It is one thing to market your talent to potential clients. It is another thing entirely to present your fee schedule and agree on a price and other project details. When setting up your fee schedule for the first time, you need to do so with “marketing” in mind. What good is this info if you don’t have anybody to send it to? There is
This post is based on a comment I recently left on Lori Widmer’s “If it Didn’t Work with Huffington….” Writing for ad revenue is usually a bad idea for writers. Some of the big networks have been doing it for years, and the problems have been clear for a long time now. It’s easy to justify it though. I’ve been there myself. I’ve crunched numbers
In the last week, two tricky word patterns have made it to my attention. This is particularly interesting since I’m not in the classroom over the summer, where I usually am assaulted by word problems. Here are my most recent scenarios: Scenario 1: The Email for Past and Passed I was asked via email about the words “past” and “passed.” The writer wanted to know
A health savings account (HSA) is a type of tax-deferred savings account that gives you a tax break on out-of-pocket medical expenses. The plan is only available to individuals and families who have high deductible health plan – a type of insurance that requires you to pay a lot of money out of pocket before the insurance kicks in and pays anything. These high deductible
Quick question: what’s your favorite way to market your freelance writing services? For me it’s blogging without a doubt. While you have to stick with it to keep growing, every post you write as the potential to help you market yourself indefinitely (especially thanks to search engine traffic and long tail keyword phrases). More than that, blogs keep you connected with your professional network —
Blame it on my days in PR, but I’m a big fan of transparency. I love sharing open and honest information, including real life data about things that interest me. In freelance writing I encourage other writers to share their rates openly because it helps us not only conduct better market research as a group and can positively influence the hiring process, but because it
As you network with others, no matter if in person or in another manner, you may be tempted to make promises. While there is nothing wrong with this, you must be extremely careful of what you say. If you promise something and don’t come through, there is a good chance that the relationship will end sooner rather than later. In the past, I made this
Virginia C. McGuire shared a link on Twitter to a local story that caught my attention. It related to legislation that would require small business owners to offer seven paid sick days to their employees. And one Philadelphia diner owner spoke out against it. The problem? He spouts suppositions as facts and admits that while he gives paid sick leave to his real estate employees
I’ve had an insane lifestyle long enough to recognize how insane it is and to simply anticipate periods of time when I feel like punching walls and throwing up my (then bruised) hands in despair. Fortunately with great responsibility comes great wisdom as well as great amounts of stress for good measure. I often use my great wisdom to find ways to reduce my great
We all know that there are a lot of great things about freelancing — like flexible schedules and the stereotypical fuzzy slippers while working (yeah, I wear ’em). But there are also plenty of challenges. So out of curiosity, what has proven to be the most challenging part of being a freelance writer for you so far? I think the most challenging part for me
I’ve touched on this a little bit in the past, but it’s such an important subject that it deserves a post all by itself. When it comes to writing for print, understanding your editor is a key piece of the puzzle. Editors for print are different than those that work on the web. There are different demands and priorities. While some things are universal (example:
After Google’s recent algorithm changes, income from at least one of my sites dropped a lot than I could have predicted. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the change coming. It made me a lot more thankful of the famine/feast budgeting method I use. Whenever I have great income months, I don’t spend the extra money, though I’m often tempted to. Instead, I put the extra in
If you go into indie publishing with the intention of selling your books and earning a profit, you’re going into business. Your books and e-books become the products you build your business around. You’ll see me emphasize this fact a lot here at All Indie Publishing. Today I want to talk about what that really means (being an authorpreneur as opposed to just an author).
A few days ago a colleague shared a story about a recent experience with a nonprofit organization. Here’s the gist of what happened: The client hired the freelance writer for a previous project at the writer’s professional rates. The client had need for a professional writer again. The writer sent a proposal (which the client asked for). The client contacted the writer saying they could