New Year’s Resolutions for the Freelance Writer

In the tradition of the new year, I have a few things I’m going to change about the way I do my freelance writing business. Starting with better record keeping. I’ve been using an Access database to manage my projects, invoices, and expenses, but I’m thinking about upgrading to Quicken this year. It’s a tax-deductible business expense, so there’s one benefit if I don’t get any other from it.

• Market more. You can never do too much marketing. It’s a good idea to keep your name in front of your target customers so you never have a shortage of work.
• Look for ways to make money. I look for freelance writing jobs on a daily basis, even if I feel like I already have enough. It paid off when one of my clients had to take a break from orders. Look for other revenue streams, too. The most successful freelance writers make money from more than just writing.
• Charge what you’re worth. The new year is a good time to evaluate your current rates and increase them if necessary. If you have trouble making ends meet in 2008, it’s time to charge a rate you can afford.
• Network more. Other freelance writers are your colleagues. Not only does staying in touch help you through some of the obstacles of freelancing, you can also get some pretty good gigs just by talking with other writers.
• Keep a consistent blogging schedule. I’m very much guilty of the sporadic blogging schedule. This year, I’m resolving to have a regular blogging schedule on my top blogs.
• Read more on your niche. No matter how experienced you are in your niche, you can always stand to know more. Make it a habit to read up on your niche this year.
• Say no to jobs you don’t have time for/charge too little/you won’t like. It’s ok to turn down jobs, within reason, of course.
• Make a business plan. Every business needs a plan. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, my business plan is written on a 12×12 piece of cardstock with markers. It’s a plan, nevertheless, and it’s better than no plan at all.
• Write for fun. You know what they say about all work and no play… I’m planning to spend at least an hour each week writing for fun. Make sure fun writing doesn’t distract you from doing client work though. You might even use it (fun writing) as an incentive for meeting a goal.
• Make time for you. You are your business’ most important asset. Treat yourself like it. Spend some time, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day, doing something for you.

Resolutions are no good if you don’t follow them. Write your resolutions on a piece of paper and put them in a place where you’ll reference them often.

End of the Year Tax Moves for Freelancers

Only a few days are left in 2008 and that means you only have a few days to reduce your tax liability. The more money you make, the more you’ll owe in taxes. If you want to lower your tax bill, here are a few things you can do in the remaining days of this year.

Delay invoices. There are two types of accounting methods for taxes: Cash and accrual. With the cash method, you count income and expenses when you receive and pay them. With accrual, you count income when it’s invoices and expenses when they’re incurred. No matter which method you use, saving your final invoices until January 1 will reduce your income.

Pay January’s health insurance premium. Self-employed individuals can deduct 100% of the health insurance premiums paid. This is a top-of-the-line deduction you can make whether you itemize your taxes or not.

Prepay next year’s web hosting. Business expenses are also tax deductible and reduce your taxable income. If you host websites as part of your freelance writing business, hosting charges can be deducted. Your accounting method (cash vs. accrual) does count here. Paying your web hosting works best when you use the cash method.

Make an extra house payment. Mortgage interest paid is tax-deductible, so sending in a payment before the end of the year gets you closer to home ownership and decreases what you owe the IRS.

Give a donation. If you itemize your deductions, you can deduct any donations you give to charity. Work done for charities counts too. You need a receipt for donations over $250 so make sure you get one. Keep track of what and how much you give to make it easier when you prepare your taxes.

Max out retirement accounts. In 2008, you can contribute up to $44,000 ($51,000 if you’re over 50) to a self-employed 401(k) plan and $46,000 to a SEP-IRA. Your contributions are tax-deductible if you open your retirements accounts and contribute to them before December 31, 2008.

If you want more information about taxes for self-employed individuals, I recommend Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultantsby Stephen Fishman. The IRS website is another good resource, but you have you know what you’re looking for.

Disclaimer: I’m not a tax professional. This is advice based on research and personal experience. If you want more information about taxes for self-employed, consult with an accountant or tax attorney.

Email Mistakes You Should Avoid

Here’s a post titled “Email Etiquette“ from The WebPrepPro blog written by guest blogger, Michael. The advises against three email mistakes that could be easy to forget, but should really be so ingrained in our communication skills that they’re easily avoided:

1. Failing to return emails.
2. Being too casual - emails are business letters, after all.
3. Forgetting your manners - talking in all caps, using an impolite tone.

