I’ve seen it happen numerous times – in fact, I’m guilty of catching blogging fever myself. When someone catches the fever, they are faced with the urge to setup multiple blogs covering a variety of niche topics that are of interest to them. Early in my blogging career I had and was attempting to maintain 13 blogs. That’s right THIRTEEN! Let me just say it didn’t take long for me to find that was Impossible! Recently I had a discussion with a friend of mine who would like to begin earning money blogging and would like to start off earning [Read more…]

If you’ve continued reading to this point, you’ve likely taken the time to evaluate the “standard guidelines” and feel you have what it takes to blog. While you take some time to develop your blog for appearance sake, you’ll want to begin thinking about your initial content. I personally recommend you put some thought into creating timeless content that will serve as your pillar posts. Even if you select news-related topics, you can create timeless pieces that means the content you create will be useful today, tomorrow, a year from now and quite possibly 5 years from now. Blogs that are focused [Read more…]

Greetings FWJ readers! I am excited to be the new contributing writer of FWJ Business Tips. After a very long, dreadfully hot/humid summer - my kids are back in school, I have moved and am settled in a new home and now I’m jumping back into my beloved world of blogging with both feet and then some. It feels like I have an endless supply of content swimming around in my head, anxious to make a debut, however, the reason I’m here is YOU! I’m here to provide you with information you want and need to help achieve your personal goals through writing! [Read more…]

Having a successful freelance writing business depends, in large part, on productivity. You need to be able to do work when it’s time to work. For that matter, you need to be able to create enough time to work in the day, as well. Like anyone else who’s self-employed, freelance writers are prone to what I call “temporal vampires.” These are people, tasks and circumstances that suck the time from your day and leave you scrambling to pull things together at the last minute. I want to know what yours are, but first I’ll tell you some of mine: Phone [Read more…]

If I asked you all the question, “what does a successful freelance business look like?” I would get plenty of different answers. We’ve all got different ideas about what the true measure of success should be in this business, or at least what the true measure of success should be for our own businesses. I’m just guessing here, but I also think there would be a few common threads in your answers. I think we’d see phrases like “steady income” and “stability” pop up, as well as things like “a good reputation” and probably “enough money to pay the bills.” [Read more…]

I am of the firm belief that our own self-identity, in many ways, determines the trajectory of our freelance writing business. The fact of the matter is you’re going to operate your business very differently if you see yourself as a struggling author than you are if you see yourself as an entrepreneur. Now, I’m not going to tell you how to see yourself. I’ve got my own thoughts on what works best overall, and I certainly know what works best for me. You’ll see some of that come through in the rest of this post, too, and I won’t [Read more…]

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 [Read more…]

Running a freelance writing business can be a scary thing. It’s like any other small business: there are uncertainties, and there are risks. If you’re not prepared to face some of your biggest fears, a freelance writing business probably isn’t for you. Over the years, I’ve had a handful of moments when these kinds of fears bubbled up to the top. While I get that everyone is different, I thought that maybe sharing some of my struggles might help you identify some of your own, and maybe help you be better equipped to face them when they come: Fear of [Read more…]

I asked the question last time whether or not you could operate a successful freelance writing business in a vacuum. I talked about the three major benefits of being part of a freelance writing community that are often touted: socialization, education and networking. I also pointed out how you can get all three of those things rather easily without ever meeting another freelance writer. While I stick to that theory and fully believe you can run a successful freelance writing business without belonging to a community, there is one question that remains: Why on earth would you want to? You [Read more…]

One of the things that you most often hear from bloggers in the freelance writing business is how important community is. I’ve even blogged about this myself. In recent days, however, I’ve been wondering what the true benefits of community are, and whether or not they really help your business. I’d like to suggest today that it is entirely possible to operate a freelance writing business, even a very successful one, in a vacuum. Now, let me put you at ease before I go any further. To be sure, there are some specific benefits to belonging to a community of [Read more…]

