How Not to Get Screwed as a New Freelancer

Tired of dealing with awful clients who disappear as soon as “where is my money” crosses your lips? Deadbeat clients are every freelancer’s nightmare, and it seems like we all run into one or more over our careers. However, you don’t have to just sit idly by and hope for the best! You can take steps to protect your business and your pocketbook with just

What We Can Learn from WAHM Writers

We all know that the work-at-home-mom (WAHM) writers aren’t considered the upper echelon of the writing community. If you didn’t know that, you’ve never read about the cost-savings to be had by tricking desperate WAHMs into providing ultra cheap articles in a particular forum’s Special Offers. Well, as a few of us here can tell you, having children and enjoying a professional writing career are certainly not exclusive entities, and even

Book Review: The Freelancer's Bible

You may have heard of Freelancers Union, a nonprofit organization for freelancers, contractors, and independent workers. Sara Horowitz, who founded Freelancers Union, has released a comprehensive guide to freelancing – The Freelance Bible – that’s everything the title suggests. Sara’s accolades includes being named a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” fellow and one of Forbes’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs. Packed With Information As you’d expect of any book

Writers, How Are Your Rates Looking?

There is an endless amount of debate over what should be the going rate for writers in this business. There is a parallel debate over what actually constitutes a writer, another one over global price structures and still another one over the different styles of writers and how they fit into the grand scheme of business models. For the sake of argument, let’s ignore the

A Primer on Taxes for Freelancers

Every worker, freelance or not, is undoubtedly familiar with income taxes: the percentage of your income that’s paid to the Federal, state, and sometimes local government. (The rest of this post speaks primarily on Federal taxes.) When you’re full-time employed by an employer, the employer will typically withhold taxes from your pay. They send the withholdings to the IRS on your behalf. But, when you’re

New Year's Resolutions — 2013 Updates

I know I’m a bit slow to return from my winter vacation time this year, but welcome back! I feel well-rested (after being exhausted by the holidays), and I’m excited to get back to work. I hope you all are as well. Back in November I shared my 2013 writing resolutions with you. Normally I try to evaluate them each quarter, but I knew I

Magazine Writing Goals For 2013 And Beyond

Happy New Year all you writers out there! If you have already been published in print, I wish you more of the same in 2013, and if you haven’t yet made it in this arena, may this be your year to shine! Today we’re going to talk goal setting for all print writers. I know it sounds basic, but it really isn’t. Here are my

Start Your New Writer’s Year Right!

Just an hour or two ago, I made my first folder of 2013. It was a small thing – clicking on “Create New Folder” and filing away some work – but it made the point in my mind nicely enough. This is a new year. It’s time to start this one off correctly, because it’s much easier to continue a good routine than it is

Clients We Love to Hate

I love my clients. I don’t want you to think I’m a total jerk for getting up here on this proverbial soapbox and bashing the people who routinely buy my services. I’m not bashing them. I have no reason to – in fact, I’m suddenly thinking of dedicating a post to what makes them so amazing, but that’s not as much fun to write so

Planning For Print Publication

It’s hard to believe that the New Year is right around the corner! If you are looking to get published in a magazine or print publication in the coming year, now is the time to start planning. For most print pubs, the editorial calendar is already set, and queries right now are going out for summer issues (or even later!). While it may be hard

Redefining Your Writing: Cleaning Up Your Career

Your personality, preferences and skills influence all of your decisions, and that includes your writing career. Most of us who have our own careers in writing would have a hard time living with a set income again. If I need some extra cash, I take on an extra project, for example. You can’t do that if you’re salaried. Jenn’s recent post on her ambitious goals

2013 New Year's Resolutions for Writers

Update: During my first quarter check-in I updated the list below. Anything in green is currently in progress, and anything with a strike-through has been completed. Last week I shared my 2012 year-end evaluation with you, where I looked over my goals for this year and whether or not I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. Honestly, 2012 was not a great year for

The Business of Freelancing: Disregard at Your Own Risk

Every now and again I’m caught off guard by the nature of this industry. I might not have been involved in the world of online marketing and freelance writing my entire adult life, but almost eight years in the field is enough to give me a rather cynical perspective on a lot of things. That being said, an experience this week took me aback and

Are You Ready for Your 2012 Year-End Evaluation?

