5 Paramount Principles for Freelance Writing Success
May 16, 2008 by Deb Ng
Filed under Freelance Writing, Writing Tips
by Bob Younce
One of the things I hear most often as a writing mentor is, "I need to make some money, fast."
My response is always the same: "Go get yourself an application for McDonald’s. Freelance writing isn’t a job; it’s a small business, and small businesses take time to get off the ground."
It’s true that the Internet writing market has made it easier to freelance. And, if you’re reading this blog, you already know how to find great freelance job resources. But, like any other small business, freelance writing takes time. It takes time to improve your craft. It takes time to build a client base. It takes time to truly identify your strengths as a writer, develop a brand, and to market yourself.
Once you recognize that you’re in a business, you’ve got a shot at success. From there, you have to be able to apply sound business principles to your freelance writing. You need to know how much overhead you’re going to have. While you probably don’t have an office outside of the home, you do have expenses, and like any other small business you’ve got some up-front costs, both in terms of time and money.
Here are a handful of small business principles that are integral to your success as a freelance writer:
Time is Money.
So you can write 1,000 words in an hour. That’s great. Someone wants to pay you $15 for a 500-word article. That’s $30 an hour, right? Wrong. Depending on how long you’ve been in the freelance writing business and how effective you are at sales and marketing, it’s probably more like $10 an hour. The fact is, especially in the early days of your freelance writing business, you’re going to spend the lion’s share of your time trying to drum up clients. When I first started freelance writing, I easily spent 25 hours a week trying to drum up work. Forget the time I spent on bookkeeping and improving my craft. Be realistic about where you need to spend your time, and shoot for rates that fit this formula.
One Loyal Customer is Worth a Dozen One-Shot Buyers.
I got lucky in my early career. My first client has also been my best client, and the client for whom I’ve done the most work. It didn’t hurt that she was good friends with my wife, but I also worked hard to keep her happy, to produce a product that met her specifications, and to meet my deadlines. Every time I ran out of work, I checked back with her to see what she had going. Eventually, I offered to take over part of the process, gathering keywords related to her site’s niche and developing article topics from those keywords. When that client has work, I’m the first one she calls. If you can gather half a dozen clients like that, you’ll be set for life.
Add Value to Crush the Competition.
Successful small business owners know that they can’t compete with Wal-Mart in terms of price. As a freelance writer, you probably can’t compete with some of the pricing on freelance job sites like scriptlance or elance. The good news here is that you don’t have to. Instead of trying to underbid your competition, find ways to add something unique to your product. Whether it’s something like specialized knowledge or a unique writing voice, you’ve got to do something to stand out from the crowd.
You Can’t Fake Quality.
If no one wants to buy your writing, one of two things is wrong: You’re horrible at sales, or You’re horrible at writing. Not everyone is cut out to be a writer. Some folks have little or no innate talent for it. Having said that, I believe that good writing is, primarily, a learned skill. It’s also a skill that you have to work at consistently, if you want to produce quality writing. You’ve got to hone your skills and improve your craft. When I talk about "improving my craft," I’m talking about something I still do, and that I will always do. No matter how good a writer I think I am, there’s always room for improvement.
It All Comes Down to Tenacity.
In many ways, the small business war is one of attrition. Often, you’ve just got to outlast your competition to succeed. Most small businesses die within a couple of years of opening their doors. The numbers are even more startling in some writing endeavors, such as blogging. The average blog lasts less than six months. One of the major reasons most bloggers fail is because they quit too soon. Tenacity alone won’t guarantee success for your freelance writing small business, but you can’t succeed without it. ———- These principles aren’t especially unique. Like most things in life, it’s rarely about figuring out the right course of action: it’s about doing it. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and do it already!
Amen to number 4.
I’m still trying to figure out how to put this tactfully to people who tell me they’d like to “do what I do.” They regularly begin sentences with “we was,” and genuinely don’t know it’s grammatically incorrect.
Awesome article!
I am curious how people drum up clients, do you publicize in websites or do you have real life clients that you have gone to the companies and offered up your services? I know having a website helps I am trying to get a good domain name and publicize business, in the meantime i ma just building up my writing portfolio.
Good points to those that are using freelance as a career.
Some of us write mostly for pleasure. I’ve managed to keep 95% of my writing on subjects I’d be writing about even if I wasn’t getting paid.
