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 Writer? Get Ready for Business!, James points out that there are [...] [...more]
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’t seem quite enough, so I decided to expand on [...] [...more]
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 in a hurry, and you may not want to refuse because it’s [...] [...more]
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 mine for the [...] [...more]
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 Skype. That has to be enough to [...] [...more]
Has your resume been the same for the past two years? If it has, then maybe it’s time for a change. You know more than you think you know, so don’t be afraid to show that knowledge off. Since I’ve been freelancing, I often have this kind of conversation: Friend: Have you heard about … {social [...] [...more]
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 understood the brief but the client doesn’t like what you have written you didn’t understand the brief, [...] [...more]
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 freelancer? I thought it was an interesting point, though [...] [...more]
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 you start writing, you often don’t [...] [...more]
We’ve all been there. You get a job, work for the money and wait to get paid. And wait … and wait … and wait. Even if you have done the sensible thing and got a portion of your money up front, there’s often no guarantee of when the last part will be coming. [...] [...more]
