5 Things That Clients Won’t Ask You

When you are applying for available freelance writing jobs or make a pitch to a prospective client, there are some things they are wondering about but won’t ask. Consider the following the next time you are communicating with someone new about your writing services:

1. “Are you reliable?”

While freelancers may complain about clients who simply disappear, they aren’t the only ones who behave that way. A client wants to find someone who will show up and do the work they have been asked to do.

2. “Is your everyday work as good as your samples?”

We pick and choose the work that we provide to prospective clients as samples very carefully. It’s only natural to want to find what we consider to be our best work to present with our cover letter and resume. The client who reads them may be wondering if we can produce that level of quality on a regular basis.

3. “Will you be difficult to work with?”

No matter how stellar your samples are, if you give off the impression that you are going to be, um, challenging to work with, then the client may well take a pass.

4. “Can you follow instructions precisely?”

When clients tell you how they want to you to write something for them, it’s not a suggestion. They want what they want, and we get paid to give it to them. Failing to do so means that the work may get sent back for revisions or even reassigned. When that happens, it throws the project off schedule for the client.

5. “Can I afford to hire you?”

The final decision about whether to hire you may come down to whether your rates fit into the client’s budget. If you are asking for a higher rate than the client had in mind, be prepared to show how hiring you will bring value to the project.

You may want to anticipate these 5 questions that clients won’t ask you and address them in your cover letter as best you can. Tell the client about how reliable you are and how you strive to meet your clients’ needs for every project you take on. When the time comes to negotiate rates, give yourself some wiggle room so that you can make a counteroffer if that seems appropriate.

How would you deal with these issues with a prospective client?

You Have a Full Plate: Do You Still Look for Work?

The short answer to this question is “Yes.” Marketing your writing business should be an ongoing activity. Many freelancers have peaks and valleys in their work load. It goes with the territory.

If you want to keep the work coming in, you should be constantly doing activities that will grow your business. Even if you are at the point where your time is completely booked and you couldn’t possibly squeeze one more thing in, do it anyway. Find a few minutes to check out job boards, the job leads we post here at FWJ, to make a couple of cold calls, or approach a potential client by e-mail.

Don’t worry about how you are going to fit the next gig into your schedule. You haven’t got it yet. It may take time to hear back from your job searching efforts, and chances are that you will apply for many more gigs than you actually get. You can always discuss deadlines when you are negotiating fees with the client.

Part of being a freelancer is juggling the work we have in front of us with being on the lookout for our next project. Do you look for work constantly, or do you back off from these activities when you have a lot of work do do?

When to Name Names on Your Freelance Writing Resume

Thank you to Jeanne Grunert, whose comment was the inspiration for this post.

When you are preparing your freelance writing resume, do you list your clients’
names or do you keep them confidential? There isn’t one clear answer that will work for everyone. If you have signed a confidentiality agreement, then you can’t reveal the fact that you have worked for a specific client.

I do include some client names on my resume and some others I don’t mention, although I do describe the kind of work that I have done for them. Here’s how I make the call: If the work is being published under my own name, then I include the client’s name on my resume. A lot of my work is ghostwriting, and I choose not to reveal the names of those clients on my resume.

I can still list the kinds of work that I have done for people and the topics that I feel most comfortable writing about without naming names. So far, no one has asked me to do so, and I think that a prospective client is more concerned with whether I would be a good fit for their project than the names of the other clients I have worked with.

Do you list the names of your clients on your freelance writing resume or do you focus on your experience instead? How do you decide who should be included, assuming you have not been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement?

3 Tips for Finding Work in the Hidden Freelance Job Market

Looking for freelance writing work is something you should be doing constantly. Part of the process involves looking at and answering ads like the one we post links to on our Writing Jobs Leads blog. You also should be tackling the hidden job market regularly. Here are 3 tips for getting started.

Look to Current Clients for More Work

Current clients who are happy with your work are a great source for getting more assignments. I don’t know if you are in the habit of thanking your clients after the project has been completed and the client pays the balance owing, but it’s a good one to get into. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it gives you the opportunity to open the door to future projects. Clients can’t read your mind, so if you would be interested in working with the client again, tell them that.

Contact Past Clients

If you haven’t heard from a past client in a while, send them an e-mail reminding them about the previous work you have done for them. Mention something positive about the experience, and ask them to keep you in mind for future work.