Since we’re on the subject, I’d like to add a few to the list:

4. Failing to say everything in one email. No one wants a succession of 3, 4, or 5 “Oh yeah, and I forgot…” emails. Think of everything you need to say and get it in one message.

5. Forgetting the attachment. It’s an easy mistake to make, but it’s not an attractive one. A lot of people do it, I’ve done it, too. It can send the message that you don’t pay attention to details. If you use Outlook, you can create a Macro to scan your outgoing messages and cancel sending if there’s no attachment. My AOL account does this automatically. You’d think by 2007, Microsoft could have done it, too.

6. Sending to the wrong person. You could mistakenly disclose confidential information. Even if you don’t, it’s embarrassing and could make you seem careless. I often leave the “To:” box blank when I’m composing a new message, even if it’s a reply. Between hot keys and quirky mice, it’s easy for a message to be sent by mistake.

7. Relying on built-in spelling and grammar check. This goes beyond emails and into your every day work. Automatic spelling and checks only go so far with making your your messages are error-free. Don’t rely on them completely. Always read your emails out loud (or at least in a whisper) before you send them. You’ll catch errors that spell check didn’t - like words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly.

Feed Update

I’ve set a goal for 2009 to reach 100 subcribers for my RSS feed. I honestly don’t know if that’s a realistic goal or not because I don’t have a clue how many subcribers I have right now. That’s why I signed up to have FeedBurner manage my RSS feed. After updating your Writer’s Brew feed address, you can still receive RSS updates in the same method that you receive them now, only I’ll actually know you’re a subscriber - kind of.

Do you have a feed subscriber goal for 2009?

Dear Template Designer, I Like Bullets and Numbers In My Lists

Dear Template Designer-

I’m really appreciate your free templates. I do have a slight problem though. Many of your templates have wonky issues with lists - the bullets and numbers don’t show up. I understand the template looks better when there are no bullets in the sidebars and headers. But, my readers miss the point if I title a blog post 101 ways to write better and there are no numbers to indicate that there are actually 101 items in the list. Not only that, a list without bullets simply becomes a series of badly formatted sentences and my readers think I’m the one who’s messing up my posts, not you.

I have some background in programming, so ordinarily it’s not hard for me to Google “CSS list bullets won’t show” to figure out how to format my stylesheet to force bullets to show up. However, I have to spend time getting acquainted with your coding style and figure out where exactly you put the settings for lists that show up in posts (vs. sidebar lists, menu lists, footer lists, other lists). Less technical template users will end up frustrated and switch to a template that actually includes bullets and numbers for lists.

Finally, it seems that there’s always some weird global setting that keeps bullets from showing up. For example, in one template, there was global margin setting that had to be removed before bullets would show up in posts. A nice little “remove this for bullets to show up” comment would be very helpful.

It’s not that I can’t figure out how to get bullets to show up. It’s just that spending 2-3 hours doing it is not a good use of my time and makes me less inclined to use your template. So the point, dear template designer, is that lists inside blog posts needs bullets and numbers to make sense. Please stop forcing them out.

Best Regards,
Your Friendly WordPress Template User

Freelancers Owe Taxes, Too

Having an employer has some perks. One of them is that someone else figures out all the tax stuff for you. Freelance writers (and other freelancers, too) are subject to a wonderful tax known as the self-employment tax.

The self-employment tax is basically double the Medicare and social security tax that you’d pay as an employee. The way the government sees it, you’re essentially an employer (of yourself) and an employee (of yourself). As such, you should be paying employer and employee taxes.

As of 2008, the self-employment tax rate is 15.3% of your income. 12.4% goes toward social security. The other 2.9% goes toward Medicare. Anything you make over $102,000 is only subject to the Medicare tax rate of 2.9%.

Anyone who expects to owe more than $1,000 in income taxes is required to pay taxes throughout the year. When you’re employed by a company, they withhold your taxes for you. However, as self-employed individuals, we’ve taken on the responsibility of figuring up taxes and sending the tax check to the IRS. Use IRS Form 1040-ES to calculate your estimated taxes. The IRS requires estimated taxes to be sent on a quarterly basis.

Tax rules are complex and the information I’ve included here is simply a brief overview. You can understand more about self-employed taxes from the IRS website, your accountant, or a professional tax preparer.

7 Productive Things To Do With Your Free Time

Do you ever have a weird, unproductive feeling between assignments? Like you should be doing something, but you just can’t put your finger on it. I get that way sometimes when I finish one assignment and have some time before I start on the next. Then it dawns on me, “Oh yeah, there’s some other work I could be doing.”

