To be a freelance writer, you need to have good writing skills. That’s a given. You also need to be able to follow instructions carefully so that you clients get what they want. Having good communication skills helps you to develop good working relationships. All of these are skills that you can develop and improve on over time, but there is still a piece to the puzzle that is missing….we talk a lot about being “cool” like it’s something we should be striving for, but I wonder why we don’t value being passionate about what we do.

by Ellen Goldstein In Lisa Sonora Beam’s book The Creative Entrepreneur (Quarry Books, 2008), she presents the following journal prompt “Who is in my business advisory circle?” For the beginner freelance writer or editor, this can be a potentially traumatizing question. However, it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need an army of smart-phone-using, business-suited colleagues to have a business advisory circle (although for a few hours it might be nice); just a few people, some of whom you may already know, to give you advice about running a business. Mine your friends and family. Just as you have certain [Read more…]

I’ve been doing some reading about whether all clients are created equal, and most of what I have found suggests that they should be divided into categories depending on whether they are likely to give you more work and/or referrals. The idea is that you give better service to the clients that you have decided are most worth your while.

Marketing should be a regular part of your schedule when you’re a freelance writer, but are there times when you should just focus on what you have in front of you? It’s a judgment call, and most people who work freelance know only too well that there can be times when you are so busy that you don’t know how you will ever get everything done and times when you are scrounging around for work. Ideally, you get to a point where you have steady work and you have a certain level of income every month, but that can change [Read more…]

Have you ever heard the expression that if you put enough pieces of straw together, eventually you will have a broom? That expression has been floating around in my mind recently, and it led me to think about building a successful freelance writing business. It is possible to build a business by starting off with small jobs first. When you first start working with a new client, they may start off by giving you a single article or a small assignment. This is a chance for both of you to get to know each other. You can turn it in [Read more…]

Some blog posts just beg to be written, and this one has been rolling around in my head all day. I was talking to a client on Skype recently and he was asking about how I balance my work and having a family and stuff. (He has recently taken the plunge and quit working for someone else to work full time for himself.) It made me start thinking about the idea of balance, since it is something that we are told we should be striving for in our lives. Here’s the thing: I don’t think that it’s possible to have [Read more…]

Note from Jodee: Freelance writer Spencer Spellman shares his thoughts about freelance writing and the importance of perseverance and marketing your services. Enjoy! by Spencer Spellman It was about 18 months ago when I decided I would dabble into writing. I had recently been laid off from a job and had moved in hopes of finding better work, but instead found myself finding something worse. After months of putting writing off, I was going to write one article, just to get some feedback on it. That one article began a snowball effect that is still building. I never did get [Read more…]

I’ve been asked more than once how I deal with the lack of security that goes along with working as a freelance writer. Since I’ve started freelancing, I’ve come to understand why actors and other creative types are said to be insecure. You are only as good as your last performance (gig), and there are no guarantees that you will get another assignment. Talk about working without a net! At the same time, I feel more secure as a self-employed freelancer than I did when I was working for someone else. Why? It’s quite simple, really. When I work for [Read more…]

“Cos we all just wanna be big rock stars….” (Rock Star, Nickelback) The term “rock star” is thrown around a lot more lately than it ever used to be. I’ve even seen ads in my online travels for job leads where a client actually mentions in the ad that they want to hire a rock star when they are looking for a writer. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to hire (or be) a person who rocks whatever it is they are working on. Taking pride in your work and doing your best never go out of style. [Read more…]

Note from Jodee: Nacie Carson begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, one of our readers, wrote today’s post about her transition from the corporate 9-5 to going freelance. If anyone else would like to contribute a guest post, please e-mail me. I look forward to hearing from you. by Nacie Carson In June I wrote a hope-filled blog post for FWJ called, “Don’t Quit Your Day Job,” where I agonized over the financial and lifestyle issues that were keeping me from leaving my corporate 9-5 in favor of writing full time. Well friends, I have some pretty exciting news: I finally did it. That’s right [Read more…]