10 Things I Don’t Like About Freelancing

I’d be remiss if I made it seem like freelance writing was all gold and required no dirt digging to get to the gold. There are some drawbacks to being a freelance writer.

1. I’m the entire business. I don’t have a boss to run ideas by or keep me in line when I don’t know what to do next. There’s no accounting department to send and followup on invoices. There’s no IT to fix my computer problems. No food services to get lunch ready. It’s all on me.
2. No employer paid health benefits. Group-like health insurance (like what employers offer) is expensive. The plan I have now has significantly less coverage at a higher monthly cost than my share of the premium under my previous group plan.
3. Double the medicare and social security taxes. Self-employed people have to pay their share and their “employer’s” share of Medicare and social security taxes. It’s called the self-employment tax. On the bright side, half the tax can be deducted from your taxable income.
4. No corporate credit card and expense account. Ahh, the days of corporate Amex and expense reports. Of course, the reports were a pain to fill out, but at least I didn’t bear the cost of expenses. Self-employed individuals can deduct business expenses on their income, but the expense still cuts into your profit.
5. Extra paperwork. I can’t say that I didn’t have to deal with paperwork in the corporate world, but there seems to be more of it now that I’m freelancing. And it’s all important, otherwise, I’d get rid of it.
6. The work involved with getting work. When you work for someone else, you jump through a lot of hoops of front then you have the job. Freelancing, you’re continuously jumping through hoops. Well, until you’ve built a  name for yourself so the gigs flow with minimal work on your part.
7. Some days I don’t have a reason to leave the house. Since I’ve started freelancing, 80% of my trips outside the house result in me spending money (besides the gas it takes to get there). Now, I have to force myself to do something outside rather than shop.
8. My grocery bill is higher. I eat all three meals plus snacks at home, so I spend more money on groceries than I would otherwise. I’d like to think it balances it out with the reduction in fuel costs.
9. Following up with clients who don’t pay. It’s hard to imagine a large corporation not sending your paycheck. With individuals, it’s different. Thankfully, I haven’t had to deal with very many nonpaying clients, but it does happen, it’s a real pain.
10. Friends and family fail to recognize it as a real job. Statements like “I wish I could just sit around on the computer all day” absolutely infuriate me. People seem to think that I just lolligag around surfing the internet while they slave away under “the man’s” watch. Not so. I work just as hard, if not harder than anyone who gets up everyday and punches the clock.

Don’t be shy. What are some of the things you don’t like about freelance writing?

10 Things I Love About Freelancing

I spent a total of 7 years at someone else’s job. While there are some benefits to working outside the home - like health benefits, paid vacation, paid sick days - I would much rather freelance. Here are 10 of the things I love most about freelance writing.

The flexible work schedule. You can set work hours if you want to make your day more structured, but when and how long you work is totally up to you. You can work 5 hours a day, 20 hours a week if you want to.

Freedom to choose my own work. One of the things I liked least about having a boss was being given assignments I didn’t feel were good fits for me. Well, not anymore. I choose the work I do and if I get stuck with a gig I don’t like, it’s my own fault.

There’s room for all my creativity and imagination. When I started freelancing fulltime, there was a noticeable change in my thinking and writing. My vocabulary improved. I came up with tons more ideas. Hey, I even got Writer’s Brew back up and running.

I have the ability to break any income ceilings. At a 9-5, you wait for a performance review to get a raise and even then your income will only go up so much each year. As a freelance writer, I set my rates and I can increase them anytime. I have the freedom to additional revenue streams to maximize my income.

I don’t have to get up and go to work every morning. I am not a morning person. Thanks to the flexibility of freelance writing, I don’t have to force myself to be one.

I don’t have to buy “work” clothes. I still keep business casual clothing my closet because I never know when I’ll be meeting clients face to face. Maybe one day I’ll get brave enough to do some cold visits.

It’s challenging. Working for yourself isn’t the easiest thing to do, but I’m no stranger to hard work. In fact, hard work is a friend of mine. I have always loved a challenge and freelancing definitely keeps me on my toes.

It’s rewarding. There’s nothing better than getting compliments from a satisfied client. Doing work for some many people, I can easily see that my efforts are appreciated. You may get shown appreciation for your work at a 9-5, but it’s far less often.

