Starting a freelance writing career can be full of fun and optimism. But unfortunately, a lot of people who start a career in freelance writing give it up sooner rather than later. While some people are not cut out for this industry from the start, others make too many bad decisions to stay on track until they reach success.
Here are three of the most common reasons for freelance writing failure. Avoid these situations, and you will better your chance of making it with this career.
1. Not knowing what you are getting into is a huge mistake. Guess what? There is more to freelance writing than actually producing content. Many aspiring writers think that they will simply secure some clients at national publications, write a few feature articles a month, and live the work at home dream. Could this happen? Yes, but only after you put time into building your career. When these goals do not come to fruition within a month or so, these misguided freelance writers often times hang up their boots.
2. They forget that marketing is a huge part of success for any business. You may have great writing skills, but to use them you need to let others know that you are available. Just as you will have a plan for starting your writing career, have a marketing plan in place as well.
3. Simply put, giving up too early will lead to failure every time. If you are going to be a full-time freelance writer you need to stick with your dreams through the rough times. I have said time after time that I only made $50-some my first month. Giving up would have been easy, but heading back to a 9-5 corporate job would have been a nightmare. If you truly want a career in freelance writing, do not give up. Continue to work at your writing and marketing until you breakthrough to the other side.
Do you have what it takes to avoid these common reasons for freelance writing failure?
It is very important for freelance writers and internet entrepreneurs alike to set up multiple streams of income. While the way you do this is different depending on your career, it is an important detail to look into nonetheless.
As a freelance writer, there are two ways of looking at multiple streams of income. First off, you should do so within your writing career. As a general rule of thumb, you do not want to have one or two clients making up the majority of your income. This may never turn into a problem for you, but what would happen if that one client no longer needed your service? It is ideal to have several clients accounting for your income. This way, if you lose one client you only lose a portion of your income; not the entire business.
Another way to look at the subject of multiple streams of income has to do with diversifying into other fields; most commonly, blogging. Managing a blog that makes some money is a great way to supplement your freelance writing income. This way, you can have two separate money making streams working for you at the same time.
Other streams of income for freelance writers include editing, proofreading, and design among many others. Do any of those fit in with your current knowledge base?
Remember, if you are a freelance writer you do not want to entirely neglect your core competency. But with that being said, if you have the chance and time to set up multiple streams of income, you should definitely consider doing so.
Doesn’t the title say it all? Asking freelance writing clients for a raise can be a touchy subject. Doing this is every bit as difficult as marching into your boss’s office and telling him or her that you need more money. Not only does it take guts, but you must also deal with the fact that you will be told no. To go along with this, you may aggravate your freelance writing clients by doing this, and in turn push them away. As you can see, this is a delicate situation to say the least.
With that being said, you deserve a hike in pay from time to time. After all, you cannot expect to work for the same rates year after year. If you do, you will find your income staying the same, but the economy passing you by.
So how do you go about asking your freelance writing clients for a raise? I have not had to do this often, but do have some advice from the times that I did. Before I get to that advice, let me first say that you may get lucky in the way that your client may offer to pay you more. Yes, this is rare, but it has happened to me with clients that I have a long history with.
Follow these three tips if you are going to ask a freelance writing client for a raise.
1. Like most freelance writers, you will probably ask for a rate hike via email. Make sure that you are careful about the way you word your message. You want to ask for more money, but at the same time you need to make sure your message does not come across as bossy or snippy.
2. Back up your request with some details. Furthermore, touch on how much of an increase you are looking for, as well as why you deserve it. For instance, you may have a client that pays you $.10/word for one feature article per month. You could ask for $.15/word, and explain that you deserve the increase because you have been working with them for several months, etc.
3. Do NOT make threats. Many freelance writers make the mistake of saying something such as: “I enjoy writing for your company, but will have to move on if my pay rate does not increase.†It is safe to say that your client may take this as a threat of sorts. Again, you need to be careful with the way that you word your correspondence.
As you can see, asking a freelance writing client for a raise is doable. You may not get the answer you want, but if done tastefully, it usually doesn’t hurt to ask.
