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Table of contents for Freelance Writing
In this final installment in the freelance writing series, you’ll find lots of advice from freelance writing pros. Getting Started How I Launched My Freelance Writing Career - These are the steps that Melissa Donovan followed to start her business. Make Money from Writing - Debbie Dragon offers freelance writing advice. You have to give your name and e-mail address, and you will receive e-mails that include solicitations for her coaching service along with some good advice. Going freelance in a down economy - Susan Johnston tells why she chose to start her freelance business during a slow economy and why it might be the best time to go freelance. Putting a Price on Your Capabilities: How to Set Your Fees as a Freelance Writer - This advice from Debra Jason will help you set your fees for freelance writing. Building Your Business Five Paramount Principles for Freelance Writing Success - Bob Younce reminds us that freelance writing is a business and shares five principles essential to success. Five Step Plan for Setting and Achieving Goals for Your Freelance Writing Career - This plan from Jennifer Mattern gives you an outline to build your business. Tips for Slowly Building a Freelance Writing Career - Chris Bibey reminds us that business growth doesn’t have to be fast and furious. Learn from the Best Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2007/2008 - The list of winners in Michael Stelzner’s second annual contest includes some blogs not listed elsewhere in this series. Top 60 Blogs for Freelance Writers - The category divisions in this list of 60 blogs compiled by Chad will lead to blogs in your specialty. Promoting Your Business Why Every Freelance Writer Must Have a Blog - Ashwin explains why freelancers need to have blogs. Setting up a Website or Blog: My Favorite Resources - Jennifer Mattern and I share only one favorite resource - WordPress - but the resources she recommends may be perfect for your needs. 5 Tips for Marketing Your Freelance Writing Business - Colin Galbraith offers marketing advice for freelancers. 10 Ways to Promote Your Freelance Writing - These tips from Michelle Vranizan Rafter are covered in other articles listed here but are organized into a single neat list. Ways to Market and Promote Yourself and Your Writing - Look through this collection of articles at About.com: Freelance Writing for articles of interest to you. Paying Taxes as a Freelancer (added 6/4/08 as a result of a question in comments from Renae): Taxes and Freelancing - Tax professional William Perez gives advice on taxes in a series of five articles If you’re a beginning freelance writer, I hope you have found this series helpful. If you’re an experience freelancer, please share your advice or links to other resources in comments. Technorati Tags: freelance writing
42 Comments » |
Great resources! Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome, Alex. There is valuable information for freelancers in these links.
This is a great list to help even more. What better way to learn than from the pros who are doing what us aspiring writers want to be, making it on their own.
Diane Brunners last blog post..Friendship - Short Story Part 3
Diane,
Right - there’s no one better to teach us what works than someone who is already successful at what we want to do.
So much advice here, what a great resource. Thanks for putting this all in one place for me to bookmark.
Writing Contents last blog post..By: Friendly SEO Competition Heats Up - Internet Marketing in 10 Minutes
You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy digging out all the great info in these links.
Hi, this is a great article with lots of valuable links. There are a lot of resources for freelance writers out there, but this is short, sweet and useful — you’ve done half the work for us by putting all these great links into one blog post. Thanks!
This is a collection of excellent resources that will take you plenty of time to get through. There’s a lot of good stuff here.
if only i could just get past the ‘just starting’ phase >_<
Trucker Jake,
Whether it’s sitting at the computer for 30 minutes typing “I don’t know what to write,” which usually eventually leads to ideas, or making one contact, which makes the next one easier. The only way to start is to start.
I’m not sure whether you mean just starting writing or just starting a freelance career. In either case, I think the most important thing to do is … something - anything other than nothing.
excellent resource. One of the hardest aspects of freelance writing is setting your own fees. Most writers put too low a monetary value on their own work.
You’re so right about setting fees. Many writers have a difficult time figuring out how much to charge. Other articles on setting fees are included in the first installment in this series.
I just stumbled across this series, and boy, I’m glad I did!
Thanks for compiling all this information. It has definitely been helpful.
I’m glad you’re finding the information helpful. When I started the series, I planned to write more but when I kept finding so much good information already written, I decided it made more sense to share what I discovered.
These are GREAT links. I’ve seen some of them, but not all, so thanks!
–Debs last blog post..MM: Colonoscopy
Deb,
I’m glad I found some good resources you didn’t know about.
Thanks for the info. I have done freelancing now for a couple of years, and one thing I have found to be important is consistency and dedication. It is not easy, but it is very rewarding, and your advice is excellent. Thank you.