1. Write some evergreen blog posts. I’m insanely jealous of bloggers who manage to post everyday, especially those who post multiple times a day. I’ve tried, tried, tried to do it but I just can’t. It dawned on me that they probably don’t sit down and write a post everyday. Instead, they likely make up several posts at one time and set the timestamp so the posts will show up everyday. You can spend your free time writing up some blog posts and setting them to drip. Sometimes I have so many ideas in my mind, I just outline drafts of a few posts, then go back and write them. In fact, I did that with this post.
2. Learn something new. When you’re in between assignments, you can take some time and learn a new aspect of your niche. Read up on some news. Research a law. We’re writers, so we can always read more about writing. Learn a new style of writing - press release writing, business plan writing, copywriting.
3. Market yourself. It’s hard to do too much marketing. Even when you’re booked up with assignments, it’s still a good idea to keep your name out there. You never know when the well will run dry and you don’t want clients to forget that you exist. You can plan the strength of your marketing efforts based on how much work you have in the pipes. For example, you would do less marketing if you have a lot of work planned, and vice versa.
4. Read some other writers’ blogs. Though you may not see them face to face or work directly with them, other writers are your colleagues. Just like you’d catch up with a coworker over a coffee break, you can catch up with other freelancers by reading their blogs. You can learn a lot about the freelance writing business, its challenges, and its rewards. Find new ways to deal with clients or collect on payments. I’ve even gotten new writing gigs, just from reading someone else’s blog.
5. Brainstorm new ideas. Use your downtime to come up with some new ideas. Your freelance writing business could always use some new ideas on marketing, running the business, organizing your files. And of course, there’s never a shortage of article ideas, especially if you run your own blogs or pitch to magazines.
6. Update your portfolio. After you’ve spent some time doing some client work, you probably have a few more clips you can add to your portfolio. It’s a good idea to put your best work out there for prospective clients to see. As you complete more work, you might replace some of your other links. Or, if you didn’t have much work to show off, add some more links to show the breadth of work you’ve done.
7. Relax. There’s no rule that says you have to spend your free time working. When you have some time between assignments, one of the best things you can do is take a break from work. You don’t want to wear yourself out with constant work. Take a breather, even if it means leaving your house and your laptop for awhile. You’ll appreciate the renewed vigor once you start back working again.

What do you do during your free time?

Writer’s Brew Gets a New Look

As you can probably tell, I’ve switched to a different theme. I loved the other theme because I love colors, but it didn’t have much to do with writing. It was more like something for an artist’s blog. This one looks more like a writer’s desk. I had to have it! What do you think about the new theme?

5 Signs You Won’t Make it as Freelance Writer

Out of every 10 people I tell I’m a freelance writer at least 4 of them ask me how they can get started freelance writing. Could 40% of people really be cut out for freelance writing? Somehow I doubt it, but who am I to judge. Don’t think that because your 8th grade English teacher loved your book report on To Kill a Mockingbird that you’re cut out for freelance writing. Here are 5 signs you won’t make it as a freelance writer.

You can’t write well. When people ask me how they can become a freelance writer, I always ask, “Can you write?” The answers always “yes” and I come back with a “Can you write well though?” Not many people realize it, but there’s a difference. Writing well is more than putting a few sentences together in a coherent order. It’s about using words to engage the reader and many times to get them to take an action - buy the next issue of the magazine or purchase the advertiser’s products.

You don’t read. I never feel more inspired to write than after I’ve read a good book. To me, reading is learning. It helps a writer hone his or her skills. You can’t write well if you don’t read. How would you know what to say and how to say it well?

You don’t know how to sell yourself. Writing is just part of the work of being a freelance writer. A big (humongous, even) part of it is convincing people to pay you to write for them. It is imperative that you have some sales and marketing skills if you want to make it as a freelance writer.

You’re not resourceful. Very few of the answers are laid out there for writers. You have to go digging for information. I mean, flipping over rocks and digging in the grass to deliver information that hasn’t been repeated ad nauseam. You also have to know how to create relationships with people, especially other freelance writers and media contacts, and leverage those relationships.

You’re not persistent. There was no way I could have made it on the money I made in my first few months of being a freelance writer. But, I didn’t let that stop me from pursuing a freelance writing career. Being self-employed period is tough and if it’s something you really want, you have to stick with it. If you’re the type to give up, a freelance writing career might not be for you.

