Here are three simple ways you can better insulate yourself from bad writing clients.

1. Be Choosy

As a business owner, you can’t say “yes” to everyone. You have to be able to turn work down when there are signs that a prospect will turn into a nightmare of a client. If you take on that client anyway, you really have no one else to blame. So say “no.” Sure, that means you won’t have that gig bringing in income. That’s life. You move on. You find another, even better, gig. The more time you waste with bad clients, the less time you have to find and land great ones.

This is one of the reasons I push the idea of building a writer platform so much here. You build your visibility and your network and gigs find you instead of the other way around. If you have an effective platform, chances are you’ll have more prospects coming to you than you can take on. That means you can choose to work with the best and not feel guilty about saying “no” to others. It’s also another chance to network as you refer the “no” gigs to other colleagues (just don’t refer gigs with major warning signs or you could hurt relationships more than you help them).

2. Charge Professional Rates

The lower your rates, the more likely you are to come across these bad client types. That said, there are lousy clients in higher paying markets as well — just not as many. Why does your pay level play a role? For a few reasons:

• Clients who pay very little don’t have much invested in the project.
• If they aren’t willing to pay for professional work, they’re less likely to respect you as a professional (in their mind, you might just be some amateur doing the job for “play money”).
• It’s easier to say “it’s only a few bucks, so it’s not a big deal if I pay late.”
• They know it doesn’t make much sense for you to go to collections or sue them in small claims court if they screw you out of a very small payment.
• Clients who pay next to nothing are either cheap or not properly funded. In either case, they need to squeeze as much value as they can out of every cent they can. This is why low paying clients are sometimes even more demanding than those paying professional rates.

The best way to avoid this kind of treatment is to raise your rates to professional levels. Don’t sign over all rights to an article for $10 for example. Those writers are, and always will be, replaceable. If you want respect as a professional writer, you need to show that you’re not that easily replaceable — that you offer value the extremely low-priced writers do not. Charge what you’re worth, and you’ll immediately kick a large number of bad prospects off your doorstep.

3. Build Alternative Income Streams

When you’re desperate for income you’re probably more likely to say “yes” to any project that comes along, bad client or not. So you need to come up with a plan to get out of that desperation phase. One way to do that is to create alternative income streams. This is an especially good idea early in your freelance writing career when you probably don’t have clients beating down a path to your door yet.

These are income streams that don’t rely on you landing new freelance writing clients. It’s income that fills in the gaps so you never make bad decisions out of desperation. You know something else will still be coming in. Here are a few examples:

• Offer another freelance service (like design or marketing consulting) so you can choose the best prospects from both markets to work with at any given time.
• Publish and sell short e-books and reports.
• Run a niche blog. Earn income through ad revenue while you build an ongoing portfolio piece to attract new clients.

It’s all about diversification. Just like you shouldn’t rely on any single client too heavily, you shouldn’t rely on one income stream either. The more you diversify your incoming revenue, the more insulated you are against one of them failing (like a bad client refusing to pay on time).

4. Nurture Relationships with Regulars

It’s basic math. The more clients you need to work with, the better your chances are for coming across a dud in the mix. So rather than looking for short one-off projects, focus on existing clients and building regular contracts. Regular clients are people you have an ongoing relationship with. They’re more invested in that relationship. After all, it’s easier to keep a good freelancer they’re happy with than to spend time and energy trying to recruit one that could adequately replace them. It’s win-win.

Reach out to past clients and pitch ongoing gigs (like one or two articles into you managing their blog on a monthly basis). And keep existing regulars happy (within reason). The more regular gigs you have with clients you know and trust, the less time you’ll have available for those potentially bad prospects to get on your schedule.

You won’t always know up front if a prospect is going to turn into a bad client. Look out for warning signs, and know when to say “no.” If you do land one, don’t be afraid to “break up” with them after your current project. And work hard to maintain the relationships you have with good clients and build other income streams. If you do these things and make a conscious effort to avoid the cheapskate, deadbeat variety, you’ll never have to take on a bad client again.

Something like this happened to me last week. It involved blogging work for one of my regulars. Due to personal problems he was unable to post all of the articles written last month. So he now had a backlog and needed to postpone some content orders for his main blog until December.

While I keep a waiting list, it really wasn’t what I wanted to do right now. After all, this is for a limited-time opening — for one-off projects. And most on the waiting list are looking for ongoing work (like press release writing for Internet marketing firms or ongoing blogging gigs). It would also mean rushing those prospects when they might not be ready to move on something immediately. Besides, that would mean getting to know a new client’s business, products or services, and target market. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a basic part of the job. But with only a few weeks — not to mention time off for the Thanksgiving holiday this month — there just wouldn’t be time to do a new client’s business justice, or at least not in most cases with the prospects on my list.

