Don’t Hate Yourself In the Morning

When I first started freelance writing, I took on jobs that were absolutely dispicable. They were boring. They didn’t pay enough. They were quite demanding considering the pay. They required me to insert keywords that didn’t make sense. They made me question writing as a profession. I’d dread putting my fingers to the keyboard, something I otherwise couldn’t tear myself away from. I had some writing jobs that threatened to keep me from being a writer.

Since then, I’ve promised myself that I would never take on writing gigs that I would not enjoy. Part of me thinks, “You have to take the good with the bad.” Sometimes I wonder if it’s a bad idea to turn down a writing gig in my first year as a full-time writer when there’s a recession and thousands of people are losing their jobs everyday. It’s kind of like when your parents tell you not to throw away food because people in other countries are starving. But, I just can’t bring myself to say “yes” to a job, when all good sense is telling me to say no.

So, before I take on a writing job, I find out as much information as possible so I can imagine myself doing the work. Is it something I’d look forward to doing? Or something I’d put off until the last possible moment? Is it something I’d be proud of? Or something I’d hate myself for doing? Choose your freelance writing jobs carefully and watch out for those that threaten the passion you have for writing.

Early Thoughts on Elance

Long story short, I’ve decided to try out Elance and I have some mixed feelings about it so far. Read on to get the long story about why I signed up now after years of shying away and what I’ve experienced so far.

I’d previously written off Elance as a possible source of income because a few of my favorite writers don’t advocate it. But, on the other hand, I’d read some positive reviews about it from some other well-respected writers. While I have advised against bidding sites in general because of the tendency of bidders to go low and buyers to buy low, I’ve never spoken for or against Elance specifically because I don’t know enough about it to say anything. Well, that’s changing.

How I Signed Up for Elance

Over the past year, I’ve looked at the writing jobs posted on Elance and since I wasn’t too interested, I didn’t sign up. Then a few weeks (maybe months) ago, I registered, for the heck of it, just in case I saw some projects I wanted to sign up for. I didn’t really like the profile generation process. There was too much information to have “verified” and all I wanted to do was apply for jobs and tell the job posters why I was the best fit. I didn’t want to spend time on a profile.

Earlier today, I was thinking about posting a research job. I’m working on a couple of stories and I wanted to find a few people who’ve had experience with credit repair companies (if you’re one or know someone who is please email me). While there, I thought about a friend of mine who has a paralegal certificate who might be looking for some legal research work.  So I peruse through the legal part and find a job that was right up my alley. I promise I’m getting to the point…

Issues From the Start

I wanted to apply for the fabulous job, but Elance informed me that I needed to change my “Category” if I wanted to apply for the job. You see Elance posts jobs in different categories: Writing & Translation, Finance and Management, Web & Programming, Legal, etc. When I signed up, I selected the “Writing & Translation” category, not thinking I’d ever see anything in Legal. Well, the Basic (free) version of Elance only lets you select one category and though I tried to change it to Legal, the change wouldn’t take effect until December 15. The job I wanted to apply for would have expired by then.

Ok, so I upgraded to the “Professional” membership plan which costs $9.95 a month and lets you select multiple categories, with a catch of course. You can select one category for free. Each additional category costs $4.95. And that leads me to what I don’t like about Elance - they charge for everything. They allow you to enter skills information. You can verify those skills by taking Elance tests. They give you credit for two tests. Each additional costs $4. I entered my degree information, but if I want Elance to verify it, that’ll be $15. Every time I want to do something to improve my credibility on the site (since I’m a noob and all), there’s another fee.

Then, there are the transaction fees you pay when you’re awarded a job. You’ll have a maximum of 8.75% cut from your Elance revenue. Stop with the fees already. I guess everyone has to make money on the internet and if I find some good paying work, I probably won’t complain about the fees anymore.

What I Like About Elance

So far there is one thing I like about Elance - the bid amounts aren’t disclosed. That means there’s not as much pressure to underbid the next guy because you don’t know what the next guy bid. It doesn’t mean, however, that buyers won’t choose the lowest bidder. But that’s no different than how we apply for jobs outside of Elance.

Well, like I said, it’s something I’m trying out. I have a much higher revenue goal for 2009 and I’m looking at different ways of meeting it. Doing the same old thing will only get me the same old results. Stay tuned for updates on the Elance saga.

