Freelance Business

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.

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Freelance Writers: How to Make Your Own "Dumb Luck"

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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 "Steal" Gigs From Other Freelance Writers?

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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

Where is Your Freelance Writing Career Going?

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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

Freelance Writers: Why It's Better to "Work Smarter"

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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

Freelance Writing Add-On Services: Should You Offer Them?

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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

Freelance Writers: A Real Look at Residual Income

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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

Which Freelance Writing Services Should You Promote Most?

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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

Freelance Writers: Don't be Afraid to Talk to Your Clients

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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

Freelance Writers: Don't Lie

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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,

Freelance Writer Challenge: Give Yourself a Break

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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

Freelance Writer Challenge: Don't Let Your Good Ideas Go to Waste

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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

Freelance Writer Challenge – Write Down Your Ideas

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Do you ever feel like you have so many ideas in your head that you don’t know what to do with them? Well then write them down! Perhaps you already do, but is your note-taking, idea-hoarding method really working well for you? Or do you manage to lose those notes anyway, making them useless for bringing those ideas back to life later on? Thanks to

Freelance Writer Challenge – Reset Your Alarm

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If you’re anything like me, you probably wish there was a little more time in a day. It sometimes seems like you just can’t squeeze everything in. What if there was a solution? How much more could you do if you found just one more hour in a day? I’d like to see you find out! The Challenge When you go to bed tonight, set

Freelance Writer Challenge – Make More Money

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Do you sometimes feel like your rates are too low? Are you afraid to increase them? When you earn a living as a freelance writer, you get to set your rates. You decide how much you’ll earn. But sometimes writers lack confidence. They worry that clients won’t think they’re worth what they want to charge. Not true (unless you’re insane and you think you’re going

Freelance Writers: 3 Tips for Taking Your Life Back

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Freelance writing is a great career. You have a lot of freedom you wouldn’t have in other lines of work. But with that freedom often comes mental overdrive. Sometimes we work too hard. I think it has to do with the “feast or famine” mentality of freelancing. When work is coming in, we might feel like we should say “yes” to everything offered, because we

2009 Freelance Writing Goals: Mid-Year Check-in

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At the beginning of the year, we tend to set our freelance writing goals, or resolutions. But sometimes we take a set it and forget it approach. Now that we’re in July, we’re a bit more than half-way through the year. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the progress we’ve all made so far. Take a look at some of

Is the Freelance Writing Market in Piss-Poor Shape?

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I came across an article called “The Reason Freelance Writing is in Such Piss-Poor Shape” on TumbleMoose.com. In it, he claims that freelance writing is in bad shape because of sites like Elance where the so-called global market leads to extremely low bidding (making it hard for other writers to earn a decent living). While these kinds of thoughts are common, they’re not exactly correct.

How Not to Hire Freelance Writers

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On Mondays I usually post a list of freelance blogging jobs here. Today though I found myself somewhat disgusted by the blogging jobs I found. Based on those ads and their requirements, I wanted to offer a few tips for those considering hiring freelance writers. Here’s what you should not do in your job ads (and why): Don’t ask for custom samples unless you’re paying

To Query or Not to Query: Part Six

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Today we’re finishing up our interview series with our guests: Chris Bibey, Angela Booth, Jenna Glatzer, Kristen King, Allena Tapia, and Anne Wayman. I asked each guest to share some parting words of wisdom or advice for other freelance writers. I hope you’ll find it a fitting close to our series. Here’s what they had to say: Chris Bibey 1. Be willing to speak with

To Query or not to Query: Part Five

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This week we’ll be finishing our series with successful freelancers, where we’ve been talking about queries, platforms, and finding freelance writing jobs. A major aspect of query-free freelancing is building a writer platform–your visibility and demand. There are many possible elements to a writer platform such as blogs, a professional website, published books, microblogging (Twitter), and speaking engagements. (If you’d like more examples, check out

To Query or Not to Query: Part Four

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In part three of our series, our guests told you flat out what they thought of querying, and how important they considered the query process in building freelance writing careers. Before that, we found out how our guests land most of their freelance writing jobs these days. And today we’ll turn back the clock and find out how each of these writers landed gigs during

Specializing in Article Writing – Where to Begin

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Today I’d like to answer a series of questions sent to me by Matt on a webmaster forum I frequent, where I often talk about freelance writing issues. I hope my advice to Matt helps other new freelance writers out there. I’ve broken his message into several parts to make things easier. Note: Where you see references to “DP” we’re talking about the DigitalPoint forums.

