Business Blogs
End of Year Tasks for Freelance & Professional Writers (Part 3 of 3)
Finish out the year with our list of year-end tasks designed specifically for freelance writers.
End of Year Tasks for Freelance & Professional Writers (Part 2 of 3)
Finish the year strong by doing a series of year-end tasks designed to help you analyze how you did last year and set you up for a more successful year in 2022.
End of Year Tasks for Freelance & Professional Writers (Part 1 of 3)
Time has flown this year and it is time again to close out another year of writing.
This is a great time to take stock of where you are with your writing and get organized for the year to come. Finish our your freelance writing year with a few year-end tasks. Below you will find part one of our three-part series on steps writers and small businesses should take to finish out a year for better success in the new one.
Care and Feeding of a Client (Part 2 of 2)
Part one of this blog covered the first five tips for caring for your clients as a freelance writer.
Clients are essential to running a successful freelance business. They keep the lights on and the dream alive. It pays to learn how to care for those relationships.
Care and Feeding of a Client (Part 1 of 2)
Freelance writers need clients. They are the lifeblood of a strong freelance business. They pay the bills and keep the dream alive. As such, it pays to take care of them and nurture those relationships.
For the purpose of this article, I will lump editors and publishers (both traditional and online) in with clients. The tips below work for anyone who hires you to write for them.
Start of School: How a Box of Pencils Inspires Better Writing and Renewed Passion for Freelancing
The sight of school supplies lined up in boxes in colorful store displays brings back memories. There is something magical seeing those pencils sharpened and ready to write new words and stories. It’s a writer’s dream. Even when I was a grade school student, I loved the colors and feel of pencils. Later, I became obsessed with pens and have boxes of them stashed in my office supply closet.
They contain possibilities. Words still unwritten. Stories begging to be released.
Why Storytelling Matters in Business: Another Market Segment for Writers
Life is emotional. So is business, whether you want to admit it or not. Sure, you might not be able to cry at your desk everyday or throw temper tantrums in the break room, but emotions do come into play in business.
Organizations use emotion to make you care about their products, services, and causes. They use it as a form of persuasion, which is the art of making you desire something you might not otherwise.
Writing for Free: Is It Ever a Good Idea? (Part 2 of 2)
This two-part series began with the reasons you might choose to write for free. The key word in that sentence was choose. It is fine if it is your decision to provide your talents to a project without payment. But that is not always the case.
Here Are Some Reasons When It Does Not Make Sense to Write for Free:
Writing for Free: Is It Ever a Good Idea?
There is a pervasive idea in freelancing that writing for free is a legitimate avenue to finding paying work. In downturn economies and tough times, like trying to find work during a pandemic, taking any assignment sounds better than turning one down, even if the assignment is on spec or without pay. Don’t fall prey to this idea. It is false.
Tips for Working from Home (Part 2 of 2)
In the last blog, I shared tips for working at home. In this age of COVID-19, more people are self-isolating and working from home than ever before. But it’s nothing new for freelance and independent writers. We always work from home, but that doesn’t make it easy, especially at first.
After two decades, I have come up with some tips for making the transition from a traditional work environment to a solo venture. Look for the first set of tips in the previous blog. Here are the rest of my tips for surviving a work-at-home situation:
Tips for Working from Home (Part 1 of 2)
COVID-19 has changed the way the world works. People are self-isolating and working from home in vast numbers. But working from home is nothing new for freelance and independent writers. We always work from home, or a cafe, a plane, the park. It’s part of the job description.
After two decades, I have come up with some tips for making the transition from a traditional work environment to a solo venture a bit easier. Here are my best tips for surviving a work-at-home situation:
Freelance Writing Contracts: What You Need to Know
Before I begin, I urge everyone to hire an attorney to draft their freelance contract. This cannot be overstated. A good attorney is essential in any business. Someday you will need one to send a letter to a deadbeat client or take a client to court based on your enforceable contract. Your success relies on the strength of your contract and your case.
I am not an attorney. This article is for information purposes to familiarize you with a freelance contract. It is not intended as a substitute for an attorney’s advice.
Firing Clients: How to Do It (Part 2 of 2)
Being fired is the worst. It never feels good being let go for whatever reason. But sometimes it is necessary. As a freelance writer, there will be times (see our previous blog as to when those times are) when you need to fire a client. In the first part of this two-part blog, we covered when this is a good idea. Now it’s time to look at how to do it.
