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Tag: freelance writing

  • 4 Reasons Your Low Freelance Writing Rates are a Terrible Idea

    4 Reasons Your Low Freelance Writing Rates are a Terrible Idea

    When you begin your freelance writing career, it can be difficult to set yourself apart and build your book of clients.

    Your desire to get started and earn a steady stream of income can be overwhelming, which leads many freelancers to fall into a costly trap: Competing for business based on price.

    It’s true that some of the most powerful businesses in the world make their bread and butter by competing on price. Think of Walmart, or Amazon, or McDonald’s. But these are major corporations that can turn pennies into billions of dollars based on sales volume.

    As a single freelancer, there are only so many hours in the day you can work.

    You don’t have the luxury of turning small profits on a huge volume of jobs. You want large profits on a low volume of projects.

    You need to build a business that competes on quality instead of price.

    But why is it so dangerous to focus on a low price? After all, offering quality work at a low rate can make you extremely popular with clients, the same way that quality cars sold at a low price will draw in customers.

    Here are four pricing issues to watch out for as you build your freelance writing career.

    1. You can’t always be “on”

    The biggest reason why don’t want to compete on price is simple arithmetic.

    If you work 40 hours at $20 an hour, you earn $800. If you work for $50 an hour, you only have to 16 hours to earn the same amount.

    Sometimes freelancers don’t realize how consuming your work can become. At a typical office job, you leave your work at the office and have a clear delineation between work and home.

    For freelancers, that line blurs. Can’t sleep at night? May as well work on that project. Need to run to the grocery store in the middle of the day? You’ll just catch up on work this evening.

    The result is an “always on” mentality for freelancers where you’re never off the clock. But if you charge more, then you don’t have to work the traditional 40-hour (or 50-60 hour) workweek.

    Instead, you can have the freedom of lifestyle that draws many people to freelancing in the first place.

    2. You are worth more than you think

    It’s not just a self-esteem booster: You are worth more than you think.

    Consider a company that wants a copywriter to write a new ebook. It has two routes to take. It can either make a new permanent hire, or can hire a freelancer for the project.

    A new hire comes with the costs of a salary, health insurance, a 401(k), Social Security, paid vacation, office space, a computer, training and even a Christmas gift at the company party.

    Freelancers come with none of the extra baggage. So when you’re bidding on a job, think of those expenses to the company. After all, you have to pay for those things. You should be bidding an amount that covers all your expenses, plus an extra charge for the convenience of the company not having to bring on a full-time employee.

    Don’t be shy about your prices. Remember, people are willing to pay for what they value.

    3. You’ll never win the low-price game

    The ugly truth about competing on price is that you will never, ever win. There will always be someone willing to do the job for cheaper than you.

    A person pitching in New York can be underbid by someone in Kansas. Someone in Kansas can be underbid by someone overseas. And someone overseas can be underbid by a person willing to do the project for free because they want the experience.

    That’s not to say you won’t ever get a job. You will. In fact, you’ll find plenty of work. But over time, you’ll find yourself in a spiral of continually having to lower the price you’re willing to take if you compete on this end of the spectrum. Instead, you want to set your prices based on the value you bring to the job.

    4. Your cheap clients won’t be worth your time

    We’ve all had difficult clients: Those people who don’t clearly articulate what they want, but know what you produced isn’t it.

    There’s no evidence that clients who pay less are more trouble than those that pay higher rates. But it’s simple logic that those clients paying less are worth much less of your time when they do cause issues.

    Any bid you make on a project should be done so with the knowledge that you will have to go back and tweak things. The catch is that if you compete on price, those revisions eat into your already thin margins.

    It’s easy to see that getting materials just right for a client and ensuring they are happy is no longer worth your time. You want to build a client base where no matter how much you have to adjust, tweak or revise your work, it will still be wildly profitable for you to work with them.

    Have you learned similar lessons trying to compete on price? How did you adjust your business model?

  • 4 Ways to Manage Freelance Writing During the Holidays

    4 Ways to Manage Freelance Writing During the Holidays

    Who else takes freelance work home over the holidays?

    Since freelancers can work from anywhere, it often means that we have the luxury of spending more holiday time with family than our traditionally-employed peers who have to be back at work on Monday morning.

    Of course, we usually have to work on Monday morning too. Family members don’t always understand that just because you’re home for the holidays doesn’t mean you’re on vacation.

    How do you manage these expectations and ensure that your work gets done while keeping both clients and extended family happy?

    I’m coming up on my fourth year of holiday freelancing, so here’s my guide to getting it all done while also catching up with family and friends.

    1. Start with communication

    The easiest way to manage expectations is to communicate them. Tell your family members that you’re excited to see them this holiday season, and that you’re going to be spending part of your time working.

    Present this as a positive: Because you’re a freelancer, you have the opportunity to earn money and maintain your client relationships while still getting to see family for the holidays. Other people in the workforce don’t have this luxury.

    Once you’ve established that you’re going to work during part of your holiday visit, it’s time to communicate the boundaries of your workday. I often say, “I need to check in with clients in the morning, and I need to answer emails and turn in a few pieces. I’ll be available for holiday and family stuff after lunch.” You might also say something like “I need to spend most of Thursday working on freelance stuff, but I’ll be available to visit Grandma with you on Thursday evening, and I’ll also be available all day Friday.”

