When it comes to writing for print you will often hear people say “study the magazine” before you submit. So what exactly does that mean? This is a big issue for many new writers, and I know that I did it totally wrong when I first began freelancing. Let me help you avoid some of the pitfalls, by pointing out how to use your time efficiently when reviewing a
Note: This post originally appeared at FreelanceTheater.com on February 9, 2010. The Freelance Theater audio play series is now a part of All Freelance Writing. One of the sometimes best / sometimes worst aspects of freelancing is how much time you’ll spend working alone. While it can be nice to avoid the politics and drama of a traditional office environment, there is also no 5pm
As you may have noticed by now, I am in the guy at All Freelance Writing who talks about marketing. While most of my posts are tips and how-to articles, I wanted to give some “first hand experience advice” this time around. Last week, I decided to make 25 cold calls to local businesses. Gasp! I am sure some of you get scared even thinking
Today marks the start of our new Freelance Fitness series here on All Freelance Writing. This is where I’ll be sharing some of my own workout-related updates to show you that you’re not alone in trying to beat the bad health habits freelancing can sometimes lead to. Once per month we’ll talk about workouts tailored to freelance writers, and once per month we’ll share recipes
Note: This post originally appeared at FreelanceTheater.com on October 30, 2009. The Freelance Theater audio play series is now a part of All Freelance Writing. 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.
In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. A couple of weeks ago I told you about an experiment I was trying with Associated Content’s residual earnings plan. I
If you want to create a business plan for your freelance writing business, publishing business, or blogs, you might feel overwhelmed by traditional long-form business plans. If that sounds like you, you might enjoy this free one page business plan template I created as a part of my former Web Writers’ Guide e-book. You can use this one page business plan template (in .pdf format)
In last month’s post, I explained how to build an L-shaped desk based on a project I carried out several years ago. The reason I built my own desk, apart from the fact that I needed a separate writing space was that I was in the same boat as a lot of new freelancers and money wasn’t as flush as it could have been. Not
I haven’t logged into TurboTax since the beginning of February, when that big red $1,254 showed up on the screen. I knew I would have a tax bill this year and set aside some money for it every month. I’m not ready to give up that much money yet so I’m holding out as long as possible. But for the sake of argument, let’s talk
I’ve been certified as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher for at least six years (I’ve lost track of the official date on that certificate), and in that time I’ve worked primarily with those whose first language is Spanish. I’m not bilingual, which is a common misconception about ESL teachers. Instead I use special methods along with the English language to help students
I have taken a secret lover. Now, I don’t want my hubby to know because it would devastate him, so I’m only going to tell you guys. The name of my secret lover? Elance. I know, I know, it’s weird. Before I did the Elance experiment for AFW, I never really considered Elance a real place to work. Through the experiment, Elance and I had
For quite some time, I’ve planned to cut down my work schedule to a four-day work week. I never seem to get around to it though. Whenever I free up the time, either I have a new project to work on during those hours or a client wants to start on a big contract that I suddenly have some free hours for. So the schedule
Not only is it hard for people to articulate what I do, but they often don’t believe it’s a worthwhile undertaking. I’m a freelance copywriter – a “real job” by most people’s standards once they know what it actually is, but it’s often referred to as “that writing thing you do.” Whatever. I can handle the confusion, but for every person who can’t seem to
I’ve mentioned before that middlemen clients — SEO firms, marketing firms, etc. — are some of my favorite types of clients to work for. They bring a group of their own clients to your door which saves on marketing time for you, and they tend to bring in bigger orders than most single clients. They also often go for regular monthly work rather than short-term
At least once per week I receive an email asking the same question: Chris, how much time per day do you spend on marketing? This is a very important question, but for the most part it is one that does not have a “set” answer. Everyday is different in terms of marketing. For instance, one day I may send three query letters but the next
