I mentioned previously that I was having a difficult time finding Scrivener templates for freelance writers. Most are focused on writing books. I already released two free templates that will help you use Scrivener for blogging — one for managing a single blog and one for managing multiple blogs. Today I’m releasing my first template for common freelance writing projects — a white paper template.
As writers we always try to improve our craft. We subscribe to magazines and read blogs and articles on how we can get better. We spend hours on social media websites promoting our latest blog series or stumping for a guest posting gig. We read in our niche so we can keep current on trends. The problem is when we allow all of this to
Digital marketing. Engagement. Online advertorials. These aren’t just buzz words that marketers throw around to sound smart; they’re clear indicators of businesses’ growing needs in the digital age. Why am I bringing them up? Because over the past few years, I noticed a sharp increase in the demand for certain types of content. I’m getting fewer requests for physical flyers or brochures, and more pings
I’ve had a rough couple of days this week. It started Sunday night. Between now and then I’ve had restless nights, fluttering feelings, a bit of lightheadedness, and a variety of other symptoms. By Monday morning I was imagining the worst. My husband worked from home that day just in case I decided to go into the hospital to get checked out. Thankfully it didn’t
Are you confident that you set the right freelance writing rates? Are they really helping you reach all of your financial goals? Or did you find out through trial and error that there were some factors you forgot to consider? Alicia Rades brought this topic up recently. She wanted to know how she can figure out what she should be making to reach her goals and meet her
Today I’d like to share some reader questions from a reader who preferred to remain anonymous. His questions revolve around getting started as a new freelance writer on a part-time basis. We’ll call him Matt for the sake of this post. Jen Grant, whom I answered in our last reader Q&A post, asked for something similar during a Twitter conversation recently: @AllIndieWriters Jenn! Thank you!
What are your goals for your freelance writing website? To be clear, we’re talking about your professional site — the one designed to attract clients, not your site or blog targeting other writers. Chances are that you’re hoping to attract not only clients, but the right clients. You know, they’re the ones who have a need in your specialty area and an adequate budget to hire a
As a freelancer, do you just scrape by month to month? Are you struggling to earn the kind of living that would leave you truly comfortable? If so, you might want to check out this new website from a fellow freelance writer, a good friend, and my top pick if I ever need a partner in crime — Yolander Prinzel. Her new site is called
We’ve talked a lot about specialization as a freelance writer, why it’s a good idea to specialize, and even how to choose a freelance writing specialty. But if you choose to specialize in one or more freelance writing niches (as opposed to focusing on specific service types), how do you know if a niche you’re passionate about pays well? When it comes to picking the right
As the day quickly passes by, I realize that I’ve spent most of it staring out the two huge windows that sit in front of my desk. The snow has been falling since the early morning hours, and I’ve watched it go from a dusting to at least half a foot so far. I love watching the snow fall. It’s one of the things I
We’ve finally reached the last post of my ghostwriting series. I want to thank you all for reading along; I hope you got something of value out of it. I’d like to close the series with a few extra tips to help your own ghostwriting efforts. The four final tips aren’t part of any unifying theme other than, here be some good things you should
Are you a new freelance writer looking to write online? When you’re just getting started as a freelance writer, you probably have a lot of questions. And one of those questions is probably about what kinds of gigs are actually open to new writers. If you want to focus on writing for the Web, there are several types of gigs you can find, no matter
I hate issuing absolutes, but I am a devoted believer in the power of specializing in order to create a thriving freelance writing career. I also believe that choosing to be a specialty ghostwriter is the quickest, easiest way to achieve lasting career success. Specialty ghostwriting is all about hyper-focusing your business. That means choosing a specific topic (or group of topics) to provide ghostwriting
You’ve probably heard this advice before: to protect yourself professionally, you should set up your freelance writing business as a limited liability company (LLC). The basic idea is that an LLC will protect your personal assets if claims were to arise against your business. But registering your freelance business as an LLC might do little more than give you a false sense of security. This
In today’s post I’ll answer several reader questions recently submitted by Wendy Komancheck, a freelance writer who specializes in writing for landscapers and related businesses. These questions came as a follow-up to my recent post, “How Writers Can Stay Productive Even During Sick Days,” where Wendy brought up the issue of not being able to take sick days because she doesn’t get paid time off.
