I want to revisit this topic because it has been brought up to me via email a couple times this week. The question is: can anybody be a freelance writer? Some people say yes while others say no way. In my opinion, becoming a freelance writer is way more difficult than most people believe. There are some who think that being a freelance writer is nothing more than throwing together a blog, heading to the Digital Point forums, and landing some clients. Even though you can find low paying clients this way, it is not the path you want to take if you are truly interested in becoming a professional freelance writer.
There are three reasons why I feel not everybody can achieve success as a freelance writer:
1. Writing skills. Most people either have this skill or they don’t. Sure, you can learn how to become a better writer with a lot of practice. But through the years I have found that you are either good at writing or you are not. If you do not have writing skills you cannot become a successful freelance writer. Clients pay good money for quality content. Can you offer this?
2. Marketing. If you are going to become a top notch freelance writer you have to market your services. Again, there is more to landing clients than forums and bidding sites. You have to become skilled at marketing your services in a variety of ways including cold calls, cold emails, query letters, and more. Revisit my post on freelance writing marketing for more information on this.Â
3. Courage. It is not easy to jump into the freelance writing game. If you quit your 9 – 5 to become a freelance writer you are giving up the security of a regular paycheck. While you are getting a lot in return, such as the potential to earn more money, you need the courage to take the leap.
If you want to become a freelance writer I strongly encourage you to research the industry before getting started. Courageous individuals with writing and marketing skills may be perfect for a career as a freelance writer. Those who do not meet these criteria should think long and hard before getting started. Freelance writing success does not always come easy. Â
As a freelance writer you probably don’t have too many face-to-face meetings with clients or those who are thinking about working with you. But at some point in time you will have to meet a client in person to discuss a new project, an additional business venture, etc.
I do not meet clients in person very often. That being said, I am in the middle of setting up a meeting with a potential client for late next week. Since I have done so before I am not too worried about the meeting or what will go along with it. There are some freelance writers who don’t feel the same way. They are used to communicating strictly via email, and really stress when it comes time to meet somebody in person.
Here are three tips to follow when meeting a client face-to-face for the first time:
1. Dress to impress. You never know what the other person will be wearing, but you can make sure you look your best. Unless the client specifically tells you not to wear a suit you should. Yes, you may be overdressed but this is much better than being underdressed.
2. Take everything you will need. Only you know what materials you will need to have a successful meeting. This can include anything from your portfolio to references to resumes. You might as well take everything you may need just to be on the safe side.
3. Verify the time and place. The worst thing that could happen is showing up late or at the wrong place for your meeting. Be sure to double check this with the other party several days in advance.
Believe it or not, meeting people in person can be a lot of fun. Those who are nervous about this can benefit from the three tips above.
Just like any career, it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes a successful freelance writer. There are some people who have loads of success without following the traditional path. There are others who never earn as much as they would like even though they are doing everything right in their mind. There is one thing you do not want to forget: the definition of the word success. Until you know what success means to you, it is difficult to determine whether or not you have reached your goals.
I judge success in many ways. Of course, the way I do this is not right or wrong; it is just my opinion. The most important thing to me is that I enjoy my job. When I worked as a sales manager everyday was full of disgust and boredom. Sure, there was an occasional good time, but for the most part I hated my job. Fortunately, the moment I began work as a freelance writer I realized that I was onto something good. If you do not enjoy being a freelance writer you are going to have a hard time achieving any sort of success.
What about money? Most people, including me, consider money to be an important factor in determining success. You should be proud of what you earn, but this is not something to obsess over. Not every freelance writer is going to earn the same amount of money. You may consider $1k/month a huge success. Others want to earn much more than this. As long as you set goals it is easy to chart your successes and failures.
As a freelance writer you decide what constitutes success. Just like every aspect of your career, you are in total control.
The ability to stay organized is one of my best traits. In my opinion, every freelance writer needs to be organized if they are going to reach their goals. One thing you do not want to overlook is the importance of being ready when your day starts. You don’t want to spend the better part of your morning getting settled, determining what you have to do, and dealing with other similar details.
I have found that the best way to hit the ground running is to have a to-do list. If I know what needs done it is easy to move from one task to the next. There used to be a time when I did not use to-do lists. Instead, I would work directly from my email account. Soon enough I realized that this was not the best idea from an organizational point of view. As soon as I made some changes, such as using a daily to-do list, my productivity increased.
It is also essential to be ready to work from the moment you sit down at your desk in the morning. You do not want to waste any time. I always write my to-do list the night before so I can get to work without having to scour my emails account to decide what needs done first.
This may sound so simple that it is not even worth your time. But trust me, there are many freelance writers out there who struggle mightily because they have a difficult time staying organized. They don’t know what projects need completed, when they are due, or what order to work in. In turn, the result is lost time, missed deadlines, and angry clients.
Being ready to work when your day starts can go a long way in helping you become a more efficient freelance writer.
Even though it can be hard, if you work for yourself you still need to take time off when you get the chance. Many freelance writers, me included, do not like to be away from their work for too long. There is nothing wrong with loving what you do, but at some point in time you have to realize that a vacation is more than necessary at times. This leads to the question of whether or not you should tell clients when you are going to be away from your office.
Do your clients really need to know? This is the question that you really need to answer. If there is a client you speak with everyday it is probably a good idea to let them know that you will not be around. This way they know what is going on, and will not think you are avoiding them for one reason or the next.