People are impressed to find out I’m my own boss. Sometimes I’m hesitant to tell people that I’m a freelance writer because I’ve already assumed they have certain perceptions of me. When I do talk about what I do, most people are intrigued. It makes me more comfortable discussing my job.

I am location free. I can pretty much work anywhere there’s an internet connection. Sometimes, I don’t even need that. As long as I have my laptop, I can work outline some articles or blog posts

What things do you love about freelance writing?

9-5ish Work Hours for Freelance Writers

I know that one of the primary benefits of freelancing is escaping the 9-5, but having “work hours” is beneficial in freelance writing too.

Work doesn’t consume all your time. Without a set time for working, you’ll find that you start working when you wake up in the morning and don’t stop until you go to bed at night. It might not seem like a problem at first, but you can easily burn yourself out that way.

Easier work/life balance. If you have a family, you have to balance freelance work and home just like you would if you working outside the home. Work hours lets you clearly define the time you have for work and the time you have for family. That way, you’re not neglecting either.

You get more done in a shorter period of time. When I actually worked a 9-5, I would never actually workthe entire 8 hours. There were frequent breaks, conversations with co-workers, internet browsing that would take up time in the day. I was going to be there 8 hours, what was the rush? Setting your work hours to something like 10-2 forces you to complete your work inside those hours.

You can tell people when not to disturb you. Once I started working at home, leisure phone conversations were not an option anymore. With work hours I can tell people not to call during those times. Otherwise, I would be annoyed anytime the phone rang day or night.

Clients know when to best contact you. There may be times when clients need to contact you by phone, IM, or even email for some immediate information. You can communicate your work hours to your clients and they never, or at least seldom, have to question your availability.

Your work hours don’t necessarily have to be the same everyday. You control your schedule so if you need to work from 6am to 10am one day and 12pm to 8pm another day, that’s up to you. The key is to have some time dedicated solely to writing so you separate your work from the rest of your life.

6 Things to Consider Before Taking a Gig

When I first started freelancing, I took just about any job I could find. I was so happy to be getting paid to write, I didn’t realize that I should be choosing a freelance writing job just like I’d choose any other job. It only took a few bad jobs - low paying, topics I wasn’t interested in, demanding clients - for me to see that I’d have to put more thought into the jobs I applied for and accepted. Now, here are 6 of the things I consider before I take on a writing gig.

Can you do the job?

Being a writer doens’t mean you can write any and everything. If you don’t have experience writing sales letters, you should think twice about taking on a copywriting gig. You’re doing yourself and the client a disservice if you accept a job you can’t do. If you have doubts, it’s better for your client relationship and reputation to state them upfront. Let the client decide if he wants to hire you or not.

Is it in your niche?

Having a writing niche makes it a lot easier to pick jobs. I focus on personal finance, so it makes deciding not to write about lawn maintenance a much easier and faster choice. Even if you don’t have a niche specialty, you can narrow down the topics you will/won’t write about.

Is it paying your rate?

I’m sure none of us would have a problem accepting a job paying morethan our set rates, but accepting jobs that pay less, well, that’s another story. There’ll be jobs that pay less than what you typically charge and you’ll have to make the decision whether or not to accept them. You might set a policy that your rates are non-negotiable and in that case, you’ll never accept jobs that pay less. Or, you might have a minimum rate you’ll accept. For example, if you typically charge $.15/word, you might, on occasion take certain jobs that pay $.10/word. If you take jobs that pay less, make sure there’s something in it for you (besides a pay cut) and that it won’t affect your short term ability to make ends meet.

Would you like the work?

If you don’t like the work the job entails, you will have a tough time getting through the job (unless you’re super self-disciplined). I’ve been on the verge of handing jobs back because they were so mind-numbingly boring that I couldn’t imagine typing another letter. As you consider taking a gig, imagine yourself doing the work. Could you really sit at your laptop and type out 5 articles about cutting grass and pulling weeds?

Is the timeline/workload reasonable?

Nothing against the clients who hire us, but sometimes, they don’t understand how much work goes into what we do. They can have unrealistic expectations about how much work can be done in a certain amount of time. Before you take on a job, make sure you and the client agree on how much work is to be done with a certain amount of time. If the client insists on an impossible timeline, just move on.

