I Hate My Freelance Writing Career! (Part II of II)

Part I of this post examined how doing too much can make you hate your writing career – and how you can combat that.

Here, in Part II, two more reasons you may hate your writing career will be examined – and offer solutions to the problems.

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2 More Reasons You May Hate Your Freelance Writing Career

Working on Projects I Don’t Care For: Lately, I’ve been working on a lot of projects that just don’t excite me.

To be honest, a lot of what I do doesn’t excite me, per say, but it’s work I don’t mind. During my slump though, it just seemed that the projects – one after the other – were things that I just didn’t like at all.

It was mentally exhausting gearing myself up to work on them.

The reason I’ve been taking on practically any and everything is I want to get out of debt within the next two years – all except for my mortgage. Read about that goal here.

While I have a reason for buckling down and doing work I really don’t enjoy, it was taking a toll on me mentally.

Solution: Either reset goals, or change your mindset. I opted to change my mindset by refocusing on my goal and really ingesting how it’s going to feel to be debt free except for my mortgage.

Now, I have to admit, this is hard -- really hard. And, this is where being a Type A Personality really comes in handy. We’re really good and setting goals and achieving them – no matter the sacrifice.

Putting Dreams on Hold: During this whole process – taking on projects I didn’t like, doing too much – I wasn’t doing anything that gave me personal joy. I was putting my dreams on hold. Eg, training for this year’s marathon.

I had a car accident in February that’s interrupted my training schedule. I don’t know if you know anything about athletes, but when we’re unable to work out, we can get cranky and depressed.

I’d forgotten this. Even though I’m only able to train at a measured pace, now that I’m back on the track, I feel joyous again!

Solution: Do something just for you; chase a dream. This is particularly important when you’re going through trying times.

The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Break Out of a Writing Funk

One of the things I’ve noticed is that I get frustrated when I work without a plan. Many of us go through life without one. We just kind of do our thing – day after day, week after week, month after month.

But, have you ever stopped to think, “Where is this road I’m on taking me? Where do I want to be in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?”

If you don’t have a life plan – get one – now! It can center you like never before. I talk about how having a life plan helped me make a decision when an “opportunity of a lifetime” was dropped in my lap. Read about it here.

Planning forces you to focus on what’s really important to you. If you’re in a writing funk, it usually has nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with your life.

Here's hoping you never "feel the funk," or get out of it soon if you're already there.

Monday's Post: How Googling Your Name Can Lead to Cash

EXCERPT: There are billions (yes, billions!) of websites on the Internet. Getting noticed is extremely difficult -- if not impossible. Googling your name and leveraging those contacts who already know about you can go a long way to increasing your income. We'll examine three ways to leverage this name recognition -- and put cash in your pocket!
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Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career

I did it -- I finished! The e-books I've been promising to re-list on InkwellEditorial.com have all been officially revised and uploaded. I may look like the guy pictured here, but I don't care -- I finally got it done -- woooohooooo!

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Why is There so Much Bad Writing on the Web?

. . . And What Can Be Done About It
I owe readers of my work a big apology. Why? Because I've contributed to bad writing on the web. Now I know, to a certain degree, why this is - and what can be done about it.

If you regularly submit content to the web - whether it's for your blog, an e-zine, a newsletter, website copy, etc. - read and heed!

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Why Is There So Much Bad Writing on the Web: Reason #1

Volume: In the last year and a half, 25-30% of my workload has become web copy. I also have a blog, a website and a newsletter - all of which require regular updates.

In short, I turn out a huge volume of text on a regular basis; it's not unusual for me to write between 3,000 and 6,000 words a day. In terms of articles, that's the equivalent of 10, 600-word articles a day.

This can take 10, 12 or 13 hours. In between, there's research, fact checking, interviews, formatting, etc., to be done.

So, what gets pushed back? What we in the publishing industry used to call QC (quality checking). This is the editing, proofreading and rewriting.

Because the web is in "real time," freelance writers are almost forced to respond in real time. There's a constant need to update content, respond to content, produce new content, etc. Again, what gets pushed to the side - copyediting, editing and proofreading.

While this is certainly no excuse, the amount of time spent on copy has a direct bearing on a freelance writer's income, which brings me to my next point - balancing time to make money.

Why Is There So Much Bad Writing on the Web: Reason #2

Money: As any freelance writer will tell you, time literally is money. Because our income is directly related to how much copy we can produce, edit, rewrite, etc., we have to maximize it to the fullest.

The writing has to get done. The interviews have to be conducted. The web pages have to be updated. What can usually slide? The copyediting, editing and proofreading.

Why IsThere So Much Bad Writing on the Web: Reason #3

Laziness: Yep, I'm going to put this right out there - plain old laziness. Many times, as freelance writers, we're just ready to get a piece off our desk. We get tired of looking at it, tired of the concept and tired of trying to make it "just right."

So, we publish it without doing a final proof, a final edit, a final rewrite.

And, while there is certainly a time when you should "let a piece go," it should never be before the quality check is complete.

