06 Feb 10 What Freelance Writers Should Read?

My love for short and intriguing answer is pushing me to say “read anything that you can lay your hand on to”, but, my slightly more normal self asks my crazy mind to explain. So, here goes the explanation.

A freelance writer should read anything that succeeds in catching, holding, and retaining his attention. Because the more diverse your reading habit will be the better equipped you will be to handle the challenges posed by freelance writing. You should care less about following a genre through head to tail. Well, doing it will be make you an expert and may be better accomplished as a writer of that particular genre, but expertise in one and dumbness in rest of the subjects is not what you should eye for. You need to have sufficient control on as many genres as possible.

What did you say— you will be master of one and will research for the rest?

I know many freelancers doing that, and quite a few have attained some degrees of success while treading down this road. But more often than not an article written by a freelance writer who has no prior knowledge or intuitive understanding of the subject matter lacks depth. To add depth and texture to your writing, you need to learn various things.

Freelance writing poses unique challenge that is seldom faced by fiction or non-fiction writers. Therefore, the solution used by freelance writers should also be different.

Read as much as you can, and from as many genres as you feel comfortable in!

Learning is a complex process, and acquiring knowledge is even more complex. One never knows which piece of text or byte of media triggers what. Sometimes the knowledge gained is a direct result of the things you are reading, while at other times, it is gained because the things you are reading have activated some unknown part of the brain which has triggered something else then something else, and the end result of all this could be the new understanding you have developed.

So, to help your brain form new pattern and new understanding, you need to provide it as many types of fodders as possible.

Tags: Acquiring Knowledge, Byte, Challenges, Crazy Mind, Dumbness, End Result, Fiction Writers, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Freelancers, Genre, Genres, Love, Non Fiction, Part Of The Brain, Prior Knowledge, Reading Habit, Subject Matter, Texture

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21 Nov 09 Freelance Writing – How to Fix Your Rate

Are you getting paid what you deserve for the writing services you offer to you client? This is a tricky question, and not many people feel confident while answering this question because most of the freelancers do not know if they are well paid, under paid, or over paid, which at times become very, very frustrating. In this short blog post, I will tell you how to fix rate for your freelance writing, but before I do that, let me tell you that your rate should not be influenced by what others are charging because everyone else is not you and nor their requirements are yours.

Fixing a freelance writing rate

Step 1: How much money do you need?

The first step in the process is to ask yourself how much money you need every month. Some of you must be thinking, what the client has to do with this, and why does it matter to them. Well, it does not matter to your client or anybody in this world, but still you need to figure this bit out because you are working to pay your bills, and if your work cannot make you pay your bill then things will get a little complicated. It will come down to your basic need for survival. Hence, first realistically figure out how much money do you need in a month or a year.

Step 2: What are the business expenses?

Now, it is time to right down your business expenses. Write everything down on a piece of paper, do not leave anything. This heading will include the electricity bill, business telephone bill, stationary costs, printer’s ink cost, any equipment that you will buy, etc.

Step 3: How much work can you do in a month?

None of us are superman, so there is only so much work we can complete in a day or month, and there are only so many clients we can take. Be realistic in finding your limitation. Do not sell yourself short, and also do not overrate your ability. Count this in hour.

Step 4: Do the math

Now, as you know the number of projects you can take in a month, your monthly expenses, and how many hours you can work in a month. Add the expected monthly sum and the expenses and divided by the work you can do. This will give you the rate you need to survive, but what about the future savings? You need to adjust your rate for that as well. Add expected per year savings, to the sum and then take out your per hour rate.

In order to fix a rate for the fixed price work like per article or per week, you will have to first figure out how much time do you need to write one article, and then find out how many you can write in a month. Divide the equation with this instead of total number of hours, and you will get your rate for one article.

Tags: Business Expenses, Business Telephone, Electricity Bill, Freelance Writing, Freelancers, Heading, How Much Money, Math, Monthly Expenses, Pay Bills, Piece Of Paper, Rate Step, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Superman, SURVIVAL, Telephone Bill, Tricky Question, Writing Services

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15 Oct 09 Are You Planning to Quit Freelancing?

There are many people who have joined the freelancing bandwagon, but didn’t feel like belonging here, thus they quit freelancing and take some other work. It sounds simple and common place, but what if I say that not all quitters are alike, and not all quitters are losers? Some of them are winners too.

We can classify quitters in two categories. The first categories consist of those who lost the freelancing battle and failed to make any mark, hence he is leaving the field all in blood and tears. There is a second group that consists of people who are quitting their freelance jobs because they have stepped up to provide consultancy services or to manage group of freelancer.

The people falling in latter group have done the right thing, but there is something seriously wrong with the freelancers who belong to the former group. These are the people whom I will call quitters because they are leaving or have left freelancing because they could not make this work.

Freelancing is not easy, and whoever told you that this is the easy way to make money then the person was DEAD WRONG! Freelancing is difficult because unlike your 9-5 job, you are your own manager, own worker, and own support person. This is not a corporate job where you are supposed to do just one thing. Here, you have to see forest when your client shows you tree.

Worried?

Do not lose hope. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. In this case, the light will be the tips I am sharing here, which if applied properly, may convert some of the quitters into winners.

How to avoid being a quitter

Find out the reason why you are not getting enough clients. For this you need to ask the following questions:
- Are you not competent enough?
- Is your skill set not saleable?
- Do you have problem in managing time and work?
- Are you in the wrong field?
- Is your rate too high?
- Don’t you have good samples to show?
- Does not your sample speaks of your ability and justify your rate?
- Does your proposal letter include a strong call to action?
- Is your profile worth reading?

Now the next step is to pin-point the exact reason, and to do that, you will have to adopt methodologies used market research agencies.
- First, Identify all the problem areas
- Now, take one problem element at a time, and work on it. Keep rest of the problem elements constant.
- Measure the result.
- If the result is close to what you had expected then change another variable (problem element), and keep rest of them constant, otherwise, rework on the first variable.
- Measure the result
- Repeat the process and fix all the problem elements.

Upgrade your skills
Learn time management
Be patient

Always remember, freelancing is not like a regular job where you have someone to tell you what is wrong and what is right. It is also not a fix-time job, which also means that you can take leave whenever you want. Be patient with this career, rewards at the end are worth the wait.

Tags: Bandwagon, Blood And Tears, Consultancy Services, Corporate Job, Easy Money, Easy Way To Make Money, Freelance Jobs, freelancer, Freelancers, Light At The End Of The Tunnel, Losers, Lost, Many People, Proposal Letter, Quitter, Quitters, Reason, Second Group, Support Person, Way To Make Money

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06 Feb 10 What Freelance Writers Should Read?

21 Nov 09 Freelance Writing – How to Fix Your Rate

Fixing a freelance writing rate

15 Oct 09 Are You Planning to Quit Freelancing?

How to avoid being a quitter

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