Can you have a good relationship with the client?

You’d think it would be easy to get along with everyone on the internet. But, that’s just not true. Personalities and work styles come through email and instant messaging the same way they do in face-to-face interactions. A lot of times, you don’t notice the idiosyncrasies until after you’ve been hired for the job. But, if you notice upfront hints that the client will be difficult to work with, give the job some thought before accepting it.

What things do you consider as you’re deciding whether to take a writing job?

How I Look and Apply For Freelance Jobs

I should have a banner that says “Work smarter, not harder” printed up and hung in my work area. There are only so many hours in the day and I have to make the best of each one of them. Being productive is highly important to a freelance writer’s success.

One of the biggest time wasters for me was looking and applying for new writing gigs. I would spend half the morning looking and  applying for new writing gigs. Before I knew it, it was lunch time and I hadn’t done any work for clients or myself. Instead, I started looking for gigs after lunch and sending applications at the end of the day.

I’ve spent time on different job boards and from what I’ve seen most of them are updated in the morning. Typically I’ve already looked on a board for a job before the new ones have been posted. I spend about 15 to 30 minutes after lunch looking for jobs. I don’t apply for them. I just email them to myself to work on later.

Then about an hour before quitting time, I go through the jobs and apply for them. Applying for jobs all at once works better because you remain in the “sell myself” frame of mind the entire time. If you were to look and apply at the same time, you’d break the marketing momentum. Make the application process faster by having a copy of your resume open and using prewritten templates. Don’t forget to customize your email for each job.

Using this process to look and apply for freelance writing jobs gave me back at least two and a half hours in my day, quite possibly even more. Pay attention to the way you apply for jobs and see if you can somehow streamline the process.

The Freelance Writer’s Resume

Making a writing resume has been on my to-do list for months now, maybe even years. I’ve been putting it off because I thought it was too hard and would take too much time.

I’m used to creating chronological resumes, the ones that list out your work experience in order of dates. The problem is that format doesn’t work well with freelance writing. I didn’t know what format to use so I just didn’t do it.

I can’t count the number of ads I didn’t respond to because they asked for a resume. Pitiful reason to miss out on gigs, I know.

Today, I stopped putting it off and I actually made the resume…and you know what. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I was making it out to be. I Googled “freelance writer resume,” looked at a few examples, and used those to come up with mine. There were two in particular that I liked: Sharon L. Fullen’s and Tamar Love’s.

I’ll update this post with a link to my resume when I publish it, but for now here’s the format I followed:

Name

One paragraph blurb about me. My experience. Current projects.

Writing and Editing Experience

• Bulleted list of key experience, e.g. wrote web content, edited ebook, created newsletter

Freelance Clients

Links to the web pages of previous clients

Work History

One line summary of my past jobs

Education

Clips

And that’s that.

Have you created a writer’s resume? Post the link and let’s see it!

My Favorite Cure For Writer’s Block

I know I said coming up with new ideas was the one thing I hated about writing. Well so is writer’s block. If you think about it, they’re almost the same thing. I mean, they’re both obstacles to your creativity.

Now, I have a clear list of things I do to overcome the lack of ideas, including talking to other people and browsing the web.

Just Stop Writing

I don’t have a list like that for writer’s block. In fact, I do one thing to combat writer’s block. I stop writing. The more I think about what I could write, the more obscure those perfect words seem to become.

I’ve heard about other cures. Like looking at pictures that evoke emotion or listening to music. Those don’t work for me.

At first, you might think that just quitting will ruin your productivity and push you past your deadline. Quitting can’t be any less productive than staring at a monitor screen wondering what to say, typing then backspacing and repeating.

Why Quitting Works for Me

Even though I’m no longer actively working on the writing project anymore, I still sometimes work on it in my head. In fact, I’ve usually worked out an article in my mind before I ever start typing. So quitting takes me back to the blueprint, so to speak, and helps me think about what I’m trying to do.

But, there are times when I quit that I don’t think about the project. Those times, I turn my mind to something else entirely. Then, when I come back to the project, I have a fresh perspective I can work on it with.

