Archives for July 2008

Mistakes Happen. Handle Them With Grace and Keep Your Client

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by Jodee Redmond

Most of the time, your work will run smoothly, and that is what you and your client expect. Every now and then, though, you are going to make a mistake. It’s happened to everyone, myself included. You can make a mistake and still keep your relationship with your client intact.

Just to be clear, when I am talking about mistakes, I’m not talking about a minor error that needs to be corrected in editing. I’m talking about situations where the client didn’t get what he or she was looking for, and you need to get things back on track quickly or risk losing the client.

Take Responsibility for What Has Happened

If I’ve messed up, I admit it. No excuses. There may be extenuating circumstances, but pointing this out won’t change the facts.

Apologize to The Client

If you’ve done something wrong, then you need to apologize. Plain and simple.

Offer to Make it Right

You can’t go back in time and change what has already happened, but you can offer to make amends. I care about the relationships I have developed with the people I work with and I would rather go the extra mile to keep them happy than lose a client.

This may mean redoing the work or deciding not to charge the client for the project. I have redone a project once, and there have only been a couple of times that I have refused to charge someone for my work. Both times the client did offer to pay anyway, but I knew they weren’t happy. My take on it was that if they weren’t satisfied, then I haven’t done my job.

Was this the right way to handle the situation? I’d say so. Each time, I was offered more (and better paying) assignments from the clients involved.

How do you handle a situation with a client where you have made a mistake?

Want More Clients? Look to Businesses That Complement Yours

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by Jodee Redmond

The writing leads we post here at FWJ are only part of the job market for freelancers. While I do encourage you to apply for anything you see here that you are interested in, there are other ways to get clients for your business. One way is to find other businesses that offer services that complement, not compete with, yours.

Here are some examples:

If you do web content writing, you could contact SEO consulting companies. These people are talking to site owners as part of their business all the time and they need to keep their sites stocked with fresh content on a regular basis. If they do offer writing services, then the SEO company may hire you directly, and if the SEO consulting company doesn’t offer web content services as part of their basket of services, they might be willing to give your name to their clients. Be sure to offer the SEO company something in return, such as offering to forward the names of site owners you know who may want to hire a consultant.

You could also approach businesses that offer Virtual Assistant services to marketers or web design companies. Once again, they may not offer writing services to their clients, but they are in contact with people who may need to hire writers. Once again, offer to recommend the company to anyone you come across who may need to hire a VA or who are looking to upgrade their existing sites. [Read more…]

The Law of Attraction and Freelance Writing

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The Law of Attraction (LOA) is a term that is being used a lot lately, it seems. The idea that our thoughts can manifest into whatever we desire most is an attractive one. When I first heard that “Thoughts become things,” I admit that I was skeptical. If it was that simple, I reasoned, why wasn’t I living the life I had always wanted?

Then I read a very simple explanation of how this energy works: Picture throwing a ball up into the air. It always comes back down to Earth – because it must. It doesn’t matter how talented an athlete you are or how much force you put behind the throw; it comes back anyway. You don’t have to be big enough, special enough, or good enough to have the ball come back down to Earth. You just have to throw it. Everything you project out will come back to you, and you have the power to decide to whether you want to attract positive or negative circumstances into your life.

[Read more…]

A Few Blogging Tips from Darren Rowse

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Darren Rowse

Deb’s Note: In December 2006 I interviewed Darren Rowse while auditioning for a job with About.com. I did get the job and worked as About.com’s Guide to Weblogs for a year in 2007. I’m reprinting some of my greatest hits here. I also conducted interviews with John Chow, the Go Fug Yourself ladies, NBT’s own Gayla McCord and Jeremy Wright. Expect to see those profiles here in the upcoming months. This interview was from the first time I spoke with Darren – now he’s someone I’m happy and proud to call friend. He’s just as helpful and gracious now as he was a couple of years ago.

If you’re interested in blogging professionally, you’re sure to have come across Darren Rowse‘s ProBlogger Blog Tips. ProBlogger offers useful tips, an eye pleasing template and writing that won’t send you to the dictionary every five minutes. The tips are practical and you’ll always click away from your daily reading with information you can use. Who is Darren Rowse and how did he come to be a professional blogger?

Darren  began blogging professionally since 2002 on the advice of a friend. While he maintains about 20 blogs, it’s ProBlogger Blog Tips that has captured the attention of many aspiring professional bloggers. Behold the wisdom that is Darren Rowse.

Darren Rowse on The Appeal of Blogs: Probably the first thing that captured my attention with blogs wasthe ability that they gave the average person to have a voice and be  listened to on a global scale on their topic of interest.Secondly – they are so easy to set up and maintain. As someone with  very little technical ability the idea of being able to set up a  website in just a few minutes (I was using Blogger when I first  started) was very appealing.

Lastly (and there could be many more) – the conversation that I saw  happening on the first blogs that I cameacross was very attractive.  Here were people all around the world talking about my interests,

sharing ideas, giving each other feedback and building community – I  just had to be a part of it.

Darren Rowse on Mistakes Made by Aspiring Pro Bloggers:

Giving up too quickly. I see many bloggers start blogs with dollar  signs in their eyes, thinking that they’ll be earning big dollars  very quickly, only to find that it takes many months (or years) to  get a blog running to it’s potential.

Darren Rowse on How to Become a Full Time Professional Blogger:

In short.

  • Pick a topic that you enjoy and have knowledge in
  • Set up your blog
  • Start writing
  • Interact with others writing on the same topic
  • Interact with those readers who find your blog
  • Find a revenue stream that fits with your niche
  • Gradually put more time into blogging and less time into your other work as the income slowly grows from your blogs
  • Keep writing
  • Keep optimizing your income streams
  • Consider starting other blogs
  • Repeat all of the above

Darren Rowse’s Advice to Those Just Starting Out as Professional Bloggers:

Start out with a topic that you enjoy. Blogs take a long time to  build up to a point where you’ll earn a good income from them and as  a result you’ll need to be able to see yourself writing on that topic

for the long term.

Darren Rowse on the Future of Blogging: I think we’ll continue to see the collision of many different mediums into one. Video, Audio, Static Images, Blogging, Social Networking,  Bookmarking etc will continue to merge and evolve.

As you can see, Darren’s advice is still valuable today. It’s a formula that has worked for him for several years.

Looking for a Niche? Consider “Evergreen” Topics

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by Jodee Redmond

You may have heard that as a freelance writer, you should specialize in a certain niche (or a few niches) to achieve success. Choosing a niche to focus on can be challenging, to be sure. I want to suggest that you consider choosing evergreen topics for your niche.

What are evergreen topics? Like the type of tree they are named after, they don’t change with time. Let me explain. There are some topics that people will always be interested in reading about, and they don’t go out of style from year to year.

[Read more…]

Personal or Professional: The Freelance Writer’s Blog(s)

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By Erika-Marie Geiss

When it comes to freelance writing and blogging, there are many ways to skin a cat. It’s been questioned time and time again whether a writer should have a blog, and like many, I believe that having a blog as a writer can be useful. For some, it’s a less formal type of writing, and a more personal exercise. For others, blogging is another component of a blogger’s professional role as a writer or editor—showcasing work, offering tips or discussing issues that pertain to writing and so forth. Both types of blogs can lead to paying gigs, as editors and others who may stumble upon and read your blog can get an idea of how you write, your voice and style. And there are also professional bloggers—those who get paid to blog by a media group or other business. Here are some tips for good blogging practices for each.

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Why You Should Add Blogging to Your Freelance Writing Portfolio

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By Misti Sandefur

Boost Your Freelance Writing Income

By adding blog writing to your freelance writing portfolio, you’ll increase your freelance writing income. Blog writing consists of writing short blog posts for potential clients. When I say short, I mean anywhere from 200 to 400 words, and if you know the topic well enough, it shouldn’t take no more than an hour to write the post.

When I began offering blog writing services, my freelance writing income increased by $100, and that was with only one client who wanted me to write one blog post each week. So not only did I increase my freelance writing income, but the freelance writing job didn’t take up too much of my time – just one day a week.

Gain Expertise on a New Topic

Are you wanting to write on a new topic that you have a passion to learn more about but don’t have writing clips on the new topic you want to pursue? Explore the blogging jobs FWJ reveals through the daily freelance writing job listings. Then, when you discover someone looking to hire a blogger on the topic you’re trying to gain expertise in, send your letter of interest detailing your writing, blogging and social media experience. Do this for each blogging job you run across, and it won’t be long until you have the expertise and writing clips you’re seeking. [Read more…]

Why a Freelance Writer Needs to be Like a Duck

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by Jodee Redmond

If you want to be a successful freelancer, there are a few lessons you can learn from our fine, feathered friend pictured here. (Isn’t he beautiful?)

Stay Calm on the Surface

As the duck sits on the surface of the water, he presents a calm, peaceful demeanor. This is the face you need to display to your clients. You are someone who understands their needs and can help them reach their goals.

If you send out an application for a gig and you get rejected, just let it roll off of you like water off of our friend’s back. The same goes for nastygrams and general snarkiness. Don’t let anything spoil your mellow (public) mood. [Read more…]

Parenting and Writing

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by Misti Sandefur

I woke to a beautiful spring day, and the boys decided they were going
to play outdoors while I wrote an article for a client. Because the boys
had decided to play outside, I knew I’d finish the article and the
rest of my day would be great! Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that
way.

I had just sat down at the laptop and typed out the first paragraph when
my youngest son raced through the front door.

“Mom, Bubby’s stuck in the tree!”
“He climbed up it. Tell him to climb down.”
“He’s afraid.”

After I released a heavy sigh, I headed outside to investigate the tree
situation. Once outside, I discovered that my oldest son was in the
tree, but he wasn’t very high up. [Read more…]

5 Factors Guaranteed to Sabotage Your Writing Efforts

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by Chris Cristiano

As most writers know, some days you have the gift to produce amazing articles with little effort that sizzle with wit and prose but on other days – well, not so much. Whether you are willing to admit it or not, here are the five factors (in no particular order) that are responsible for grinding your writing to a halt and sabotaging your efforts:

The Weather Factor. If you live in a less than desirable climate (basically anywhere other than Florida, a Caribbean island or any place where one would commonly yell “surf’s up!”) chances are your writing efforts are affected by the weather. Now, I am not talking about a big wind blowing through your office and knocking out your power but rather that big yellow thing – the sun. In my world, a bright sunny day with temps above 70F is an invitation to get up, get out and get some sun! Even the best writers are known to ditch their computers and pay homage to the sun to catch a few rays. Lather on the sunscreen, enjoy the sun then get back to work. [Read more…]

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