Today is the last day of 2007! It seems as if only yesterday I was putting together my business plan for the year. Although it is always nice to get off to a fresh start, if you are like me, you probably have some jitters about the new year. While there is nothing to be worried about, I always get a bit uneasy when one year turns into the next. After all, this forces me to tie up all the loose ends from the past year, while simultaneously looking towards the future.
I plan on working most of today, and then working on some administrative tasks later on. After all, I want to make sure that I am good and ready to hit the ground running on January 1. If you have yet to take care of any details for this year, you should do so right away. After all, you don’t want to waste time early in 2008 worrying about what happened last year. If you do this, it is less time that you have to work on growing your freelance writing business.
Keep an eye out for my December freelance writing income report by the end of the week. Although I had a good year in 2007, everything starts back at the beginning in less than 24 hours! Are you ready for your best year to date?
Where do you draw the line on trying to get started as a freelance writer, and taking jobs that pay slave wages? Early this morning I was perusing GetAFreelancer to see what was new, etc. While there were many jobs that stuck out in my mind as poor, one of them stood out above the rest. There was a buyer offering to pay $1 for 1,000 words! I am all for finding a way to break into the industry, even if it means lower rates, but this is ridiculous.
If I were to take a job like that, which I wouldn’t, my rate would work out to somewhere around $5/hour. Maybe there are some people who think that earning $5/hour is a bargain, but in the United States it is not going to get you very far. In fact, this is a couple bucks short of minimum wage.
I have always said that taking low paying projects is a good way to get involved with freelance writing. But at the same time, you need to use some common sense. If you are not even going to earn minimum wage on a job, you should really leave it for somebody else. Hopefully nobody will bid on this job, and the buyer will see that they are not contributing anything useful to the freelance writing industry.
What type of quality can somebody expect for $1 per 1,000 words? I would love to see who this buyer chooses for their project, and what type of articles they end up with.
Do you spend a lot of time worrying about your freelance writing competition? If so, you should change your ways in 2008. Time that you spend thinking about your competition is time that you could spend increasing your business and profits. When it comes down to it, there are several reasons that you do not need to concern yourself with your competition.
1. There are enough freelance writing projects to keep everybody happy. Even though the market may seem small, this is because you are not looking at the big picture. There is no reason to be envious of your competition. Instead, work hard to find your own projects. Once you carve out a niche, you will be well on your way.
2. Is it really possible to keep track of all your freelance writing competition? The answer is no. There is no possible way that you could keep tabs on every freelance writer in the world. So if you cannot track what all your competition is doing, why track what some of them are doing? Remember, almost every business has competitors. It is your unique features that will allow you to pass them by.
3. You are better than your competition! Not only does this probably hold true, but it is also a frame of mind. You do not have to be the best freelance writer in the world to find work; just good enough to appeal to some clients. And as mentioned above, you need to be confident in your skills. This will show through in your work, as well as when you are communicating with clients.
As you can see, constantly thinking about your freelance writing competition is a waste of time. Instead, concentrate only on what you can control!