Solution to Bad Writing on the Web

There's only one way to stop this - and that is to get back to good old-fashioned copyediting and proofreading.

And, while spell check is a great tool - it can't read your mind. That's why "write" for "right" will get through.

So, to readers of my work - who I value and respect immensely - my promise to you is that my work will get better. While I can't promise to never write another piece without errors, I do promise that the quality of what I put out will go up - markedly - from here on out.

Now, I'm off to proofread this before I hit "Publish."

Coming Monday: Monday will be wrap-up day. What do I mean? On 4/02, I posted about an Editor-in-Chief's job offer I received. I've made a decision on that.

AND, for my post on 4/26, Lillie Amman awarded me The Thinking Blogger's Award (yeah!). So, I have to tag five other bloggers whom I think deserve this award.

Have a good weekend,

Yuwanda Black, Publisher
InkwellEditorial.com
InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com
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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com.
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How to Organize Your Day to Become a Successful Freelance Writer

$1,000/Week is Very Possible Putting the Following into Motion

Freelancing is all about managing time. With over 14+ years of experience as a freelancer, there are still things I learn on a regular basis to increase my income.

If you want to become a successful freelance writer, you have to first begin by organizing your day to make it happen. If you focus on organizing one day, then follow that plan for three weeks to make it a habit, you'll have no problem achieving success in this field.

NOTE: Most experts agree that for something to become a habit, you should do it for at least three weeks - continuously - before it will stick.

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1. Block Out Hours for a 10-hour Workday: I know, I know, this is not popular, but for the first year or so, you are going to have to put in 9 or 10 hours a day (sometimes more) to make it happen. So, just get used to it.

People wonder how I do all that I do and the my answer always is organization and willpower. I know what I want and am not afraid to work hard to get it. So, 10 hours - wrap your brain around it and move on.

2. Create a Marketing Plan: A marketing plan is like your map to success. Without it, you will be like a dog chasing its tail - going around and around in circles making no progress at all.

Of course, creating a marketing plan means deciding what type of writing you want to do, who your target market is, how you will reach them, how much it's going to cost you, what your pricing schedule is, etc.

This doesn't have to be fancy, and it doesn't have to cost a bundle - but it is a must. Remember, marketing is a numbers game. If send out 50 mailers a week, that's 200 hundred a month. A 1-3% return will bring in 2-6 prospects.

If you close half of these, that's 1-3 new clients a month. When you look at the numbers like this, it's really not so hard, is it?

Build up your client list to 25 or 30, and you should stay fairly busy.

3. Create a Realistic Pricing Schedule: Many freelancers work for peanuts. Hey, I still do sometimes. But, it all depends on my goal. I have an income goal that I set each month. If I feel like I'm falling behind that, you betcha I take on low-paying projects.

Stipulations for Low-Paying Projects

I don't do it on a regular basis and I have certain stipulations that must be met (eg, is this going to be a repeat client, a bottom line (I do have a rock-bottom minimum), what the project is, how long it's going to take, etc.

Industry Wage Minimum

I've given up on this market having a stable industry norm, as discussed in my 11/7/06 post, Should Freelance Writers Have a Minimum Wage?

Some writers are going to rail that you're low-balling; some clients are going to say that you're too high. I say create a pricing schedule that works for you. As discussed in 2/8/07 post, Are You a High Stakes or Low Balling Freelance Writer?, only you can decide what "price" is right for you.

4. Diversify Your Income Streams: As I said in my 1/31/07 post, How to Make $100/Day as a Freelance Writer, "Choosing two or three different types of writing you can do well. For example, you might do resumes, articles and web copy."

Also, create your own products to sell, eg, e-books; use write-for-pay sites like AssociatedContent.com; and/or set up a website on sites like CafePress.com to sell t-shirts, mugs, etc.

Diversifying your income streams means that when projects dry up, you're not left out in the cold.

5. Market, Market, Market: While this point could fall under Tip #2, I wanted to write it as a stand alone - last.

Make it your business to get out a certain number of marketing messages a week. Whether this means mailing out 100 postcards, sending out 200 emails or, attending two networking events and passing out 20 brochures.

You can't get business unless you get in front of prospects. Staying home, surfing the net, lamenting about why no business is coming in will not make you successful.

For the first year at least, you're going to have to work your butt off to get business in the door.

If you want to make a bonified living as a freelancer, get in front of repeat-paying clients. This only happens by consistently - I repeat, consistently - marketing.
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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com.
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3 More Ways to Increase Your Freelance Writing Income by 25%

How to Turn into a Freelance Writing Machine? (Part II of II)

The first part of this article, How to Increase Your Freelance Writing Income by 25% or More, discussed two things you could do immediately to increase your income -- or more. This, Part II, will discuss three more things.

NOTE: I've been a freelance writer since 1993 and have personally tried all of these methods. Therefore, I know firsthand that they work. So, what are the next three things you can do to increase your income by 25% or more?

