The great thing about this evolution is that, if you pay attention, you will get to know yourself better. You’ll understand what you want out of your career, your life and your talents. You will see which gigs, people and processes are holding you back and which are drawing you forward into the next stage of your career. You will see a new destination for yourself on the horizon, and you’ll find all the signposts and guides that will help get you there—just as you did at the beginning of your career, before you evolved for the first time.

I talk about evolution because I have evolved several times over the past few years. From a newbie reporter who didn’t know that web writing was a viable career, to a content mill writer who thought that mills were the way and the light, to a writer who fashioned a great career out of a specialty and wanted to share her experience with the freelance writing world.

But now I’m in the middle of a whole new evolution. Like all others, this evolution has been gradual and though I felt something happening in the back of my mind… I wasn’t exactly sure what it was until a new frame of mind clicked into place. After that, some of the things I was doing—things that I had been doing for a while and had no real reason to stop doing—didn’t feel right anymore. One of those things was (and is) my involvement in the freelance writing community. Don’t get me wrong, I love the community and I have made many good friends over the years, but I realize now that I’ve been focusing my attention too much on other writers—when they have nothing to do with the success of my career. In fact, I’d venture to say that I’ve gotten successful in spite of the time I’ve sunk into the community rather than because of it.

So, readers, I want to thank you for reading all the posts I’ve had here on AllFreelanceWriting.com during the past year. I’ve enjoyed trying out different content mills for you and stirring up thought and emotion with my contrarian postings. Is this a forever good bye? Who knows, I’m much too capricious to ever assume that anything I do is forever, and I couldn’t begin to guess where I’ll need to be after my next evolution. But I do know that with a new year on the horizon and my perception of myself as a business person so completely changed from this time last year, I need to focus on other things. Because I understand now that this career is mine and I really can do anything with it—just like many of you can with yours. This may be the first time that I’ve actually realized that at all levels and not just in a general sense; the first time that I’ve felt like I was driving the car, not just reading the map and suggesting a direction; the first time I’ve felt such complete control and optimism, and I want to channel it and spend it where it’ll do me the most good.

I wish you all tremendous luck with your own evolutions and hope you have the courage not to ignore them.

This compels writers embrace all sorts of different ways to market their business both aggressively and passively. Some examples include:

• Guest posting on blogs targeted to their niche
• Cold calling
• Cold emailing
• SEOing their portfolio
• Social Networking
• Creating a newsletter

Now, I’m personally on-board with all of the above mentioned ideas except for one—the dreaded newsletter.

Like other ‘lancers, I briefly considered having a newsletter. Before I sunk any time into the endeavor, I decided to field test the idea. I sent out a survey to all my current and former clients as well as some leads and asked if they’d be interested in a newsletter that talked about financial industry stuff and gave some writing tips.

Guess what? Most of them didn’t respond to my survey.

You might not find this to be a definitive answer to the question I was asking, but I did. If they aren’t going to respond to my one-time survey (which takes all of two-seconds), what makes me think they are going to read my monthly or quarterly newsletter, which takes several minutes?

Further supporting my line of reasoning (something I try to do as often as possible) I thought about my own stance on the newsletters of other professionals.  I don’t want a newsletter from that one graphic artist whose website I stopped by, or that cool but pricey CPA I was considering hiring, or that one gym I thought I might join. I do not want to read any of their newsletters, all drenched in the cloying scent of, PICK ME.

Those of you who already have a newsletter are probably rolling your eyes at my stupidity and short-sightedness and if your newsletter is actually working, then hells-to-the-yeah you should be. If your newsletter brings in dollars—dollars that are equal to or exceed the amount you would be paid if you were working on a client project instead of your newsletter each month—then you rock.

But remember, it’s all about the bottom line. Don’t fall so in love with your newsletter, your idea, or your effort that you forget it’s about gaining money—not losing time.

A lot of people straddle the fence on this topic to avoid pissing off their friends and mentors. They say, “Oh, there is no single right answer.” Or, “Well, you have to do what’s best for you.”

