I thought I’d kick off my new series here on All Freelance Writing with an awesome story about something that happened to me this week. I started my week by losing a $7,000 finance course writing gig. Yay me! Why am I happy? Well, because I have to be or otherwise it would mean I did something wrong. Okay, kidding. I’m happy because, from the
As a freelancer, you have to treat money a lot differently than if you were employed by a huge corporation or even a small business. Your paychecks aren’t guaranteed. No one is withholding income taxes on your behalf. You have to be much more conscious of how you’re spending the money you make and avoid costly financial mistakes than can put a halt to your
Today in our “Getting Started” series, copywriter Angela Booth will be our guest. She’ll share a bit about her own history on how she got started in copywriting and offer some advice and tips for aspiring copywriters. Do you have what it takes? Here’s what Angela had to say: On How She Started in Copywriting… “By accident. In the early 1980s I was writing romance
Every freelancer needs a real work space –a place to tackle your projects and assignments without wrestling with your child’s latest play dough creations and free from the risk of any crayon incidents on important contracts. It can be a trick to find the ideal space for a work-at-home mom or any other freelancer as many of us don’t have the luxury of our own
The internet has helped more people than ever before break into the freelance writing industry. One of the most common “online based” projects is SEO articles. These projects are also known as search engine optimized articles and keyword articles. No matter what the client calls them, the basics stay the same. How to Write SEO Articles Here are three tips for effectively writing SEO articles:
Before I was a freelance writer, I was a branch manager at a corporation. Whenever I needed something for the office, I found it in a catalog, placed an order, and welcomed the FedEx guy a few days later. Now that I’m in charge of my own office, though, those catalog prices begin to look exorbitantly expensive. Why pay over $100 for a large white
Today in our “Getting Started” series, we’ll hear from novelist, literary agent, and nonfiction author Evan Marshall. If you’d like writing fiction to be a part of your future, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better brain to pick on the topic. I’ve personally been a big fan of his Marshall Plan for Novel Writing for years (a book, workbook, and software package are all
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to writing online — specifically Web content writing. Many of these misconceptions come from the print writing side of the fence, where (while things have improved dramatically over the last few years) there’s still occasionally a feeling that Web writing just doesn’t measure up. That sentiment definitely played a role in what I’d consider
I know. It’s one of the last things you want to read about, but it’s one of the most crucial parts of freelance success. Don’t worry, you won’t read anything about cash flow statements, balance sheets, or profit/loss statements – they’re complete overkill for the average freelancer. Instead, I’m going to give you some easy-to-follow tips on managing your records throughout the month so it
Today in our “Getting Started” series, we’ll hear from Anne Wayman, a freelance ghostwriter. If you’ve considered ghostwriting books as an option for your own career, you can learn a lot from Anne. This interview is designed to serve as a starting point to tell you how she got started and offer a few tips from a pro to those of you interested in following
One of the best (and worst) things about being a freelance writer is that our schedules are our own. It’s wonderful when we get to choose when to work. It’s not so wonderful when we realize how easy it is to sometimes get sucked into distractions. Those distractions can be complete sanity-slayers when they start to interfere either with our work itself or simply our
In the many categories society assigns to mothers, the freelancing mommies have the envy of other mothers for the supposed flexibility of their schedules. Yet those envied work at home moms have another story to tell – especially when there are young children involved. Being a working mother of any caliber is tough, but when the balancing act of working at home is a free-for-all,
No doubt you’ve stumbled across a competitor at some point and thought “how is this person even in business?” Their credentials aren’t as solid as yours. Their samples are terrible (or they don’t seem to have any to speak of). Their professional site is so dated that it needed to retire a decade ago. Given those things, why are they ranking #1 in the search
Do you know that you need to work harder at marketing your freelance writing services, but maybe you’re not sure where to start? Well, we’re all about the business and marketing side of freelance writing here at AFW, and moving forward I’ll be offering Monday marketing tips to bring you new ideas each week for promoting your services. To kick us off today though, I
I haven’t had a “real” vacation in about 12 years. After college it was just about not having the money to go (nonprofit work at the time paid far from well). Then I was going through the startup phase in my business (PR firm them), so there simply wasn’t time. Then it was client issues — when you’re on retainer as a consultant, you have
