Browse the All Freelance Writing collection of freelance business articles below.
This section covers the business side of freelance writing, from finding better clients and choosing a specialty to setting rates, growing income, and making smarter decisions about how you work.
Whether you’re just getting started or trying to strengthen an established business, these posts focus on practical realities, not vague freelance motivation.
Have you ever created a business plan? If so, you know how difficult it can be. In fact, I personally believe that these are among the most difficult freelance writing projects. That being said, you don’t want to pass these gigs by if they interest you and you have the experience to deliver. As strange as it may sound, there are many organizations that hire
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. This week, I did some work with Demand Studios. I have a very long history with Demand Studios. As many readers
Let’s talk about credit for freelance writers. Having good credit is important for freelancers because our income is scrutinized a lot harder when we apply for credit cards and loans. Because a freelancer writer’s income is somewhat less predictable and harder to prove than that of a full-time employed worker, we need to have a solid credit history to help get approved for credit card
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. The Background on Textbroker When you write for the content mill known as Textbroker, you are ghostwriting for individual clients. You’ll
Thanks to Thursday Bram for bringing this story to my attention. I don’t think it’s any secret that I despise oDesk. Why? Because they not only allow, but encourage, clients to cross the employer / client line with their software that lets clients actually watch you work, while you’re working from your own machine in your own home, etc. I’m not going to get into
When you hear the phrase “nickel and dime” chances are that you think of being a buyer — asked to pay for ridiculous little add-ons to a product of service, greatly increasing the overall price. Can you also be nickel and dimed as a freelancer? Absolutely. How Freelance Clients Might Try to Nickel and Dime You As a freelance writer, you probably either give a
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. I’m depressed. Yes, yes, I know this isn’t LiveJournal but still…depressed. Huh? What? Tear myself away from this jelly doughnut and
Here at All Freelance Writing we talk a lot about freelance writing rates and being paid what you’re worth. Our primary mission is to help writers who want to grow and improve their freelance writing careers. But wanting to earn more isn’t enough. You have to deserve it. Feeling that you’re worth more is only half of the battle. Don’t get me wrong. It’s important.
The two things I loathe about a freelancer’s finances are health insurance and income taxes. I thought I hated paying taxes when I worked full-time for someone else. Seeing the money that was taken out of my paycheck was depressing. I didn’t know how good I had it. Paying tax as a freelancer is even worse. Not only do we pay more taxes, we have
In September I bought an “Individual” membership plan on Elance. The cost was $9.95 and with it I received 20 bright and shiny proposal credits. When you bid on jobs at Elance it costs you anywhere from 1-3 of these juicy credits (Elance actually calls them “connects” but I’m going to continue to call them credits because…well…that’s what I think they should be called). A
It’s funny, really, that the toughest year of my maternal life was the one I thought would be the easiest. I spent a year finishing my Masters, teaching every day and writing every night. In my spare time I raised a toddler while I worked on growing his younger brother. That was the year before the hardest year. During those seemingly hard months, I dreamed
If you’re anything like me, your office is a tiny cell of a room where there’s barely enough room for your bed and your fainting couch, and opening the filing cabinet can turn into an acrobatic feat. When saddled with limited office space, its time to think vertical and utilize your wall space. This month’s freelancer DIY project is how to hang shelves. Even if
This week our “Getting Started” series post is a bit later than usual due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the U.S. We’re kicking things off with a bang though, as we welcome Linda Formichelli! Linda will talk about getting started as a freelance magazine writer. It’s a topic we don’t touch on very often here at All Freelance Writing since my own career is
One of the most lucrative projects for freelance writers is writing feature articles. Of course, this is not always true. There are some clients that don’t pay as much as the industry average; this is to be expected. But overall, I have found that writing feature articles is a great way to increase income while having a great time along the way. For the sake
As many of you know, I got my start in online freelance writing with residual sites, content mills and cheap SEO content. The lowest I was ever paid was .01 per word—and I thought that was perfectly fine. The blogs I frequented at the time gave me no inkling that there was a bigger, better world out there for someone without a degree, no formal
I know what you’re thinking, Ugh. Budgeting. The only thing worse than budgeting is licking sandpaper. As boring as it feels, budgeting is especially critical for you as a freelance writer, because your income is less predictable. Creating a budget takes just three steps: totaling your monthly income, subtracting your expenses, and adjusting your budget based on the result. You’ll create your budget using the
In this week’s installment of our “Getting Started” series, we’ll hear from Christa Miller on what it’s like to start writing for trade publications. One of my own favorite projects is ghostwriting client features for trades. Interested in breaking into the style, either ghosting or by-lined? Christa offers some tips help you get there. Here’s what she had to say: On How She Started Writing
How would you feel about having your freelance writing schedule booked weeks or months in advance? Do you wish you had the luxury to be more selective in the freelance writing jobs you take on, able to turn down anything that doesn’t appeal to you? Plenty of freelancers are already in that boat, myself included. It’s a great place to be, but a reader brought
If you ask a mother who has transitioned to working at home what she misses the most, you’ll get a variety of responses, but a similar theme throughout would be the lack of freedom that she enjoyed working in an office — ironic to the those desperate to leave the office, but very real indeed to the women who have made a private sacrifice to
For many, writing sales letters is more than just another project – it is a lot of fun. There are many types of freelance writing jobs, but over the years I have enjoyed sales articles the most. There is something about writing compelling copy that is meant to “draw in” the reader that gets my blood flowing. Of course, writing a successful sales letter is
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. And that can lead to costly money mistakes. 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
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
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