One of the basic principles of running a successful freelance writing business is adaptation. Being able to constantly review your business, revise your processes and change the way you do things is the difference between keeping current in the field, and lagging sorely behind. While this is true for every freelance writer, it’s especially true for those of us who primarily make our livings online.
For example, your freelance writing business today might consist, primarily, of blogging. Blogging can be a great way to earn a living, and there are plenty of folks doing just that.
Tomorrow, however, blogs may go the way of the dodo. Or, more appropriately, blogs may go the way of the newsgroups.
That’s the thing about technology. It’s always changing. Technology adapts itself to our needs and, in turn, we then adapt ourselves to technology. It’s a cycle that you can’t avoid, and that you need to get a handle on if your business is going to succeed.
There are other areas that we have to adapt, as well. I remember about six months ago when suddenly everyone on the freelance bidding sites was asking for exactly 20 articles of 500 words each and 3 product reviews. It was especially interesting, because they never specified a word count on the product reviews. It was obvious that someone big in the Internet Marketing field had put out a roadmap to getting a niche site up and running, and that dozens of people were following it to the letter.
So, we adapted our business model, at the time, to feature that kind of package.
There are plenty of other examples, but you get the general idea.
So, the questions to ask yourself today are these:
- In what way is my freelance writing business adapting and changing?
- How will I handle change when it comes?
