Most freelance writing blogs offer great advice, but the time spent searching and loading pages and browsing in general can lead to wasted time for one, and books often have a certain level of authority that you can trust, whereas on the web sometimes bad advice is circulated or suggested.

I picked up “Six Figure Freelance” by Kelly James-Enger first, and then picked up “The Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing” to brush up on some skills; it’s phenomenal… to the point, and very comprehensive.

I also started reading magazines differently when I started, looking at everything I regularly read as a potential opportunity. You have to keep your eyes open when you are selling yourself in business, because no one brings opportunities to you as they might in a bigger company. You have to find them yourself. If you watch CNBC weeknights at 10pm, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (I recommend this to everyone), you’ll get the right opportunistic, go-getter mentality; that show is very informative, and its extremely motivating!

And I would also say, have good ideas when you submit yourself. They don’t have to be full pitches, but one or two mentions of “I would suggest a piece on…” or “another idea I think would be good for your readers/publication” in each cover letter goes such a long way, because editors like writers with ideas.

My goal if I really want to work with a client and get regular work with them is to become indispensable to my editor, because of my skill, ideas, follow-through, and the fact that I think ahead and often go a bit above and beyond. Part of my job is to make their job easier. So, I have this alert mindset of “have ideas,” “be indispensable,” “think ahead,” ETC. These types of philosophies have proven very successful as I’ve implemented them.

I look at craigslist’s and it was a bit of a no-go in terms of what I’m looking for.

Now that I need a week off, none of my employers are thrilled to give me a week’s break and some have said if I blow a deadline, I’ve voided the contract and they’ll replace me. I live 40 miles from my parents, so it’s not that quick a jaunt to take a lunch break and spend time with them. In the end, I got to spend time with this this weekend, but it looks like that’s it.

When signing a contract, I highly recommend considering how you’ll take time off and if it is something your employer is willing to work out with you when the situation arises.

14. Get a professional email address. Plenty of sites (Gmail, Pobox, etc.) offer a very cheap or free service. Would you want to do business with lazydude101@yahoo.com? Does funkygirlNY@hotmail.com inspire confidence?