Screw that, I’m going to tell you the truth here and risk the wrath of those who disagree:

Being a specialty (or niche) writer is the best idea on the entire planet. Generalist writers are seriously missing out and making a huge mistake.

Oh man, it felt good to get that off my chest.

Big Fish, Small Pond

If you are competing for writing gigs against countless other generalist writers, you’re either getting clients through luck of the draw or bidding wars during which you are volunteering to be the lowest paid underling in the pool. A potential client cannot possibly try to evaluate all qualified generalist writers for his/her gig and is probably not going to fall in love with a particular writer who has written little or nothing on the subject of the project–and without love, you get a smaller payday.

It’s also pretty hard to do a Google search for a writer of a certain topic and just happen upon a generalist writer with that particular topic listed on their site so that it even shows up in Google search results.

Section summary: Needle, please meet the haystack. Okay, now hop on in there.

What are You Going to SELL?

Your marketing is not targeted when you are a generalist writer. You’re busy trying to throw your business card at every Tom, Dick and Joe without actually being able to even really sell your ability to THEM. Sure, you can write like nobody’s business, but your knowledge about Eames era antiques is completely limited—and Tom, Dick and Joe want an expert for their online antique store.

But wait! You are soooo willing to learn! You can research the hell out of any subject! Anything a specialist can do, you can do better!

Sorry, that is just not going to sell most people who put their lives into their career and their work (which, by the way, is their specialty).

What you might end up with, however, is low-paying clients who aren’t truly invested in their reputation, career and website. The kind of client who has a ton of random websites on Cricket because the keywords pay well through Adsense. Not clients who cherish their knowledgeable writers, who pay well and who want you to bolster their presence and reputation.

Section summary: What you don’t know can hurt your wallet.

Throw the Pie at the Specialist

There are specialists in every niche. As a generalist writer, how will you compete against them? How will you make a client choose you over one of them? A cheaper price? The fact that you’ve never left a participle to dangle? The uber-impressive ability to use affect and effect correctly without consulting the dictionary multiple times to ensure you’ve gotten it right? (Okay, I am actually impressed by this, but sarcasm works much better here than high praise.)

Well first of all, specialist writers have these abilities too–and sometimes, if they don’t, the mastery that they have over a subject is much more valuable to clients than grammar prowess. Also, editors can always be hired to supplement that.

Section summary: Dance off with the specialists in order to win clients but be warned–specialists can pop and lock.

Before You Beat Me in the Face, Read This

There are a lot of ways you can specialize, and not all of them mean you have to pick one subject to write about exclusively. You can choose a broad subject with many angles like business or marketing, or a finite topic with a super-focused range, like personal taxes or corporate law. And a specialty or niche doesn’t have to be a topic; article writer, SEO writer, journalist, blogger—all of these can be used as a specialty hook too. The point is it’s a hook for your marketing. It’s a way to define your target client, master your niche, refine your pitch, create irrefutable value, show up in a Google search, command higher rates for a verifiable reason and create a more successful freelance writing career.

With all of this being said, it’s not impossible to make a career out of being a generalist–and it’s also not impossible to win the lottery, but you aren’t exactly making that your retirement plan. If you have a successful career as a generalist and you’ve built a network of clients who refer you to others, congratulations! If you are a newer, struggling writer or an older, struggling writer who happens to be a generalist–switch to a specialty and I bet you’ll see improvement.

Okay specialists and generalists—comment below. I’m ready for your sound and your fury :) Special thanks to @vcmcguire for the topic suggestion.

This made me start thinking about how many writers (including myself) have tried to get into the social networking business as a way to expand our services and gain more clients along with crisp, stinky dollars.

The problem with this trend of freelance writers as social networking savants is that not all of them are good at it. In fact, some of them (and I’m not necessarily excluding myself here) downright suck.

