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 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
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
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
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
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
It has been my experience that as soon as “regular” people, or those that don’t have their own online businesses, find out what I do, they always want to know two things: “How do you do it all?” -and- “Can you show me how to do what you do?” Usually the second question is accompanied by some information about how great he was at writing
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 played around with AOL’s new beta content mill SEED.While I would love to tell you that I felt
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t often take on new clients because my schedule is consistently full and I’m swamped with my own projects on top of that. A potential client (Robert Schierenberg of Superior Appeals — a company dealing with property tax appeals) changed my mind about that the other day. It was the first time I stopped, thought it over, and said I’d
If you’ve been freelancing for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that work seems to come in spurts. There are certain stretches of time when you’re completely booked up and then there are times that it seems like there are no jobs out there. If your work comes in such varying cycles, your money will come in on the same cycle. There will be
In Yo’s last post, she mentioned the ups and downs freelancers face. Today I’m going to share a story that incorporates a bit of both. First, it’s an excellent case of query-free freelancing attracting more than commercial writing clients. On the other hand, it also shows how breaking one of my own rules ended up being a waste of time on a day when when
You know I’m a big advocate of query-free freelancing — helping clients find and come to you instead of the other way around. That’s especially important when it comes to finding freelance copywriting jobs. While it’s not uncommon to find regular copywriting work advertised, freelance copywriting is a different story. Yes, some of these jobs are advertised, but many are not. So how do you
Periodically I try to update you on the goings-on around All Freelance Writing. And with so much going on, now is a perfect time for an update! Here’s what you can expect during the rest of this month, in March, and through the next couple of months. February I’ll be recruiting the last of our new writers for now (we already announced that Dan Smith
It’s a funny thing really, but looking back on pregnancy it seemed like a blessedly simple time. Of course, that was before the baby came out of the tummy and started vehemently disagreeing with me all constantly, so it’s probably a matter of course. I also remember distinctly thinking during pregnancy that it was so much more challenging to work while manifesting another human than
One of the topics we cover here quite a bit is blogging. More specifically, I share tips on how to use blogging to get freelance writing jobs and how to make money blogging directly. Let’s talk more about the latter. Some writers want to make their blog a serious income stream, and others simply want to earn a little bit of money while their blog
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 going to start this week with an apology. When I try out each of these markets for freelance writers it
As freelance writers, our income is very unpredictable. We can set income goals, market ourselves, and create several income streams, but the truth is that it’s hard to say with certainty how much money we’ll make next month or six months from now. Even with contracts, clients come and go. So do the advertisers and sponsors that pay for our own blogs. A fluctuating income
I’m getting kinda tired of reading all these posts about the right and wrong way to behave as a full time writer (and apparently, I’m not the only one). I’m also curious about all these myths that we are supposed to be worried about that ultimately (in my experience anyway) do not matter. For the past two weeks I’ve seen a great number of posts
If you decided to search for freelance writing jobs right now, you would probably find thousands of them advertised. Many of those writing jobs are crap (and that’s putting it nicely) to the bulk of writers here. After all, do you want to get paid $.001 per word (yes that’s 1/10 of one cent per word)? Do you want to work for $.05 per word?