There are many potential freelance writing mistakes that can be made time after time. As you can imagine, avoiding these mistakes will give you a better chance of all around success. One dumb yet common mistake that I see often is when a writer forgets to market his services because he has a lot of work lined up. This may not sound like a big deal, but what happens when the project ends and there is no more work?
There is no denying that this can be a difficult situation to deal with. After all, this requires that you manage your time with a high degree of efficiency and success. In other words, you will have to complete all of the work that you have accepted while also finding time throughout the day to market your services. Can this be time consuming? It sure can. But unless you want to run into issues in the near future you need to be willing to put in the time to avoid this.
This is not to say that you should take on more work than you can handle. Often times, a freelance writer will become afraid of running out of work so they will collect as many jobs as they can find. While a lot of work is good, make sure that you limit yourself to what you can comfortably handle. If you don’t, you could find yourself working seven days per week which is not always fun.Â
The good thing about this common freelance writing mistake is that it is easily avoidable. Now that you are aware of this issue, you can continue to market your services even when you have a solid flow of work. This will help to ensure that when one project ends, another is in line.
I receive many questions about blogging and how it corresponds with a career as a freelance writer. More specifically, many want to know if blogging is necessary. In other words, do you have to maintain a personal blog in order to be an effective freelance writer? The short answer to this question is absolutely not. I have only been running this blog for a bit more than a year. But well before that, I was having success as a freelance writer.
Of course, there are benefits of blogging if you are a freelance writer. First and foremost, potential clients can contact you via your blog. A couple times per week I receive inquiries from webmasters who read my blog and are in the market for content, or know of somebody who is. As you can imagine, this is a great way to increase business without having to do too much marketing.
Another benefit of blogging is that you can show samples without having to deal with attachments or “copy and paste.†In many cases, potential clients who have never heard of my blog ask to see any work that I have personally published online. And of course, this is where I send them.
Remember, you are not going to begin to receive inquiries until your blog takes off. Even though I get some work through this blog, it is far from what it could be. This is one of the reasons why I am thinking of expanding this site in the near future.
All in all, as a freelance writer I love blogging. It is a form of writing, and a great way to express my feelings and opinions. When writing for a client, I do what they say so that they get what they want. But with my blog, I can call all the shots. Even if I was not receiving traffic and work inquiries I would still post on a daily basis!
As a freelance writer you may not expect to talk on the phone a lot. And while this is true, there are going to be times when you have no choice. There are some situations in which I would rather talk on the phone than correspond via email. This is a great way to save time, because several “back and forth emails†can often times be discussed and taken care of over the phone within a matter of seconds.
In many cases, freelance writers are asked to complete a phone interview before a client will work with them. This may be formal or informal; it all depends on the client and what they are hoping to accomplish. Either way, you need to make sure that you are prepared for what lies ahead.
Believe it or not, many freelance writers are afraid of the phone interview process. They feel intimidated, scared, and anxious. While this is natural to a certain extent, you need to realize that there is nothing to be afraid of. When it comes down to it, you are being interviewed because the person on the other end of the phone sees something good in you; they see that you have something to offer.
How long does a phone interview last? Again, this can and will change depending on the situation. I have had phone interviews last five minutes, and others that have pushed an hour. While preparing for an interview, make sure that you leave yourself plenty of time. After all, you do not want to find yourself having to rush. This will put more pressure on you, while also making you look bad.
Before your interview starts, make sure that you have all the information you will need directly in front of you. In most cases, you will be told what you will be talking about which should lead you to know what you need. In most cases, I suggest that you collect information on the client, your resume, and any samples that they may want to discuss. Of course, you will also want to be sitting in front of your computer so that you can easily access websites or files during your conversation. It is not uncommon to be asked to check out a particular website during the interview process. In fact, this happens to me more times than not.
A phone interview is not as bad as you may think. If you are prepared, you will find that these can actually be a lot of fun! Â