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I. Organize your income streams. What do I mean by this? I'll explain via example.

To date, I've written six e-books and one freelance writing e-course. I've been wanting to migrate my e-books to Clickbank, an online retailer of digital products, for months. Doing this will allow affiliates to sell my e-books.

How Does ClickBank Work? Essentially, those with websites can sell my e-books from their website. Whenever a sale is made, they're paid a commission.

This could dramatically increase sales because instead of selling them from my site only, I could have 10, 20, or 300 different websites selling my products. Even one sale a day from 10 other sites increases my income tenfold. But, have I done this, no.

There are a couple of other ideas I've been wanting to implement as well, but haven't followed through. So, what do I need to do? Carve out time to organize existing income streams, implement others and tweak what is NOT working. Taking a week or two to do this could mean a dramatic increase in income.

What ideas can you implement, change, tweak to increase your income? Take a week or two every year to analyze this and put it into action.

II. Go with the flow of ideas. Another example to illustrate this -- a few days ago, I had a burst of creative energy. Never considering myself a "writer," I could never quite relate to writers who said that they could sometimes write for days - it's as if they can't get the ideas down on paper fast enough.

On this day, I understood that sentiment perfectly - for perhaps the first time in my career as a freelance writer. I wrote article after article -- completing some outright, creating outlines for others and just writing down headlines for others. I felt like I completed a week's worth of work in one day.

My point? Rather than focus on other tasks that were on my schedule that day, I just went with that flow of ideas. And boy I'm glad I did.

I still don't know what happened to cause this, but I wish I had two or three days a month like this - I'd be a freelance writing machine!

III. Avoid Forums and Social Networking Sites. Why? The same reason mentioned in Part I of this article for avoiding your own work online - they waste valuable time.

Now, don't get me wrong, you need sites like Digg and MySpace to promote your work. But, don't get caught up reading article after article on these, or interacting with others on message boards and Q&A forums.

While it may seem antisocial to "post and run," remember, if you are going to make a full-time living as a freelance writer, the bulk of your time must be spent on income-producing projects.

Even an hour a day spent on these can cost you 10-15% of your take-home pay if you average it out over months and days. On your "off days," you can spend time online playing on sites like these. But, regular work days should be for just that - work - work that produces income.

As this series of articles demonstrate, increasing your freelance income is as simple as paying attention to your time and tweaking what you're already doing. In other words, little changes lead to big dollars! So pay attention and turn your writing into a virtual money tree!

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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.

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One Immediate Way to Increase Your Freelance Income by Up to 50%

How “Template Writing” can help you become a prolific income producer

When I first started writing outside of my niche – the business of creative freelancing – it took me some time to get the hang of things. I read other freelancer’s articles on certain subjects, eg, restaurant and product reviews, to see how it was done.

It took me some time to get a system down, but once I did, I was able to turn out a review or article in half the time. So, how did I speed it up? I created a “genre template.”

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What is Template Writing?

In short, formulaic writing. On FreeDictionary.com, template, as related to writing, is defined as "A document or file having a preset format, used as a starting point for a particular application so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used."

Example of a Writing Template

To use an easy example, take restaurant reviews. It’s a relatively new medium for me and one that I found tends to pay more than the other types of articles I like to write. So, I started to focus more on these.

My restaurant review template looks like this:

Intro: This includes things like background on the establishment, what I personally like about it, how I discovered it, etc.

The Food: Here, I discuss the menu selections, dishes I recommend and the drinks.

The Price: Usually, this is a few lines about the price (affordable, moderate, on the expensive side, gotta be rich and famous to afford to eat here). I may break it down by specific price for a few dishes (eg, appetizer, main course, dessert), or I may give an average cost of a meal for two.

The Service: Here I discuss how fast or slow the service is, if the staff is knowledgeable about the menu, do they easily allow for substitutions, and maybe the uniform.

Other Items of Note: This section highlights things of interest I think any first-time visitor might want to know. Eg, if the establishment has an outside seating area, music, dance floor, special nights for things like karaoke, menu specials, the parking situation (valet, not enough parking, etc.), banquet rooms, on/off-site catering, etc.

Summary: This is usually a one or two liner about the establishment. Eg, for a fun night out with your gang, Pepper’s is an easy-on-the-wallet rocking, good time!

My reviews may or may not include all of these sections; it depends on the establishment and my experience there.

BUT, having a template in front of me when I sit down to write seriously cuts down on the time it takes to organize/edit material, which, as any writer knows, can be more than half the time spent producing a piece.

A Note About Reviews: FYI, the crazy thing about reviews (product and restaurant) is that they are usually written in 400-500 words and, with a formula in place, can be completed in about 20 minutes (minus proofing and minor editing). Most of my articles take 30 minutes to slightly more than an hour to write (minus proofing and minor editing).

Creating a template for as many types of writing you do as possible can increase your output by 50% easily, ostensibly increasing your income by the same amount. So, go template happy – and watch your bank account increase.
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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.

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