Here are some tips for how to fire a client:
Firing Clients: When It’s Time (Part 1 of 2)
Sometimes being your own boss has its downsides. Mostly when those clients who pay the bills and keep your writing career afloat aren’t as supportive and wonderful as you’d like. When clients cross the line from professional to unprofessional, it’s time to cut ties. That’s obvious. But being unprofessional is not the only reason to sever ties with a client.
Here is my master list of reasons to fire a client:
What to Say or Write—Tips for Developing Articles and Speeches (Part 4 of 4)
In previous blogs, we covered what to say in your writing and how. The last blog covered a list of quick tips for writing in various formats.
This blog will focus solely on writing for the ear—speeches, radio scripts, podcasts, narration tracks, and other audio forms. This type of writing is different than writing for the page.
What to Say or Write—Tips for Developing Articles and Speeches (Part 3 of 4)
What to Say or Write—Tips for Developing Articles and Speeches (Part 2 of 4)
Figuring out how to begin is always tough for writers. It’s the first big hurdle in the writing process. But with a little help, it doesn’t have to stop your progress.
This series breaks down the steps to figuring out what to write or say. To read the first blog in our series with steps one, two and three, click here.
What to Say or Write—Tips for Developing Articles and Speeches (Part 1 of 4)
Before you can write, you have to have something to say. It’s a pretty simple concept of putting ideas before words. Still it’s funny how often people sit down at their computer and expect to write a flawless article or speech without first considering how to develop their idea.
Now I get the whole “pantsing” it idea, but when it comes to writing short form pieces, it pays to get the idea clear in your head before you begin.
10 Elements of Effective (Client) Writing (Part 2 of 2)
In the last blog, I shared the first five steps to effective client writing. Below are the final five steps to providing your clients work that fills their needs:
10 Elements of Effective (Client) Writing (Part 1 of 2)
Effective writing can mean so many things, depending on the type of writing you are talking about. But when to comes to client work, effective writing means work that meets a goal and does its job. It’s that simple. And that hard.
Loving All Forms of Writing
There is a reason we all sit down and pick up a pen or tap at the keys. We all have something pushing us to begin. While we may have our various reasons, what it comes down to is a love of words and writing, feeling that imperative to capture the human experience in written form. The problem is that so many people feel the only way to pursue a life as a writer is to pen the great American novel. Now I’m not going to say writing fiction isn’t a noble pursuit, I’m pursuing it myself after years of nonfiction work. The lure is strong. But what drives me isn’t the form my work takes, but the compulsion to wrangle 26 tiny letters into sentences that convey emotion, story and facts.
Tracking Client Work
Tracking client work will save you time, money and frustration. Here is how I track my client work and clients.
Tracking Submissions—The Administrative Side of Writing
Like most writers, I love the research and writing parts of the job, but don’t care for the administrative tasks that come with the gig—doing the taxes, accounting, legal and tracking everything. It’s easy to let those things slide and I did when I first started out, until I learned better.
It is easier than you think to misplace vital information, lose track of invoices and payments, and forget to track what you send out into the publishing world. The only way to stay sane and solvent is to track everything. It will help your sanity too.
Write Stronger: Cutting Weasel Words
Strong writing requires strong verbs. That’s nothing new. It’s far better to say enraged than angry and exhausted rather than very tired. There are tons of articles about that on the net. What isn’t talked about as often is the ways we soften language.
How to Create a Working Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
Blogging is fun. I love writing my blog. But it is more than that. It’s a commitment to my readers and my industry. It’s a commitment I take seriously.
Writing a blog takes discipline. You owe your readers consistently good content that can be found on a regular basis. As a working writer, it’s not always easy to honor that commitment. Life gets in the way, which is why discipline matters. It helps to be organized too.
Blogging: A Writer’s Perspective
Writers write. It’s what we do. These days the easiest way to do that is to write a blog. Most writers have one. Some use it to post news and updates on their work. Others write about their families and lives. Then there are those, like me, who write about writing, which makes sense since writing is my passion. It’s also a great way to give back to the industry and share what I know while meeting other writers and writers in training.
Freelancing Is Business
Through the years, I’ve known a lot of people who were freelance writers. Some of them did it on the side and others wrote for a living. The big difference between the two groups was how they approached the work. The ones looking at it as extra money, typically didn’t approach it like a business. It was just a part-time gig that brought in a bit of extra cash. It was not how they paid the mortgage or put food on the table.
The Niche Myth: Or the Case for Writing Broadly
There are those in freelance writing who advocate (loudly, I might add) to choose a niche and stick to it if you want to make money. I get it. It’s easier to market yourself if you have a specialty. But being a freelance writer should be about more than the money. It should be about the writing. Choosing a niche is not always the best option.