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.
One bit of advice I see commonly given to new Web writers (or any type of writers) is that they have to either do free projects for normally-paying clients or take on work at ridiculously low rates (like $5.00 per article) when they’re new just to build a portfolio or get references. That’s a load of garbage. If you’re really cut out to be a
Let’s talk specifically about Web content writers today, and the rights they give up when they sell their work. In many cases, when a client purchases Web content from you, their primary objective is to target search terms for traffic or online readers. Most have no use for your content beyond their websites or blogs, leaving potential non-competing reprint markets available as an additional income
After you’ve decided what type of Web writer you want to be (as in specialties and / or niches), you need to decide if you’d like to freelance in Web writing or look for a more permanent full-time Web writing job. Here are some of the benefits of each to help you decide what’s right for you: Benefits of Full-Time Web Writing as an Employee
We’ve recently completed the first two months of 2009, so I think it’s a good time to see where we all stand on our goals. What have we accomplished so far? What would we like to make more progress on in the coming month? Here’s where I stand: I’ve completed over 10,000 words of the novel – not nearly as far along as I’d like
I received the following reader question from Nina Lewis, and wanted to address it to everyone, as it’s an excellent question: “In your e-book, do you explain what kind of clients need web content? You see that is what I want to specialize in however, I am not too fond of those low-paying job boards. And I may sound naive, but established businesses already have
Whether you’re a Web content writer or a Web copywriter, specialization can be one of the biggest factors in earning a higher income from your writing. Here’s why: More Money The most important point is that most clients will pay more for a specialist than a generalist. You can specialize in niches (such as for content writers) or even in types of writing if you’re
I’m a freelance business writer, who just happens to focus on Web writing. It has its perks – perks I’ve seen echoed by quite a few other freelance writers in the same boat. But first: What are “Business Clients?” When I talk about business clients (sometimes “corporate clients” depending on your target market), I basically mean any client that’s not a “publisher client.” A publishing-focused
One of the most common questions and misunderstandings I come across with new Web writers is about Web content versus Web copy. If you want to write for the Web, it’s important to figure out what type of writer you want to be. Understanding the difference between content writing and copywriting will get you off to a good start. I’m going to over-simplify for the
In response to one of my guest posts on my blog tour last week, (pretty sure that’s where it was) someone mentioned wanting to set up a professional website to move their service listings off of their blog. In other cases, I’ve seen writers inquiring about how to take an existing static site and add a blog to it. In short, a combination of the
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last several years talking to freelance writers earning $.01 per word or even less, trying to encourage them to raise their rates and get out of their rut–the one where they want to raise rates but can’t, because there’s no time to market to a new client base when you’re cramming tons of articles into your week
Whether you’re a freelance writer or blogger, you’ve probably had to choose niches to write about at one time or another–perhaps a niche for your new blog or e-book, or choosing what topics to specialize in for client work. There are millions of niches out there that you can write about or blog about, so it always baffled me that people have a hard time
In one community I’m very active in, there’s a particular member who always gives me a good laugh (unintentionally). He repeatedly claims that the rates professional writers charge are “highway robbery,” essentially because he feels articles are easy and / or quick to write. Originally I figured he was probably just burned by a lousy writer in the past, or jealous because he can’t command
“The client is always right.” You’ve probably heard that a million times. Well guess what–you’ve also been lied to a million times. Clients make mistakes. Worse, they can occasionally become abusive. I’ve been lucky in that these types of clients have been few and far between in my career thus far. However, two colleagues recently weren’t so lucky. What’s worse is that the client /
I saw a writer’s comment on another blog yesterday where they mentioned that a client may have paid very little, but it was OK because the people there were nice (paraphrasing a bit). All I could think was “so what if they’re nice?” Look folks–it’s great when you have a good, nice client on board. Heck, I hope ALL of your clients are nice to
Every year the New Year period comes and goes so quickly, and I always regret not using that time for a heavy push. This year, I finally setup an actual plan to heavily promote my freelance writing services, e-book, and blogs, specifically through the first quarter of 2009 (and with even more emphasis on January). Here are some of the things planned (the things that