You may be able to write an amazing article in your genre but that talent does not necessarily translate into social networking savvy and personally, I think many of the writers could actually be hurting their client’s chances for social media success.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve known several writers who’ve transitioned to social networking with amazing results. Mostly because they understand that they need to build community, conversation and trust for the brand they represent. But some writers I’ve spoken to think that just being able to write witty Tweets and hit the “follow” button mean they are media mavens. This is not so.

Take a minute to read this blog post by social media strategist Amber Naslund. I’m not an expert, but her article brings up many important points that I think freelance writers are forgetting when they attempt to add this service to their roster.

Remember, true social networking for a client means a lot more than just building up a Twitter following and sending a few Tweets after you write a blog post. Social networking requires that you step into the role of brand representative completely and that you tweak your style to meet the needs of the brand, that you start the right conversations with the right people, and that you are experienced enough to know who those “right people” are for the brand. It also means that you have a plan for community building that is multi-faceted and created with the goal of building business, trust, and community support.

Great spelling is not your only goal.

Instead, they decided to opt out of the interview and write a piece of their own discussing this article, as well as some of the other articles that have attacked them recently.

After reading their response and stabbing myself repeatedly in the eye as I did (it’s an automatic response to Demand Media, I can’t help it), I thought I’d go over a couple of things that they wrote which really annoyed me.

1.In their response, they state:

“While many of you took the time to weigh in on the conversations around the Web, one particular comment that referred to writers who have a “complete disregard for the craft and the reader” struck a nerve because, in spite of what people are writing about us, all of us here at Demand Media and the vast majority of you, do care about the writing craft and for the reader. The editorial rigor and process for creating content is just part of the equation; the other important piece is the pride in what we do and pride in the articles you touch.”

Here’s the thing—the, “all of us” bit about caring about the craft of writing and the reader doesn’t ring true. First of all, many DM writers have spoken about how quickly they rush through assignments, “cramming” work in to a short time period and doing just enough research to “sound credible,” etc. (be sure to read the comments of the linked articles to see these comments by DM writers). If DM actually cared about this startling trend they would pay their writers and copy editors more so that they could devote the time necessary to develop articles that are executed with care. I know you need a decent sized profit margin to go buy super expensive vacation homes on undiscovered islands and stuff (or whatever it is that rich people do with their moolah), but don’t argue with every single self-confessed uncaring DM writer by saying the equivalent of, “Nuh-uh, we care about quality” and then continue to pay an amount of money per article that says you really don’t care about quality. Your writers are saying they don’t care. Stop denying that this is a problem and do something about it.

2. In their response, they state:

“We are not a robotic organization that’s only concerned about numbers and data. We are a media company. We work together to tell stories. As the Dean of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television Teri Schwartz said, “Story is the driver. It’s the timeless classic, universal piece that binds us all together.””

C’mon folks, we’re smarter than that. They have an algorithm that determines what people are going to search for and they make sure that they can create quick content to answer that search request. They do this so they can make money—they have already said that they create the pieces based on the potential money around them.

When I wrote for them a couple of years ago, they had a disturbing number of articles to be written on anal bleeding. If they really were a media company, all folksy and wantin’ ta tell stories and stuff, I don’t think they would have needed hundreds of “stories” about writers’ whose asses started spontaneously bleeding. Instead, they knew that the bloody ass How-To articles would result in sweet, sweet adsense links to possible real solutions for this problem which the readers would click and, by doing so, deliver dollars to Demand.

3. In their response, they state:

“Tonight, I will read my new issues of the New Yorker and Texas Monthly that showed up in my mailbox and that I look to for inspiration.”

Oh come on. The New Yorker and Texas Monthly use human effort for inspriation on stories. They want to appeal to a target audience with articles that bring solutions, information and entertainment relevant to that audience. They use human brain cells to create twists and new ways of looking at topics. They do not use algorithms to create topics that will take over the entire reading audience of the internet.

4. The last thing they said that really put me over the top was this:

“We know that when we’re being criticized, you’re being criticized as well.  It’s a fight worth fighting and we’re not daunted.”