    Make these boundaries known early. Let your family know as soon as possible when you plan to be focusing on work along with which periods of time you’ve reserved for them.

    By communicating early, everyone can prepare for temporary schedule changes.

    2. Batch your workload

    If your typical freelance workday includes a lot of puttering around and chatting on social networks between writing pieces, it’s time to hunker down and focus.

    Try to batch your workload into small, distinct time blocks: 8 a.m. to noon on weekdays, for example.

    You need to avoid as much procrastination as possible to get your work done in a pre-defined time block. If you like to take 20-minute breaks between writing sprints, for example, you may need to cut that down to five-minute breaks. You don’t want to hear a disappointed family member say “I thought you were working!” when they catch you watching YouTube.

    If you can’t get all of your work done during the time blocks you’ve set for yourself, consider working a few extra hours after everyone else has gone to bed or before they wake up. I’ve gotten a lot of work done on family trips by staying up late or setting my alarm a little early.

    Pay attention to your family’s schedule to find the optimum time to work.

    Is your family the kind that likes to spend an hour or two after lunch relaxing in front of the TV? That might be your ideal work time. Have a parent who likes to spend the hour before dinner cooking up an elaborate meal? Grab your laptop and answer emails from the kitchen island. It’s like you’re getting work done together!

    3. When you’re not working, be present

    We all know you’re not going to turn your phone off when your freelance work is done. You could, however, put it in your pocket — or at least turn off email notifications.

    When you tell your family that you’ll be available for certain activities, be present. I’ll be the first to admit it’s hard. I have definitely been the person sending emails during a family hike because something came up with one of my clients. But do your best to work when you’re supposed to work, and put work away when you’re not working.

    Consider it the other side of the “I thought you were working!” argument. Try to avoid the distractions of the Internet when you’re getting work done — and then avoid the distractions of the Internet when you’re with your family!

    4. You don’t have to do everything

    Family and clients often come with similar pressures: You have to do everything, or else you’re not part of the team.

    It’s OK to say no, to both your family members and to your clients. It’s OK to tell your family that you can’t play Monopoly after dinner because you have to finish a freelance assignment, or that you’d like to get some work done while they pick out the Christmas tree — but you’ll be ready to help them decorate it!

    It’s also OK to tell a client that you can’t take on a specific assignment because you’ll be visiting your family. Or, you can ask for a deadline that falls after the holidays. You are not required to be available at all times. Many freelancers forget this, including me.

    Setting boundaries with yourself, your family and your clients — and then taking the time to communicate those boundaries — is the key to having a happy holiday while also getting your freelance work done.

    Remember, you are an adult with a real job, and you have the right and the responsibility to manage that job effectively during the holiday season.

    Then enjoy that extra piece of pie, because you’ve earned it.

    How do you manage your workload during the holiday travel season? Do you have tips for setting expectations with both clients and family?

  • Can You Overcome These 3 Paralyzing Freelance Writing Fears?

    Can You Overcome These 3 Paralyzing Freelance Writing Fears?

    I am officially free.

    In just the past four months, I started my own freelance copywriting business and began making enough money to quit my job and support my wife and three young kids.

    Now, granted, we’re not rolling in the cash, Scrooge McDuck-style. Yet.

    And I didn’t just get here by some random chance.

    Quitting my job and launching full time into freelance writing required that I conquer three specific fears.

    Fears that had the potential to hold me back. Fears that could limit what I could accomplish. Fears that could sink me.

    If you’re going to live the writing life, you also have to overcome these fears.

    So, at the risk of sounding too much like one of those cheesy motivational posters, let me share with you how I overcame these fears as I began my freelance writing career.

    Fear of rejection

    Every person fears rejection, and writers are particularly vulnerable to this fear. After all, we pour ourselves into what we write. Then we hand the projects off to other people for evaluation. For scrutiny. For criticism.

    At the risk of over-dramatization, we bare our souls.

    When I first launched my copywriting business, I was scared pantsless (in a mostly figurative way) of rejection.

    Being a freelance writer means applying for lots of different jobs on lots of different sites. Applying for lots of different jobs inevitably means you’ll get turned down more than a turtleneck on a nerd.

    And I was rejected. Quite often, actually.

    But here’s what I discovered: Rejection’s not such a big deal.

    I know. Crazy, right?

    I discovered that for every person who rejected me, there was another person who needed what I had to offer. For every, “No thanks,” there was another, “Actually, you’re exactly what we’re looking for.”

    And that’s how it goes with writing, right? You can’t please everybody.

    Some people love Stephen King, other people hate him.

    Some people adore Jane Austen, while others, like myself, would rather be beaten with an old Nintendo Power magazine than read her books.

    Some love J.K. Rowling, while… OK, everyone loves J.K. Rowling. You get the point.

    A large part of my success is due to the fact that I overcame my fear of rejection. If someone doesn’t like me, I simply move one without a second thought.

    The faster I move on, the faster I find someone who really loves my writing style and method.