Chris Bibey wrote a great post recently about upfront payments for freelance writers. I commented there with some of my own views, and I wanted to share those comments here and get some of your thoughts on how you bill freelance writing projects. I charge all of my new clients in full up front. Most of my repeat clients also pay up front, even for
I was digging through Craigslist earlier when doing job postings here, and was reminded of a bit of a pet peeve I have. On CL in particular, you’ll see a lot of unpaid writing jobs. While I don’t agree with taking unpaid work in the vast majority of situations, I’m really not bothered that the requests are there. What does annoy the hell out of
Everyone tells you where you can look to find decent freelance writing jobs or blogging jobs. But are there any places you should forget? I think so. While I know some others won’t agree, as far as I’m concerned the following are some of the worst possible places you can look for freelance writing gigs. The List Odesk – I’m not a fan of these
Earlier this month I posted a monthly challenge – to look back on this year’s work, your goals for this year and whether or not you reached them, and to start thinking about your freelance writing career goals for 2009. I hope you were able to make some time to think about next year’s goals, or that you do soon before getting too wrapped up
Writing articles for trade magazines can be fun. In some cases, those trade magazines can pay very well, but in others (generally with smaller audiences) the pay can be downright dismal. After seeing a complaint along those lines yesterday on a writing forum, I decided to share a quick tip for how you can write for those lower-paying trade publications, and make out much better
I don’t know about you, but I generally feel pretty darn good being a freelancer. I get to set my hours, choose my projects, set my own rates, and… ouch… what’s that pain in my neck? Must be from that two-hour phone conference craning my neck yesterday. And man… that headache! Must be from staring at a computer screen without a break for 10 hours.
Earlier this month I mentioned that you should be putting together gift idea lists and related holiday posts. I realized I still hadn’t gotten around to mine, so it’s time. Here are my top ten gift ideas for freelance writers for the 2008 holiday season: Books – Sure, this is a given. Writers love books. More specifically, give them the gift of books that will
We’ve been talking lately about additional revenue streams / income sources for freelance writers (beyond client projects). So far we’ve talked about making money through blogging and flipping websites. Today we’re going to talk about earning extra income by writing e-books and reports. I’m not going to go into the “how to” of writing e-books in this post. If you decide that e-books or reports
Now I work as a full-time, Web-based freelance business writer, but that wasn’t always the case. When I first went into business for myself, I specialized in music PR – writing on the Web was something I soon after started doing on the side. But how did I go from music PR to freelance Web writing? A reader emailed me yesterday asking me to share
As a part of our series on additional and residual revenue streams for freelance writers, today we’re going to talk about flipping websites. Let’s look at how flipping websites can earn you more money in freelance writing, and what you need to do to be successful at it. Different Ways to Flip a Website There’s more than one way to flip a website. In some
The number of actual projects (or clients) I take on each month as a freelance writer can vary pretty greatly, and more clients doesn’t always mean more income (often the opposite). So I’m curious – do you seem to have a typical number of projects each month, or do you vary a lot with your freelance writing work too? In the past, I worked mostly
What do you consider “success” when it comes to your freelance writing career? I mean, is the fact that you’re a full-time freelance writer enough to make you successful? Are you a success when you can pay the bills? Are you a successful writer as soon as you land your first paying gig? What makes you feel like a success (or what would make you
Lately my work days have been so much more enjoyable than before. I get a solid 7 hours of client work and administrative stuff out the way, I’m actually taking my lunch hour for myself instead of working through it, have the energy to put a few more hours into my own projects daily, and still have time to take care of housework, working out,
A chill runs down your spine. Your palms are getting sweaty. You’ve laid it all on the line. You’ve put yourself “out there.” You want them – bad. You share the same goals and ideals. You know you’d be a compatible match. But will they say yes? Or will they reject you? No, we’re not talking about that elusive “perfect man” (or woman). Then again,
I know a few writers (and other professionals who sometimes refer writers) who charge a referral fee. I have a strict policy on not accepting referrals for freelance writing jobs that come with this kind of fee, and I never charge one. How do you feel about them? How Referral Fees Work Here’s an example of how a referral fee might work, based on a