When I first started out freelancing, I was happy to land a gig that would pay, for example $30 for an hour’s worth of work. After all, when I was working in the IT field my salary was just under $50,000 a year, which works out to about $24 an hour. I figured I’d arrived, that I’d found a way to replace my income. This was good, because at the time I was finishing up my Master’s degree and the prospect of landing a job teaching at any of the community colleges in Michigan was looking more and more slim. [Read more…]

I’ve written several times before about the difference between seeing yourself as a work-at-home mom or dad vs. seeing yourself as a freelance writing business. When I started out in the freelance writing business, I was very much in work-at-home dad mode. It wasn’t until I started looking at my writing as a business that things really started to fall in line, and that I was able to achieve real growth. So, how do you make that transition? There are, I think, at least three important components: 1. Change your thinking To be sure, much of that transition takes place [Read more…]

My freelance writing business isn’t the first business I’ve been involved in. It is, however, the longest-lasting and most successful to date. It’s also very different from my other business ventures. Now, I don’t want you to think I’m one of those guys who starts up a new business every couple of years because he’s got a new angle or because he got bored of what he was doing. I know guys like that, and while I appreciate what they’re doing, that’s just not me. Rather than tell you about the other business ventures I’ve been involved in, however, I [Read more…]

Go into your local McDonald’s. Take a look around. (If you’re like a lot of freelance writers, you’re already there taking advantage of the newly-free wireless provided by AT&T and McDonald’s. If not, well, you’ll have to take a look around next time you’re there.) I want you to take a look at the walls, look at the signage, look at the menu. Look at the brochures, and at the product packaging. How many times did you see the word “McDonald’s?” You didn’t. You might see the occasional “mcdonalds.com” label on a drink cup, and you see a lot of [Read more…]

I received a strange email from one of my freelance writing clients last weekend. Rather than trying to describe it to you, I’ll just copy and paste the whole thing here for you to read: Hi, How you doing? We made a trip to London (United Kingdom) unannounced some days back, Unfortunately we got mugged at gun point last night! All cash, Credit card and phone were stolen, we got messed up in another country, stranded in London, fortunately passport was back in my hotel room.  It was a bitter experience and i was hurt on my right hand, but [Read more…]

Love it or hate it (and it’s usually one or the other) a successful freelance writing business has to involve sales. You need to find clients who want to pay you to write if you’re going to stay in business. Accordingly, you want to make as many sales as you can. That’s a given. But you may be going about it all the wrong way. Here are a few tips to get you pointed in the right direction when it comes to maximizing your sales potential: Just do it. If you don’t get out there and try to sell, you [Read more…]

It’s that time again. We human beings have this funny attachment to our calendars, our time keepers and our numbers. Twenty-Ten is not only the rollover of a new year, but the start of a new decade. While I’m an advocate for making every day the best it can be for your freelance writing business, here are 7 New Year’s resolutions that will help you push onward and upward through the next year: 1. Get Control of Your Bookkeeping. Seriously. Hire an accountant if you need to, but get a handle on it. You’ll be thanking me in 16 months [Read more…]

One of the most well-known freelance writing bloggers, and the former writer for Business Tips for Writers is James Chartrand. James Chartrand is a woman. Of course, you already know that, because he told you himself, or maybe because you read Deb Ng’s take on the issue. I’ve had the privilege to work with James for about the past year and a half on a number of different projects. Early on, I put two and two together and figured out what you all have just learned: he is a she. This didn’t phase me at all, and I felt much [Read more…]

My previous post about hiring a salesperson for your freelance business generated quite a bit of interest, both on and off this blog. While I could spend days answering questions, I thought it might be more productive to explore the options available to freelance writing businesses, and tell you about how I’m doing it along the way. As I see it, there are several sales models for a freelance business, all of which have amazing potential and none of which fit every situation: Sales Model #1: Do-It-Yourself Sales This is the sales model most freelance writing businesses follow. Most freelance [Read more…]