To Query or Not to Query: Part Three

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In the second part of our series, our guests shared with you the type of writing they most often do for clients and how they personally get most of their freelance writing jobs. I hope you’ll notice the recurring mentions of things like repeat work and referrals. No matter how you choose to start out, these are the kinds of things you should always strive

To Query or Not to Query: Part Two

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In part two of our interview series with successful freelancers, we'll take a look at the different types of writing they do and how they personally land most of their writing gigs. Why is this important? As I mentioned previously, query-free freelancing isn't the only option available to you as a freelance writer. While the Web 2.0 world makes it much easier for new writers to build a platform and their visibility early on, other tactics still have a place. You'll get a glimpse of what other pros are doing, and how some things changed over the years for a few of them.

It's also important that you understand queries or query-free approaches to freelancing can vary depending on the type of writer you are. For example, query letters will have a larger role in freelance magazine writing than they would on the Web. On the other hand cold call pitching might work in commercial writing, but it might annoy editors with national publications.

I'm regularly asked how writers earning decent rates find their gigs (or where they find their gigs). For me it's the query-free approach where my clients most often find me. I understand that alone isn't very helpful for a new writer. Our guests come from a mix of backgrounds, from ghostwriting books to writing for corporate clients, and here they share how they find new work.

Let's get to it. I asked our guests what types of projects they most often take on for clients and how they land most of their freelance writing jobs. Here's what they had to say:

To Query or Not to Query: That’s a Question for the Pros!

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I announced previously that we would be hosting a sort of round table interview series here with successful freelance writers to discuss querying, platforms, networking, and the process of landing gigs. While I fully support the query-free way of doing business because of my own background, I know it’s not the only way to manage your freelance writing career, and I’ll never pretend here that

Land More Freelance Writing Jobs by Questioning Your Clients

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Do you spend enough time questioning your clients (and prospective clients)? You should! No. I’m not suggesting that you get into a spat with a client about how they want you to handle a project. I’m talking about good old fashioned information-gathering. If you spend some time looking at public responses to job ads from writers (bidding sites, forums, etc.), you would notice a common

How to Get Freelance Writing Referrals Even if You're New

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New freelance writers have a lot on their minds. More experienced writers often tell them that they need to build a presence, start networking, and focus on getting referrals instead of simply searching job boards (the best gigs are rarely found on job boards). But they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to wait a few weeks to a few months to have

"Web Content Writing" Is Not a Dirty Word

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Yikes. Can you believe there are still people out there who think “Web content writing” is nothing more than the garbage $5 and under gigs involving poor English and rehashed articles? I guess I thought we were beyond that, but I came across a post somewhere earlier today (can’t remember what it was I was reading) which lumped “Web content writing” in with things like

Write for Magazines Without Writing for Magazines

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I’ve shared this tip with freelance writers at All Freelance Writing previously, but it’s worth mentioning again here. If you’re open to the idea of ghostwriting, and you’d like to write print features, you can do it query-free. Really. No pitching of publications required at all (not on your end at least). How? This strategy works best for writers working with commercial clients (especially PR

Freelance Writer Business Plans: How In Depth Should They Be?

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When you first launched your freelance writing career, did you compile a business plan or marketing plan? Do you update it every year? How in-depth are your plans? Do You Need a Business Plan at All? I’m a big believer in research and planning. Without it, it’s impossible to make decisions that are going to give you the best return on the time or money

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