Um, excuse me? What is this, like trying to manufacture Stockholm Syndrome in your writers? I’m not saying there hasn’t ever been criticism of Demand writers, there has—and many articles that have done so have over-generalized and been unfair. But when an article criticizes a model or a pay scale that doesn’t mean the writers are being criticized. Even if it includes quotes from writers who admit to writing poorly. It is criticizing the model for creating an environment in which writers feel that is their only choice.

Of course, playing the victim is one thing but stacking the deck against your critics is another. Many sites, including this one, have gone out of their way NOT to criticize DM writers. But, even when doing so, Demand company ambassadors and fans go and round up the troops to attack anyone who speaks negatively about the company or to respond to requests for input about the company and create a manufactured influx of “happy experience” letters and comments. They do so by posting links to negative articles in the Demand Media forums—which is also what happened with the comments on the PBS piece.

The reality of the situation is this: Some people like Demand Media. Some people don’t. Some people like their model. Some people don’t. Some people think it’s ruining the web. Some people don’t. And some people haven’t even heard of the company (oh how I wish I was them).

Personally, I’m starting to think of Demand Media as the corporate equivalent of Sarah Palin. Too much hubris, faulty logic, flip-flopping stories and marketing attempts and in the long run, unimportant and forgettable if we simply stop talking about them. Which is what we at All Freelance Writing are going to do.

It’s like the Speidi thing—notice how they got divorced when people stopped talking about them? So we at AFW pledge to stop talking about Demand Media.

Starting…

NOW!

What commandments do you work by?

As someone equipped with a vagina and a delicate and feminine constitution, I’d like to say hogwash—so I will. I’m not saying that individual instances of gender discrimination don’t happen—of course they do. And I bet some writers are occasionally discriminated against because of their race, religion or nationality too. But that doesn’t mean its an industry-wide epidemic, although that is how it’s sometimes discussed.

If you want to get your panties (or boxers) all in a wad about the discrimination you face daily, then maybe we should talk about ALL the discrimination that we face and—let’s be honest here—we might be guilty of ourselves. Here are some personal and professional distinctions that are often causes of discrimination against freelance writers but that are not spoken of as often or as vehemently as this supposedly wide-spread gender discrimination is.

Education level: Do U halve college degree? If not U 2 stoopid to right for a living. Or are you? I know many successful and talented freelance writers who don’t have college degrees and I’m proud to add myself to their ranks. A degree is a fine accomplishment and can create a more intelligent and intellectually enriched person, but it is not a golden ticket to awesome writerville. If you have a college degree, you may still suck. You might be less experienced, less intuitive and vastly more sucky than someone who doesn’t have a degree. Likewise, no matter your gender, you might be more sucky than your competition.

Writing work: Magazine writers are more legit than web writers. Web writers who write for big, national companies are more professional than those who don’t. Article writers are closer to “real writers” than blog writers. Any writer is more successful than a content mill writer. Please, tell me you haven’t heard some of these before and then show me what rock you’ve been building your home under. Having poor business sense, a different dream, different talents or different goals for your personal career does not mean you are not as much a “real writer” as someone who seems to want loftier things. Loftier isn’t always better, it’s just different and usually has a ladder. If you write and you get paid then you are a writer. Does that mean others want to emulate your career or that you are definitely making all the best choices? No, of course not. But you are a writer. It is skill, voice and talent that make a better writer, not business savvy. And it is business savvy that make a successful business person, not writing skill.

Rates: I charge less than you so I’m a poor schlub. You charge less than me so I’m obviously a better writer than you. I negotiate over the phone with clients for fun and you stutter through client conversations staring at the phone like a scared rabbit, so you suck. Give me a break. Those who charge more than you are not necessarily better—maybe they just have bigger balls, or maybe they are better, or maybe they suck. Those who charge less than you aren’t the scourge of the earth, maybe they just have a normal sized ego, or maybe they suck, or maybe they are scared. Who the hell cares? Get over yourself and stop trying to decide how awesome you are based on how awesome others aren’t.

Popularity and name recognition: Yes, yes, I know—popular freelance writing bloggers wouldn’t be popular if their advice wasn’t worth its weight in gold. They are also better than you with your tiny little do-nothing blog.

