but that’s not really true. In some ways, it’s more tricky than employment because you end up with several different bosses instead of just one.

Crystal: Cash flow was an issue. You could get six jobs in one day and then go six weeks without any work at all. You need a lot of juggling skills to get past the dry spells. You also need discipline. People say you can only work when you want to, but it isn't like that. It isn't like a salary. With a hustle, you don’t work – you don’t eat, literally.

Crystal: Be patient. It takes a while to pick up, sometimes months, sometimes years, so be prepared to keep at it. And always have a backup plan. You need some way to pay the bills when a client ducks or a deal falls through. I’ve had three cases where I did work for clients then they disappeared on payday, so always have backup. Also, be polite. Ridiculously polite. You’d be surprised how a normal statement can sound rude and off-putting on chat or email, so use lots of ‘Please’, ‘May I’, and ‘Thank you’, and whenever you can, keep it Skype.

You can follow Crystal on Twitter as @aka3cb and see more of her great work on Three Cee Bee