Freelance Writing

As you probably know, I believe very strongly in getting paid a certain percentage of a project’s price before getting started. This is not something that you have to do with established clients, but for first time jobs, you definitely want to look into this. But just like anything else concerning payment, there are some potential problems with receiving prepayment. Personally, I have encountered two issues in the past on several occasions.

1. What is your plan if you receive prepayment, but the client does not like what you turn in? You have two options if this is the case. 1. You can work with the client until they accept your work. 2. You can refund the money, and part ways. The problem with number two is that you may have already spent or transferred the money that the client prepaid. To avoid this issue, make sure that you always have enough money in your PayPal account to cover refunds. Although refunds are few and far between, you still want to be prepared if this situation comes up.

2. Many clients confuse prepayment for full payment. You need to be 100 percent clear in the wording that you use. If you are asking for prepayment for the entire cost of the project, that is fine. But if you are only asking for 50 percent, you need to make sure that the client knows this. There is nothing worse than sending an invoice for the remainder of the payment, just to have the client say that they already sent the whole thing. To avoid this, make sure you and the client are on the same page.

Remember, this is not to say that you should avoid prepayment. But it does mean that you should be careful about what you are doing. Yes, prepayment is a good thing, but only if you do it right.

One of the most exciting times of my freelance writing career was day one. Although that was many years ago, I can still remember some of the tasks that I completed. In my opinion, the way that you start your freelance writing career will have a lot to do with the success that you achieve later on. Additionally, if you get off to a good start there is a much better chance that you will stick with this career choice for the long haul.

So what should you do on day one of your freelance writing career? Just like so many things within this industry, the answer to this question is based on opinion. In other words, the things that I did on day one may not suit your career. But at the same time, maybe they will.

Here are three general things that you will definitely want to take care of during your first day on the job:

1. Make sure that you are organized. There is nothing worse than having to stop what you are doing because your details and paperwork are not in order. Since you probably won’t have a lot of work to complete on day one, you might as well get organized.

2. Do you have a business and marketing plan? If not, this is a great day one task. You may not think that a freelance writer needs these plans, but nothing could be further from the truth. With a business and marketing plan in hand, you will have a track to follow as each day goes by.

3. Spend some time learning about the freelance writing industry. This can be done by reading posts on popular message boards such as Absolute Write or Digital Point, or by simply perusing freelance writing websites. Just remember one thing: you do not want to spend hours on end researching and learning what others are doing. While this is a big part of a successful freelance writing career, you need to make sure that you are putting time into building your own business as well.

Just like any career, your first day as a freelance writer will be full of unexpected twists and turns. If you have no idea where to start, the three general tasks above should keep you busy on day one.

In the past, I have talked a bit about how to market your services, find new clients, etc. Although I have never been one to use cold emailing in my freelance writing career, many readers have told me that I should give it a try. Personally, I have always thought that cold calling was a much better way to find clients. But since I have never given the email method a try, my assumption is a bit premature.

My main concern with cold emailing is that the recipient will think that I am nothing more than a spammer. Not only do I hate to find spam in my inbox, but it really slows me down due to the high volume of emails that I receive. How do some of you guys and gals get around this? Or don’t you worry if your recipient thinks of your mail as spam? Personally, the best way I can think to avoid this is to personalize the message as much as possible, including the subject line.

Over the next few weeks I am going to give cold emailing a try. If it works to my advantage, I will surely add it to my current marketing mix. On the other hand, if it is a complete failure or people begin to show displeasure with my unsolicited mail, I’ll back off.

In the meantime, if anybody has tips on how to achieve maximum success with cold emailing, leave a comment or send me a quick email. I promise I won’t call you a spammer! 

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could keep all of the money that we earn from freelance writing? While this is a nice dream, it will never happen. Taxes are a way of life, and you need to come to grips with this. Believe it or not, many people think that they can hide their freelance writing income from the IRS. This is not something that you want to try; unless you want to get into a lot of trouble that is.

There are two types of freelance writing careers: full-time or part-time. The way that you treat your writing will depend on how you proceed with paying taxes. Obviously, both ways have their own set of complications. For this reason, I suggest that you see a tax professional when it is time to file your year end return. Additionally, they can also help you set up quarterly tax payments both on the federal and state level. Remember, there is no employer to withhold taxes, so you are responsible for sending in the appropriate payment four times per year.

As you may know from experience, it is always nice to get a tax rebate as opposed to owing more money to the IRS. Of course, not everybody is this lucky. Even if you stay on top of your quarterly payments, you may not do enough to garner a rebate. Luckily, as you get used to your freelance writing income, you will be able to make the necessary adjustments.