Consistency and dedication are important. It takes time to build a business, but it is worth it.
Hi Lillie! I’m away from home this week, and have missed some of your posts. I only have a quick minute now, but I have a question. Have you posted about filing taxes as a freelancer? This is the first year I’ve gotten paid any amount worth filing. Before ‘08, I was a SAHM and the few dollars I got was lost in the tax shuffle; I’m not sure I even reported it - don’t remember, but I doubt they will arrest me for the price of a Big Mac, LOL! But this year, I need to keep better records. Can you direct me?
Renae,
I didn’t include anything about taxes but will go back and add a link to the above article. That way other people reading the post and not the comments will see them as well.
The worst part of taxes for freelancers is the self-employment tax which we pay instead of Social Security. Basically, we pay both what we would pay as an employee and what the employer pays since we’re both employee and employer. That’s the amount that always catches me by surprise.
thanks a ton - this is a great list, especially for me the newbie on the block
Holly,
I wrote this series in response to a question from an aspiring freelancer. I told her I would send her some links that she would find helpful, and as I started assembling them, I decided they were far too valauble to send to just one person. Many others aspiring and beginning freelancers would find them useful as well.
This whole series is packed with great information thanks.
In the article by Melissa Donovan, she mentions craigslist as a way to build clientèle. I hadn’t really thought of that. The one by Debra Jason also has some great information in it. Thanks again!
There is some terrific information in the linked articles. I’m glad you found them helpful.
Fabulous series, Lillie! Chock-full of resources for the aspiring freelance writer!
Jeanne
Jeanne,
I started out with the intention of writing most of the series. But I gathered up so many fabulous resources that I decided it would be better to just direct aspiring freelancers to the excellent advice others had already given.
Great idea, Lillie! It turned out to be quite a success!
Jeanne,
I’m especially pleased to see a number of comments from aspiring or beginning freelancers - people who have not commented on my blog before.
That’s great, Lillie! It’s always rewarding to get a good response from our target audience–especially when a significant portion of that audience consists of new readers. (Forgot to nest this comment. Sorry! Tried to delete it so I could nest it, but didn’t seem to be able to.)
Jeanne,
Don’t worry about the nesting. It’s not a big deal when the comments are in order, but it’s really valuable when the replies are separated by other comments.
Yes, I’m glad to have the new readers that the series was targeted toward.
[...] So You Want to Become a Freelance Writer? Four part article with advice from the pros. [...]
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Certainly many great points and ideas here. Thanks for all of the resources!
You’re welcome, Homer. I enjoy sharing great resources I discover.
Thanks very much for posting this, it is a great resource. Certainly details everything you need to get started. I am looking forward to making the leap into the world of freelance writing.
Theo,
I’m glad you found this helpful. Good look with your leap into freelancing.
I checked out your resources, they are excellent! Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you found the resources helpful.
I recently investigated going freelance and checked out some of the freelancer websites. I couldn’t compete with the prices that writers from some countries were charging. Any advice?
Dan,
I’ll give a brief response, but for more information than I can provide in a comment check out other articles I have written on rates. Click on “Series” at the top left of this page and look for articles on Freelance Writing and Editing Rates.
Looking for work on the bidding sites puts you in competition with a lot of low-priced writers for a lot of low-paying jobs. Look at other options, such as job sites that have some kind of standard for the jobs they list as well as offline work. See Part 3 of this series for ideas of places to search.
Writers who specialize in niches (especially ones with less competition) often command higher rates. Part 3 of this series talks about specializing or not. If you have knowledge or experience in a particular topic or industry, that will make it easier to earn higher pay. If you don’t have the experience, you can always build expertise by studying and working.
I think it helps to EXPECT to find higher paying gigs. Sometimes beginning writers get discouraged when they focus on bidding sites and think they can’t find higher paying work. My rates are on the higher end of the scale, and I don’t have a problem finding plenty of work at those rates. Of course, it wasn’t that easy when I first started, but sticking to my prices and not cutting them to get jobs led to my current situation with clients coming to me through referrals already knowing my rates.
Doing more than expected makes fans of clients and leads to more business where price is not a major consideration.
I think one of the best resources you pointed out is taxes and freelancing — because a lot of beginning freelancers don’t realize that freelance income is taxable income. Thanks for all the links, this is one packed blog post that helps a lot.
You’re right - taxes and accounting are things most of us freelancers would rather not deal with … but freelancing is a business, and taxes and accounting are important aspects of running a business.