It Works Everytime

I can’t think of a single instance that quitting didn’t solve my writer’s block. Usually, I get writer’s block because my mind is racing too swiftly to get the thoughts out. So taking a step back, helps me slow things down so I can think about what I need to say.

Share your solutions to writer’s block. Do you fight through it, use writing prompts, or just quit all together like I do?

Where to get new ideas

If there’s one thing I hate about writing, it’s running out of ideas. Every so often, I’m just dry on ideas. I sit down with my laptop to write something, but I just can’t think of anything to write about. To keep myself from running dry, I came up with some places to get new ideas.

1. Personal experiences. Think about things you’ve gone through. Things you’re currently going through. You’d be surprised at what you can come up with. I write about credit for About.com, so I’m always tuned in to everything I do related to credit - paying my bills, forgetting to pay my bills, calling credit cards about a problem. Even though those tasks sometimes seem second nature, I have to realize they’re not like that for everyone.
2. Talking to other people. I like to listen to people talk about their problems. Not because I just like to hear people doing badly, but because problems lead to great ideas. The other day, I was making a recipe that called me to roll up corn tortillas. Well, the things kept cracking and breaking when I tried to roll them! A food writer could take that and turn it into an article about cooking with tortillas, corn vs. flour, and how to keep them from cracking.
3. Other writers. Magazines, books blogs, and websites can be another source of ideas. Of course, it’s illegal to copy their articles, but you can write on the same or a similar topic. Sometimes I get the best ideas from an unexplained or briefly covered topic in another article. A single sentence or phrase in a 500-word article can give me an idea to create an entirely new article.The same thing applies to your own writing. Go back and read through some things that you’ve already written. Can you cover the topic from a different angle? Is there something in the article that you didn’t cover completely?
4. News and press releases. I used to spend hours scavenging through news sites to find topics to write about. Then, I discovered Google Alerts. You can have Google email you all the news related to specific keywords. Instead of sifting through numerous news sites, the news comes directly to you. Sign up at www.google.com/alerts.
5. Forums and message boards. These are my favorite places to get ideas. The nature of forums makes it easy to get ideas. Forums are full of people posting about their problems. Find a few active forums in your niche and save them as favorites. Visit them from time to time to see what questions are being asked, what problems people are having.
6. Your idea file. For me, ideas seem to come in spurts. There are times when the ideas keep coming and times when I don’t have any ideas at all. During those wealthy idea periods, I jot down all my ideas so I can come back to them later on. Then, when I can’t come up with anything, I turn to my idea file.Now my idea file, isn’t really a file at all. I actually have ideas all over the place. I’ve tried to consolidate them, but it doesn’t work, so I quit trying. The key isn’t really the storing method, but that you collect your ideas and you can get back to them later on.

How do you generate new ideas for content?

When’s the last time you updated your portfolio?

Your writing portfolio is like a sales catalog for your services. Think about what you like to see when you look at sales papers. They should be fresh, timely, and include the most updated prices and products. The same goes for your writing portfolio.

You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t look at it regularly to make sure it’s representing you well.

Once or twice a month, set aside some time to review your online writing portfolio. Check these things:

• Contact information. Is it still accurate?
• Services. Have you added any new services or removed services?
• Rates. If you list rates on your portfolio, make sure they’re up to date.
• Samples and clips. As you complete work, think about adding and removing samples from your portfolio. Make sure your portfolio includes the best of your samples.
• Testimonials. If you get a compliment from a client ask their permission to post it on your site. You can also ask clients to give you a testimonial.
• Spelling and grammar. Of course.
• Persuasiveness of your copy. Determine what you want visitors to do when they come to your site and make sure every word on your site leads them to that action.

Did I miss anything? What else should writers check when they’re updating their online portfolios?

The Easy Way to Write Newsletter

I don’t usually like getting subcription things in my inbox. Even if I signed up for a newsletter or feed, I get a little annoyed to see random emails in my inbox. I have enough mail to read as it is.

The Easy Way to Write newsletter by Rob Parnell is an exception. Though I’ve only received 2 of the weekly issues, I’ve been extremely pleased with both of them. Last week’s issue was about having confidence in your writing and this week’s discussed the difference between premise and theme.

You can catch the online version of (and sign up for) the newsletter at The Easy Way to Write website.