Hey, Matt, want to voice your opinion, have it published for tens of thousands to see, AND get paid ~40 cents a word for it?
Um, yeah!!!
Nice one, Bob, but you know how big a fan I am of treating writing like a business and not an art.
This is a great post. My goal is to always have a minimum of 10 regular clients at a time and to make sure that no client is more than 30% of my monthly income. Knowing I have a solid base to work from gives me the luxury to shoot for the one-time deals (that sometimes do lead to multiple assignments).
When wannabe freelancers ask me the most important thing to know about this job, I say “have patience.” You can’t succeed without it.
I’ve had a lot of people to tell me that they’d love to do what I do… knowing the people, I usually respond, “No you wouldn’t.” *smiles*
Many good points. Much of my success is due to an enterpreneurship program I was involved in at the local university. Was in with many other business owners. Typically, when you start a business, common advice is that you won’t be in the black for six months. One may make it faster — I had to because I had a pregnant wife when my job went away — but the 6 months is still a good rule of thumb.
Sue,
Excellent way to spread risk. You may also want to make sure your writing isn’t too much in a single sector (i.e., real estate). My business took some big hits when I was too focused on banking or on technology — especially after the dotcom bust.
Thank you for these 5 insights/reminders for success as a freelance writer, Bob.
Phil, I spread things around pretty well. My regular clients are diverse — construction, engineering, technology, IT security, energy, university research projects, editing jobs. And they change periodically for various reasons. One thing I learned is to not put all my eggs into one type of basket, but it is also good to build relationships with individual editors.
I pulled out my calendar from last May to compare it to this May, and only one of the clients is the same, yet the amount of money I’ve earned is equivalent. Yet, all but one of this May’s clients were repeat clients. As my career evolves, so does my client list. The important thing is to have a good base that you can depend on in case someone drops you or the markets change or you feel the need to move on.
Good article Bob.
I hear what you’re saying about good first clients. My very first writing client turned into a very long term client: I’m still writing for him today!
But I have to disagree with your opinion that “good writing is, primarily, a learned skill”. Some people never ‘get it’, regardless of how long they’ve been doing it or what they do to ‘learn’ it.
The sad thing about that is these people are told, often by family and friends, that they are great writers, which leads them to humiliate themselves in the marketplace by trying to sell their work.
@ Boo Boo – Be honest with them. Tell them that it’s a tough business, and they’ve got to master certain skills – like grammar – if they want to do what you do.
@ Maryam – That’s a whole other blog post! I find new clients through ads (such as the ones featured at this web site), freelance bidding sites, advertisements on Craigslist, through existing clients and, sometimes, even through cold calling.
@ Matt – I think the hobbyist, though, still has to be concerned about quality. No way in hell you’re going to get 40 cents a word if you don’t write well.
@ Sue – not a bad plan to shoot for, I like it!
@ J. Edward – Sure they would, but not for the reasons they think, though.
@ Phil – Depending on your specialization in freelance writing, it can go quicker, but it can also take longer.
As to the idea of not writing in a single niche, you have to be careful there. If you can be “the” writer in your niche, you’ll be able to charge a heck of a lot more than if you just write all over the board.
@ Jenny – You’re welcome.
@ Sarah – I won’t deny that there is some degree of basic aptitude involved, or that some writers can have more innate talent. But, I believe those things apply much more to fiction than they do freelance writing.
The problem with the folks you describe isn’t that they necessarily can’t become a good writer, it’s that they don’t believe they’re a bad one so they don’t strive to improve their craft.
Improvement is necessary. My neighbor’s teenage son just dropped out of high school and thinks he’ll master the GED. I just took an online practice test and was shocked at how poorly I did in some areas. If I can’t pass certain sections, there isn’t a chance in hell that he will.
One thing I’ve learned in terms of writing is that every editor will want something different. I write for one company that want all articles written using APA, another wants Chicago and then I’m training for a job that uses Morson’s. I keep guides on my desk so that I can keep them straight when I’m working because otherwise they all run together.
I liked this post. I don’t think I can hear often enough that writing is a business.
And Sue, I like the idea of keeping no more than 30% of your income dependent upon one client. You never can tell when things might fall through.
“It All Comes Down to Tenacity” – this statement is so true.
“You Can’t Fake Quality” – for that matter, this statement also makes sense!