Dealing with taxes month in and month out is one of the biggest drawbacks of being self-employed. While this may not bother some people, I see it as a drain on my time. Although it can be annoying, I know that it is something I must do if I want to work for myself. After all, being in charge of my own taxes is much better than working for somebody else!

Since signing up for the online edition of Writer’s Market, I have had access to thousands of publications that accept work from freelance writers. While I usually send out three or so queries per week, my acceptance rate has not been very high as of late. It can be disappointing to get turned down, but you need to keep one thing in mind: this is not a direct slam against you or your work. In many cases a publication may have enough freelance work for the time being, or your idea may have been covered in the recent past.

When a publication turns you down, it is important that you do not forget about them in the future. I have two folders on my computer. One is full of publications that I have worked with, and the other with those who turned me down in the past. While I always stay in touch with past clients, I do the same with those who told me no. Just because they did not like my idea a few months back does not mean that this will hold true in the future. And in many cases, the editor will send back a note telling me to query again in a few months. If you get this sort of open invitation, it is very important to take advantage of it.

It would be easy to get down on yourself when you receive rejection after rejection. This week alone I have received three emails from publications that I queried. Two of them told me that they recently covered my idea, and the other I am still speaking with. One out of three is not great, but I’ll take it. Would it be easy to get frustrated over this? For sure. I have gone through long draughts in the past where everybody seems to say no. But when I finally land an assignment after those rough times, it feels great!

Wouldn’t it be nice if every query letter resulted in a new job? Sure it would. But this is not realistic. The way that you deal with rejections is an important aspect of your freelance writing career. Do not let this get you down.

As a freelance writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about what clients want. After all, giving clients what they want is the name of the game. Not only does this help you to pick up the initial project, but when you deliver what is asked of you, your chances of more work increases exponentially.

If I were hiring a freelance writer, there are three things that I would consider.

1. What type of experience does the writer have? If I was hiring somebody to compose a sales letter, obviously I would want a writer who has done this type of work in the past. This is not to say that the writer with the most experience would get the job, but it is always nice to know what you are getting to a certain extent.

2. To go along with number one, samples are a must. When I apply for a job or query a publication, samples usually come into play. Sure, there are rare circumstances when samples are not required, but it is not common. Just as I always send out my best samples, I would expect writers that I was hiring to do the same.

3. Communication is essential in the proper and timely completion of any freelance writing project. Personally, I always make myself available to each and every one of my clients. Not only do they know that they can reach me via email, but I always slip in my phone number just in case they want to talk in real time. It is always nice to be able to speak about the progress of a project, bumps in the road, changes, etc.

Over the past few years I have hired a few freelance writers by keeping the above considerations in mind. All but once I achieved a high level of success. The one time that I failed I ended up with a writer who was too pushy. She slacked on the deadline, but then wanted paid within five minutes of completing the job. Of course, I wanted to check over the work before sending payment.

Within the next month or so I am going to be searching for a freelance writer to team up with on a new project. By using the tips above, I am confident that I will find the right person for the job!

In today’s day and age, the most common way for freelance writers to communicate with clients is via email. Personally, I usually receive in excess of 25 emails per day. To go along with this, I send out just as many myself. This is not to say that I never use the phone or meet with clients in person, but these methods of communication are not nearly as common.

When sending email to clients, there are several tips that you will want to keep in mind.

1. Your subject should be clear and concise. Remember, you do not want the recipient to think that your email is spam. If you are not clear with your subject, this can and will happen. I like to use my name and a short blurb in the subject line. For instance “Your Name, Blog Project.” This will ensure that the client knows who the message is from, as well as what it is about.

2. You know your clients better than anybody else. If they usually respond with short emails, it probably means that they are busy. For this reason, you should get to the point as quickly as possible. This way you know that the client read your message, and that you did not take up too much of their time.

3. Just because you are using email does not mean that you should forget about etiquette. For instance, you never want to use curse words when communicating via email. Many people think that this goes without saying, but you would be surprised by how many emails I receive that are laced with curse words. Simply put, show respect to the recipient. You never know when your words will be misconstrued. Believe it or not, offending a client in an email could lead to them terminating your work.

As you can see, you need to put time into each email that you send. Follow the three tips above, and also make sure that you proofread your email before hitting the send button. Remember, once an email is sent, there is no getting it back.

Have you ever asked yourself why you became a freelance writer? If you cannot answer this question, there is a chance that you are not happy with your career. After all, you got into this line of work for a reason, right? Personally, there are several reasons that I decided to join the wonderful world of freelance writing. Here are just a few of them:

1. I love writing! I received my college degree in journalism, and even though it took me a while to get involved after graduation, I was always thinking about it. If something keeps coming to mind time after time, it is safe to say that you should find out why.