So I decided to take a few other approaches to make sure my income wouldn’t suffer much, if at all, this month. And these are tactics you can use too, should you ever find yourself with a last-minute hole to fill in your freelance writing schedule. Better yet, these tactics don’t involve bidding sites, job boards, or querying while you hope someone gets back to you before the opening passes anyway.

Suggest an Adjusted Project

In my case I knew the client in question owned other blogs. I’ve written for several of them in the past. I casually mentioned them, and asked if he would need content for those again while we took a break for the main site. As it turns out, he did.

That led to an order equal to about a third of our normal monthly number of blog posts. Now this is also an older client who has a long-standing bulk-rate negotiated with me (I don’t offer those anymore). And since he ordered less than the minimum for that bulk rate, the per-piece rate was higher. The combination led to about 40-45% of the original order being placed income-wise. That took a nice quick hit at the hole in my schedule, and I didn’t have to look beyond the initial client.

You can do the same thing. If your client cancels a certain type of project, but they hire you for different things, see if they might need something else. For example, at this time of the year let’s say they cancelled a couple of blog posts. But they’ve hired you to write email marketing copy before and you know they have a newsletter. You might pitch them on content for a holiday newsletter instead.

Reconnect with Past Clients

Another option is to reach out to past clients you’ve worked with. That doesn’t mean you have to pitch or query about specific projects. Don’t put that kind of time into it. Just touch base. Say hello. Mention that you happen to have an opening. In my case I chose to reach out to just a few of my previous clients. I let them know about the opening, that it was limited and projects would be first-come, first-served, and I offered them a very limited-time special. I rarely offer sales, but I’m a big fan of limited discounts when it comes to quickly filling in holes in my schedule. The trick? Make sure the sale is for a limited time only. You don’t want a sale rate to turn into a regular expectation. In that sense I find they’re better for existing clients, although I did offer the discount to one new prospect as well. Also, don’t offer the special to too many people. Leave regular clients alone. This is only about bringing in new one-off projects (or long-term gigs perhaps, but with the sale only applicable for the first order). It’s not about discounting work you already have. It’s about enticing people to hire you when they otherwise hadn’t thought about it.

Remember that this isn’t about pitching or querying. It’s more about keeping in touch and reminding them that you’re out there. Sometimes just the mention of what you do will spark an idea in a client’s head — “yeah, I haven’t promoted this product effectively and the holidays are coming up, so I could really use some copy for a new email campaign,” for example. The best thing is that existing clients are often faster to respond than new prospects, so you won’t be left waiting around wondering (at least in my experience). I sent out a couple of emails early Monday morning, and as of a few hours later I’d already landed one one-off project with a past client.

Just Wait

Okay. So this won’t work for everyone, but if you’ve already gotten to that query-free freelancer status you know it won’t ever be long before you get another email or phone call from a new prospect. I get several each week. Normally I just refer them off to colleagues by default, because I don’t have any openings.

This week — yes, just since yesterday morning — I did have to turn a few away, partly because I already filled enough of my schedule hole that there was no way I could fit their projects in and give them the attention they deserved. I also didn’t feel I was the best fit for two of them, so I referred the prospects to other colleagues. But there were several others that came in between Thursday of last week and this morning. One is a possibility, and for two others now I’m just waiting on a final confirmation. They all appear to be one-offs, so I should be able to work them in if they come through. It’s not ideal to have to start from scratch with someone when time is limited though, so I definitely suggest reaching out to existing clients first.

By the way, I didn’t have to do anything to find these leads. They came right to me. Haven’t considered going the query-free freelancing route yet? Well, that’s a perk you should think about. While a lost gig might sting initially, you know things will always pick back up quickly. Oh, and this doesn’t just work for new prospects. As of Monday afternoon the initial client who cut back this month got in touch wanting too more projects too.

Become Your Own Client

If you absolutely can’t find a new client and can’t land a gig with an old one, don’t stress too much yet. When you have a hole in your schedule, immediately turn at least some of your attention to your own income-generating projects. Review a new affiliate product or two on your blog (unless affiliate ads are a big no-no in your niche). Write a short e-book and sell it for a few dollars using a service like E-Junkie.com. My very first e-book took me one afternoon to write, and it sold quite well at $17 (around 20 pages or so). Why? It was information that a specific target market wanted, and I was in a position to offer authoritative content in that niche.