    All great artists deal with rejection. Stephen King’s first book, Carrie, was rejected 30 times before being published.

    George Orwell’s Animal Farm was rejected with the comment, “It’s impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.”

    [bctt tweet=”The key to success as a freelance writer is overcoming your fear of rejection.”]

    You’re going to be rejected, but it’s really OK. You don’t have the skills everyone wants, but you have the skills some people need, and that’s enough to make a living.

    Fear of conflict

    Most people think writing is pure art. Writers peck away at our keyboards while sipping on green tea in our brightly lit loft apartments.

    This is complete and total nonsense.

    Writing is just as much business as it is art, with good times as well as bad, and business always involves some conflict. If you don’t have the stomach for conflict, you should probably choose another profession.

    If you’re going to make it as a freelance writer, you absolutely must overcome fear of conflict. You’ve got be able to wheel and deal. To even fight, sometimes.

    Why? Because even with the best clients, freelancing always involves negotiating. You’ve got to negotiate rates, deadlines and a thousand other little details that go into each project.

    If you’re afraid of conflict, you’ll let your client win all of the negotiations. If your client wins all of the negotiations, you’ll end up with less money, less time and less happiness. If that’s not a recipe for total and abject misery, I don’t know what is.

    How do you overcome your fear of conflict?

    By remembering your value.

    You’re a not a temp who can be bought for a miniscule sum and treated like garbage. You’re a professional writer.

    You bring significant value to anyone who wants to hire out your services. If they don’t want to pay you what you’re worth, you can find plenty of other work.

    Don’t be afraid of conflict. Don’t be afraid of negotiating to get what you’re worth. If you want to make it as a freelance writer, you must overcome fear of conflict.

    Fear of mistakes

    I’ve written approximately 4,000 words already today, and it’s only 2:30 p.m. Assuming I write approximately 5,000 words per day, that equals between 25,000 and 30,000 per week. That’s roughly a 350-page novel every month.

    Holy crap, I write a lot!

    I don’t work for a content mill. I’m not churning out articles for $15 a pop.

    I just write a lot. Fast. Which is why my clients pay me well. I can turn around a lot high-quality material for them in a short period of time.

    But with that amount of output, I’ve had to completely obliterate my fear of mistakes. Yes, I’m a writer, and as a writer, I create art.

    But I can’t be a perfectionist about my art. I can’t obsess over a single word choice or spend hours sweating over a paragraph. And I can’t proofread 20 times before I send something off.

    I’ve got to create quickly and effectively.

    Inevitably, it at means I’ll make mistakes in my writing. At some point, “fat” will become “fart.”

    But I’m OK with mistakes. I realize that might sound like heresy to some, but it’s something I’ve come to terms with. I will make mistakes. I am not perfect.

    So how have I overcome my fear of mistakes?

    It’s pretty simple. At the very beginning of every client interaction (in the negotiation stage), I make one thing very clear: I expect clear communication from both parties.

    If I produce a mistake or something they don’t like, the client needs to be open and clear about it. If they do something that doesn’t sit well with me, I’ll also be open and clear about it.

    We keep clear lines of communication, which in turn allows me to deliver quickly and also be confident that they’ll alert me to any problems.

    I’ve overcome my fear of mistakes by setting up clear boundaries in my client relationships.

    As former President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” This is rubbish. I can think of lots of other things to fear, like rodents of unusual size and a new One Direction album.

    But fear of rejection, conflict and mistakes can quickly derail your freelance business and ruin your dream of living the writing life.

    Take control. Take charge. Conquer your fears and launch.

    What have you done to overcome your freelance writing fears?

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

  • 3 Ways You’re Probably Sabotaging Your Freelance Writing Business

    3 Ways You’re Probably Sabotaging Your Freelance Writing Business

    In freelancing, all your fears come true.

    Afraid you won’t be able to command high rates for your work? You’re right. Worried that you won’t get paid on time (or ever)? Right again. Think there’s a shortage of good clients? Correct-a-mundo.

    But… none of this happens for the reasons you think.

    Actually, your brain causes these challenges.

    No, I’m not talking about some mysterious, law-of-attraction-type power. I’m talking about the old self-fulfilling prophecy. That dang connection between our beliefs, our behavior, and the results we get in life and business.

    Let me reiterate: There is nothing mystical about this. Nothing whatsoever.

    Quite the opposite, actually. It’s just plain logic.

    Here are three huge self-fulfilling prophecies that can hold you back from freelance financial success and professional growth.

    Self-fulfilling prophecy 1: “Clients want low prices”

    You become doggedly convinced (often through peer pressure) that all clients are actually Terminator-style cyborgs on a mission to grind your freelance rates into post-apocalyptic dust.

    To compensate for this perceived threat, you quote (and even brag about) “competitive” prices in an effort to avoid scaring anyone off.

    This approach repels the best clients, who are as attracted to low prices as vegans are to steakhouses. Ironically, it does succeed in reeling in budget-conscious clients in droves.

    Result: You end up with nothing but low-paying clients, and a reinforced belief that there’s nothing you can do about it.