2. Even though I was always told that working as a freelance writer was a low paying job, I never really believed it. After all, there are many who are earning a freelance writing income in excess of $100k. I may not make that much money, but it sure beats sitting in a cubicle and working for somebody else.

3. I like to work independently, and call my own shots. This is not to say that I try to avoid others, but the flexibility of working on my own is definitely a huge draw of being a freelance writer. I get to set my own schedule, work at my own pace, and control my income to a certain extent. If you work in the corporate world, you are well aware that taking orders is a part of life.

The above are three reasons why I became a freelance writer. Of course, there are many other benefits of this career such as making friends with clients and colleagues, the opportunity to learn, and the chance to expand into other areas of business.

If you are thinking about becoming a freelance writer, decide why this is the career choice for you. It is much better to consider the pros and cons of this career before starting, rather than getting involved just to find that you made the wrong choice. 

If you use forums such as Digital Point to find freelance writing work, make sure that you watch out for scams. This is not to say that every buyer is a scammer, but there are quite a few that are. While I have written about this in the past, I never supplied any samples of “scam emails/private messages.” Well, this time things are different.

Check out this private message that I received at Digital Point last week:

We need over 300 Articles for our website,

But as a sample, we would like to have 1 article supplied to us for its validation, before work is given for whole 300 articles bunch.

We require an American Native, to write it and not an Englishman, as it will be targeted to Americans.

The topic of Sample article to be supplied is -

” Experian credit report ”

It should pass copy space, and have 800 - 1000 words.

If the article is passed by us, you will get order of whole 300 articles together. So we want an American Native to do this work for us.

You can read reference article to know what kind of work we are looking for :

Reference article -

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=787093

Work to be completed in less then 24 hours for this just 1 article, and rest full 300 bunch can take upto 1 month or less by you.

Reply me fast with your msn and sample article on topic above, so we can deal over.

Upon receiving this, I knew immediately that it was a scam. Not only did it read like a scam, but I noticed that the sender also forwarded the same message to four other writers. This is a common ploy in which the scammer asks for one free sample in exchange for bulk work in the future. Of course, they simply take the samples from each writer who falls prey, and then use those on their website or blog. In the end, they get solid content without paying a dime.

In order to keep things going, I sent a quick reply and waited. Sure enough, the scammer sent another private message. This time it said:

Hello

As mentioned, sample article will be checked so that we can provide you 300 article work.
We can maximum pay $ 1900 for the work, 60 % advance , rest after work.

But for that your sample has to be approved by us, which should be -

The topic of Sample article to be supplied is -

” Experian credit report ”

It should pass copy space, and have 800 - 1000 words in american tone.

So send me sample article fast, as i am already counting on few people and will send advance to one who is fast.

Sample article is not included in 300 articles job, it is JUST SAMPLE work from you for us.

Thank You

As you can see, there are quite a few dishonest people lurking around these forums. And unfortunately, they are not just on forums. These scammers will also send you emails, and many times get the nerve to call on the phone.

To avoid being duped, make sure that you are very careful about any job you accept. And of course, never complete any work unless you get paid first! 

Many freelance writers need to learn how to open their mouth. This does not mean that you should be rude to clients or overpower them, but you should know when is the right time to ask for you what you need. Remember, just because you are working for somebody else does not mean that you should be expected to know everything.

Here are five times when you must speak up as a freelance writer.

1. Before you start a project, speak up and ask for a down payment. You may want to ask for 50 percent of the total payment or any other percentage that suits your business. But no matter what, make sure that you do this. If you are too shy, it could end up costing you in the end.

2. Always ask for instructions that you can understand. Some freelance writing clients throw projects together, and hope that you can pick up the pieces and do everything correct. Instead of guessing, you need to know exactly what the client is asking for. And in many cases, the only way to do this is to open your mouth.

3. Ask for help if you need it. How many times have you been working on a freelance writing project just to get stuck? If you are like me, the answer is plenty. There are times when you are going to need clarification on a particular detail. If you don’t ask, you could end up taking the wrong direction and being forced to backtrack later on.

4. If a client is slow paying you, don’t feel like you have to wait any longer. This is not to say that you should bug your clients, but if the deal was payment within 15 days of publication, you have every right to ask if this is not adhered to. When reminding a client that they owe you money, make sure you are careful not to come across as pushy.

5. Ask for more work. Through my experiences, too many freelance writers are afraid to do this. When you finish one project, there is nothing wrong with asking for another. You may be told that there is nothing to do, and that is fine. As long as the client knows that you are willing and able, you have done all that you can for the time being.

When the above five circumstances come into play, make sure that you speak up!