The first year I filed taxes, I was so excited I could finally claim church donations on my taxes. Except, it wasn’t really worth it to claim the donation because my itemized deductions were less than my standard deduction. Yep, even though you qualify for a certain tax break, it’s not always beneficial to take it. Deductions allow you to lower your taxable income and
Marketing your freelance writing services through your network can lead to new business, month after month. While some of the projects you receive from your network will be right up your alley, others may be new to you. Over the past couple of months I have heard the phrase “can you do that for me” too many times! People who have trusted you to do
There’s a not-so-new copyright infringement threat that seems to be becoming even more prevalent these days — so-called PDF search engines. In the last two weeks alone I received notification that three of these sites were publishing my content without a license or permission. What’s happening? Well, these sites purport to be about helping you find .pdf files. First of all that often means they’re
I realize that my mothering style isn’t normal. Martha Stewart would have a heart attack at the number of unfinished projects in my home. Emily Post would faint dead away before she made it past the six laundry baskets stacked in the living room. In my universe it’s perfectly normal to stash little boy underpants in the living room furniture and keep playdough on the
Maybe you’ve thought about freelance writing but your real interests lie in creative writing. Maybe you find nonfiction writing dull or unrewarding or you’re worried that working with clients will kill the creative side of your work. It doesn’t have to. Here are 11 ways you might be able to turn your creative writing passion into freelance writing opportunities. Some ideas are more traditional, but
When you work as a freelance writer, you’re a service provider. Selling products is technically something different. But that doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate other income streams into your business. Sure, you can remain a freelance purist if you really want to. But if you’re looking for new ways to make money with your writing without having to be too reliant on client projects, why
When it comes to unauthorized bank account and credit card charges, the sooner you find out these charges have hit, the better. Checking account and Paypal account fraud are the worst because these charges reduce your available money. Depending on your bank’s policy, you may have to wait until a fraud investigation is complete before you can get your money back. In some cases (mentioned
We talk a lot about how to market freelance writing services effectively. But how do you know when there’s a problem with your existing marketing and it’s time for a change? Here are five signs that your current freelance marketing sucks and that your marketing plan is overdue for a visit. You only attract low-paying clients — those unable to pay the freelance writing rates
Do you offer bulk discounts if clients order a large number of articles at once? Have you ever had a client or prospect pressure you to offer these kinds of discounts, saying they’ll order more if you lower the per-article rate? Many freelancers fall into the trap of offering bulk discounts because they think it will lead to more work. And it might. The problem
Unfortunately freelancers don’t have some special immunity to becoming ill. We can become sick without a moment’s notice, and it can wreak major havoc on our work schedules. I was recently put in that position. Worse, I got sick over vacation. That meant I was already off and away from clients for a while, and I had to extend that time when they were expecting
Time and time again I have talked about how to network your way to another freelance writing gig. While this is something that I strongly believe in, keep this in mind: you must be willing to return the favor. In other words, you cannot consistently look for the next job while never wanting to help anybody else out. During the last week of 2010 I
One of the questions I get asked most frequently about writing for print is when to follow up on a query or submission. Ready for the frustrating answer? It depends. Unfortunately, writing for print is much like the English language itself—riddled with exceptions. Most people will tell you to check the publication to see what their guidelines say. This is all well and good—if they
We are a special breed, yet we often divide ourselves up into groups – presumably so that we can defend ourselves by putting down the others. I’m a working mom, so I’m obviously better than the mom stuck at home – unless she’s a work-at-home mom. Then she gets top billing because she’s able to work at home, make money and teach her children three
One of the things that keeps me out of financial trouble is spending only the money I have on hand. Call me skeptical, but I avoid spending freelance money before I actually have it, even when I’ve already done the work. When you’re a freelancer, you can pretty much count on something going wrong with payments at any given time. Here are some rules I