    The fix

    Realize that clients do not all own the cheapest computers, desks, or chairs. In fact, if they really wanted to save money at all costs, why even have a desk at all, when they could just work on the floor instead?

    People are willing to pay for things they value. Period.

    Self-fulfilling prophecy 2: “Clients won’t pay me on time (or at all)”

    You suspect that most clients will happily take advantage of you, if given the chance.

    To counter this dark human tendency, you concoct complicated and draconian payment terms, including contracts, fine print, and strict penalties. And you make sure to dangle these in front of prospective clients right up front to “weed out the deadbeats.”

    Unfortunately, the best clients (who pay all of their bills promptly anyway) routinely respond to complexity, red tape and paranoia with “No, thank you.”

    Result: Once again, you’ve managed to screen out the exact type of client you want most, while drawing in the hard-payers, who are used to this sort of treatment.

    The fix

    Understand that you can cover yourself without putting up a wall between you and potential clients.

    Simple payment terms can be just as effective as complex ones. And in any case, they should be the last thing you discuss with prospects, not the first.

    Self-fulfilling prophecy 3: “There aren’t enough good clients”

    You worry all the good clients in the world will get snatched up by your competitors.

    To combat this misguided scarcity, you take any job that comes your way because “it’s a paycheck.” You also cling to each client for dear life, willing to drop your prices at any hint of resistance.

    Result: You end up mired in unrewarding work that doesn’t pay well, which holds you back from professional growth. In other words, you do indeed experience a shortage of good clients — but, yet again, it’s a self-imposed shortage as a result of your own limited beliefs.

    The fix

    Think bigger. There are literally tens of millions of businesses in the U.S. alone. In 2014, I worked with 20 clients who were all happy to pay upwards of $100 per hour. I promise you these were not the only 20 “good clients” on earth.

    Are you ready to charge what you’re worth?

    If you’re new to freelancing, awareness of these limiting beliefs will help you avoid some of the biggest traps that keep writers from breaking through to the next level.

    And if you’ve been freelancing for a while, it’s never too late to break free of these (and other) self-fulfilling prophecies and start earning what you want and deserve.

    Have you been held back by self-limiting beliefs like the ones I’ve just described? What are you going to do to break the cycle going forward?

    This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life — and we thank you for that!

  • Tell Us Your Favorite Writing Websites!

    Tell Us Your Favorite Writing Websites!

    It seems far off on the calendar, but January is one of our favorite times of the year here at The Write Life. It’s a time for new beginnings and new goals. And we want to help you prepare for one of your best years yet!

    That’s where our 100 Best Websites for Writers list comes in.

    After compiling fantastic resources in 2014 and 2015, we’re excited to bring you the ultimate list of your favorite writing sites in 2016.

    Whether your goal for 2016 is to get more freelance writing clients, finish your ebook (and sell it!), or seeing your byline in a major magazine, we’ve got you covered with this list of websites for writers. We want to make sure we include valuable resources, and to do that, we need your help.

    What’s your favorite writing website? Which blogs do you visit for inspiration, information or writing-related entertainment? Which sites have earned bookmark status on your toolbar? Who do you want to nominate for our list?

    Let us know your favorite sites in the comments. We’re looking forward to sharing the list with you in January!

  • Beware of Byline Snatchers: How to Protect Your Freelance Writing Identity

    Beware of Byline Snatchers: How to Protect Your Freelance Writing Identity

    Freelance writers and bloggers, beware. At the deepest pits of the internet, unscrupulous internet spammers lie in wait.

    I recently received a tweet from a website I’ve contributed to in the past, tagged as the writer of their most recent article. I didn’t remember writing that article, but to be sure my mind hadn’t eliminiated the article from my data banks I triple-checked my email and computer for any traces of the piece. Nothing.

    I clicked through to read the article, and found sub-par writing and a few obvious commercial links. A fake Samantha Staf stole my name and photo to build links for his or her clients.

    Not cool. I couldn’t help thinking, “Why steal my face and name?” I worked hard to build my authority. I didn’t need a lazy writer destroying everything I built.

    Identity theft is the most common type of cybercrime. But here’s the mind-boggling part: very little can be done legally unless the impersonating individual has committed a crime with your name or face. Right now very few states — New York, California, and Texas are among this enlightened group — have laws that protect their citizens from online impersonation.

    Otherwise, you’re on our own. And that means writers need to take measures to prevent and stop individuals who want to profit from your name, pictures, and credentials.

    How to protect your online identity

    As a writer, you’re constantly flirting with the possibility of identity theft. Why?

    Because to be a freelance writer or blogger, you must ignore the best protection against identity theft there is: not posting your picture, personal information, and articles on the internet.

    But these personal details are what you use to build a professional reputation online. Since many writers are self-employed, your instinct to protect ourselves can be overpowered by your instinct to promote your work.

    Despite this very fatal flaw in your online protection, you can still take measures to protect our name. Create complicated passwords for your email and other online accounts. Change the passwords for these accounts every month or so. Then, create a second layer of authentication (typically a security code sent to your mobile phone) to those online accounts to prevent others from changing your password.  

    Having a password that’s easy to remember is nice, but having one that’s secure is powerful.

