Another calendar year means another fiscal season for freelance writing businesses. It’s a great time to organize your finances. You may have had an ineffective organization system last year, if you had one at all. No matter what you did last year, the start of 2013 is a great time to tweak your old system or to create a new one. When I talk about
Update: I’ve decided to extend my vacation until Monday, January 7th to spend some more post-holiday downtime with family. I will not be back to regular posting here until that week, but our other contributors will continue to post on their usual schedules. This week was my last work week in 2012. I’m now on vacation until January 2nd. I hope you’re all enjoying a
I love my clients. I don’t want you to think I’m a total jerk for getting up here on this proverbial soapbox and bashing the people who routinely buy my services. I’m not bashing them. I have no reason to – in fact, I’m suddenly thinking of dedicating a post to what makes them so amazing, but that’s not as much fun to write so
Recently we talked about how to write a blog business plan. As promised, I’ve put together a simple blog business plan template that you can use for your own niche or business blog. Why Have a Blog Business Plan? If you want to make money blogging, a blog business plan is a must. Business plans help you get a better picture of where your business
If you’ve freelanced at all before, you probably already know: there are no guaranteed paychecks in freelance writing. I often tell my family and friends, particularly those who dream up things for me to do during work hours, that my pay is tied directly to my productivity. I don’t write, I don’t get paid. It’s not like a desk job where you clock in, stay
There is no better time than December to create a fresh marketing plan. This will allow you to “hit the ground running” when the new year arrives. But doesn’t it take a lot of time to create a marketing plan? Although you should spend significant time on this task, it doesn’t have to set you back several days. If you stick with the basics, you
It’s hard to believe that the New Year is right around the corner! If you are looking to get published in a magazine or print publication in the coming year, now is the time to start planning. For most print pubs, the editorial calendar is already set, and queries right now are going out for summer issues (or even later!). While it may be hard
Your personality, preferences and skills influence all of your decisions, and that includes your writing career. Most of us who have our own careers in writing would have a hard time living with a set income again. If I need some extra cash, I take on an extra project, for example. You can’t do that if you’re salaried. Jenn’s recent post on her ambitious goals
In the past, we’ve talked about the issue of deleting blog posts and why you shouldn’t do it. Yet I’ve been doing a lot of that over the past couple of weeks. In light of that, I’d like to revisit the issue. My Stance on Deleting Blog Posts My general feelings on deleting blog posts haven’t changed. There are good reasons to leave old posts
This is one of my favorite times of year, not because it’s the holiday season (that part is actually more stressful than enjoyable), but because it’s the perfect time to reflect on the past year’s progress and make plans for the upcoming year. I like to start doing this earlier in December, that way I’m ready to put the plan into action at the start