A day or two of heavy promotion can get the income rolling in. Even if it doesn’t fully replace the lost income you were expecting, it can lessen the blow. And if you do find good client leads in the meantime, you can always back-burner the e-book and go back to it later.

If you suddenly find yourself with a hole in your freelance writing schedule, don’t panic. Get creative. Applying to every gig you see advertised can do more to increase your stress and worry than solve it. But by all means if you see a gig somewhere that looks like the perfect fit, go for it. Just don’t feel like pitching and querying is your only way out of a bad situation. It might work, but it can take much longer than other options. And remember, one door closing (even temporarily) might be the opportunity you were waiting for. You never know when another one’s going to open.

Writer B asks where the high paying gigs are then if not on the job boards. Writer A explains that you have to either build a platform, a strong referral network, or directly pitch prospects you’d like to work for. Writer B says something to the effect of “No, I mean where are the high paying freelance writing jobs.” Unfortunately it doesn’t sink in that there’s no magical place where all of the high paying freelance writing clients congregate.

In the end it comes down to this: you need to make your own freelance writing opportunities. Not sure where to start? Here are some ideas to get you going:

1. Set up a professional website right away if you don’t have one. It’s extremely important to maintain visibility these days, and a lot of high paying freelance writing clients don’t advertise for writers — they search for portfolios of writers that might be a good fit. You need that search engine presence if you want to land those gigs.
2. Ask colleagues if they know anyone hiring. Just don’t be obnoxious about it. Another way to handle it is to simply remind them what you specialize in and let them know you’re taking on new clients now if they happen to come across something that would suit you well, but that they couldn’t take on personally. Writers refer work to each other all the time. But if they don’t think of you, you won’t get the jobs.
3. Ask existing clients for referrals. If you have one or more decent clients and you simply want more, ask them for referrals. They might be well-networked within their industry or niche and be able to point you to others who are hiring. After all it’s in their interest too. If you give up on your writing work because you can’t make ends meet, you won’t be there to handle their work anymore either.
4. Use job search sites in a different way. Forget about looking for gigs for freelance writers. Instead look for job ads hiring editors (often full-time). If you read the job requirements they very often say a part of the editor’s job is managing a team of freelance writers. Yet these same companies seem to rarely advertise for the writers themselves. But now that you know they hire freelancers, you can pitch them on your own. Even if they’re not hiring immediately, they might keep you in mind if an opening comes up down the road.
5. Look a bit broader. While it’s smart to know your target market and stick to them with your marketing efforts, some freelancers look a bit too narrowly. For example, if you’re a Web content writer you might not think to look beyond the Web itself for your clients — like in webmaster communities. (Hint: while some bigger budget clients do hang out there, many do not. They don’t have the time.) Take a broader approach. Perhaps that means conducting a more general search for existing sites in your niche or industry. If you feel you can help them improve their Web content, pitch them your ideas. Or maybe it means you’ll look to small local businesses that either don’t have a Web presence yet or that have a very limited one. You probably wouldn’t come across them easily online, but if they’re interested and just waiting for the right help to come along, that could be you.

While I’m certainly in favor of a more passive query-free freelancing approach, for most people that would be an end goal rather than a starting point. There are times when you do have to get aggressive and make your own freelance writing opportunities.

How do you make your own freelance writing opportunities when the job market seems to dry up? Share your tips and stories in the comments.

That’s not to say you should never consider negotiating. That’s an individual decision. The problems start when you allow clients to control what you earn — a right they only have if you choose to give it up. And when you do give it up, chances are good you’ll attract more cheapskate clients.

What are Cheapskate Clients?

We can’t define “cheapskate clients” as ones who are only willing to pay a certain dollar amount, because projects and experience and expertise all vary. Instead, these are the clients who repeatedly try to talk down your rates. Or they simply offer far less than you charge and they expect you to jump right into their project, completely ignoring the fact that they can’t afford you.

Some will get huffy if you dare to mention your professional rates. Some with give you sob stories to try to win your pity (and a lower rate because of it). Some will even get downright nasty telling you that you’re not worth as much as you charge because some Joe Schmo with no credentials halfway around the world is willing to do your $2000 project for a mere $50. Some of the more passive aggressive ones will state they can’t afford you, but in a way that it’s clear they’re hoping you’ll come in with a cheaper counter-offer.

Hopefully you never have to deal with the nasty variety of cheapskate client, but there’s a good chance you’ll run into at least one of these prospect types during your freelance career. Here are some tips to help you deal with the situation when you do.