You can also approach a past client like this: Send them an e-mail explaining that you have some project time that has just opened up and you want to offer past it to people who you have enjoyed working with in the past first. You could also offer a price discount for people who book projects by [X] date. If you decide to offer preferred pricing, set the deadline within a couple of weeks to encourage clients to make a decision soon.

Talk Up Your Business to People You Know

This third tip takes a bit of practice, but with time it will feel more natural. When you are out and about and someone asks you what you do, use your elevator speech to tell them about it. Have business cards ready to hand out, and let the person know that you are always happy to talk to prospective clients about their needs.

Have you successfully landed gigs using these strategies? Which ones have been the most successful for you?

Don’t Ignore the Hidden Job Market for Freelancers

I read recently that only about 20 percent of jobs are ever advertised. We post some of them here at FWJ regularly. That means that a whopping 80 percent of all opportunities are never advertised. Most people looking for freelance writing work concentrate their efforts on the portion of the market that is readily accessible.

Why Answer Job Ads?

The short answer to why people who are looking for work look to job ads is that like the low-hanging fruit, these kinds of opportunities are accessible and relatively easy to get. The client indicates they are looking to hire someone and what the project involves. Some of them even list the price they are willing to pay for the project.

You read through the ad and if it sounds like something you are interested in doing and you are qualified for, you answer the ad. Very simple. The only problem is that there may be hundreds of other people who have the same idea and the competition for advertised freelance writing work is very stiff.

Does that mean that I’m saying that you should give up on answering ads? Heck, no. I got hired by Deb by answering an ad, and I’ve been hired by several clients by using this method. I am suggesting that you also consider tapping into the larger market of opportunities that exists.

I’ll post some more suggestions in future posts, but you can start by doing the following:

• Tell friends, family members, coworkers, your kid’s teacher, etc., about what you do
• Ask your current clients for referrals
• Make a list of potential clients and contact them to make a pitch for your services

Do these strategies work? Yes, they do. It may take some time, but if you are consistent about your efforts, they will pay off. I was recently contacted by someone I had originally approached two years ago about the possibility of working on an assignment.

Where do you focus most of your freelance job search efforts?

Functional Resume Format for Freelancers

The “standard” resume format that most of us are familiar with is the chronological resume. In this style, the job seeker lists his or her previous jobs in reverse chronological order. This may not be the best choice for freelance writers, though.

We may have long-term clients that we work with regularly, a series of short-term projects, or a combination of the two. Using a strict chronological format may not present us in the best way to a potential client, especially if there are gaps in our work history or times that are less busy than others.

Another issue that freelancers can encounter when writing a resume is whether or how to list volunteer writing projects on it. I think that the fact that you worked on the project is what matters, as opposed to whether or how much you were paid for it, but other people feel that work experience should be limited to paid work only.

Enter the functional resume. You can use this style to focus the potential client’s attention on your skills, as opposed to who you have worked for and when you did the work.

You can check out an example of a functional resume here.

When you are writing your own functional resume, you can include sections for the different kinds of writing projects you have done (SEO, web copy, ebooks, ghost writing, press releases, etc.).

Do you use a chronological resume or have you tried a functional style? Do you feel that one is more likely to get you a gig than the other?

Transferable Skills and Your Resume

We get lots of questions from our readers about resumes for freelance writers. Whether you are looking for your first freelance writing gig or you have some experience under your belt, it can be challenging to figure out exactly what to include in your resume.

Your writer’s resume will list your writing experience, and I include other work experience on mine as well. I want the person reading it to get a good idea of who I am and what skills I bring to the table when I’m applying for freelance work. I also want to make sure that I include transferable skills in my resume and cover letter when I’m looking for work.

What are transferable skills? They are ones that you can use in many jobs, and they apply to freelance writing gigs as well. Here are a few transferable skills that you will want to focus on when you are communicating with a potential client:

• Ability to Work Well Under Pressure
• Analyzing
• Computer Skills
• Conducting Research
• Editing
• Organizing
• Problem Solving
• Proofreading

You will also want to point out to someone in a position to hire you that you have these desirable skills as well:

• Ability to Follow Instructions
• Attention to Detail
• Flexibility
• Good Communication Skills

Freelance writing is more than just stringing a few words together, and you need to tell potential clients about all the skills you bring to the table. It gives them a better idea of who they will we working with when they decide to hire you.