    Here’s an uncomfortable truth: there is very little you can do to prevent an unscrupulous individuals from hijacking your authority.

    The fake Samantha Stauf created their own email address, with just a single letter different than mine, to reach out to editors under my name.

    There was nothing I could do about the theft until after it had taken place.

    How to stop authority snatchers after they’ve stolen your identity

    Mitigating authorship identity theft requires constant vigilance. I caught the spammer five hours after the article was published. By the sixth hour, I had already started to ensure the individual would not be able to continue to use my name.

    How can you stop these name thieves in their tracks?

    Spot identity theft by:

    • Conducting online searches for articles with your name or picture. Set the search tools to only show the last 24 hours or week, depending on how often you search. If you’re name isn’t a common one, setting a Google alert for your name may suffice.

    • Keeping an eye on articles attributed to you via social media platforms.

    • Looking out for any unusual email account activity.

    Once you discover identity theft, it’s time to eliminate the possibility of the individual continuing to utilize your hard work for monetary purposes. One of the core reasons unscrupulous individuals utilize this tactic it to save time. Therefore, to stop authority snatchers, you should ensure they will have a very hard time utilizing your name.

    Here’s a four-step process to smash the spammer:

    • Contact the editor of the blog the spam article was published on. Explain the situation and demand that the article be removed. If you don’t already have a working relationship with this editor, be prepared to supply proof of your identity. Ask the editor if they’ll forward you the correspondence they had with the thief.

    • Contact every other editor you work with, preferably by email, to inform them that an identity thief might make contact under your name.

    • If the editor gives you the email the thief used to contact them, send an email to the thief. Here’s a quick snip of my email to fake Samantha Stauf:

    I just wanted to let you know that I have warned every editor I work with about your scam. They know that you might contact them. But wait, you might be thinking, I still might be able to salvage this…I just wanted to let you know, that I will find every single article you get published under my name. Do you know what will happen after? I will gleefully get every article removed.

    • Repeat the process to remove any other articles the thief gets published in your name.

    Unfortunately, writers need to protect themselves from unethical thieves who try to profit from your name and authority. Since the law is not typically on your side in these situations, you’ll need to proactively protect yourself.

    I managed to eradicate my authority snatcher issue in a few hours. If you can take steps to prevent a similar situation, you’ll be able to derail potential theives quickly while protecting your professional name.

    Has your professional reputation ever been threatened by a spammer or scammer? What did you do to overcome the situation?

  • How to Find an Hour a Day for Your Freelance Side Hustle

    How to Find an Hour a Day for Your Freelance Side Hustle

    When you first set out to freelance on the side, everything looked great. You already had a steady full-time job, so making extra cash on the side would be a breeze. After all, what’s another five to 10 hours in your weekly schedule?

    At least, that’s what I thought when I first started freelancing.

    Holding a second job isn’t as easy as it sounds. Especially if that second job doesn’t have a set schedule.

    When I first began freelancing, I was working full-time, taking courses, and I was involved in other activities. Squeezing in freelancing “whenever I had the time” seemed to make sense. I could go to work, do some studying, and then spend the remaining time freelancing.

    In reality, I would get home from work exhausted. I would surf the internet or watch TV, and before I knew it, it was time to sleep. All the other tasks competing for my attention earlier in the day left me with no motivation to do anything else.

    It can be tempting to let freelancing take a back seat to other priorities in your life. If you’re in this situation, you can either hope that you’ll start writing someday, or actively make changes to create time for your writing career.

    How to fit your freelance business into your schedule

    Work, family, and other activities make it easy to put off freelancing until later. But with some changes to your schedule, you can consciously decide to make your writing a priority.

    Here’s the three-step process you can follow to carve out more time for freelance work.

    1. Assess your schedule

    Look at your daily routine. What time do you normally get to bed? When do you wake up? Are you incorporating a healthy lifestyle? These factors affect how much free time and energy you have to write.

    Try using a timer to log how many hours you spend on freelancing in a week. Also track how many hours you spend on non-productive activities such as surfing the net, using social media, or watching TV. You don’t have to give up these activities, but it helps to know where you might be able to steal some time for your side hustle.

    When do you feel the most energetic? As you track your time, take note of your energy level throughout the day.

    I found that I wrote best in the morning, which meant that I would have to squeeze in time before work. When I tried this approach, I felt that as long as I had done a certain amount of writing first thing, the rest of the day was free to do other work and activities.

    Waking up earlier can be difficult at first because it also means going to sleep earlier. But if you find you’re too tired later in the day to do any work, it’s well worth the effort to try adjusting your schedule.

    Even if you don’t consider yourself a morning person, give it a shot. Over the course of a few weeks, you’ll likely find yourself waking up earlier with less effort, creating time to do freelance work in the morning.

    2. Determine your ideal freelance work plan

    Imagine your ideal scenario. For example, you might want to spend an hour per day on your business.

    If you want to fit that hour into your morning, you can gradually adjust to an earlier wake-up time.

    Novelist Huraki Murakami has a pretty strict routine: “When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4 a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9 p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation.”