Believe it or not, getting started in ghostwriting is almost exactly the same as getting started in non-spooky freelancing. It’s about coming up with a plan, announcing your service, and preparing for follow-through. Coming Up with a Plan You need to consider how ghostwriting fits into your business. Will it be your primary focus, or something you do on the side? How will you fit
A contract is every writer’s best friend. There are tons of posts out there that can help you build your basic client agreement, so today I just want to focus on four specific points that your ghostwriting contract should include. 1. Multiple payments. Ghostwriting a book is a big, long project. If your clients pay everything up front, they’re taking a big risk. If they
When I launched this blog in 2006 (under the name SixFigureWriters.com at the time), one of the biggest issues being discussed by new freelance writers was the “global writers’ market.” Writers in English-speaking countries would routinely blame this supposed global market for the fact that they couldn’t find decent-paying freelance writing jobs. They blamed non-native English speakers in countries with lower costs of living, as
We all have goals for our freelance writing careers. And many of us are probably gearing up to make changes in the New Year. But what happens when you feel stuck — like there’s no time left in the day to actually work on growing our businesses? No matter how busy or even overwhelmed you might feel there’s always one option open. Change your current
Today we’re going to talk about setting some goals that relate directly to a career in writing for print. Starting the NY off right can set the tone for the entire year, so it pays off to do a little “leg work” on the front end of things. Here are five great goals to pencil into January that will help you get set up: 1.
I’ve never been the kind of writer who makes it a point to learn a certain number of obscure words each day. There once was a time when I thought that my refusal to actively study the dictionary (as if I was going to absorb it like an underground book memorizer in Fahrenheit 451) would be a drawback in my chosen profession—but I’ve found that my
I was contacted recently by freelance writer, Steve Koch, with some questions that might be on the mind of other new freelancers. He agreed to let me publish my responses on the blog so hopefully other readers with similar questions will benefit. Reader Questions “I have some general questions about getting started as a freelance writer. I have gone to the usual attempts (elance, helium
In order to get contracts signed and have a strong working relationship with ghostwriting clients, you have to understand why people are out there looking for ghostwriters. If you don’t, you’re going to rely on assumptions that can result in lost gigs and rocky working relationships. To give you a starting place, here are five examples of reasons that clients hire ghostwriters. Why Clients Hire
We’ve talked in the past about why freelance writers need a professional website. There are some things we didn’t get into then, and some things have changed over the years, making them more important now than ever. To kick off our series on professional websites for freelance writers, let’s start by looking at some of the most important reasons you might want to create one.
There are two questions that come up more than any other when I talk to writers about breaking into ghostwriting. The first is: how do I get clients? The second is: how do I show them samples of my work if everything I do is confidential? I find these questions frustrating, because you definitely already know the answers to them. No, really, you do. And
Repeat business is, in my opinion, the secret to a successful ghostwriting career. There are two reasons for this: 1. When you’re ghostwriting, you may find that you get fewer referrals since most clients don’t tell other professionals that they used your services. 2. With lengthier projects, you may not be able to take on as many clients at one time, meaning you have fewer
If you want to increase the number of ghostwriting projects you take on, there are five essential guidelines that I believe you must follow. If you don’t, you will probably see your business fail. Does that sound harsh? Good, it should. Because you owe it to yourself and your clients to do this thing right so that you can keep invisibly typing far into the
For close to two years I’ve been revamping my writing business to focus more on ghostwriting. This change in strategy has done amazing things for my career. It’s made me fall in love with freelancing all over again and helped me develop a focus, security and stability that I’d felt was lacking before. Like many freelancers, I’d always dabbled in ghostwriting. But I didn’t really
While this blog is (currently) focused on freelancing writing, freelancing doesn’t make up the whole of my writing business. I also write nonfiction e-books, am (slowly) working on edits for my first print nonfiction book, write fiction for three different audiences (from short stories to a novel-in-progress), and I’m a very active Web publisher. I chose this business model for the diversity it offers —
One of the biggest complaints I hear from new freelance writers is that clients don’t seem willing to pay professional rates. Prospects are tempted by bottom-of-the-barrel offers from hobbyists, scrapers, and people who do little more than regurgitate other people’s articles. The prospect gets more content for their site for less money. The “writer” gets paid. And professionals get screwed in the deal. Let’s emphasize