I doubt any of you are strangers to spam. My favorites, if you can call them that, are all of the terrible pitches I receive from marketing and design firms as well as other freelancers. Here are the most common I see: “Your website isn’t ranking on the first page of Google,” (followed by all of the reasons I need their SEO services to get
I was contacted recently by freelance writer, Steve Koch, with some questions that might be on the mind of other new freelancers. He agreed to let me publish my responses on the blog so hopefully other readers with similar questions will benefit. Reader Questions “I have some general questions about getting started as a freelance writer. I have gone to the usual attempts (elance, helium
In order to get contracts signed and have a strong working relationship with ghostwriting clients, you have to understand why people are out there looking for ghostwriters. If you don’t, you’re going to rely on assumptions that can result in lost gigs and rocky working relationships. To give you a starting place, here are five examples of reasons that clients hire ghostwriters. Why Clients Hire
We’ve talked in the past about why freelance writers need a professional website. There are some things we didn’t get into then, and some things have changed over the years, making them more important now than ever. To kick off our series on professional websites for freelance writers, let’s start by looking at some of the most important reasons you might want to create one.
There are two questions that come up more than any other when I talk to writers about breaking into ghostwriting. The first is: how do I get clients? The second is: how do I show them samples of my work if everything I do is confidential? I find these questions frustrating, because you definitely already know the answers to them. No, really, you do. And
One of the biggest benefits of indie publishing is the freedom it allows authors to assemble the perfect team to develop and represent their books. That includes bringing in the right editors. But what kind of editing help do you really need? You probably know that copyeditors and proofreaders can help you catch things like spelling and grammatical errors. But what about consistency and making
Lori Widmer is a fellow business writer, and one of my “go-to gals” for all conversations business or writing-related. On her Words on the Page blog, Lori encourages new and experienced writing professionals alike to realize their worth and strive for something better. Lori inspires freelance writers to pull themselves up out of the low pay rut, and to do so through better marketing and networking. Her e-book, Marketing
In our interview with Lori Widmer of Words on the Page about marketing your freelance writing services, Lori emphasized the importance of building relationships and following up with prospects. If you’re one of the many writers who are uncomfortable with the idea of marketing from a direct sales perspective, thinking about marketing in terms of relationships can help you ease into a more effective marketing strategy.
There are only a handful of freelance writing colleagues that I turn to on a regular basis to bounce ideas around. Lori Widmer is one of those writers. And one issue where I wouldn’t hesitate to consult her for advice is freelance marketing. Lori comes from a business writing background, but also pursues creative writing projects (currently focusing on poetry). She knows how to adapt
Repeat business is, in my opinion, the secret to a successful ghostwriting career. There are two reasons for this: 1. When you’re ghostwriting, you may find that you get fewer referrals since most clients don’t tell other professionals that they used your services. 2. With lengthier projects, you may not be able to take on as many clients at one time, meaning you have fewer
Whether you maintain a blog as a way to market your freelance writing services, as a way to maintain an author presence, or as its own business model, tying your blog to your larger social media presence is vital. That includes giving blog readers the opportunity to share your posts on their favorite social networks. And it involves telling readers how they can connect with
Recently we’ve been talking a lot about writing books, including Karen Wiesner’s recent release on writing fiction series. Today I’d like to delve a bit further into the decision we make as authors between pursuing a one-off novel versus looking for series potential. Both have their place. So let’s look at the pros and cons of both. Here are some of the most obvious upsides
If you want to increase the number of ghostwriting projects you take on, there are five essential guidelines that I believe you must follow. If you don’t, you will probably see your business fail. Does that sound harsh? Good, it should. Because you owe it to yourself and your clients to do this thing right so that you can keep invisibly typing far into the
Normally I post my quarterly business goals and plans at the beginning of each quarter, and I try to post a follow-up in the next update to let you know how I did. Plans always unexpectedly change in one way or another, but this past quarter might have been the worst. As you might know, I took off for an extended leave of several months
For close to two years I’ve been revamping my writing business to focus more on ghostwriting. This change in strategy has done amazing things for my career. It’s made me fall in love with freelancing all over again and helped me develop a focus, security and stability that I’d felt was lacking before. Like many freelancers, I’d always dabbled in ghostwriting. But I didn’t really