I know November isn’t quite the end of the year. But with the hectic nature of the holiday season, I like to start a year-end business evaluation a bit early. What I do is look over my initial goals and resolutions for reference, and then check my mid-year check-in and any changed goals to see what I have and haven’t done. This year was not

4 Tips for Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism

Several days ago I was contacted by fellow freelance writer, Luana Spinetti. She wrote to thank me for a recent post on my business writing blog — one where I talked about the risks business owners take on in hiring bottom-of-the-barrel content writers. In that post I talked a bit about plagiarism and how passing a plagiarism checker (like Copyscape) in no way meant articles

Making Money as a Freelance Writer: What’s Most Important

If I were to ask those just starting out what is most important in having a freelance writing career, I’m guessing most would tell me what seems obvious. You have to write well. And it’s true that you do need sufficient writing skills to build a career as a freelance writer, but that’s not what is most important. In fact, excellent writing skills don’t even

Using The Web To Get Print Jobs Part I

Just because you want to write for magazines doesn’t mean you can ignore the web. Your web presence is one of the easiest ways for potential employers/editors to find you. Is yours optimized to do all it can for you in this regard? Over the next two posts we’ll explore what you can do to position yourself well online for jobs in print. In this

When Clients Attack: An Elance Story

I had just finished graduate school and needed a job. The problem with getting a Master’s in English with emphasis in Creative Writing is that there is no career development course in the curriculum. There may not be one in any other major either, but with this particular course of study, it seems to be completely necessary.  If you’re really interested in being a teacher,

Game Changers: Is It Time to Throw in the Freelance Towel?

It’s crossed the mind of every freelancer at one point or another, perhaps on the day that a major deal falls through or you learn you’re looking at a divorce or pregnancy. Is there a good time to stop freelance writing? While our knee jerk reaction may be to immediately deny the thoughts of walking away or scaling back, logically there are some times when

Handling Freelance's Biggest Financial Surprises

Some surprises are nice: surprise birthday parties, surprise gifts, surprise breakfast in bed. Other surprises are not so nice, specifically surprises that cost you. When you’re a fulltime writer, your income fluctuates often, so surprises are typically unwelcome. But they happen, even to the most experienced writers. Success and longevity hinge on your ability to manage these surprises. A big project falls through. Not every

Freelancing Tricks: Find a Comfort Zone

One of the hardest things to do as a freelancer is also one of the most critical. You need to find a comfort zone in your professional life. If you don’t find a happy medium where you’re driven to succeed without overwhelming yourself with projects and obligations, your professional life will quickly bleed over into your personal life – and soon you find yourself trapped

Freelancing Doesn't Have to Mean Financial Failure

If you asked my 20-year-old self what kind of job I wanted after graduating college, writing would not have been my answer. But, if you asked that same me what I was passionate about, I would have answered “writing” without hesitation. I’ve talked to many people who, like I was, are afraid to follow their dreams of being a full-time freelance writer because they’re worried

Writing A Great Title

In terms of magazine writing, it has been my experience that editors will often change the title you give an article. Know this going in. So, you may ask, why am I devoting an entire post to writing a great title? Well, because it could get your article accepted–or at least help you get an editor’s attention. When you send a query letter in, having

Bloggers Beware: WriterBay.com Uses Guest Posts as Link Spam

Update: I received an email from David from Writerbay.com this morning. While we still disagree as to the spam nature of these kinds of contests, I do want to update you about a positive development. The primary concern with the contest was the target list of bloggers that was published for participants. I was informed (and then verified) that the list has been removed. Writers can

Should Freelance Writers Work Overtime?

Do you ever put in long hours, working overtime? Are you strictly against working overtime as a freelance writer? There are good cases both for and against these late nights, working weekends, or whatever kind of overtime schedule you might have. Today I’d like to share a few thoughts on when I work overtime, when I think it’s smart to work extra hours, and why I think

3 Basic Business Skills All Freelancers Need

Successful freelancing involves more than having the ability to write (or design, code, or whatever service you offer). Freelancers also need some basic business skills to manage and grow a freelance business. These are the skills that allow you to attract clients, manage finances, and make appropriate plans for the future. Let’s look at three basic business skills all freelancers should have, and resources that

Why I Gave up a $37k Blogging Gig Over Professional Ethics

What do you value more as a freelance writer — money or your reputation and professional ethics? For me, it’s the latter without a doubt. It’s not uncommon for me to turn down new prospects for ethical reasons. There are some niches I won’t touch. And there are clients with histories I wouldn’t want to associate myself with. They include anything from sponsorships from content

Working from Home and Wasting Time

There is a lot of resistance to the idea that working at home makes you lazy. I’d heartily agree that stereotypes are generally unfounded among successful business people who choose to work from home, but I’d also offer up the argument that having worked in a few places in corporate America, people are lazy workers at times no matter where they are stationed for the

Magazine Writing — Gathering Intel

So you want to write for a magazine? If that is the case–one of the most important things you will do is study publications that you want to submit material to in query form. But what is the best way to go about that? Let’s face it, buying tons of magazines can be really expensive. (Fun, but expensive!) So how do you do your research

Profitable Guest Posting

Guest posting is popular for several good reasons: Guest posting is an excellent showcase of your skills. Guest posting is a highly targeted form of marketing. Guest posting is an ace-in-the-hole for SEO. Guest posting can be rather profitable. If you raised an eyebrow at my fourth reason, you aren’t thinking about all of the true possibilities of guest posting. What’s Guest Posting? For those