When I first started my career as a freelance writer, I spoke with as many people in the industry as possible. Additionally, I was always browsing the internet looking for new and useful freelance writing blogs and sites.
While it is my hopes that aspiring and established freelance writers read my blog for good advice, it is safe to say that I do not know everything. For this reason, I am still reading as much as I can about freelance writing even though I have been around the block a few times.
One of my favorite freelance writing blogs is Beyond the Rhetoric by Michael Kwan. Not only does Michael offer top notch information on freelance writing, but he also mixes in a lot of other posts touching on things such as technology, movie reviews, and other interesting topics. If you are interested in getting involved with freelance writing, Michael will be able to give you some direction. He has a lot of experience within the industry, and works closely with one of the top online money making gurus, John Chow.
If you are interested in the concept of freelancing, but are not the best writer, you should check out another favorite blog of mine, FreelanceSwitch. The great thing about this blog is that it is devoted to freelancers of all types. While my content is geared mainly towards writers, FreelanceSwitch touches on subjects that affect anybody who works on a freelance basis. As you can imagine, I can easily identify with 99 percent of the posts.
You are never too experienced to learn from others. I have come across many great freelance writing blogs from people who leave comments here.
If you have a freelance writing blog that you want to plug, feel free to do so in the comment section. I am sure myself, as well as other readers, will check it out!
With more and more webmasters wanting to make money online, the need for keyword articles is higher than ever before. The main issue with writing these articles is that many clients expect to pay a dollar or so for 500 words. As you can imagine, this is not going to advance your freelance writing career in any way, shape, or form.
One of the most common questions I receive from potential clients is whether or not I offer lower prices for bulk work. Obviously, this is not a question that comes from large companies or magazines that only require a feature article or two each month. But instead, these sorts of inquiries come from webmasters who are in need of hundreds of articles each month.
Whether or not you offer lower than normal prices for bulk work is up to you. Take this example for instance. If you usually charge $20 for a 500 word article, you would make $2,000 for a 100 article project; which is not a bad earner if you have the time. But as mentioned above, most clients will want a discounted rate since they feel like they are giving you an above average amount of work. If you decide that offering a bulk rate is a good idea, you could drop your price to $15/article. This would result in a total per project fee of $1,500. As you can see, by lowering your price you would lose $500 on the job.
Personally, if I am taking on a large order, I will consider offering a lower price. Of course, there are certain criteria for doing so. They include:
1. The size of the project. Make sure that you know the answer to this question up front. I have had clients tell me they would order 200 or so articles so that they could get a bulk price. Soon after sending them the first 25, they decide that the project is not worth their time. Make sure you are 100 percent sure that you are lowering your price for a large order.
2. If you are going to drop your price, you must still make sure that it will be profitable for you to get started. The best way to do this is to determine how long the project will take to complete, and then calculate the hourly rate that you will earn. If it fits into your normal rate, you should be fine to proceed.
3. In order to protect against the scenario in number one, ask for at least 50 percent of payment up front. This way the client will never think twice about canceling the project. Not to mention the fact that receiving up front funds will protect you from nonpayment after a lot of work.
There is noting wrong with lowering your price for bulk work. But before you do this, remember to make sure that you calculate your overall hourly wage. You do not want to lower your price just to find out that you are working for minimum wage or less.
One of the more frustrating parts of being a freelance writer is dealing with on-again off-again clients. Have you ever had to deal with a client like this? They are the ones who have a job for you today, tell you there will be more next week, and then disappear for a month. But of course, this is not the last you hear from them. After a month or so, they contact you again to say that they need some more work, with a promise that this time they will stay in touch.
I have always said that a client is a client; no matter how much work they give you, or if they disappear for extended periods of time. But my problem with on-again off-again clients is that they take up a lot of time, and can never give concrete answers on what they want.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been dealing with a client like this. Here are three things that have become semi-frustrating with our relationship.
1. The client starts out with a direction for the project, but then decides to change things several times. In my opinion, most on-again off again-clients are indecisive not only with when they want to work with you, but also with the project itself. This can result in loads of frustration and lost time due to changes to the overall scope of the project.
2. Communication started out good, and emails were exchanged at least once or twice per day; this is ideal for me. But after a few days, response times lengthened which made it more difficult for me to deliver work, and ask questions about future direction.
3. This morning I woke to an email saying that the project was abruptly ending, and final payment would be sent right away. Did the client offer a reason as to why they were calling it quits? Of course not. It could have been something that I did, but more than likely, it was a lack of direction and concentration on their end.
It can be difficult to spot an on-again off-again freelance writing client before you start to work with them. If you do run into this sort of client, my best advice is to keep your cool and expect things to be slow. For those of you who do not like to deal with situations like this, you would be much better off breaking ties early on.