Dealing with Cheapskate Clients

Here are four tips for dealing with cheapskate clients of any variety:

1. Justify your rates. — Ideally you’ll convince a potential cheapskate client to pay your going rates. It’s a matter of conveying your value and showing that you’re worth what you charge. You can do this with samples and testimonials, but hard numbers can be even better — show how your last sales letter brought in six figures for the client while you charged only $5000 for example. Of course you won’t be able to convince everyone. Some simply won’t have the budget for you, and some aren’t ready for professionals yet. They’re not in your target market though, so don’t fret too much about it.
2. Offer adjusted project specs that fit within the client’s budget. — Buyers need to understand that if their budget can’t pay for their expectations then they either need to increase their budget or lower those expectations. Let’s say a client has a $500 budget for monthly blog posts. They wanted 10 500 word blog posts per month, and they really want to hire you specifically because they love your voice and style. You charge $200 per 500 word blog post. That would require a $2000 budget for the number of posts they wanted. Instead of flat out refusing the project, you might come up with a counter-offer of 5 250-word blog posts per month for $500. They stay within budget and still get the writer they want, but they accept less content and only purchase what they can afford for now. You don’t get short-changed on your billable hours, and you still get a regular gig out of the deal. Sure, not all will go for it, but you’d be surprised how many would consider it when they really want you and not just some random writer. They’ll find a way to pay your rates. That’s why it’s so important to make yourself indispensable to them.
3. Refer the cheapskate client elsewhere. — Your cheapskate might be another freelancer’s golden goose. Let’s go back to the previous example of someone wanting to pay $50 per article when you charge $200. And let’s say they’re not interested in your adjusted offer to fit within their budget and your rate requirements. But let’s also say that you know another writer who would love to get to $50 per article. They might not have your credentials, but you know they’re not bad and they could handle the project. You could refer the client to them. Referrals are an important part of networking, and when you give them you tend to get more of them as well. At the same time, the client is kept happy, and they tend to remember that. I’ve had many an occasion where clients I referred elsewhere due to budget constraints have come back to me later when they could afford me because I still made sure they were taken care of. On the other hand, some clients are so cheap I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy. In those cases I don’t refer them to other writers at all. I send them to freelance marketplaces where they’ll find some extremely low-priced writer to fit their budget. Of course I do that also knowing that most will be unhappy with the work they get for those rates and they’ll eventually come to appreciate the fact that professionals are worth more than those who are simply out to undercut each other because they have no value to convey beyond super-low prices. It doesn’t always happen, but I’ve had several come back — tail between their legs — wanting to hire me at my normal rates (no questions asked anymore) after being exposed to the work from some of these “cheap writers.”
4. Keep on walkin’. — There are some clients you’re better off just walking away from. If their cheapskate nature turns into a case of bashing you because they can’t afford you, walk away. If they keep trying to talk you down no matter how many times you say no, it’s okay to walk away from that too. If it’s clear the client has no idea what they actually want from the project, that’s another good sign that you’re better off leaving it alone (the ones wanting low rates and not having solid project specs tend to be the ones that demand the largest amount of your time anyway). You should never feel like you have to take a project if it doesn’t meet your requirements. When one prospect disappears, just think of it as an opening for an even better one.

Cheapskate clients are all around us as freelancers. But they don’t control our rates — not for a particular project, and certainly not what we earn in our careers. It’s up to us to educate clients and prospects and demonstrate our value, showing them we’re worth what we charge as professionals. When we do that, we minimize our exposure to cheapskate clients, and more importantly we kill any chance that we’d actually be tempted to meet their demands. Don’t be afraid to stand your ground fellow freelancers. There are plenty of good ones to go around, and if you haven’t found them yet try tweaking your marketing plan towards a better market. You’ll get there.

Freelancers are hired because they have specialty knowledge — knowledge clients very often don’t have themselves. The point is to bring in a fresh perspective from an outsider. It’s your job to know what the company insiders think. But it’s also your job as a freelancer to add that extra perspective — to look at things in a way the client hasn’t (and sometimes can’t).

Sometimes that includes pointing out problems. For example, what the client thinks is a great slogan could have a completely different meaning to their target audience (a group that perhaps you’re a part of). Or maybe English isn’t their first language and while they think their original writer did a great job with their Web copy, the grammar is atrocious. You would have to find a way to tactfully tell them so, and hopefully convince them to hire you to fix it. Or perhaps a client asks you what you think of something and you honestly don’t care for it — maybe a first draft of something that they decided to tackle themselves, thinking it would save them money.

In all of these cases and more, telling the client want they want to hear rather than what you really think would be dishonest and a real disservice to that client. No matter how good it might make them feel in the moment, in the long run someone will tell them the truth. And then you just come across looking incompetent.