“Guest post on a blog with only 20 hits a day? Ha—never. Allow a lowly blogger with few comments to interview me? You wish. I am a popular blogger. I am known on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and social networking sites you and your lowly blog have never heard of. I will not bend to you. I will not condescend to speak to you like a human at conferences, I will not answer your emails, I will not acknowledge that you might know more than I do about a certain topic. I spit in your general direction. Why? Because I was picked on in high school and now’s my chance to get some revenge. I’m at the senior table beyotch, now step off.”

Every single person in the freelance writing world probably has something of value to share. Some of them get lucky and have a popular blog. Some of them are grimly determined to be successful and they create business plans for blog popularity. Some have really awesome voices that help them stand out organically. That doesn’t mean they are better than anyone else though, just more “known.” It also doesn’t mean they are right.

Now it’s your turn to share. Where have you seen some discrimination? Are you guilty of it too? It’s okay, we all are to some extent—and as long as we’re all willing to admit it (even if we don’t know how to fix it) at least we’re doing something.

1. Freelancer writers are rebels: Rebelling against God got Satan thrown out of heaven and into his own domain—known as Hell. Rebelling against a traditional workplace got us all thrown out of the office and into the driver’s seat of our own business, which really does sometimes feel like Hell. No, not often, but you know as well as I do that there are days… . Like Satan, we are natural born rebels—albeit slightly less evil ones.
2. Freelance writers tempt everyone with the apples of success, independence and no dress codes: Freelancers are temptation personified. With our free-wheeling schedule, our independent attitude and our total control over our destinies we paint a damn fine picture of life and that tempts everyone around us. And as if our tempting lives weren’t enough, we all spend extra time developing blogs and e-books that encourage others to go for the freelancing lifestyle. Evil boys and girls, just plain evil. And don’t even get me started on the evil temptation work completed by you freelance copywriters. Now that’s just wrong.
3. Freelance writers can take human or animal form: Okay, maybe not literally, but have you ever heard the cat-like noises I make when a client doesn’t pay me on time? I snarl, hiss, screech and I swear my teeth grow a little longer and pointier. When clients are nice and give good feedback, we all practically purr. And when we market ourselves, we become stubborn bulls. There are all kinds of animal shapes we take each day.
4. Freelance writers possess others: As ghostwriters we spend much of our days taking the form of other humans. We may not possess their bodies, but we sure do take on a little piece of their soul and attempt to sound like them in our writing.
5. Freelance writers work magic: Satan can do lots of really cool (although evil) things with magic manipulation. You and I might not cast spells or recite lyrics to Black Sabbath songs while stirring up some eye of newt, but we do wonderful things with words in very short periods of time. That, my friends, is magic.
6. People worship us: Oh, c’mon. Tell me you haven’t gotten an email, Twitter message, LinkedIn note, blog comment or Facebook wall post from a new freelancer who thinks that you are a God. Sure this worship is based on only knowing what you present to the world and hiding the fact that you have to feast on Ramen noodles when you are between clients, but it is worship nonetheless. These folks want to glom on to our alternative lifestyle the same way Satan worshipers want to glom on to Satan.
7. We take souls in exchange for money and power: Stop for a second and think about what you do all day. You create an image for someone, through articles, blog posts, press releases and more. And with that image, your client gains two things: Money and Power. Just like that you are giving a person the keys to his favorite kingdom. Now, you don’t actually take his soul in exchange, but if he loses his soul as he becomes richer and more powerful, you are at least partly to blame.
8. Freelance writers hate to be exorcised: Um… actually we hate exErcising, but isn’t it kinda the same thing? Anyway, we choose a sedentary way of life. We read, research, study and write, all while sitting on our collective behinds. Oh, and don’t leave a bunch of comments about how you loooove to exercise or I’ll throw eye of newt in your eye. I’m betting the majority of you would rather read a book than walk on a treadmill.