Disjointed thought #1: Marketplace Reviews Update Lately, I haven’t had any marketplace reviews for you, so I thought I’d at least let you know what’s going on with my research. Here are some future articles for that series and a little information about them: The Associated Content Residual Earnings Test: Last week, I read an article by Jennifer Claerr about how she made $573.26 in
Today I’d like to talk about blog comment etiquette — some dos and don’ts I guess you could say when it comes to commenting on others’ blogs. This issue comes to mind periodically regarding over-linking, but I never considered it worth its own post. Lately though, I’ve been seeing more commenters on various blogs of mine getting flagged as spam by default, so maybe it’s
Reading Yo’s last post about accountability really got me to thinking, “Are people having financial trouble because they failed to take ownership of their finances?” Could that one word – ownership – have prevented the entire mortgage meltdown and subsequent recession? Taking ownership of your freelance finances means charging a rate you can live on. It means managing the money you have and storing the
I’m on a diet. Have been for, oh, about 7 weeks now. I’ve lost 7 pounds. Yeah, no, trust me, I’m going somewhere with this. The reason I’m on a diet is because I have an accountability problem when it comes to food. Generally when I want to eat something bad I come up with some kind of reason that I should eat it. “I
If you blog, you’ll likely come across at least one content thief in the process. They’ll take your articles (usually in full) and they’ll publish them on their own sites so they can either monetize your work or use it to build their own false authority. As someone who makes a living from writing, I find content theft infuriating. I’m also the wrong person to
To continue in my (very short) series of common questions asked of a freelancing mom, I’ll now reveal my true personality. It’s not very pretty – really, I know that. But this mom isn’t really that soft and gentle when she’s not dealing with her own children. It’s the most common question asked of freelance writers around the world that gets under my skin. “Will
Imagine this: you have been relying on the same marketing plan for several months or longer. Everything you do, for the most part, has been working. But out of nowhere you hit a snag and now nothing is breaking your way. What are you going to do? If your marketing plan begins to fail, don’t panic. Instead, follow these steps: Don’t abort what has worked
First let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Catherine–and the plan is for me to share some information with you about my experience with writing for print. I have been a full-time writer for many years, and have had my writing published in national, regional and trade magazines, as well as newspapers, books and custom publications. I have also written text for calenders and
You might have already seen our free keyword density analyzer — the latest free online tool for freelance writers. Today I want to talk about some of the quirks and offer some tips on how to use it. Word Counts If you use the tool to track your word count, there are a few things you should know: You get to choose the number of
WARNING: This post is very negative because I was an angry elitist when I wrote it so I fully expect a bunch of haters to come out of the woodwork and say negative things about me, thereby showing what negative, angry elitists they are themselves. Did the warning above sound kinda circular in its logic when you first read it? Okay, good—it should. If you
Slow paying clients are a PITA and the wallet. Fortunately, all of my current clients pay promptly, but I have had clients who were slow to follow up on invoices. It’s annoying when your bills are coming due in a few days. It’s infuriating when your bills were due last week. It’s critical to keep the money coming in on a steady basis and to
When I first started freelancing, I realised that my productivity decreased if I were working from my laptop in a room where there were distractions of some sort. Whether it was the TV, radio, girlfriend or cats, I found that I was producing more work on a quicker basis when I was alone. So, mixing my passion for DIY with my need for a separate
In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. When I was eight, I frequently wore a single, sequined glove and I took break dancing lessons. I was in love
Diversify, diversify, diversify! If you haven’t gotten that message here over the years, it might never sink in, but I’m going to say it again anyway. DIVERSIFY! Normally we talk about diversifying your freelance writing business in a specific way, by creating your own residual revenue streams such as money-making blogs and e-books. We even give you tools to help you accomplish those goals like
I like our current blog design a lot, but I’m still going to be implementing some changes in coming weeks. I want to optimize our load time by cutting down on some of the images, and I’ll be tweaking fonts, colors, etc. a bit (the general color scheme won’t change). I don’t feel like dealing with a complete overhaul, so the site structure will stay