    Even if you don’t have five to six hours to spare, training yourself to stick to a routine helps you stay productive each day. And if you can also fit in a quick workout, daily exercise is another way to energize yourself to work on writing projects.

    3. Identify small steps to find time for freelancing

    Once you’ve assessed your current and ideal freelancing situations, create a series of steps to get there. Start small.

    For instance, aim to go to sleep a little earlier than you’re used to. This could mean relaxing in the evenings by reading a book, and setting your alarm to go off 10 to 15 minutes earlier in the morning.

    Experiment to see what gives you more time to write. You might need to cut out social media in the evenings, or keep a notepad near you in case you want to jot anything down.

    If you find yourself with periods of downtime throughout the day, you can try fitting your writing in then. “I’m a security guard, and have pockets of downtime throughout the day,” horror writer Mark Allan Gunnells explained in one interview. “I have trained myself to write in those pockets. It isn’t ideal for some, the constant stop-and-start method, but I’ve managed to make it work.”

    You might find that long, intense periods of writing help you work most productively. If that’s the case for you, a few hours working during the weekend might get you to your goals. Or, writing in short bursts may work better for your schedule and work style.

    The key is to make gradual improvements over time so that you can adjust and get used to a new routine. It may not be easy, but it’s certainly doable if you plan where you want your freelance career to go.

    Do you have a full-time job and a freelance business? How do you make time to write?

  • Writing for Corporate Blogs: How to Get Hired as a Freelancer

    Writing for Corporate Blogs: How to Get Hired as a Freelancer

    One of the most draining projects on most freelance writers’ to-do lists: pitching. I don’t know about you, but it’s exhausting to constantly think about the next story idea, the next pitch, the next contact — and the next rejection.

    That’s why 80 percent of my writing work is blogging for companies.

    Now, before you start to hyperventilate because corporate writing is the actual worst, hear me out. Businesses have blogs. Just like this blog, the Huffington Post, or that fashion blog you love to hate.

    And many companies are jumping on the content bandwagon. Some of my favorite blogs are just part of a business’s content strategy — their desire to be a voice in the design/cooking/accounting community. And, as a writer, you’re good at that. Especially if you already have a voice in said community.

    Think of it another way: Do you know who needs stories told? Companies. And do you know who pays way better than traditional media outlets? Companies!

    What is brand blogging?

    You’ve probably seen the inevitable Company Blog Fail: The ones that only post about new hires or haven’t been updated since 2010. But trust me, good company blogs exist. Some of my favorites include Etsy, Evernote, and ModCloth.

    “Writing for a company runs many parallels to journalistic writing — you need to do your research, check all your facts, and tell a captivating story,” says Shannon Byrne.

    But there are differences when it comes to writing work you may have done in the past.

    “With business writing, you focus on the business impact of content,” adds Byrne, “How much traffic it’s driving, for what search phrase and whether it’s converting.”

    While some brands act like personal blogs, others like content farms, and others still like major publishers, writing for businesses usually allows more flexibility for freelancers.

    “Those lines between business and journalism are blurring,” says Byrne. “Companies are more focused on letting quality content speak for itself and eventually convert, while media is still focused on quality, but also paying more attention to being found online.”

    What brands look for in freelance writers

    While some brands just want a good writer to churn out customer stories, most legit company blogs look for expertise — not only because experts tend to write better about their subject, but also because hiring industry-specific bloggers gives them access to untapped platforms.

    Spend any time on the internet and you’ll see popular home bloggers contributing to paint company websites, or fashion bloggers posting weekly outfits for Jeans Company A.

    Jordan Teicher, Associate Editor at Contently, advises, “The best way to differentiate yourself is by having your best work published by big-time names at the top of your portfolio. This is how you hook someone to explore your work in more detail.”

    Along with having the chops to actually do the writing, you also need to prove you’re adaptable.

    Brands, much more than traditional editorial jobs, are also going to want more control over your style. “Brands are looking for people who will quickly pick up their brand’s voice,” says Byrne.

    Along with presenting yourself decent writer with samples and a portfolio, you need to show that you can adapt your writing style for the task at hand.

    How to find corporate blogging work

    If a company has a top-notch blog, you can often find to find a form on their site calling for writers. Houzz is a great example — its submissions page is a one-stop shop for the variety of ways you can contribute to this home and garden site.

    The Layout, Flywheel’s design blog, makes it super easy to contribute. They created an online application that even suggests articles if you’re unsure what to pitch. “Of course,” says Morgan Ryan, The Layout’s editor, “if you have an original ideas, we’re open to hearing those too!”

    You’d be shocked though (or not at all shocked) how many companies do not, in fact, have their stuff together. Most corporate blogs aren’t read by anyone, never mind follow best practices.

    That doesn’t mean you can’t help. I’d even argue these are actually the blogs you want to target.

    “It never hurts to ask,” says Ryan. “Even if a blog isn’t publicly hiring freelancers, you never know what’s going on behind the scenes or what they’re working on for the future.”

    And, like anything, build relationships. “Identify the thought leaders in the verticals you’d like to work in and connect with them,” says Byrne. “Interact with their content, ask them questions. If they’re local, invite them to coffee. With these relationships, you’ll most importantly learn from them, but also get your foot in the door to secure guest contributor opportunities on respected industry blogs and publications.”