I’ve made it no secret that I’m a fan of the previous two writers’ reference books from Karen Wiesner — First Draft in 30 Days and From First Draft to Finished Novel. So I was thrilled when she sent me her most recent release for writers, Writing the Fiction Series. This was a timely read for me. I’m gearing up to take part in my first NaNoWriMo, when I’ll finish
While we’re talking to our featured guest, Karen Wiesner, this week about writing novels and planning fiction series, it seemed an appropriate time to talk about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). With NaNo just over a week away, thousands of authors and aspiring authors are getting ready to write a novel during November. Before jumping into a first draft, many writers opt to outline their
Karen Wiesner isn’t just our first featured guest here at All Freelance Writing. She is also the author of some of my favorite writing reference books. I was a huge fan of her First Draft in 30 Days in particular — a book that helped me map out my own customized book planning, outlining, and organization process. So I was thrilled when she contacted me about
I’ve never made it a secret that I’m not a big fan of NaNoWriMo. The idea of pushing myself to write on someone else’s schedule doesn’t sit well with me. And I find the whole community aspect to be possibly more distracting than helpful. Don’t get me wrong. I get why people take part every year, and if it works for them, I think that’s
As you might remember, All Freelance Writing was supposed to be nonexistent at this point. It was scheduled to be merged with two other sites and relaunched as AllFreelanceWriting.com back in July. Clearly July has passed, and this site is still here. I’ve been MIA for several months. And I’m ready to share a few updates on what’s happening and what the new plan is
While this blog is (currently) focused on freelancing writing, freelancing doesn’t make up the whole of my writing business. I also write nonfiction e-books, am (slowly) working on edits for my first print nonfiction book, write fiction for three different audiences (from short stories to a novel-in-progress), and I’m a very active Web publisher. I chose this business model for the diversity it offers —
One of the biggest complaints I hear from new freelance writers is that clients don’t seem willing to pay professional rates. Prospects are tempted by bottom-of-the-barrel offers from hobbyists, scrapers, and people who do little more than regurgitate other people’s articles. The prospect gets more content for their site for less money. The “writer” gets paid. And professionals get screwed in the deal. Let’s emphasize
There are some days when I really don’t feel like writing. But the work has to be finished anyway. Sometimes I plug away and get through the day on sheer will. Sometimes it’s more of a struggle and all I can think about is making it to quitting time. Fortunately these long, exhausting days aren’t the norm. Maybe I committed to too much because a
Note: Melissa no longer offers these services. This post remains as archived content for your reference. One of the most common questions I get as an editor is about what different types of editing there are and what each one entails. New clients aren’t always sure what level of editing they need and don’t know how to make that decision. Before you can decide between the
As a freelance writer, there is more to your success than producing high quality content. Even though you may not enjoy the sales and marketing process, it is a big part of achieving your goals. With this in mind, these three words should always be close to your heart: always be closing. In other words, you should always be ready to close a deal. You
If there was ever a piece of punctuation to give us all fits, it’s the comma. When do you use it? When are you using it too much? Do I need a comma there? Correct comma usage causes endless questions simply because there are so many rules. Let’s worry about one comma in particular – the serial, or Oxford, comma. It’s the most controversial of
Have you thought about getting into freelance blogging? Are you already a freelance blogger, but you’re struggling to find new clients? Blogging is one of my favorite projects to take on as a freelance writer. Finding clients was easy for me early on because the client base I was working with on PR writing projects also happened to have a strong need for blogging services.
One of the biggest benefits of writing for the Web is that it gives freelance writers the ability to work with clients all over the world. These days everything can be done online from invoicing to delivery. But that doesn’t mean you have to work with clients outside of your area. Some writers are more comfortable working with local clients, and that’s perfectly fine as long as
Too bad we’re not born knowing how to deal with money. If you had a financial literacy class in high school, you were pretty lucky. For many of us, much of what we know about personal finance we learned from our parents or our own mistakes. It’s not too late to learn those critical lessons you may have missed. Here are some tips on being
Lately, we have been discussing cold calling as a marketing method quite a bit. For example, my last post touched on how to discuss freelance pricing during a cold call. This time around, I want to take a closer look at when you should be making cold calls. If you are going to spend time on the phone, you might as well give yourself the