Not all freelancers are comfortable in confrontational situations where they have to be the one to say “sorry, but I disagree,” or “sorry, but no, I don’t think this will work in the way you’re hoping for.” But if you’re not comfortable with that, get there. Your other option is to fall into the “people pleaser” trap that will ultimately cost you your professional reputation. If you do love something, by all means say so if asked. But as a freelance professional you cannot be afraid to speak up when something just doesn’t feel right — no matter whose feelings you might hurt. In the end, clients appreciate honesty and competence and they pay handsomely for it.

So what about you? Are you able to be honest with clients even when you have something to say that you know they don’t want to hear? Or do you find yourself feeling pressured to agree with them because you’re afraid of upsetting them and losing their business? Or (heaven forbid) have you ever agreed with a client solely because you were too lazy to get into a real discussion about potential issues with a project? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Have you ever had a “vampire client” — one who seems to suck the life out of you? Maybe they don’t pay enough so you push yourself to the edge of burning out regularly as you cram in countless projects. Perhaps they’re extremely picky or they’re the type who doesn’t know what they want until they see it, meaning you’re asked to do an unusually high number of revisions. You might even have the type of “vampire client” who constantly asks you for extra advice or guidance beyond the scope of your projects — consulting work you’re not being paid for.

These types of client-writer relationships are what we explore in our very first episode of the MadLance series, “The Dead Don’t Write.” See if you can relate to poor Kelly, trying to balance keeping her client happy while also staying sane.

Download “The Dead Don’t Write” (right-click and save the .mp3 file) or stream it now below.

 

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What would you do if you were in Kelly’s shoes? Would you have the nerve to lay down new ground rules with a client? Would you fire that client? Would you ride the situation out as long as possible? As a freelance writer it’s important to understand that sometimes you’ll have to make tough calls with clients. That might seem difficult to do, especially when you’re first starting out and you may only have a few clients lined up, but how you handle the client-contractor dynamic now can impact where you’ll be months from now.

Sometimes clients won’t even realize they’re putting an unusual burden on you (such as the ones who really do respect your opinions so they ask for advice constantly without realizing that time is money when you’re a service provider). Confronting those issues early on ensures you won’t feel taken advantage of later. Keep this in mind: if you start to resent your work because you didn’t put your foot down in a professional way early on, you aren’t doing anyone any good. You’ll be unhappy with your work, which means you’ll be less likely to give it your all (in turn meaning your client loses out too).

Closing thoughts: Set some ground rules in your freelance writing career. Let clients know when it’s okay (or not okay) to call you, and when you’re negotiating projects or signing contracts bring up issues like revisions up front. Let clients know how many revisions are included in your base rates, and how much you charge for further revisions (edit requests aren’t always a sign that you did something wrong, but sometimes the result of a client taking a different direction with a project they already approved — you should be compensated for those kinds of requests).

The same goes for consulting. If you’re a freelance copywriter for example, chances are good that you have some marketing expertise. If the client wants additional time to pick your brain about tactics for increasing conversions or something similar (beyond what’s covered in your initial contract) have an hourly consulting rate laid out from the start. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble, and your client some unpleasant surprises, by preparing for “vampire clients” before they have a chance to sink their teeth in.

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After the experiment I laid off for a little while—you know how it is, it’s fun to flirt once in a while but you don’t want a lifetime commitment or anything. But then, I noticed my business was getting a little slow. I had been booked solid for a couple of months and as a result I hadn’t been marketing as much as I should have and I hadn’t been as active on LinkedIn or Twitter. By the time I finished up all of my existing obligations I was left without any projects other than my regulars and I wasn’t as visible to my target clients.

So I turned to Elance for support and although I still haven’t found a way to get up to my normal rates on Elance I have found that it’s a great way to make what I am comfortable calling decent money without a lot of marketing effort and since I’ve streamlined my client selection process so I don’t deal with as many nervous or controlling clients (check out the feedback the client has given to other providers before you bid), it’s been a real pleasure. It’s not a long-term plan for me, but it’s a great way to get gigs quickly and pay the bills. Since they’ve upgraded their system you can now save search criteria which really helps make searching for gigs faster. Also, since my client proposal is a few pages long and has a visual element, pitching is actually less time consuming through Elance than it is when clients contact me directly.  I also save time because I never need to talk to anyone on the phone and even email exchanges are short.

The important thing about this (and the reason why I’m talking to you about it today) is that I’m not just settling into the Elance groove for the rest of the foreseeable future. With the time I’m saving on marketing, I’ve gotten a little breathing room to work on my own projects: a white paper, a client guide, guest posting to raise my visibility, queries and some freebies for my target clients–all of which will help me get more of those direct client gigs that are within my normal rates and aren’t subject to a fee (Elance charges around 6-10% of the price of your gigs).

