As a freelance writer the last thing you want to do is waste a lot of time. It is important to stay busy, no matter what hours you are working. If you continue to waste time you will find it difficult to pace yourself, while completing all of the necessary work.
Here are three time wasters that all freelance writers need to avoid:
1. Personal conversations. When you work at home this is a big problem. In addition to in person conversations, beware of too many phone calls, text messages, and emails. The more time you spend speaking with friends and family the less work you are going to get done.
2. Too many breaks. I am the first one to admit that taking breaks throughout the day is very important. That being said, you have to be careful that you do not go overboard. At times, you may find yourself slacking off. Do you have what it takes to pull yourself together and get back on track?
3. Checking your email too often. As a freelance writer you need to stay in touch with clients via email and phone. That being said, you don’t want to waste a lot of time everyday checking your email. Believe it or not, many people stalk their account and check for new emails several times per hour. You should realize just how much time you are wasting when you do this.
The three time wasters above are very common. As a freelance writer you should do what you can to avoid them. By doing so you will find that you are much more efficient in terms of how you spend your time.
Starting out as a freelance writer can be frustrating for many reasons. Many find themselves in the difficult spot of needing samples to gain new clients, but not having any because they are just getting started. In this situation, it is easy for you to spin your wheels day in and day out. This leads to one very important question: should I write for free?
There are many arguments for and against this. Rather than attempt to sway you in one direction or the next, I am going to lay out a few facts and let you decide on your own.
Let’s start with the negatives. When you write for free you are not getting paid. Obviously, if you are trying to support yourself as a freelance writer this does not bode well.
Another detail to consider is the time that you will spend writing for free. The more time you spend writing for free the less time you have to work on paid gigs. Along with this, you are also cutting time out of your day that you could be spending on marketing.
On the plus side, writing for free will put more samples in your portfolio. With these, it will be easier to land gigs in the near future.
Additionally, writing for free is a great way to improve your skills. Since you are not getting paid, your main focus should be listening to the client and making sure that you give them what they want. Learn as much as you can about the writer-client relationship as you complete these free jobs.
I could go on and on about why you should or should not write for free. But rather than do that, I will leave you with the information above. If you have a stance on this subject, feel free to leave a comment.
This is a subject that comes up time and time again. Should I spend time speaking with freelance writing clients on the phone? While I have no problem with this, others would much rather use email the majority of the time. No matter where you stand on this subject, one thing is for sure: if you have a client phone call scheduled you need to be 100 percent prepared for anything that may come your way.
Here are three steps I always take to ensure that I am prepared:
1. What does the client want to talk about? The more you know before the call the easier it is to prepare yourself. If you can ask questions of the client via email, go for it. This will put you in position to better prepare yourself, and allow the call to go more smoothly.
2. Be ready to take notes. No matter if I am taking notes on my computer or on a piece of paper, I have something in front of me while the client is speaking. The longer a call goes on the more chance there is that you will forget some of the details. I make it a habit of writing down as much as I can, without losing focus of what the client is saying.
3. Have questions of your own. It is easy to get so caught up listening that you forget to ask your own questions. This has happened to me many times in the past. For this reason, I always write down any potential questions in advance. This way, I can take notes and mark them off as the conversation moves forward.
Even though this is a topic that I have discussed before, it is one that many of you continue to ask about. Hopefully this helps to clear the air, and give you a better idea of how to prepare for client phone calls.
