Archives for April 2008

Years ago when I was an editorial assistant I worked for a very high maintenance publisher. She expected me to come in at the crack of dawn and work until all hours of the night. She called me Sunday mornings at 8 and Wednesday nights at 3:00 AM. When I told her she was crossing a line she told me I was welcome to clean out my desk. So I did. I left publishing for the incredibly boring world of accounting, and though I missed the fun of working in an editorial office, I knew I could go home and not have to wonder if I should pretend I’m not home every time the phone rings.

It’s happening again. I have a client who likes to call me at 6:00 PM when my family is eating, at 7:30 PM when I’m putting my son to bed and other times she feels appropriate because she knows I’ll be home. I have caller ID and will not answer the phones at this time. I’m not being petty, but it’s my experience if you don’t tell clients the office closes at a certain point they’ll be calling you at midnight.

Set Boundaries

No one wants to lose a client but if a client isn’t respectful of my family time, I don’t want to work for her anymore. Freelance doesn’t mean open all night. It’s important to establish boundaries.

• Tell clients the best time to call. Strongly suggest they call during these times only.
• If they’re in a different time zone, or calling at your convenience isn’t working for them, set up a mutually agreed upon time to talk.
• If they’re calling too much or at inappropriate times, let them know it’s not going to fly – but be nice.
• Suggest they email requests and changes and only call when it’s really important.

Pain in the Butt Clients

I don’t have many pain in the butt clients at all. Most leave me alone and I never hear from them until the job is done or it’s time to pay me. With the networks I do have regular communication with my editors but that’s usually through the network forum or chats. My pain in the butt client emails constantly for very silly reasons. For instance, she doesn’t know a thing about blogging so she feels her bloggers don’t either. The thing is she hired a bunch of experienced bloggers because she doesn’t have  clue. Every week brings step by step instructions on how to use Stumble Upon or how to write a blog post. Plus she’s always changing the dates of my posts around so Monday’s post appears on Wednesday and Friday’s post appears Tuesday. There’s no reason for this, except maybe boredom. She loves to change my headlines and subheads too. I could live with all this. It annoys me, but I can live with it. Once she started calling all the time at dinner time I started getting a little angry.

Nip it in the Bud

If you’re letting your clients take over your life you must stop it immediately! Today it’s a phone call at dinner time, tomorrow it’s like you’re working for Anna Wintour Amanda Priestly. If you offer a pain in the butt client a line, she will indeed cross it. Once that happens things can only get worse.

A question I’m often asked is, "What’s the difference between writing and blogging? Aren’t the same thing?" Technically they are. Blogging is a form of writing, but there are differences between freelancing for blogs and freelance writing in the traditional sense.

Freelance Writing

• Can pertain to print or web. Freelancers can write scripts, novels, advertising copy and more.
• Must work within specific word counts.
• Must fit the style of the magazine, newspaper or website.
• Follows a more tradition writing format.
• Unless you work for certain web content companies, don’t have to have "X amount of articles in X amount of days."
• Many publications pay only after a piece is published and that can mean months, sometimes years. Others pay on acceptance.
• Many print markets pay more than blog networks or markets.
• You don’t have to worry about building traffic or community – in most cases.
• More formal than blogging.
• Many times requires more research and interviewing of expert sources.
• You have to submit the finished product to your editor who will publish your work

Blogging

• Web based only.
• Most blogs don’t require a word count, though many employers request a certain amount of posts per week.
• Blogging pays less than many traditional forms of writing.
• Bloggers don’t have to wait as long for their paychecks.
• The more you blog the more traffic you receive.
• You’ll be expected to promote your blog, foster a community, and get the traffic ball rolling.
• Most networks offer traffic bonuses.
• A more personal style of writing. You can make it all about you.
• Can be a written post, a video, a cartoon or anything pertaining to your niche.
• You can write as much as you want whenever you want.
• Publication is immediate.

What are some of the differences you see between blogging and traditional freelance writing?

I received an interesting email the other day and its author agreed to let me reprint some of its contents as long as I didn’t mention her name. In it she wondered about confidentiality agreements:

The contract for this network comes with a non-disclose clause which makes me pause. Does this mean the business has something to hide? Why is so terrible for me to discuss compensation or my issues with management with other bloggers?  Should I sign a contract with a confidentially agreement?

Here’s the way I see it…

Successful businesses are successful for a reason. They do things others don’t. If their business model or "secret" formula was released to the general public, would they continue to be so successful? If the Colonel publicized his secret recipe, would KFC be the popular chicken joint it is today? Just because a company is asking bloggers to keep their inner workings to themselves doesn’t mean anything unsavory is going on. It just means they’re protecting their assets.