Where do you draw the ethical line when it comes to taking freelance writing jobs from other writers? When do you take the gig and say “it’s just business” and when do you make a financial sacrifice for someone else? What is “Stealing” a Gig or Client? First let’s be clear about what I mean by “stealing.” I’m not talking about two writers who happen
We’re getting into the time of year (the final quarter) where I like to start looking back over the current year to set some goals for the following one. You now have enough time behind you to see the trends. Are your 2009 goals working out for you? Are things a bit sluggish? Are they better than expected? Should you tweak anything between now and
Just a quick thought / question for you today: Why is it that so many freelance writers can’t seem to grasp the concept of working smarter, not harder? Sometimes when I talk to writers or read other freelance writing blogs I feel like I’m going insane — like this is an alien concept or something. To summarize: in business it’s always better to work smarter
Do you ever have clients ask you to provide additional services with your freelance writing work — maybe article submissions, press release distribution, consulting, or something along those lines? Do you oblige, or do you stick to being “just a writer?” You probably know I used to run a PR firm. A lot of the work I did (most of it in fact) revolved around
We’ve been talking about blogging here lately — mostly how to successfully earn from your own. And that’s had me thinking about blogger personalities a bit. Let’s talk about it. Your Blogger Persona You have two basic paths you can take when it comes to blogging. You can be real or you can be fake. Sure, you could fall somewhere in between, but for the
Previously I talked about why I consider residual income sites and content mills to be bad business decisions for freelance writers. I also promised to later talk to you about how you can earn decent residual income, but by writing for yourself — your own blog. Let’s talk about that now. Why Blog for Yourself? For some reason, many writers I talk to are afraid
There aren’t many freelance writing topics that get under my skin as much as residual income sites. I’ve heard all the arguments in their favor. Hell, I’ve made those arguments in the past. But today I’m going to get real with you about residual earning, why I don’t feel it’s worth it in the vast majority of cases, and how you can earn a siginificant
Kathleen Roberts (a QFF reader) recently asked for tips on setting up an add-on domain name through Cpanel (a popular control panel used by hosting companies), setting up a WordPress installation on that domain, and then uploading and installing the Depeche WordPress theme I’m giving away free here to members (you have to be a member and be logged in to view that link’s content
I was talking to a new freelance writer recently about getting started in freelancing. One of their questions to me was about which services they should promote the most. In their case they wanted to offer both Web content and Web copywriting services. On the surface, there seemed to be three solutions: Promote the one you enjoy doing the most. Promote the one that pays
I’m not sure why, but some freelance writers I know seem to treat clients as though they’re some mythical creature who, once caught, should be worshipped in some way. Don’t get me wrong. You should be good to your clients. But there’s a fine line between being good to them while being responsible in your work and idolizing them to the point where you can’t
I stumbled across a comment recently where someone said blog posts should be objective and not based on opinions. I found that odd. After all, opinions are what make blogs blogs. Remember they were originally started as more of a journal than an educational tool. The content has morphed from personal blogs to a wider variety or topics including business and niche blogs. Let’s look
Today I’m going to give you a quick tip for better query-free freelancing: give things away for free! People love freebies. If they feel they’ll get something for nothing, they’ll often stop and take notice even if they would have otherwise passed you by. Freebies are especially important during growth phases where you’re trying to expand your visibility or reach within your target market. To
Don’t lie when you’re looking for freelance writing work, whether you’re advertising your services or responding to the ad of a prospective client. It’s common sense, right? Yet freelance writers lie all the time. Now I’m not suggesting you lie, but I’d like to look at some of the more common types of lies I’ve seen from writers and why you should never consider it,
I’m going to be bad today and challenge you to do something that I won’t be doing myself. I’m challenging you to stop working at the end of your normal work day. No working late. No squeezing something else in, as so often happens in freelance writing. Don’t even check your work email. Enjoy your Friday evening, instead of bringing in the weekend on a
Yesterday I challenged you to find new ways to write down your ideas so they don’t simply become fleeting thoughts. A couple of people responded on Twitter to say that they already write their ideas down — the execution is what they struggle with. So today let’s talk about that. It’s time to dust off one of your old ideas! The Challenge Today I want