Which transferable skills do you think are most important for freelancers?

Getting Hired: Does Chemistry Count?

My fellow FWJ-er, Jennifer Chait, wrote a really interesting post where she gave her take on why you might not get hired for a blogging gig. I’d like to talk about a reason why you might get hired, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with your writing ability.

Getting hired is partly a matter of chemistry. When a potential client is considering multiple applicants in response to a job ad, they may have several candidates with similar skill levels who would be a good fit for the project. How does someone decide who they want to work with?

The Chemistry of Getting Hired

People like to work with people they feel they have something in common with or that they feel a connection to. The question then becomes, “How can you try to develop a connection with a potential client?”

I’ve found over time that as I’ve become a little more open about myself when I apply for freelance writing jobs, my success rate has gone up. That doesn’t mean that I pull up a virtual chair and spill everything about myself when I’m looking for work. It does mean that I try to picture myself and the potential client sitting down in a room to talk about what they need and how I can help them.

If the topic is one that I really enjoy working on, then I’m not nearly as shy about telling the client that and why I am drawn to it. Telling the client about how we can work together to reach their goals is always a good approach. I’m a lot less shy about saying that I know what the client needs and I would really like to work with them on the project. Then I ask the potential client what information they need to know about me that will help them decide whether we can work together.

Hopefully the combination of a more personal approach in the cover letter and pointing out that we can work together to help the client reach their goals will lead to getting hired. I do think that people want to know what kind of person they are working with and that they appreciate reading something other than the standard, cookie-cutter approach to applying for a gig.

What approach do you take when applying for a freelance writing gig? Do you think making a connection matters or is it all about your previous experience?

The Cover/Interview Letter

I’ve been doing some thinking about cover letters for freelancers and how the hiring process can be different from getting a job in the brick-and-mortar world. Some clients do through an interview process, either by phone or e-mail, before they decide whether to hire you, but for others, the way you present yourself in your cover letter is your only opportunity to provide the answer to the question, “Why should I hire you?”

To be honest, I’m not disappointed to skip the interview process. I don’t miss having to answer questions like “What is your biggest strength?” (I work hard) and “What is your greatest weakness?” (I work too hard.) If you are going to be working off site, you also don’t run into a situation where in answer to the question, “Don’t you want to ask me something about my qualifications?”, the answer is “With your legs, I don’t need to.” (No, that didn’t happen to me, but it did happen to someone I went to college with when she was interviewing for her first job after graduation.)

Given that finding freelance writing work is different, I’d like to suggest an alternative to the traditional cover letter: the Cover/Interview Letter.

It would include the elements of a traditional cover letter but with more detail about who you are and what level of service the client will get if they hire you. You could add a paragraph or two talking about your:

• Ability to follow instructions
• Eye for detail
• Flexibility Reliability
• Work ethic in general

This may be your only chance to dazzle the prospective client. If there is something you can share that you think would be relevant to the client, add it. I don’t mean hit them over the head with how great a candidate you are (unless the Cave Man approach happens to fit in with your personal style), but picture what you would like to say to the prospective client if you had the chance to sit down in a room with him or her. Whatever your answer is, include it in your cover letter. That way, you know you have covered all your bases when looking for freelance writing work.

Have you beefed up your cover letter to include extra information for your client? How did this strategy work for you?

How Important is a Resume for Freelance Writers?

I guess the short answer to that question is that it depends who you ask. Some potential clients ask to see it, and if they do, I would recommend that you submit one. There are other people who are more interested in seeing your samples and getting an idea of your writing “voice” than reading more paper.

It’s a good idea to have a resume ready to show to a potential client if they would like to see it. If you are new to writing and you don’t think you have a lot of experience to share, take some time to think about the jobs you have held in the past and how the skills that you used can benefit a potential client.

• Can you listen carefully and follow instructions?
• Can you communicate clearly?
• Do you have good research skills?
• Can you take the information you have gathered and pull out the most important points?
• Are you genuinely interested in your clients’ business?

While some people will go ahead and hire you without looking at your resume, there are some people who want to get an idea of who you are and what other kinds of work you have done. If you are a little light in the writing experience department (so far), then put your focus on your transferable skills. Present yourself in the best possible way, and the client understands what kind of a person they are getting if they decide to work with you.

Do you think having a resume is important or would most clients prefer to see writing samples only?

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