Oh, and I’ve already set a reminder in January to cancel if I don’t make any money!

What are your thoughts on Elance? Have you used it? Been successful?

5 Gigs You Should Turn Down

You don’t have to say “yes” to every writing that comes your way. I’m so tempted to do this sometimes when gigs are slow, but I have to remind myself that there are certain things to think about before taking on a writing job. If the job doesn’t fit the criteria, then I have to say no.

If you’re wondering which jobs you should say “no” to, here are five of them.

1. The one with paltry pay. You have rates because you have bills to pay and financial goals to meet. Taking jobs below your rates will keep you from doing both of those. Don’t accept jobs that outside your acceptable rate range, unless you have a very good reason for doing it.

2. The one on the topic that bores you to tears. During my days of article milling, I had some assigments that made me want to ram my head into a wall. They were so drab and uninteresting I could barely make it through them. That’s no way to work. If you’d rather lick sandpaper than write on a topic, then lick sandpaper, don’t write on that topic.

3. The one with the ridiculously short timeline. Don’t make promises you can’t keep and that includes accepting gigs with impossible timelines. You can try to talk the client into something more reasonable, but if he won’t budge, there’s no sense in depriving yourself of sleep and food just to complete an assignment with unreasonable expectations.

4. The one where the hiring client thinks you should be grateful to write for their start-up publication for absolutely nothing. Writing for free is one thing. Writing for free for a website no one has ever heard of is entirely different. I’m doing some gratis work right now for a friend of mine who’s launched an online magazine. Had she approached me like she was doing me a favor, I might have second-thought the position. I’m not going to say never write for free, but make sure you’re getting something out of it. Clips for unknown publications don’t count.

5. The one you really don’t have time for. You should be giving your all to every assignment you take. It’s how clients keep coming back to you and telling their friends about you. If you don’t have time for a gig, chances are you won’t do your best. You risk letting down a client and missing out on future work. If you like the assignment, but don’t have the time right now, ask if the client would be willing to wait. If not, you could always refer him/her to someone in your network.

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!

Take the work out of getting work

One of the most time-consuming things about finding freelance writing gigs is applying for them. I’m a writer, but writing an email to get a new job seems to be the hardest thing about my job.

I can find all the right words to explain how the bailout will affect consumer’s credit, but not enough words to say why I’m the right candidate. I know I should be selling myself, but I don’t want to come off as cheesy or arrogant. All this goes through my mind as I’m reading through an ad for a job I really like.

I was spending too much time writing out the perfect response to a job ad. So, I decided to do something about it.

I wrote a few canned responses and saved them as Outlook templates. Then, whenever I need to respond to an ad, I just choose a template, tweak it a little and send it off. No more time wasted thinking about what I was going to say.

Invest time upfront writing a job ad, then responding to ads is so much easier. As time goes on, be sure to tweak your templates based on your response rate.

Tired of low rates? Convince them to pay more.

I used to get upset by all the low paying gigs I saw advertised on the internet. I’d think, “I could make good money freelancing if only people were willing to pay more for good writing.” Then, it finally dawned on me that minds could be changed.

There are quite a few reasons that people advertise low rates. Sometimes, they’re just plain cheap, but sometimes they don’t realize what they could get if they just paid a little more money. That’s where your good marketing skills come in.

Don’t let a low advertised rate stand in the way of getting a gig you want.

Pitch to them anyway. Stress the benefits of hiring you and the type of result they can expect from hiring you. State your rate and explain why you charge that rate. Reiterate your unique benefit once more before closing out the message.

You’ll probably get a mixed response. Some webmasters are deadset on paying a low price and won’t budge. Others will see the value in hiring you can pay the higher rate.

The closer your rates are to the advertised rates, the better the chance of convincing the client to pay more. For example, if someone’s advertising $.02/word, you’ll have an easier time convincing them to pay $.05/word than you will $.10/word.

I like to check out the hiring webmaster’s publication to help decide if I’m going to try to persuade them to pay more. If there are no ads, the webmaster might not be generating enough income from the site to pay more.

Do you ever apply for gigs even though your rate is higher than what’s advertised? What do you say? How’s your success rate?