Should You Sign?

Of course the ultimate decision is up to the blogger, but I don’t see any reason one shouldn’t sign. Especially if it’s a reputable business with a good name. When I worked in corporate America I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement for almost every place I worked and most of my clients request one now. I’m more concerned about why the author of the email thinks it’s not good business practice to sign a confidentiality agreement yet mentions she would discuss "management issues" with other bloggers. If a blogger has internal issues it’s a better idea to talk to superiors. If there’s an issue with an editor, talk to another trusted editor or manager. There’s no reason to talk about network business with those outside the network. If they trust a blogger enough to hire him, they’re trusting him to keep certain details to himself.

Non-disclosure clauses aren’t anything out of the ordinary. Businesses are protecting themselves by asking you to sign, they’re not trying to hide anything.

I woke up this morning to over 2,000 emails in my inbox. This is a few day’s worth, actually. I only answered the most pressing stuff from the past few days. I think it would take the better part of the day to go through all the mail coming in and handle other tasks. That’s why I’ve decided to implement a weekly administrative day.

I hear what you’re saying, I’m busy too. So busy, a monthly administrative day is no longer adequate. This week I’ve been working with a schedule that’s going so well, I can take Sunday and make it an administrative day. At this stage in my career it’s a necessity.

Let me explain…

1. Email: My email is totally out of control. I know there are people waiting for me to respond to their emails just as I know there’s mail I haven’t gotten to yet. I need a few hours at a time to sort through it all and respond.
2. Product Reviews: I receive products to review on a daily basis. These are all piling up in my office. On administrative day, I can at least go through some of the stuff and schedule the reviews on my editorial calendar. Which brings me to…
3. Editorial Calendar – I already take one day each week to plan my blogging. I have a large wall calendar and once a week I write in daily topics for all my blogs. With over a dozen blogs, an editorial calendar helps to keep things flowing.
4. Comments – I like to respond to the comments on my blogs. Administrative day is a good day to catch up.
5. Accounting – We should all go through the books on a weekly basis to make sure we’re being paid in a timely manner, and send a gentle reminder to clients who strayed from the schedule.
6. Feeds – I subscribe to over 300 RSS feeds. It would be nice to be able to take a day to catch up on them all.
7. Bookmarks – I don’t even want to tell you about my bookmarks. It’s embarrassing really.
8. Stats – I check my stats each day. Several times a day, in fact. What I’d really like to do is set aside some time each week to truly analyze my traffic.
9. Revenue – The problem with being so busy is that I don’t have the time I need to really explore revenue possibilities for the blogs i own.
10. Office Clean Up – My family would thank me if I worked a simple office organization into administrative day. By the end of the week press releases, product sheets and personal notes litter the area.

As you can see, I need at least one day each week to go through everything from email to bookmarks. To let it go is only asking for a bigger headache further down the line. Plus I want to look into other things. I want to learn more about the technical aspects of blogging and using video in my blogs, for instance. When else would I have time for this? Maybe I need a whole weekend…

Do you have an administrative day? What takes do you complete these days?

I have a problem. I’m a blogaholic. I regularly update over a dozen blogs and contribute to several others. Thankfully, I’m at the point where I’m not actively looking for work. Somehow though, work always finds me. This isn’t always a good thing. You see, by not saying no I put myself in a predicament. I have to keep up my end of the bargain and not fall behind. How can I continue to take the same time to create the same quality posts for my clients when I’m taking on new work. Fortunately, I’ve developed a system for saying no. Check out my check list.

Is this job something I can really see myself doing day in and day out for my client?

Choose your niche wisely. I know there are some writers and bloggers who feel it’s ok to wing it and write about topics they don’t know much about. That’s the best way to invite blogging burnout. If you don’t love a topic, pass on the offer. Now, if it’s something for which you know you’re perfect, rock on.

Is the pay worth the extra time taken from my schedule?

When you "don’t need" new clients, pay has to be really good for you to take on another bit of work. Don’t cause stress over a few dollars. Make it worth your while.

How much time can I devote to this project each day?

If you barely have enough time to devote to your present workload, how are you going to find time for another client?

Will I be happy?

Isn’t that what it’s all about? Will you be happy working for this client? Will you be happy with more on your plate? Will you be happy blogging about the same topic day in and day out?

One of the most enjoyable parts of being able to pick and choose is having the ability to turn down projects because they’re not worth the money or they’re not something you’d enjoy. By the same token, you’re also in a position where you can hold out for the really good gigs – the ones you’ll say yes to.

Image: stock.xchnge