As a freelance writer you should strive to learn and progress, day after day. If your freelance writing career is not progressing it means you are standing still. For many, it is difficult to tell if they are moving in the right direction.
Here are three things you can look at to measure your progress as a freelance writer:
1. Income. Are you earning more money this year than you did last year? Do you see your income trending upwards, for the most part? If so, it is simple to see that you are making good progress. For most freelance writers, income stats tell the entire story.
2. Clients. You can also judge your progress by the number of clients that you have. Along with this, consider the types of clients as well as the projects that they are offering you. For instance, you may not have more clients than you did in the past but those you are working with are giving you more work due to your past performance.
3. Set goals. Have you reached your short and long term goals? Are you on track to do so? When you have goals for yourself you can easily determine if you are making progress. I strongly believe in the importance of setting goals. Do yourself a favor and write out a few goals that can help you advance your career.
In closing, you always want to be taking your freelance writing career to the next level. If you are moving forward, instead of looking back, you should be able to reach your goals in no time at all. Of course, you don’t want to stop there!
If you work as a freelance writer long enough you will eventually have a client go missing on you. They are here one day, asking you questions and communicating, but gone the next. While this is not very common, I have faced this situation a few times in the past.
When a client goes missing it can be very frustrating. This is particularly true if you are in the midst of completing a job for them. For instance, you may be halfway through a task and looking for some final direction before finishing things off. Worse yet, you completed the entire task, sent it off to the client, and are now looking to get paid.
The best thing you can do is attempt to contact the client the same way you always have in the past. If you usually communicate via email, use this method; the same holds true for making a phone call. Of course, you may have to change your contact strategy if it is not working. There is nothing wrong with checking in with a client on the phone if they go missing. After all, you are doing a job for the client and need them to be accessible.
Unfortunately, there may come a day when a client goes missing and never returns. In my experience, if this is to happen it will be when payment comes due. I completed a feature article for a client in early November 2009, but have yet to hear from him since. This is despite the fact that I have called and emailed several times.
When a client goes missing there is not much you can do. Just hope that they are temporarily out of communication, as opposed to gone for good.
There are a lot of people who want to get involved with freelance writing but have an extreme fear of failure. Unfortunately, this is not something that is easy to help with. I would love to be able to show all these people the way, but fear is something you must conquer on your own. If you are scared about jumping into the freelance writing industry you need to take the time to pinpoint the problem and work on a solution.
For many, fear stems from the potential of failure. In other words, those who never get started with freelance writing are worried that they have no chance of success. In turn, they think about this career all the time but never make any progress. There are definitely going to be bad times as you are getting your freelance writing career up and running – this is to be expected. But can’t the same be said for every career?
To get over your fear you must first know what the problem is, and then begin to look for a solution. For instance, if you are worried about your lack of experience you can start writing part-time as a way of gathering clips and learning more about the industry. This way you will be more prepared when it comes time to transition into full-time writing.
Remember this: no matter what fear you are facing there are ways of dealing with it. Take your time when searching for a solution. There is nothing wrong with being scared about jumping into freelance writing. But there is something wrong with letting this fear get the best of you. Every freelance writer had to take the leap at some point. When are you going to gain enough confidence to do the same?
