Recent Posts
Recent Posts Tagged With 'writing business'
Writing – It Pays To Get Organised
I have a system – and as a writer, I need it. When I started freelancing, it wasn’t hard to keep track of my clients – I didn’t have that many of them. Now, it’s different, and I need to be very organised to keep on top ...
Writers, Are You Working Too Hard?
Is your writing career wearing you out? How would an extra hour a day help you? New freelance writers often go through the following cycle: Take every writing opportunity that arises Write all day and all night Run out of time to spend on other aspe...
Overwhelmed by Writing Work? What Should You Do?
Being busy can be good. But being too busy can be overwhelming. It happens with freelance writing. You go from famine (a time with little work and lots of bidding and job hunting) to a sudden writing job feast and suddenly you’re stuffed to the b...
Freelancing Through The Summer Vacation
It’s summer! For most people, the summer holidays are a time to rejoice and to plan vacations, but for work at home moms with school age children, there’s often a sense of thinly veiled panic. ...Another great post from Get Paid to Write ...
Has Recession Been Good For Your Writing Business?
Late last year I wrote about Recession and the Freelance Writer. At the time, I shared my initial thoughts on how economic recession might affect freelance writers. Many of you also contributed your ...Post from: Get Paid to Write Online Has Rece...
GetAFreelancer: Final Verdict
Just over a year ago, I wrote about my initial experience using bidding site Get A Freelancer. At that time I spent about $13 to land a project worth around $750 and ......
Ten Ways To Start Your Writing Career Right
So you’re looking to get started in freelance writing? This is a favorite theme of mine and I’ve been offering advice on this topic for almost four years on this blog and longer than that offline. Here are ten things you can do to get ...
Becoming An Unlimited Freelancer
Anything that James Chartrand is involved in has to be worth a look, so the minute I heard about The Unlimited Freelancer, which he co-authored with Mason Hipp of Freelance Folder, I asked if I could review it. I’ve finally got around to rea...
Seven Steps To A Professional Bid
Bidding can be one of the hardest things to get right. Someone asked me the other day if I had a bidding template. I’ve discussed bidding before, but for those who missed it, here’s a snapshot of my approach to bidding. 1. Read The Brie...
Writer Without Portfolio
If you’re planning a writing career, then you need to have a way of showing off your work to prospective clients. Most people don’t just jump into writing; they have written all kinds of things for years and like the process enough...
Recession And The Freelance Writer
For months now, all the talk has been of recession. Everyone’s wondering how it will affect their business and freelance writers are not exempt. Some clients might have to cut back on the amount of work they outsource because their business is ...
How To Get Your Dream Client
Have you ever had a writing client that was a dream to work for? Someone who provided clear briefs, was flexible and always paid up on time? Those clients are a joy to work for and every freelancer wants more of them. I believe that with a bit of...
Personal Productivity: An Interim Report
I mentioned in my last post that I was doing something about getting organized. To help me, I’ve used two Firefox extensions, GTDInbox and Remember The Milk for Gmail. I’ve reviewed these elsewhere (links are to the reviews), but here&...
Getting Back In The Saddle
If you’re a work at home parent, as I am, then you’ve probably been making some trade-offs over the summer. It’s great to have our little darlings at home, but it’s also frustrating when we can’t work in the usual way....
Are You Too Visible?
The other day I asked whether you were invisible as a freelance writer. While invisibility is undesirable, being too visible is also a problem. What do I mean by that? Deb Ng explained it best when she said that online is forever. It’s gre...
Are You Invisible?
When I started out as a freelance writer I was invisible - and that’s not a good thing to be. At the time I had years of writing experience, published clips in magazines and years of experience teaching journalism, but no one had ever heard of ...
When Last Did You Pay Yourself?
There’s nothing like the security of having a cheque arrive every month, but when you’re a freelancer, you just don’t have that security any more. Instead, like many work at home professionals, payment for your labour may be erratic...
Are You A Team Player?
A couple of years ago, I started working with a team of writers. I had good and bad experiences with that team, and the team continued to grow. Then I realised something. It wasn’t working for me. Here’s why. I was spending more time chas...
Talk To Me, Darn It!
OK, I am peeved. Someone that I thought was reliable has let me down. Here’s the story. A client whom I’ve worked with for a couple of years (and who pays well and promptly) contacted me about a job. I explained that I couldn’t do i...
Balancing Writing Jobs
I asked my fellow Plurkers what they wanted to know about freelance writing. JHipkin asked: how you keep a balance between looking for the next job and doing a good job on the current assignment? I gave a short answer to that question (due to the 140...
The Business Of Freelance Writing
I’ve always said that if you want to make it as a freelance writer, you have to take the business side seriously. Here’s another writer who is saying the same: James Chartrand. In a guest post on Poewar, called Want to be a Freelance Writ...
Three Reasons Why Freelance Writing Rocks
Believe it or not, this started as a tweet, after a particularly good day. I was having one of those moments when I was in love with the freelance writing life, and I started thinking about what made it special. Putting that into 140 characters didn&...
How To Work With Other Writers
It happens to all freelance writers at some time. Since writers always have to plan ahead to manage their workload, they may find that a rush job comes in to disturb their well organised schedule. For example, an established client may need something...
Freelancing Gold: Referrals And Repeats
Last night, a client I hadn’t heard from in just over a year emailed me to ask about rates for a new job. This is not the first time this has happened. I get a lot of repeat business from old clients and a few referrals as well. This is a gold ...
Making Freelancing Personal
What’s your online personality? Do people really get a good idea of who you are from your site, blog and interactions in the blogosphere? I don’t often have face to face meetings any more. I talk to most of my clients by email, IM or S...
Freelance Writing Questions: How To Say Goodbye
As a freelance writer, you sometimes find yourself with a bad client relationship. It’s not that the client is bad; it’s just that you just can’t reach an understanding. You know that things are going wrong because: you thought you...
Adding Some Glue To Online Relationships
Earlier this week, I read a post on Freelance Switch about turning clients into friends. In that post, Andy Howard made the point that when you work in an office, you invite clients over for meetings all the time, so why change your habit as a freela...
Taking Criticism: Are You A Dinosaur?
A writing project got bumped back to me today (not one I’d written, but it doesn’t matter), and it got me to thinking about how writers deal with criticism. The following lines are taken from How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen...
What’s Your Long Term Career Plan?
A friend asked me the other day what my career plan was. It was a good question. Although I love what I do, and wouldn’t go back to working in an office, in another ten or 15 years, I would like my writing career to look very different. When y...
Freelance Writing Questions: How To Bid Successfully
One of the mysteries for new freelance writers is how to bid for jobs. As a new writer, you often have no idea what to charge or what clients are looking for. Sure, you can write, but bidding is about selling yourself so you can get the chance to sho...
