Although most of my freelance writing clients are as honest as they come, I have had some run-ins in the past. Unfortunately, this is part of the business. If there were not dishonest clients in every industry, it would be much easier for companies to succeed. But as you can imagine, this is never going to change.
Just recently, I rehashed a dishonest freelance writing client from the past. For me, this was a very unique situation, and one that is quite perplexing to say the least.
Back in mid-2006, I contacted a client that I regularly worked with at my past job. They are a web design and hosting company, so I figured they may have some freelance writing work available. Since I had always worked with them in the past, and they seemed to be honest, no bad vibes ever crossed my mind.
After working on my first project for them, the project manager got back to me and said that their client had put the job on hold for the time being. While this can be frustrating, it had nothing to do with me. Nothing until they told me that I would not be paid because their client disappeared. Since we agreed on a price of $450 for the entire project, I was angry and disappointed at the same time. After all, this is a decent chunk of change for any freelancer.
For a couple of weeks I kept in touch with the client, but eventually gave up. Not because I didn’t want the money, but because they simply did not want to pay. At the time, I chalked it up as a mistake, and figured that I had learnt my lesson.
Fast forward to last month. On a whim, I checked the website that I wrote the copy for a year and a half prior. And guess what? My copy was being used on almost every page of the site. As you can imagine, this infuriated me to no end. Not only did they refuse to pay me upon completion as discussed, but when they decided to use my content, they did not have the decency to get in touch and offer payment.
After calming down, I sent a quick email to my contact at the company. Luckily, he still works there. A couple days later he responded stating that he would look into my claim. Since they did not use all of my content, I received an email this morning asking, “What is your rate per word?†While I understand that they do not want to pay for the entire job, this time I am not going to let things go quite as easy as the first time. It was one thing when they duped me out of payment, but to use my words for who knows how long without paying is unacceptable.
As you can see, there are dishonest clients out there. While it is impossible to avoid them all, try to learn from my story. Even if you think that you know somebody, you can never assume that they will treat you right.
There are two ways that you can look at the work and people you deal with in your freelance writing career. You can strive to find projects, or you can strive to find clients. Do you know the difference? Do you know which one is better? Simply put, your goal should be to find clients. The difference is that a client comes back to you time after time. While there is nothing wrong with a one time project, it will not help you to sustain your freelance writing income in the long run.
Here are several things that you can do to help build long term relationships with freelance writing clients:
1. Instead of only working with small time webmasters, seek out larger, more established companies as well. They are often times the clients who need your help on a regular basis. This does not mean that you should turn down small clients, but you need to consider what they can offer you over the long haul.
2. While a professional relationship is important, you will want to get personal as well. Call your clients on the phone from time to time, or email them to talk about something unrelated to work. For instance, do you know that one of your clients is a big football fan? If so, send them a quick note after their favorite team wins a big game. This can go a long way in building a long term relationship on both a personal and professional level.
3. Always remember that your freelance writing clients are in charge. Sure, you are doing work for them, but in the end they have the final say on every detail. They can decide to quit working with you for any reason or no reason at all. Never give a client any unnecessary reason to stop calling you. For example, you may think that being rude to a secretary or assistant is no big deal, but if your main contact finds out, it could be the end of your relationship.
These three tips will help you to cultivate long term relationships with all of your freelance writing clients. While some clients are not looking for long term help, this is something that you should always have in mind. The more work that a client sends your way, the busier you will be and the more money you will earn.
With every freelance writing project you accept, you will have to negotiate a deadline with the client. Personally, most of my clients are easy to work with in this area. In other words, they are flexible and willing to work with me to make things as easy as possible. With that being said, I have had some freelance writing clients that are a pain in the neck as far as deadlines are concerned.
Here are five tips that will help you to meet each and every freelance writing deadline.
1. Never agree to take on a new job if you do not think that you will be able to complete it on time. The main culprit of this problem is taking on more work than you can handle. I have done this in the past, and the end result was long work days in order to meet every deadline.
2. Keep a list of every freelance writing deadline that you have. This will help you to keep track of what is due, and when you need to have it to the client. I do this both in paper and electronic form.
3. Try to spread out your deadlines. In other words, if you have five projects lined up, try spreading them out across the course of a week. This is much more manageable than having to finish and send all five projects on the same day.
4. Give yourself enough time to complete your projects so that you are not working your fingers to the bone on deadline day. There is nothing more stressful than having a project due, but not having it done in advance. Finishing work early, if only by a day, will help immensely.
5. Obviously, you will want to plan for the delivery of the project. In today’s day and age this is not too much of a problem because you will more than likely use email to send completed work. But in some cases, you may be forced to use snail mail. If this is the case, you need to factor it into your schedule. After all, it will take a few days for your mail to reach your client.
With these five tips, you should never miss a freelance writing deadline!Â