    I’ve gotten all my corporate gigs through referrals or platforms like CloudPeeps and Thumbtack. In my experience, companies posting to freelance marketplaces have a clearer roadmap of what they want for their blog — and what they want to get out of the effort. I’m more likely to get referred to a company that doesn’t yet know what they want, but knows it needs professional help.

    Compensation expectations

    I make anywhere from $50-$100 per hour writing content for corporate blogs, and the first time I realized this price phased absolutely zero marketing staffers, I was hooked.

    “When you’re doing brand work as opposed to editorial work you have a better chance of being compensated, and odds are that compensation will be worthwhile since a lot of these companies have bigger marketing budgets than strictly editorial publishers,” says Teicher.

    Since Contently, where Teicher works, connects writers with clients as well as commissioning work for its own site, pay can vary. But if you’re going to contribute to The Freelancer blog, you can expect to get paid between $200 and $350 per article.

    Flywheel’s blog pays up to $150 per post, and they offer tons of ideas to choose from.

    CloudPeeps currently doesn’t pay contributors for their blog (they’re still in start-up mode), but they do have a fantastic platform connecting freelance content pros to awesome gigs. I was recently hired on their platform myself.

    My absolute best advice to snag this kind of work is to start reading the blogs of brands you love. Find the editor (or the marketing manager or intern) online. Connect. Offer to write a few articles on a per-post basis to show them what you can do.

    While personal connections are precious, putting some effort into building connections with branded blogs is worth it for long-term freelance health and peace of mind.

    Have you ever been hired to write for a corporate blog? How was your experience?

  • Does Your Freelance Writing Career Need to Grow Up? 4 Ways to Tell

    Does Your Freelance Writing Career Need to Grow Up? 4 Ways to Tell

    The day I quit my day job to become a full-time freelancer, I was convinced I had it made.

    After all, minus the cute clothes, sassy friends, and spacious apartment, I was planning a plus-sized Carrie Bradshaw life on the isle of Manhattan, burdened only by my laptop, my brilliant ideas and an occasional deadline.

    Looking back at that starry-eyed newbie, I have just two words for my naive self: Grow up!

    Granted, it can be hard when you’re just starting out to know how to navigate the unwritten rules of freelancing. As a new writer, you are bound to make mistakes. That’s okay.

    But if you’re doing any of these four things, you might just have some serious freelance growing up to do to get your career on track.

    1. Taking edits personally

    A lot of writers don’t like their work to be edited. Editors are natural nitpickers trained to ignore your thousand words of glorious prose and hone in on the fact that you made one silly mistake.

    In my early days, I took edits way too personally, as if every added punctuation was a bullet right in my heart.

    The truth is, as a grown-up writer, you just have to get over it. Editors are busy people. They don’t have time to deal with your tantrums because your voice was somehow wounded by their objection to your all-bolded, all-caps rant in the middle of what you claimed was a straight news piece.

    Of course, there are reasons to stand up for your work and discuss changes you feel are unwarranted. Part of being a grown-up writer is knowing how to work with an editor — and what to compromise — so you can both get the best piece out there.

    Throwing fits over the little stuff, though, is one of the surest ways an editor won’t want to work with you again.

    2. Thinking you can make an assignment better by writing on something else

    Early on in your writing career, the odds are good you’ll be asked to write about something boring, trite or just plain silly.

    The worst way to tackle the assignment is to improve upon it by writing something else.

    If an editor asks for 200 words of a recent news event for news-style site, they have little use for a 2,000-word editorial proclaiming your personal views on the subject or on social ills in general. Likewise, if they ask for 500 words on the toads of Israel, do not write about a frog you saw in your backyard on Long Island.

    Grown-up writers realize your copy is part of a bigger puzzle at that publication.

    You need to work inside the lines of your puzzle piece to make it fit.

    3. Being a real jerk in the comments

    Comment sections are funny places. On some sites, the no-holds bars snark is par for the course. Other publications try to encourage more friendly debate.

    Either way, dealing with the inevitable trolls spewing nastiness under your prose is never easy.

    As a writer, wading into the comment section can be a real blow to your ego. Even when the trolls are in full attack mode, however, resist the urge to fight back with your own vitriol.

    Early in my days of editor-hat wearing, I worked with a  solid writer who used to curse people out in the comment section under his articles.

    He was asked to stop because his words not only reflected badly on him, but on the website in general. Sadly, despite reminders, he never really got the memo.

    When the site had to make budget cuts, he was the first to go.

    Engaging in the comment section is a good thing. Healthy debate is great. But grown-up writers realize that every word they write under their article reflects not only on themselves but also the publication where their work appears.

    In other words, choose your comments wisely.

    4. Not showing up for work

    As I write this, I am sitting on my grandmother’s couch in a pair of pajama bottoms. It is mid-afternoon. Part of the joy of freelancing is blurring the boundaries between work and home.

    Working in a virtual environment, however, does not mean you can avoid showing up entirely or that standard work etiquette does not apply. If you have promised to write five articles a day, do it.