And that’s the key–whether you are working for low paying clients right now, Elance, a content mill or any other arrangement that isn’t making you feel completely happy–you’ve got to find the time to do what it takes to get you to your next level. If you don’t then you are probably going to be stuck at your current level for… well… a long time. Because that’s just how it is.

There are downsides of working with middlemen clients too though. I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately as I consider whether or not to replace a specific contract or two. If you’re considering taking on middlemen clients, here are some of the not-so-hot aspects of those relationships that you might want to consider.

1. It can be an all or nothing deal. – After finishing a current project, I’ve already decided I won’t offer a specific service through any middlemen clients anymore. But while I can choose to offer some services and not others, I cannot say “I’ll work for all of your clients except for so-and-so.” Well, I could, but chances are that I’d lose the contract as a whole and they’d go with someone willing to take on all of their clients together. When you work with a client directly, you can “fire” them if they become overbearing, are the never-pleased type, or if they’re simply really difficult to work with. With middlemen clients you can’t do that. You can’t cut off ties with one of them. You have to take things through your direct client, and if you bail you put their business at risk. You don’t want to cost your client clients of their own.
2. Your policies might have to adapt. — When I work with end clients directly, I very rarely accept phone calls. While my rates might look high to some buyers who are used to working with extremely low rate content writers, they’re actually very low compared to people with similar credentials (especially when it comes to things like PR and marketing copy). I’m able to do that and still keep my hourly rates where I want them by streamlining my process. That means being able to deal with client communication in dedicated blocks of time via email. When I have an end client who insists of regular phone conversations, they’re billed a $125 per hour consulting rate with a minimum half hour billed for each call. (It’s amazing how they often realize those calls are unnecessary and a 5-minute email will suffice when they see the time they’re taking out of my day in the form of a bill.) With middlemen clients, there isn’t as much freedom in billing out things like this or “inconvenience charges” where you might charge more to a client you know is regularly a pain to work with. The middleman client has a rate they’ve negotiated with their clients and that includes the fees you’ve settled on with them previously. You would have to go through two levels of clients to get other charges approved and paid.
3. You might have to walk on egg shells. — Let’s go back to the issue of losing one client meaning you could lose all of those end clients through the middle man firm. While not being able to fire a client is a tough situation to be in sometimes, so is knowing that you have to be extra careful not to piss off any of those end clients. The clients who find me directly know I’m blunt. They come to me for that fact. But sometimes their own clients don’t have the stomach for it. They don’t want to hear a professional opinion that disagrees with their own. If you speak up, you risk them getting pissed and canceling their contract with the firm. Then you risk the firm canceling their contract with you because you cost them a client. Personally I find myself keeping my mouth shut more than I should when working with end clients through a middle man, and that’s not why I went into business for myself.
4. Payments for several clients can be lumped as one. – This can be either a blessing or a curse really. If a middleman client pays on time all of the time, then you’ll receive payment for several projects in a timely manner — no chasing down invoice after invoice with end clients. However, if one of your middleman clients starts paying invoices late on a regular basis, you’re getting late payments not for one client’s work, but for several clients’ projects. You take this risk with any client. With middlemen clients it might just be a slightly bigger risk.

Things will be better with some middlemen clients than others. Some will try to micromanage everything you do. Some will leave you pretty much free to handle your side of things. Some will let you work directly with the end clients. Some will require that everything go through them (meaning you never hear the end client’s actual thoughts on a project). Middlemen clients can be one of the best things to happen to a freelance writer. Then again, sometimes they’ll prove to be an excrutiating headache. In the end, it comes down to remembering that they’re still a client. You can still fire a firm as a client.

You just have to be prepared to fill that contract time with something else. You can still be open and up front with a middleman client. You just have to be prepared for the consequences if doing so costs them contracts of their own. It can be a difficult path to navigate. How do you do it?

“I did see your fees and am interested in knowing if you’d be available for work…. My site won’t actually be up and running until July 1 2010….”

What exactly took my breath away? Robert looked at my site. He actually reviewed the rate info there. He already knew that I’d need a good lead time to even consider the project. In other words, he did his homework! I’m sure you know how rare that can be.

Landing the Freelance Writer You Want, Even if They’re Booked

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone can manage to find my website and dig up my email address to contact me, but they don’t take the time to click on a link or two to learn anything else. Instead they expect me to type out what services I offer and what my rates are in an email for them personally — taking time out of my very busy schedule to give them information I already put at their fingertips. In the time it takes them to email me their questions, they could have already had the answers!

When these types of clients contact me, I just refer them to someone else. I’m sure many of them are fine folks, and if I weren’t booked I would probably humor them. But I’m busy. I took the time to setup a professional site for their benefit, and if they show me they don’t care enough about their own project to research the writer they want to hire, then why should I care about their project?

It doesn’t matter if a writer is booked fully. There are often exceptions — clients they’d happily stop and consider. Showing a freelancer that you can communicate with them effectively might cement your status as an exception to the rule. Researching that writer before contacting them is a great place to start. It shows them that you care enough about your project to want the “right” writer for the job — the right tone, the right style, the right specialty. If you know nothing about the writer, you might just be wasting their time (contact me about writing for your content mill if you want to see the kind of reaction you get when you piss off a busy writer with lazy, irrelevant requests).

Writers: Being a “Peach” isn’t the Only Profitable Personality Trait

There’s another side to this story, and it’s one we’ve talked about here before. Why did Robert even bother contacting me? Why not just immediately contact another writer? It comes down to personality. Here’s what he said specifically:

“I do like your style, your [sic] honest and to the point with a hint of brashness and I like that!”

Statements like that have been more the norm than the exception. Some writers believe the only way to succeed is to put on a false air of perpetual positivity, grinning and bearing it no matter what a client throws their way. This is the “yes man” type; the “the client is always right” type. Client says “jump.” Yes man says “how high?” I say “I work better parked on my ass, thank you, and since my job is to give you my best work possible, why don’t we give that a try first?”

Unless you’re the type of freelance writer who’s content settling for mediocrity in your career — such as churning out constant generic quick pieces of content that no one in their right mind gives a damn about just so you can earn a few bucks — being a yes man is not your job. When it comes to more professional environments, writers are often consultants as much as actual writers. You’re hired for a reason. You have a specialized skill set or specific topic area knowledge that a client wants to use to benefit their business or publication. Does that mean you make all the rules? No. Does it mean you spend your career making kissy faces at your clients so they think you’re just the sweetest thing? No. Friggin. Way. It’s about balance.

I believe wholeheartedly in being yourself, even if your self isn’t perfect 100% of time (you’re not, I’m not, that writer currently working your dream career is not). I believe in blunt honesty, and I’m quite fine with being the bad guy in a situation if something needs to be said and no one else wants to grow a set and say it. I’m actually probably most reserved here on All Freelance Writing, where if I said what I really thought about some issues in the freelance writing world, I’d ignite a sh*t storm of stupidity that I frankly just don’t have the patience for. One place where I was never censored, however, was my now-retired PR blog — NakedPR. That’s where Robert first found me.

My entire purpose of blogging at NakedPR was to counteract the BS hype so prevalent in the PR industry, and to open my mouth when others wouldn’t because they were too worried about their own image to care about telling the truth. That’s not acceptable to me. You might think speaking my mind so bluntly and abrasively would cost me gigs. Instead it’s helped me land some amazing clients over the years, and they keep coming back for more.

At first I didn’t get it either. For someone to refer to my blog as “refreshing” left me scratching my head. Eventually one webmaster cleared it up. He was tired of those yes men writers. He didn’t want someone to say “tell me what to do and I’ll do it” like some homogenized half-wit who couldn’t think for themselves. He wanted someone to hear him out, tell him when his ideas were genuinely good, and tell him when his ideas really sucked. That doesn’t mean I ridiculed his ideas. It means I threw my professional experience and knowledge about appealing to his particular type of audience into his project.

I didn’t just say “I think that’s an awful approach.” I told him why I had reason to believe it wouldn’t work, and most importantly I gave him suggestions that would work much better. That’s the line between being a bluntly honest and confident professional and just being a bitch — the latter is what you get when you criticize without good cause or without constructive suggestions for improvements. That’s what many clients want — they want their writers to be truly invested in the results of the project rather than just invested in spewing a few words on a page and going on their merry little way.

Am I telling you that you need to adopt my personality style in order to land better paying freelance writing jobs? Absolutely not. What I’m saying is that you need to be you — the real you (people do notice when you’re being fake or putting up a front to mask your insecurities, so don’t try too hard to be what you think others want). Actually, do more than just be your good old self. Be a confident you, even if it’s a struggle at first. Just don’t fall into the trap of being another voice lost in the mix of same old, same old generic writers. The moment you do that, you’re not just replaceable; you’re forgettable.

1. You rely too much on a single client. / You don’t diversify. Freelancing is generally much more secure than a full-time job in one specific way — you have the opportunity to insulate yourself against job loss. Someone working with 5 primary clients has a more secure career than someone working for only one client. Why? Because if that first freelance writer loses a gig, they’re not losing they’re entire income. It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do. Your one client might have their budget slashed. They might fold altogether. When you work with multiple clients, you have other income coming in while you find a new gig to replace a lost client, and you’ll also have more recent references and portfolio pieces at your disposal (to help you get that new work).
2. You don’t have a plan. While I’m a big advocate of having a business plan and marketing plan for your freelance writing business, you don’t have to go that far. Just don’t go into freelancing completely clueless about what to expect. A lot of new writers do this, and the reality check can be harsh. They’ll hit their first slow period without having set money aside. They’ll anticipate earning twice what they actually make. They’ll forget about all of the itty bitty expenses that really add up over the course of the year. You get the idea. If you’d like to have a basic plan laid out, but you’re not interested in writing a comprehensive business and marketing plan, try these abbreviated templates to at least help you cover the basics (as much as I’d love to see every freelancer have a complete business plan, I’m a realist and know many won’t): one page business plan template |  one page marketing plan template
3. You buy into the doomsday mindset. If you’re projecting your lack of success on third parties or things like the economy, you’re making a huge mistake. No one stops you from being successful in freelance writing but you. Take responsibility, and look at the overall picture. The reality is that recessions are great times for freelancers when it comes to growing your career. You’re always a more cost-effective option in general, but in a lousy economy more companies (read: clients) actually take notice of that fact. Are you blaming low-rate writers for under-bidding you? That’s just as bad, and just as wrong. If you’re being under-bid constantly and you’re not landing gigs, you’re targeting the wrong market. The right market is not only one looking for a writer in your specialty area but one full of clients who can afford you. They’re out there. If you’re not landing them, you’re just not looking hard enough (or not in the right places). Stop blaming others, and change your strategy instead.
4. You stop marketing your services when you have lots of work. There is never a guarantee that work will last forever. This is one of those things I’ve seen content mill writers do specifically — they assume nothing will change, and that they’ll continue to have that income coming in. It’s not necessarily true. I’ve watched mills can writers who have been with them for 5+ years. I’ve been there when they completely overhaul payment models, while writers’ promotional work was focused on something very different. I’ve seen mills and networks disappear. Just because a site seems great now, that doesn’t mean it will last forever. If it were to disappear tomorrow, would you have other clients coming in right away? Not if you haven’t been marketing yourself. The same applies to freelance writers working with private clients. Not only should you keep things balanced by working with more than one client, but you have to keep marketing yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to place cold calls or apply for jobs that you really don’t have time to take on (in fact, if you regularly have a booked schedule, applying for jobs is not a good idea, because you’ll spread yourself too thin). You can market yourself more subtly though to maintain visibility. Blog. Update the copy on your professional site. Issue a free report or white paper. Stay active in social media outlets. Attend networking events. Just make yourself visible to your prospective clients, and offers will keep coming in even when you’re booked (and when you can take them on, you’ll have new clients waiting).
5. You don’t set your rates correctly early on. Whether you want to hear it or not, there are right and wrong ways to set your freelance writing rates. Pulling a random number out of your ass, for example, is the “wrong” way to set freelance writing rates. While there’s no single “right” method, there is a “right” way to set rates — crunch the numbers. Those numbers will vary among freelancers, but if you’re not looking at hard numbers, you have no idea if your rates are realistic (until you learn the hard way). Here’s what I suggest: calculate the bare minimum hourly rate you need to charge. That means figuring out how many billable hours you’ll have each week (not overall working hours). It means accounting for all of your personal and business expenses. It means figuring out how much time off you’ll want during the year for holidays, personal days, vacation time, and sick days. It means factoring in the cost of benefits you want (retirement savings, health insurance premiums, etc.). It means including the minimum amount you want to have available for savings and investments. When you know all of those numbers you can calculate your minimum hourly freelance writing rates. Once you have that figured out, you can look at the value you offer to clients. Does it make your work worth more than the minimum you need to charge? Then increase your rates from there. Don’t want to charge hourly? That’s okay too! The hourly rate is ideal for calculations because it’s time-based (as is your time worked). You can easily adapt that to a per-project rate, per-word rate, or any kind of rate that you want. Figure out the average amount of time you spend on a particular type of project (or certain word count) and you can convert that hourly rate in no time.

These are far from the only mistakes people make when it comes to freelance writing jobs. Can you think of any others? Did you make, and learn from, a freelance writing mistake in your own career? If you could give new freelance writers one word of advice — one mistake to avoid — what would it be?