There you have it, petite princes and princesses of darkness. You have a lot in common with Satan, so keep that in mind as you go out into the world and try to use all your powers for good… unless someone pays you enough not to. Mwahahahahahahahaha!

This week I thought I’d share my goal categories with you to hopefully help you understand all the different goal subsets you could be utilizing in order to ensure a full and satisfied personal and business life.

Career goals: Career goals define those places you would like to take your career over the years. They generally revolve around a job function, title or professional accomplishment you are aiming for and might need licenses, degrees or a high level of experience in order to achieve. Some examples might include working your way up to become a managing editor, becoming a novelist, or writing a book of essays.

Business goals: Believe it or not, as a freelance writer, you have a business and the goal of your business is different than the career goals you may have. Business goals deal directly with the growth and progression of your business as a whole, and not just your actual career track. When you are attempting to determine the goals for your business, you might ask yourself the following questions:

• How would you like to see your business grow?
• How much money would you like to make?
• How much would you like your business to be able to contribute to your retirement plan?
• Would you like to expand your employee base or service offerings?

Daily goals: Your daily goals are those things that you must get done each day in order to stay in business, work toward your career goals and keep your clients happy. This covers the individual articles you have due, interviews you must complete, blog posts waiting for edits, marketing duties and any other daily tasks on your calendar.

Income goals: Income goals define what you what to get out of your business and career financially. These are strictly related to earning and will rely heavily on the amount of money you need to make when you first establish them. Eventually, you will set goals that reflect the amount of money you would like to make instead of defaulting to what you need to make. Income goals can even be segmented between the goals you have for the income of your business versus the goals you have for an individual aspect of your career.

Personal goals: Personal goals are those matters of personal growth and accomplishment you’d like to achieve through your career and business. They may be philanthropic in nature and relate to educating others, donating your time or sponsoring charitable events; or they may be related to your own personal growth and how you can encourage it through learning to express yourself through your work, stand up for yourself and improve organizational and other skills. Your personal goals may also be financial and directly related to the income goals of your business.

Remember, when setting your goals be sure to own them. This is your business and your career; you must set those goals that work for you and keep your professional and personal life moving forward.

The Rates of Other Writers

So right now you should be honestly assessing your skill compared to other freelance writers in your niche, and assessing the quirks you bring to the table—your voice, experience, knowledge, etc. All of this will help you get a feel for where you fit in the scheme of things compared to providers of a similar service. You might think the next step is to look at other freelance writer’s rates and determine your own based on your unique cornucopia of skills, voice and experience compared to theirs. But you shouldn’t.

Basing your rates on another writer’s rates is exactly what you should NOT do. Why? Well, how much self-worth does the other writer have? You can’t know. You can’t know how accurate their rates are for their value and that really has no bearing on your worth anyway.

I’m sure there are some out there who would disagree with me, but my opinion is this: Creating rates is not about pricing yourself against competitors. It is not about finding out what your market can bear and it is not about being above a certain threshold. It’s about working for a price that fills your financial need AND is commensurate with your worth and then finding the market that will happily pay that rate.

I don’t have any clue what other finance writers charge, nor do I care. I do know what experience they have and don’t have, I know how they write and how they don’t write and I know where they have strengths that I don’t and where I have strengths that they don’t. That is all I need to know. Based on that information I’ve decided how valuable I am to the marketplace and how to sell myself to it. I have set rates that pay my bills and make me feel good about what I do and what I provide. I’m not just scraping by but I’m also not charging so much that my abilities and skill don’t match my product.

I know some of you won’t believe this but if you honestly assess yourself and find that your worth correlates to a rate that is far above your competitor’s, you won’t be pricing yourself out of your market. Why? Because once you understand your worth you will have a better idea of where and how to find the right clients for you and how to sell yourself. You will be rightfully confident and you will know your product—YOU—inside and out (literally ;)… ewww).

Did this blog post help you set a rate? I hope not because that wasn’t the goal. The goal of this post was to help you understand self-worth as it relates to rates which will lay the foundation to creating the rate that you deserve.