    Websites need to be fed new articles on a regular basis to stay alive. When writers do not write, it often means more work for an editor somewhere who has to scramble to mend the gap your articles were supposed to fill. While print publications occasionally have a bit more flexibility, there is still no excuse for not delivering or letting someone know what is up when you absolutely can’t.

    When grown-up writers can’t write for unforseen circumstances, they let their editors know in advance, not at 11 p.m. when their deadline is midnight. They also don’t take on work before seriously thinking about if they can realistically get it done.

    Not keeping promises will kill your relationship with a client fast and cost you jobs.

    The good news is even if you have shown some of these serious signs of freelance immaturity in the past, you are not doomed to failure forever.

    Every freelancer starts somewhere. Successful writers are not those who have never made a mistake, but those who admit they have some freelance growing up to do.

    So commit to the hard work of honing your craft, and learn more about your trade day after day.

    What newbie mistakes did you make early in your freelance career?

  • Tracking Freelance Earnings: March Income Report From Nicole Dieker

    Tracking Freelance Earnings: March Income Report From Nicole Dieker

    Hi! If you’re new to this column: I’m tracking my freelance income every month and sharing it with all of you.

    This is my third year of public income tracking, and my first year sharing my income with The Write Life.

    It’s time to look at March’s numbers:

    Completed Pieces: 90

    Work Billed: $5,128.00

    Earnings Received: $5,539.41

    March’s income is just over my $5,000/month goal, and is significantly higher than what I was earning at this time last year. In March 2014, I billed $3,583.39 for 119 pieces. Now, I’m earning a lot more for a smaller workload.

    Here are a few more quick stats for you: I wrote just over 65,000 words this month, and my average earnings per piece comes to $56.98. My highest per-piece earning is still $300, and my lowest is still $50.

    Tracking my hours during the workday

    This month, my earnings received were higher than my earnings billed, due in part to all the long hours I put in at the beginning of the year so I could take a vacation. In March, I earned over $5,000 without the extra work or the long hours, thanks to that new client I picked up at the end of January.

    How many hours do I work every day? In general, I work from about 9 a.m. to about 7 p.m., which gives me a 50-hour workweek. I often stop in the early afternoon on Friday, but make up the hours on Sunday night writing pieces that’ll run at the beginning of the next week.

    A 50-hour workweek sounds like a lot, so I decided to spend one week in March time-tracking my hours to see how I was actually spending my time. I used Toggl, which I recommend. Here’s what I learned:

    On an average workday, I spend between four and five hours writing. On Monday, March 16, for example, it took me four hours and 45 minutes to write five pieces totaling 3,600 words.

    I also spend between one and two hours doing administrative work. This includes emails, checking in with editors, sending invoices and scheduling my upcoming workload. I expected to learn that I was spending much more time “doing email” because it feels like email is never-ending, but it turns out to be only a small part of my workday.

    I spend two hours every day reading the Internet. In fact, the first hour of my workday — before I write anything, and before I tackle any but the most important emails — is spent reading other websites and catching up on the latest news and ideas. I read a wide variety of sites, from Business Insider to The Atlantic to The Toast and Buzzfeed. I consider this work essential to my career as a writer, because it keeps me informed and teaches me what other publications and readers find interesting.

    Social media work is sprinkled throughout the workday, and I did not track it separately. In many ways, having a quick conversation with someone on Twitter or Facebook is analogous to having a quick chat with a person who stopped by your desk. I often do a quick social media pass between tasks, in that I’ll finish writing a piece and then check Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr before starting the next item on my to-do list.

    With a 30-minute break for lunch, it’s easy to see how this can add up to a nine or 10-hour workday. Do I want to make my workdays shorter? Sure, but it isn’t a priority right now. I feel comfortable managing the work that I have, and very happy that I am increasing my earnings.

    Creating a savings plan for estimated taxes

    April is a big tax month for freelancers, since year-end taxes and first quarter estimated taxes are both due on April 15. Last month, I learned that significantly increasing my earnings over the past year — remember, I was only billing $3,500 last March — meant owing a lot more in 2014 taxes than my accountant (CPA) and I had previously estimated. $5,443 more, to be exact.

    So I asked my CPA what I could do to make better estimations for 2015. Following his recommendations, I’ve decided to set aside a flat 20 percent of my earnings for taxes. This means that if my earnings continue to grow, I’ll be able to adjust my estimated tax payments accordingly and won’t get stuck with another big tax bill at the end of the year.

    I live in Washington State, which means I do not pay state income tax, and it also means that my 20 percent savings plan may be a little different from what you’ll need to save for your own estimated taxes. Talk to your own CPA to find out what’s right for you, and ask your CPA how you can plan ahead for income variations throughout the year.

    It looks like April will be pretty similar to March, work-wise. I have a slate of great clients and a bunch of work already scheduled — and I’ve definitely hit the goal I set at the beginning of this year of earning at least $5,000 per month. So now I’m wondering: How long should I ride this wave before setting myself a new goal?

    How many hours a day do you spend writing? And how much money do you set aside as a freelancer for your estimated taxes?

    Want to learn how Nicole has come this far in her freelance career? Check out her past income reports for The Write Life: