2013 So Far

I know that I get behind on updating ya'll about the comings and goings of the writing world.  Well, I wanted to offer an update and give everyone a little extra hope that 2013 can truly be your year.  I have spent the last five years building a client base that I am very happy with.  I have been published by Thermo Fisher Scientific, LASIK and The General Gazette just to name a few and I am regularly working with these clients. 

You can write for whomever you want if you are willing to put the work in.  See, this is the key.  Yes, clients do come to me, but I have done my fair share of marketing and working extremely hard so that they can find me.  The key is work.  We work from home, but work is still the operative word.  This is one of the hardest industries to thrive in, but once you find success it is sweeter than you can imagine.  Keep an eye out for some more informative posts.  I will not find your jobs for you because that just would not be fair, but I will do what I can to help you develop the tools necessary to excel as a freelance writer. 

The Realities of a Full-Time Freelance Writer Part One

Image Source

One of the biggest things I see and hear writers debate is the time commitment.  The thing is, if you want to be successful in this business, you must be willing to put forth a lot of time.  I like to say that no business person ever became successful only working 40 hours a week and this is true.

If you have other sources of income, or live with someone who helps with the bills, you cannot truly understand the strain of making an income via freelance writing.  You can write part-time and be fine.  Folks like me who are single and rely only on ourselves have to make a huge time commitment.

The amount of time I personally spend working every week is monstrous.  Add in full-time nursing school, being a caretaker for two people and having no-so-great health and it takes its toll.  However, the end benefit of financial security, as well as financial independence, is well worth the roll of the dice.

For me, just getting by is just not good enough.  I also enjoy having savings and the ability to have a few non-necessities from time to time.  I am willing to put in 80 to 100 hours a week to have a comfortable life.  Plus, I love what I do so most of it does not feel like work.

Now, I cannot tell you how much time you personally need to spend writing, as all of our situations are different and unique.  However, I can tell you that being a freelance writer is exactly like owning a business.  Businesses take time commitment and sacrifice.  Are you willing to do each of these?  If not, then there is a high chance that a career in freelance writing is not for you.

If you are not the sole bill payer, you may be able to get away with a lot less hours than I put in.  If you are like me and are single and completely self-reliant, then the time commitment will likely be very big.  Most will never have to work the hours I do because most people do not have the bills that I do (multiple monthly medical expenses and I am paying for nursing school completely out of pocket plus all regular adult bills).

I will say this: never kill yourself by working yourself into the ground, but never think that you can skate by by writing whenever the mood strikes.  You need to commit a certain amount of time each week based on your goals and stick to it.  This is a job afterall, and should be treated as such.

What are the Best Times to Share on Social Media Sites?

I have always heard that there are specific times to share our articles, books, eBooks, etc. on Facebook and Twitter.  However, I always put off trying to learn exactly what these times are.  I ran across an article on Mashable that talks about the best times to share on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.  Sharing at these specific times is said to guarantee more eyeballs on whatever we share.  Here is the article: The Best and Worst Times to Share on Facebook, Twitter.  Check it out and please comment if you notice some success with this. 

Your Writer's Website/Portfolio

Today, several fellow writers and I have been discussing writer's websites/portfolios.  This made me think, "hmmm, mine really needs to be updated."  So, I will spend the week completely overhauling my site.  How is your site?  Do you have a site?  If you have one, why not take a few minutes to look it over and update as needed.  If you do not have a site, what are you waiting for?  A writer's website/portfolio is one of the best ways to get discovered on the web.  It puts everything clients need to know about you in a neat little package.  I am going to work on mine over the next few days and it is going to be completely different in a good way.  Once it is done, I will post a link here and will talk about what I did to create it so that ya'll can take the information and get your site either revamped or started.

Tips on Fighting Against Copyright Infringement

As writers, we have our work stolen more often than a politician lies.  If you are new to writing, unfortunately, you will face this issue as well.  For the most part, I just let it go because a large majority of the thieving sites are so far down the list on search engines that it will not really hurt me.  However, there have been times where the stolen article outranked my original article, or the site stole so much of my work that something just has to be done. 

A fellow writer put together a phenomenal resource for fighting against those who are not playing fair.  If you want to know how to reclaim your work and tell the thieves that they just cannot take your hard work, check out this extensive resource: CLICK HERE.

Is eLance Worth the Time?

It has been a while since I posted and now that I am on spring break and will be taking a lighter courseload next semester, I will be updating far more frequently. So, let's get to business. eLance is the topic of today's post. eLance is a bidding site for freelancers. It is great for writers and those with other media-related talents, such as design. A few months ago a fellow freelancer was sharing her successes with the site and this prompted me to give it a try. It took me 2 days and 4 bids to land my first assignment/contract there. The client I worked with was great. They provided precise and concise guidelines that made the 10-article project very easy to complete. This client also worked with me to ensure that the pay was fair for both of us. She asked me how long it would take me to complete the project and allowed me to set the deadline. I gave her a 48-hour deadline and spent 2 days working on the project. I sent the articles over as I completed them and the entire process went very smoothly. It took this client about 24 hours to review the articles and make sure that I met all guidelines. She sent me a message thanking me for my work and the money was released for me to "claim" and have sent to PayPal.

I almost thought this was too good to be true since my working with this client -- my first eLance client -- went so smoothly and was just flawless. So, I decided it was time to hunt down another project to bid on. I bid on 3 more projects and scored 1 of them. This project went equally as smoothly. The first client I had through eLance has become a regular client. I work with her on a weekly basis. The second client I picked up has sent me more work. My work with the second client is not weekly or as regular, but I have had 8 projects since the first one I completed for him.

Now, eLance is not all rainbow-sprinkled ponies. There are a lot of folks on there who want a lot of work for pretty much nothing. Because of this, I often have to really dig to find the gems, but the gems are definitely there. I am very happy that I took the advice of a friend and fellow freelancer and gave eLance a try. This site has become a regular part of my freelance client list. It certainly takes work, dedication and patience to get started with eLance and make it work, but it is definitely a viable source of work and income.

I will be posting more about eLance as I do more work there, learn more and figure out tips and tricks to be more successful there. However, for now, I just wanted everyone to know that eLance is a legit site where you can make some money. Also, I just have the free membership and do pretty well with that. To start out, I recommend just using the free membership to get used to things and get your first few gigs. Then, once you start to find success there and get into your rhythm, I think the membership would be worth it. For now, I am sticking with the free membership, but if I find some time to do more work there, I would certainly buy some more bids.

One Goal At a Time

One big thing I learned last year is that to go big, you have to start small. If you are like me, you probably have 50 goals, but it is impossible to work on all of these simultaneously. There are simply not enough hours in the day. So, my 2012 goal is to take one goal at a time and get it started and going while working on my paying work. Of course, I plan to get each of these goals to become paying too, but they are going to need nurturing to get there as they are blogs that will eventually become websites, e-books, novels and art projects.

Since I am working on beefing up my celebrity and entertainment writing, I figure getting my celebrity and entertainment blog off the ground will be my first goal. I will work this throughout January. Then, I will work my Cleveland news blog and NBA blog (both play into each other) throughout February. From there, I will work on building a new blog up each month as I maintain previously built blogs, move them onto domains, keep up with paying work and of course, keep my grades up in school. I will post links to the blogs here as I get them built up.

So, what are your goals for 2012 and how do you plan to tackle them?

Happy New Year

New year, new goals and aspirations all around. This is the perfect time of year to pull up any half-written articles and get researching so that you can finish them. Start a new blog, or two or four. Get that e-book started. Finish what you didn't last year and start something new for this year. These are my goals for writing this year. I am going to finish whatever I left half-finished last year and then start several new blogs, build them up and then get them onto their own domain throughout the year. I also plan to write several fiction and informational non-fiction e-books. This is going to be a big year. This should be a big year for all of us because you are truly the writer of your own destiny.

DMS Has Hit Its Iceberg

Demand Media Studios -- or DMS -- seems to have hit its iceberg. Many of us have been predicting this since around January 2011 and have jumped ship months ago. Some folks couldn't just leave DMS as easily as I did and I get that. Plus, DMS did do things in a very shady manner. Today, many titlers got an email that in a nutshell said, "you suck goodbye." DMS has never been known for tact, but their actions lately go beyond lack of tact. They are deplorable. I understand basic business principles. I drop clients that simply are not working for me, but the client has ADVANCED notice so said client is not completely screwed. DMS does not seem to care that thousands of writers, around the holidays no less, are left with nothing. Let's not forget that this company also left titlers and CEs screwed too with their recent shenanigans.

If they want to redo their business model, then good on them. But, to leave thousands of innocent people bobbing in cold dark water at the expense of sudden change is simply cruel and unusual.

I am proud to say that I have not written a word for this poor excuse for a company in nearly eight months. I hope that all of you who are currently on this literary Titanic can soon say the same thing. I will make a point of posting job leads several times a week to try and help you. There is a list of sites a few posts down where you can start. While LoveToKnow has since folded as well, the rest should still be active. Do not wait for DMS to surge again or to be great to you because it will not happen.

Photo is Public Domain

Great Show Last Night

Last night fellow freelancer Amy Browne and I did our thing and hosted our radio show, The Freelance Connection, on Blog Talk Radio. We discussed a person who we have received several reports on that is not paying her clients. This is the very first thing we discussed at the very beginning of the show. Check it out and if you have had any experience with this client, feel free to drop a line in the comments and/or check out the ongoing thread about her over and Absolute Write and share your experience to help your fellow writers out.

Amy talked about Bestcovery, a great writing site that many freelancers are not familiar with and shared some info on the work they have available now.

I talked about the process of being hired on with LoveToKnow and the wonderful women I have had the pleasure to communicate with via email and phone so far during the process.

We also talked a bit about the new Writer's Evaluation Program taking place at Demand Media Studios. It ain't pretty, but it's honest folks. I will share some more thoughts on this program in a separate post this week because I am gathering information from folks who I know who were put into it.

Then, we chit-chatted about some other random writer stuff. Also, writers, editors and everyone else who spends a lot of time sitting for work, or just sitting, get up and move around. Do not sit for more than two hours at a time as it can have significant and dangerous health consequences. We talked about this at the end of the show. Amy herself was the victim of multiple heart attacks and her being a writer forced to sit a lot was a major cause of this. She, and I, want to encourage all of our fellow freelancers to get up and move. You just need to take 5 minutes every 2 hours and walk through your house, jump up and down, stretch, or anything that involves some movement. Please, your body and those who love you will thank you.

If you missed the show, you can click the link above and catch a recording of it at your convenience. The next show will be the second Friday in September at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time (I'll post a reminder closer to that time). We are also always excited to have our fellow freelancers as guests on the show, so if you are a freelancer and would like to chat with us in September, send me an email at kitchen.rose@yahoo.com and put "The Freelance Connection Guest" in the subject line and we will talk about getting you on the show.

Until next time. Write on!

Writing Sites

I am often asked about sites to write for. Most folks know about Yahoo Contributor Network, Demand Studios and BrightHub, so I will not talk about those in this post. Here is a large list of sites you can check out. If you have any info/feedback on any of these sites (positive or negative) drop a comment on this post. I am sure your fellow writers would appreciate the info! Be on the lookout for individual reviews of these sites throughout the coming months and further info on other sites and writing gigs.

Writer Access can be excellent once you land on a few Love Lists (happens rather quickly). The application is kind of a pain, but worth it IMO. This site is like Textbroker on steroids. Also, do not forget about Textbroker.

http://www.constant-content.co​m/. Put your Non-exclusives up for reprints folks. Let your reprints earn more for you. If you need some help with this site, shoot me a PM. This site is sometimes slow-going, but the right topics can do you good. I am going to be posting a few posts about it on my blog soon about how to increase your chances of making a sale, so stay tuned.

http://www.consumersearch.com/​jobs - Very nice pay, but some work involved.

http://www.internetbrands.com/​work-with-us/ - Similar to Demand, but less strict editors.

http://www.bestcovery.com/writ​ers - Comes very highly recommended to me. There is a phone interview involved, but the staff is fantastic and pay is not half bad. Comparable to a YCN beat or DMS.

http://www.writersresearchgrou​p.com/ - Not sure if they are still hiring.

Pure Content - Not the highest paying, but constant steady work. UK-based company so you have to write in UK English. However, you can set your word processor to spell check in UK English, making this a breeze. Pay is once a month.

10dollararticles - similar to textbroker. Work is not always available so you have to check in often. $10 per article.

http://thecontentauthority.com​/application-writers.php - Not clear on the details, but I know they definitely pay and that it is halfway decent.

Skyword: Upfront pay from Pampers, Daily Glow and Bounty is $10 plus revenue share. IBM is $40 upfront. You can also do Gather through Skyword through a PV/rev share program. I personally love this company and they pay twice a month now.

https://www.writersnetwork.com​/ - Similar to Demand with slightly higher pay, but far less work at this time.

SheKnows and LoveToKnow also come highly recommended to me. I am not 100 percent sure what they pay, but I know for a fact that they definitely do pay.

A few others I do not know a ton about:

http://www.contentdivas.com/em​ployment/

http://www.techwriters.com/

http://www.rightcopywriter.com​/careers.html

http://www.qualitygal.com/

http://www.selfhelpguides.com/​authors_wanted.php3

http://www.writingassist.com/j​ob-seekers/

http://www.cyberedit.com/hub/j​obs.shtml

http://matadornetwork.com/cont​ributors/

http://admin.interactmedia.com​/apply.aspx

http://www.articlecontentprovi​der.com/article-writer.html

Week Two

Sorry for the late update, Blogger was on the fritz and I could not update as promised. Week Two was a struggle, but I made it and ended with $917. I used Writer Access, BrightHub (one article), Yahoo Contributor Network and Demand Studios. I also wrote a Gather politics article through Skyword, but that is still working it's way to earning.

I actually was able to work fewer hours last week and earn more money. For starters, I broke down how much I needed to earn per day to meet my goal and I did this by dividing $875 by 5. I wanted to only work 5 days. Or, at least strive for it. I ended up working just over 60 hours, but I took more breaks, had lunch with a friend, ran my own errands, etc. I was generally more rested. Those of you who know me well know that I have the habit of putting work ahead of everything. Well, this week, I took a different tact. I got all of my work done while also living a little. I carried this into to week three and once all of the math is done, I will further discuss this.

It is incredibly important to meet your financial and professional goals, but it is also important to stop and smell the roses as well.

Last night on the radio show I do with fellow veteran writer Amy Browne, The Freelance Connection, I also talked a bit about last week's challenge and how it went. We also discussed Panda and several different writing gigs you may want to look into if you are looking for other clients. We do the show on the second Friday of every month from 6:00pm to 8:00pm Eastern time. You can click the link above and listen to the recorded version of the show if you missed it.

I am short on time today because I have a few things I need to do for school, but I will be updating you on week three within the next 48 hours as long as Blogger doesn't go on the fritz again. I also have a series of posts coming up with a variety of tips and advice.

Also, really quick. During the months of June and July I will continue to share income-earning strategies and the like, but you of course are not going to earn money without clients, so that will be the primary focus: 20 minutes a day and an online portfolio. I will work to teach you how to score new clients with just 20 minutes a day and an online portfolio. I will help you build one and will share mine of course and will then share strategies and resources to help you fine and land new clients and gigs in just 20 minutes a day.

I will also be going through all of your comments and messages over the next two to three days and addressing those. So, no, I promise I have no forgotten about you. I just could not access them for a few days.

Until next time. Happy Writing!

Quick Update

Sorry, been crazy busy. I will have a full update for last week and some other information for ya'll tomorrow. I just wanted to give you a quick post to let ya'll know that everything is going fine and on track. I made last week's goal and all is going well. I will break it all down tomorrow and will have more information.

How to Write Faster Part One

I had a fellow writer request I talk about this and I am asked about this often. I will tell you that when I first started writing, my articles took hours to write. I never thought I would ever become a faster writer. Then, as time passed me speed increased. Also, as that time passed, I learned some tricks and techniques to increase my writing speed. I do want to note though that speed should never trump quality. Some articles need that extra love and will just take longer. However, I want to say that on average, an online freelance writer should be spending an average of 30 to 45 minutes per article. This time includes your research and/or fact-checking, the writing of the article, your proofreading and editing and sending the article to your client. I know this sounds like a lot of work to cram into 30 to 45 minutes, but it really is not once you learn the art of online writing.

First and foremost, make your research count. If you are doing separate research for every single article, you will naturally take longer to write each article. What I like to do is use one research session for multiple articles. This can and has been done thousands of times. Your topic will depend on how far you can break it down. For example, I can turn a good research session on heart disease into close to 100 articles (seriously, do some research), but research on ovarian cyst ruptures will only produce a handful of articles. So, from a single research session on ovarian cyst ruptures that took me 15 minutes because all I did was fact check because I already know the topic, I was able to write five articles that were credible, accurate and written with authority because I wrote them from the perspective of a health care provider (will get to this tip later). I spent about 2.5 to 3 hours writing, proofing, editing and submitting those 5 articles. Now, the heart disease research obviously would take me a lot longer. Thankfully, I know a lot about it, but still have to check my facts and triple check stats and read over studies. This is a larger project that I would spread out and write a few heart disease articles here and there and keep the research in a file. This way, I am remaining productive and getting my other work done too.

Write what you know. I know you've heard this 1,000 times and for good reason. When you write what you know you save time and you write with authority. Your readers can sense that authority and it gains their trust. And again, it saves you time. As many of you know, my background falls in health and medicine so this is what I mainly focus on writing. I can write an article on colon cancer symptoms in 20 minutes and spend 10 more minutes fact-checking (incredibly important regardless of how well you know the topic), proofing, editing and sending to article to my client. I just spent 30 minutes crafting an entire article from start to finish.

Work on your typing speed if it already is not fast. If you are picking and pecking at the keys, you will be slower. Just open up an empty file and start typing what you see around you, what's on TV, about your kids or pets, or anything. Just type. Practice, practice, practice. I was horribly slow with typing when I first started writing and as time passed and I practiced I got faster and more accurate.

I am going to end this here for today. There are more tips that I will share throughout the month, but I am against a deadline that I need to knockout tonight. Stay tuned for more tips on all things writing.

Image Credits: Roz Woodward

Purdue Online Writing Lab

More commonly known as OWL, the Purdue Online Writing Lab is a great resource for writers. Whether you are writing an article or a paper for school you will find this site useful. I promise! Also check out their grammar blog.

On OWL you can learn about general writing, subject specific writing, research and citation (different ways to cite like APA, MLA, AP, etc) and more. When you have about 20 minutes to spare, I highly recommend you check this site out and browse it. I also suggest you bookmark it for future reference. All of the OWL services are free too!

Image Credits: Minimil

Freelance Writng Challenge End of Week One

So, week one is over and let me tell you it was a long week. Like I said in my last post, I now remember how hard it is being a new freelance writer. As you know my weekly goal for last week and the next four weeks is $875 per week. I end last week with....drum roll please....$873. Yeah, somehow I miscalculated by $2.00. Did I mention that math was not my thing? I ended up working a full day on Saturday and some hours yesterday to hit that goal due to wind-related power outages and something else I had to take care of that cropped up. For the challenge last week, I used the following sites: Yahoo Contributor Network, Demand Studios, BrightHub and Skyword (Daily Glow and Gather).

Okay, so let's talk about this week. I am going to focus on the sites I used last week of course, but I also decided to try and give Examiner another go. Not sure why yet, but I have had a gut feeling for a few months now that I should revive my Examiner page and post at least two to three times a week. Call it women's intuition I guess.

I am also going to add some WriterAccess articles to the mix.

The month at a glance. I will continue to work the sites I discussed above. I will also be applying to new sites and private clients. As promised, any private client income will not be included in the $875 per week total. I will be doing the queries and sharing the experience and results with you only as a way to help you learn to do it. I will also share my experience and results with other sites I choose to apply to.

I also have several new blogs, and a few old, but neglected ones, that will take off this month thanks to Marie Anne St. Jean's new blogging challenge for May. I highly recommend checking that out if you did the A to Z Challenge and just are not ready to stop with the blogging challenges yet.

So all in all, week one was a success, minus $2.00 due to my severely lacking math skills. I am ready to take on May head on and am looking forward to all of you and your individual challenges and goals too. Please comment and share your goals and progress with all of us here on the blog. As always, if you have any questions, drop a comment and I will do my best to answer it.

So I leave you with a beautiful tropical beach. I cannot think of a better way to start a new month and a new week!

Image Credits: Image Source

Challenge Update

Here's a photo of colorful and bright daiquiris. The weather is just so dreary here, I needed something bright, colorful and alcoholic to get me going today :) No, I haven't had a drink yet, but will have a little drink later this evening to kick off this challenge. Cheers! to everyone joining in, following along and doing their own challenges!

Yesterday was a $74.00 day. So, I basically cut down what I need to make for the remainder of the week to $801.00. Yesterday was a typical Monday with lots of school and my typical Monday scheduling and behind the scenes work. I would have liked to knock out $125.00 though and have no one to blame, but myself. I was watching the NBA playoffs while working and got a bit caught up in the games.

Also, today, I am just now getting started with work at 6:32pm Eastern. This is actually a good thing because it allows me to show you that while I could just call it a day and do no work, I won't. I am going to put in the hours and knock out at least three BrightHub articles for a total of $30.00 bucks, my Yahoo Medical News article for $15.00, I have two more Yahoo Sports articles on deadline totaling $21.00, I want to get two Daily Glow articles in for a total of $20.00 and want to get my first Gather Politics written and submitted. I also have some research done for a Livestrong article so since the hard part it done, I might as well knock that out too. That would be $20.00. That would bring my grand total to $106.00. That puts me $20.00 behind where I want to be for the day, so I will either knock out another Livestrong article or do another two Daily Glow. I should do the other two Daily Glow articles because I have a monthly quota with them and planned to do three a day for the remainder of the month.

At this time, I am not including Gather in my totals because I will not know how much Gather will bring in until a day or two after the articles publish. Once I get rolling with them (I was literally just accepted) I will be able to better judge and figure in my income from them.

As long as I stay focused, I should be able to knock out this work quite quickly. Due to getting a bit behind the last two days, I will carry my week into Saturday. That is fine because I am used to not taking days off anyway. For this challenge my goal was working 5 days a week, but as we know, when building a career, you have to expect to work weekends, evenings and holidays here and there. I still do fully intend to take off Sunday and just work on my blogs and school on that day. We shall see though! I forgot how hard it was being a freelance writer and not using private clients. It really can be a lot more work due to the less pay per article with mills and farms. While I am already missing my private clients, I will absolutely keep going with this challenge because this is how I started so I know it can be done. It is like going home after not being there for a while. There is a comfort to it. The change of pace is quite nice though. The less strict guidelines and less "depth" (not exactly the word I am looking for) are really nice. I guess I just feel a bit more free because with mills and farms I am able to choose my own topics for the most part and can write for the layman. None of that technical stuff. It is quite nice.