On the other hand, if you do not talk to a given client regularly there is really no point in letting them know about your time off. As long as you stay on top of things and get them the proper work on time, you don’t have much to worry about.
As you can see, you need to handle this on a case by case basis. Of course, a lot of your answers will be based on how much time you are taking off. One day away from the office is much different than 10 days. If at all possible, attempt to stay connected during your time off. I know a lot of people don’t like to work on their vacation, but checking emails and voice messages for a few minutes per day can do wonders.
What is right for me in this department may not be right for you, and vice versa. Be sure to carefully consider how you will handle this situation.
The easiest way to land more work and make more money is to rely on the clients you already have. Of course, this is easier said than done. Some clients will always send more work your way, and others will seem to come and go.
Here are three good times to ask clients for more work:
1. Immediately following a job well done. Why send the completed project to your client without asking for more work? This doesn’t make sense. In the same email that you send your work you should ask for another job. If you did a good job, and the client needs more content, chances are that you will have another gig waiting for you in the days to come.
2. When you know you are needed. If you get the feeling that a client needs your help you should tell them more about what you offer. For example, a client may not call on you for a sales letter because they think you only write keyword articles. Let your clients know about everything you can do for them, and then stay in touch as much as possible. If a client needs content and receives an email from you, a professional writer, there is a good chance that they will ask you to get started.
3. Have you ever been working on a project for a client when you get a great idea that could help them achieve even more success? You need to share your ideas with clients. You may be writing a blog post when an idea for new website content comes to mind. The worst thing that can happen is the client saying “thanks but no thanks.†You never know when a suggestion will turn into more work. And since you were the mastermind behind the suggestion the client will see you as a more valuable part of their team.
If you are not receiving regular work from your current clients try to implement the three suggestions listed above.
As a freelance writer you probably spend the majority of your day writing. This makes perfect sense. But at the same time, being a successful freelance writer means obtaining new clients as often as possible. Anytime that you don’t have much going on during work hours you should think about how you can market yourself. Over the years I have found that downtime is perfect marketing time.
When do you have downtime during the day? This depends on the schedule that you are used to working. I usually have some time in the afternoon to make phone calls, send emails, and look into other methods of generating new clients. That being said, I know many freelance writers who do their marketing in the morning. Fortunately, it doesn’t really matter when you are marketing your services as long as you are doing so in a manner that helps you better your career.
Instead of spending all your downtime checking emails and browsing the internet you should get busy with marketing your services. Believe it or not, you can get quite a bit done in 30 to 60 minutes. It doesn’t take too long to make a group of cold calls or to write a query letter for a publication you are dying to break into. If you complete just one marketing task during your downtime you will feel as if you made major progress; especially if your action results in a new client.
To better your chance of freelance writing success you should spend a lot of your downtime during the workday marketing your services.Â
Lately, a lot of people have been asking for my advice on getting paid for their work. It seems that more and more freelance writers are completing work for “so-called clients†but never getting paid. I am a big believer in asking for payment upfront. This protects you from those who want to take your hard work and run. This leads to the question: will clients really pay upfront?
There is no denying that when you receive upfront payment that the client is going out on a limb. After all, they don’t know if you are going to take the money and never send the work. This is what can make asking to be paid upfront so difficult. Of course, this is something you definitely need to talk about no matter how you or the client feels.
Finding a happy medium for the first project can often times be the best option. For instance, you can ask for half payment. This helps to ensure that you are getting some money for your work without asking the client to put out the entire amount. Additionally, I have found that most clients that pay half upfront will immediately send the remaining balance upon delivery of the completed project.
You will never know if a client will pay upfront until you ask. This is something that I do with every new client. When they pay upfront once they usually do so from that point on. After one project they trust me to deliver, so they have no reason not to send the money from the get-go.
Not every client will want to send 100 percent of your payment before receiving the work. You should be ready to negotiate. As long as you receive at least 50 percent of the agreed upon price you should be happy.Â
Hey all! I am hoping that some (or all) of you can help me with a contest I have been keeping my eye on. This doesn’t have anything to do with freelance writing, but with one post already up today I figured it would be okay.
A good friend of mine, Zack Fettig, is in the running to be the ESPN Radio Army Athlete of the Week. At this time he only has 20.7 percent of the votes and needs to make up some ground before Thursday of this week.
One of the biggest benefits of working for yourself is the way you can adjust your work schedule. You can work all nights one week and all days the next. This sort of flexibility is not something that you will find in a more traditional position. In my opinion, the flexibility to adjust your work schedule when necessary is one of the biggest benefits of being a freelance writer.
I am one of those people who like to stay on the same schedule as much as possible. This helps me to be most efficient while also ensuring that I am on the right track day in and day out. That being said, I am never afraid to adjust my schedule. For instance, if I need to leave the office in the afternoon I get up early so I still work the same number of hours. I don’t have to ask for permission, or worry that somebody is going to get upset about my new schedule. Again, this is usually not the case when working a traditional 9 to 5 job.
Like many new freelance writers, at the beginning of my career I was afraid to adjust my schedule. I wanted to work the same long hours everyday of the week. This worked fine, but I was missing out on the flexibility of being a freelance writer. You don’t have to work a different schedule everyday, but make sure you are taking advantage of the flexibility that is in front of you. It is a big benefit, and one that you don’t want to forget about.
There is nothing wrong with having a basic idea of when you are going to do your work. Just remember that you can tweak your work schedule from time to time to meet other requirements in your life. Flexibility and freelance writing go together hand in hand!Â
