What is one thing that every freelance writer needs? While there are probably hundreds of answers to this question, one thing comes to my mind: patience. This may sound silly, but over my years in this industry I have found that patience is one trait that every successful freelance writer shares.
Why is patience so important? Here are three reasons why:
1. As a beginner, you will have to go through a trial and error process while growing your career. If you are not patient, there is a good chance that you will end up quitting when things get tough. It is not easy to be patient when everything you do seems to come out wrong, but you simply have to stay calm and keep moving forward.
2. Patience will help you get by when every query letter you send is getting rejected. No matter how talented you are, there will be times when you receive rejection after rejection. You have to be willing to put up with this until something breaks your way. Patience will help you to stay sane even when things are not going your way.
3. It takes time to build a freelance writing career. This holds true with any type of business that you may decide to start from scratch. Sure, some people begin to achieve high levels of success right off the bat; and if you end up being one of these people, good for you. But even if you do have success early on, you will still need to exercise patience as you wait for more clients to come your way, and for more money to make its way to your bank account. There is plenty of time to accomplish all of your goals if you stay patient, and don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
To be a successful freelance writer, you need to be extremely patient. Believe it or not, this is something that you will get better at as your career moves forward. As long as you hang tight and continue to move on, things will break your way and your level of patience will increase.Â
Over the past few months, I have noticed more and more freelance writers and webmasters taking shots at one another. Generally speaking, I notice this in two places.
First off, I usually get a couple of emails per week from fellow freelance writers or webmasters who do not like me for one reason or the next. Some of the mail is downright funny, but other times, there are accusations and threats that are out of this world. Obviously, there is no place for this in the freelance writing world; or any other industry for that matter. From all of these emails, I have come to the conclusion that most of these people are simply jealous.
Moving on, if you check out forums such as Digital Point, you will notice the same thing. There are a lot of members who do nothing more than lurk around the forums waiting to shoot down other people, as well as their ideas and dreams. Once again, it is only a small group of people who act like this, but all in all, it can be annoying to say the least. It is people like this who scare away those who have legitimate questions and concerns.
Personally, I feel that the best way to deal with people like this is to simply ignore them. When I get an email stating that my freelance writing income is nothing special, there is no point in writing back. Simply put, I run my career the way that I best see fit, and use this blog as a way to help others.
It always amazes me that some people feel better by tearing others down. If you are being targeted by these jealous types, make sure that you do not get down on yourself. Instead, laugh it off and move on. You are not going to better your career by dealing with people like this!Â
Do you make your phone number available to freelance writing clients? This is something that the majority of writers neglect to do. Instead, they would rather communicate with clients via email. While there is nothing wrong with this, sometimes a quick phone conversation is much better.
The first year or so of my freelance writing career, I used my cell phone for work and personal use. Since I was only receiving a couple calls a week, this was no big deal. But as my freelance writing career continued to expand, the number of clients who wanted to talk on the phone also grew. For this reason, I decided to put in a business line. There were two reasons that I did this:
1. To keep my personal and business calls separate. Before, when my cell phone rang I had to guess whether or not it was a business call. But now, since my business line is for professional calls only, when the phone rings I know it is time to talk business. Unless it is a telemarketer on the other end, of course!
2. Having a business line looks more professional to both prospective and current clients. And by putting out a professional appearance, you have a much better chance of landing new work.
As a freelance writer, you do not necessarily need a separate phone line for business. But when you feel that you are getting too many phone calls and that you want to take your business to the next level, you should definitely look into adding another line. Sure, it will cost some money, but in the end it offers many benefits that will help your career.