So that is the gist of the update for now. If I don't get to writing, I will be up all night. Be looking for another one in the next 48 hours. I will probably stop by with other random posts with tips and advice as well in between challenge updates. And, remember, if you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment and I will address it. Happy Writing!

Photo Credits: Jill Chen

See it Through

See it Through. When you have a deadline, see it through and see it through on time. If something like an emergency happens, notify your client immediately so they know you will be a day or two late. Not meeting deadlines will kill a freelance career faster than Charlie Sheen can kill a bottle of whiskey.

Image Credits: Photodisc

Research

Research. Research is a critical part of writing. While there are topics most of us can write off of the top of our heads, it is still the responsible thing to do to quickly research and check our facts. Also, when researching, use credible resources only. Do not use Wikipedia. It is user-submitted. Use universities, hospitals, government sites certified professionals, etc.

Image Credits: James Baigrie

Quiet

Quiet. You are unlikely to get it when working from home. Even if you live alone, you probably have neighbors that may be loud from time to time. It is important to learn to either tune out noise or work in an environment that is not quiet. I used to require an absolutely quiet environment to work. Now, I have the basketball game on in the background, iPod blaring, cats running around, folks outside causing a riot, police sirens blaring and other city noises simultaneously. I have no issues with it at all anymore. Eventually, I was able to train myself to just deal and I no longer need quiet.

Image Credits: Jed Share

Push Through

Push Through. If you have deadlines, you have to push through them. Think of it this way, if you had a brick and mortar job, would you just up and leave every time something in the day didn't go your way or every time you had the sniffles? Of course not! You wouldn't have the job very long. So, buck up and push through. This goes back to my post on discipline. You have to treat freelance writing as a real job if you wish to be successful and you have to push through life's curveballs.

Image Credits: Blend Images

Open-Minded

Open-Minded. You have to be open-minded in the freelance writing business. You are going to run into an incredibly diverse crowd of people and opinions, especially with commenters. People will tell you that you are the worst writer to grace the earth just because they disagree with your stance on a topic. Stay open-minded and keep on keeping on.

Image Credits: Brand New Images

No. Do not be afraid to say “no”. I know it is tempting to take on every client that comes your way, especially when you are starting out, but this is not practical. You have to set the price you are willing to work for and stick to it. Do not be afraid to negotiate and if the client wants to be cheap, politely decline and tell them no. Trust me, it is liberating. You, as a writer, are worth something. You have talents that not everyone has. You work hard. Writing is not easy. Get paid what YOU are worth. Stick to your guns and say “no” when the opportunity does not fit you. Trust me, there are thousands of opportunities out there and skipping one because the client is cheap will not hurt you in the slightest bit. It will just give you room for a better and higher paying client.

Photo Credits: ballyscanlon

Make Time to Relax

Make Time to Relax. Yes, I am a total hypocrite for saying this because I work seven days a week and nearly 16 to 20 hours a day. However, I am working towards a more normal schedule. You have to relax a bit and live or else burnout does and will occur and it can land you in the hospital. Back several years ago, I worked myself into the hospital. I was working way too many hours and getting no sleep some days of the week. I would literally get off of work, shower and go back to work. The human body is not meant to handle this type of abuse. So, even if you are just taking an hour a day to watch your favorite show and relax on the couch, it will help you in the long-run.

Photo Credits: Oliver Rossi

Love What You Do

Love What You Do. If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. I truly believe this and wish I could remember who originally said it. When I was a teen, I washed dishes. I hated the job. Just being there was torture and the day just lasted forever. Now, I can write all day and love it. I love to research, write, educate and everything else involved in being a freelance writer. Well, except rejection. But, really, no one likes rejection even though it is part of the process. If you do not love to write and do not love every other part of this writing game, you will just torture yourself everyday, so you have to evaluate and really think about whether this is your true passion.

Photo Credits: Nicholas Rigg