Still thinking about being a freelance writer? Check out this list of freelance writing blogs that have a wealth of information to get you started. I’d also like to point to The Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career, a great guide to for every freelance writer who does business on the web.

How I Flipped the Full-Time Writer Switch

I believe that most anything can be done with a little bit of planning. That includes making the jump to a full time freelance writing career. I became a full-time freelance writer in August and it was very scary at first. For me, the hardest part of the transition was finances - making enough money to cover the bills and have a little money left over.

My decision to freelance full-time wasn’t a hasty one. I’d wanted to do it for awhile, but I always expected to have my cake and eat it to, so to speak. What I mean by that is, I wanted to build my freelance writing salary to the level of fulltime job salary before I made the leap. It could have happened, but I wouldn’t have had a life - or sleep.

Indeed, I had grandiose dreams of becoming self-employed and they didn’t actually come true. Here’s what really happened.

I built a hefty savings. I cut my expenses extremely low and saved as much as I possibly could for six months. During that time, I didn’t many clothes and shoes. I decreased my grocery bill. I cut back on my cable package (I couldn’t bear to cut it off completely). I changed my cell phone provider (switched to the provider most of my friends had so I could take advantage of mobile-to-mobile). I stopped eating out so much.

What you cut from your budget will depend on where you currently spend your money. Look at your spending for a month and use that to help figure out how you can better save. I managed to build a savings that would cover me for six months if I made absolutely no money at all freelancing.

I created my portfolio. I’d had a freelance writing portfolio before but I didn’t really use it because I wasn’t seriously freelancing. As a full-time freelancer, an online portfolio isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. If you don’t already have an online portfolio get one. You’ll need a domain - I purchase mine through GoDaddy.com. You’ll need a host - I prefer HostGator.com. If you’re not a programmer, you’ll probably need a template. Check out Jenn Mattern’s list of places to find web and blog templates.

I decided what services I’d offer and rates I’d charge. My online website isn’t just a porfolio. It also lets potential clients know what I can do for them and how much it will cost. I spent a few weeks doing some business planning and deciding what specific writing services I would offer. I also took some time to figure out what I needed to make to survive and how much I would need to charge clients for that work.

I networked. I never came out and said to fellow freelance writers, “Hey. I’m going to freelance fulltime. Keep me in mind for referrals.” I very well could have. It’s just not my style. Instead, I became more active in the freelance writing world - visiting forums, posting on blogs, and sending ”hello” emails. I really just wanted to be connected with the freelance writers who would soon be my colleagues. I didn’t necessarily have to get any jobs through it, but I have. It just worked out that way.

I read up. Being a freelance writer entails a lot of knowing. You need to know about running a business. You need to know about writing and editing, especially if you specialize in a certain type of writing like press releases or sales letters. You need to know about your niche. Learning is a never-ending process, but I’d be further behind if I didn’t spend time upfront getting to know the business and using that information to plan.

I set a date. After being proposed to, most girls want to set a date. And so I did. I needed a solid day to work toward and I picked one.

I made a plan. I took an 11×11 piece of cardstock and wrote down my idea of a successful freelance writing career. Then I wrote down what I would do to make it successful - how I would market myself, what I would charge, how many clients I would pick up. I defined my target client. For my blogs, I defined my target audience and how I would monetize those blogs. A freelance plan doesn’t have to be anything fancy. In it’s simplest form, it’s what you want to do and how you plan to get there.

I made a backup plan. It’s just not good sense - business sense or common sense - to make a decision without having a Plan B. Even if Plan B is to become a bum and sleep on the streets, at least you’ve got one. I updated my resume and came up with a list of companies I’d apply to if the freelance writing thing didn’t work out.

I came up with an exit point. I defined an exit point at which I would leave the freelance writing business. I based my exit point on financials because they’re concrete. I couldn’t base the decision on anything subjective because I can argue myself either way. Numbers won’t lie. I decided I would start looking for a new job once my savings and project receivables got down to a certain level. If the job market was better, I might let my savings nearly deplete. But since I know getting a job would take some time, I set the threshold kind of high. You might set some other criteria. The key is to have a point at which you say, “Ok. This isn’t working.”

You can tell from this list that becoming a full-time freelance writer isn’t easy. Nor is a decision you can take lightly. Making the transition will go a lot smoother if you plan out as many of the details as possible. Take advantage of the resources you have - the freelance writers you “know,” other entrepreneurs, books, websites, blogs, magazines. There’s a wealth of information out there to help you achieve your dream.