To Ad It Up, or Not
Your freelancing website is all about you and the freelance writing services you provide. Most people visiting the site will probably looking for one of those services, but every once and a while there comes a visitor that isn’t generally interested in what you can write for them. They may have stumbled onto your page from a rogue link or misspelled keyword on the big “G”. While there isn’t much you can do to gain them as a client if they don’t need any writing completed, you can always find other ways to monetize off of them.
So my question is, should you put in other sources of monetization on your freelance writing website or blog? I say, “It’s never good to put all your eggs in one basket.”
Contextually speaking…
The general solution that most all blogs and websites put up is some type of contextual advertising. You can see (for now) that I have Google’s Adsense network advertising on my sidebar and header. These are great for those people that won’t turn out to be your clients. You make a little cash for each click you send to advertisers, and if you can build up heavy traffic, it can be very profitable. However, what you are doing is sending people to your competitors. These are contextual ads, meaning they are picking up keywords in your website’s body, and using them to place proper ads. If your website is about freelance writing, and how you want possible new clients to see your work, it might not be the best idea to send them to your competitors. I keep the ads up (for now) as I am fairly confident that my client base isn’t visiting my website, the ads are mostly advertising working opportunities for freelance writers, and it provides a little benefit to SEO work.
Becoming your audience
A much better option, I find, is to get in a marketer’s set of mind. It’s great being a marketing student because we have an edge on knowing how and what to sell (it is also one of the most sought after freelance writer attributes). Instead of pushing random ads, pick one or two and get people to buy into them. On a freelance writing website, you’d want to push materials excellent for freelance writers (and there are hundreds of ideas – desks, chairs, website services, web hosting, computer accessories, notebook PCs, wireless routers, ebooks, and the list can go on forever. You can see my attempt at this type of marketing in the upper right hand where I have a banner ad for the “Freelance like a Rockstar” eBook. I make a commission on each sale, which makes considerably more than a click on the Google Adsense plans. (BTW, the book is an excellent resource for any freelancer, new or well-worn into our game. It was worth the 30 dollars).
Selling your <body>
Another option a freelance writer can choose to employ is to sell ad space. For a freelance writer, this might be a little trickier because I guarantee you would get a ton of buyers wanting to push their own writing services. I would say no to them, but say a freelance designer contacted you. That might be something you are willing to put on your freelance writing blog or website, as it won’t intrude on possible clients being distracted by looking into other writers. It might be just what they need as the word freelance is a very broad term, and there is virtually a freelancer for every type of job.
I do think it is smart to put several sources of monetization on your freelance writing blog or website, but you need to think smart in order to make it work. Your job is to market your own services as a writer, not let other writers budge into your own work and arrangements with clients. Your freelance writing clients will almost always pay better than advertising so think about what it is that you really need. More better paying clients or a couple hundred dollars a month from that other writer advertising on your website?
Stop the Copy and Start the Brandy
It’s becoming all too often that freelance writers are popping up out of nowhere, clicking the first link that pops up on Google relating to their freelance writing project, and go ahead with rephrasing that article to make it “original.” I’ve got no problem with competitors and their tactics, especially writing strategies like these. The client might be asking for a greater deal of originality and broadness than something their NUMBER 1 COMPETITOR has rated for the term, and that article that the noob freelance writer wrote from is probably well memorized by the client. This is when I suddenly get a new client!
The profession of a freelance writer is never the same for anyone that enters the field. As well as having several types of market places – blog articles, journalism, sale copies, advertising, scripts, reviews, etc. – each writer has their own style. When a freelance writer for hire learns to take control of their style and apply it in their writing, it creates personality. Personality, in the end, will be what creates the brand of your writing and what clients think of you.
For those that stick to just rewriting what has already been said, they are stuck at a pretty flat base. There is money there, yes, but it isn’t a lot. These are the guys making a couple cents a word at most. Why? It doesn’t have the flavor that anyone is willing to take serious. Someone high on crack would probably write more affluently if they went back and sorted out the bends after the high went away. That crackhead would probably be making more money, as well. It is because he has a style that is all his own, and it gives him a unique – very unique – brand that I hope not too many other writers could learn to adhere.
I’m not saying you have to be a genius to take that one article and make it into a new masterpiece, but you shouldn’t just be looking into how you can rearrange it to make it pass Copyscape. Do a bit more research, bounce off of wild terms that might come up with a lead to some enlightening knowledge on the topic, read a book on the topic, scan articles and image databases, ask friends, but don’t just stick to nearly copying that one article.
It takes more time, and it might not make you as much money at first, but if you give it time and let your reputation, skill, and show personality and brand through your writing, you will get bigger and better clients that want your image in their writing, no matter what style your writing is (unless incomprehensible, dying from incorrect spelling and grammar).
I use to be a noob, too, writing for a couple cents a word. I applied a little more “attitude” into my writing, and immediately saw a jump on return clients, and the amount of times they told me I don’t charge enough for my services let me know it was time to increase my rates.
Get Your Act Together, Fool!
Staying organized is tough for a guy that works full time out of his single room apartment. Luckily, I live off my computer and I’m not hampered by the other things that get in the way of making my room messy (ex. Collectables, television, posters, excessive amounts of clothing and a girlfriend are all things I don’t let mess up my room). I sweep it every few days, but I barely have to. The room stays clean by me avoiding every dirty thing in the book. There’s no kitchen to cook with here, so I just eat out every day; snacks are kept away from the office (corner of the room with desk and computer) and eaten on the porch.
However, getting that act together with my freelance writing profession isn’t quite that simple. There are so many programs and tasks that can be linked, that I lose track of everything. It’s worse than writing that bad clients project about crayfish mating in the matter that it makes my head want to explode. I have to get together emails, names, writing project details, IM screen names, websites, research material, to-dos, urgent to-dos that need to be done today, payment deals, and then I have to balance my time and personal life into that equation. It’d be hard to say that I’m not left without a headache after my digital cleaning is done.
When’s the best time to start cleaning? When you aren’t doing anything else, and have nothing else to do. Today, the skies have bestowed Bangkok with rain, again; my Internet connection has refused to connect, again; my room, as I mentioned earlier, is the dream-world of boredom. I was planning on working on some of my freelance writing projects, but without the access to proper research materials online, I decided it would be time to get organized.
I filled in a ton of clients to my freelance writing client’s list. Yesterday, I told you about how I use email to get old clients to come back to me. Later today, I will use that list to write a mother load of emails and queue them to be sent when my connection decides it wants to appreciate the 13 dollars I put towards it every month (It’s the only available connection at my apartment).
Today, I also filled in my freelance writing queue Excel spreadsheet, as well. It lists what projects I’m working on, who it’s for, what it’s about, how much I’m getting paid for it, and when I have to finish it. Excel lets you manage this in a simple, customizable fashion. I’ve heard Google has the same type of software available online, but what do you know, I’m not really available to get online today (that’s a problem I see. There are too many freelancers basing their project work online, without ways to back it up offline.
When this was complete, I emptied out the thousands of messages in my inbox, created separate folders for all of my clients’ emails, and sorted them through. This is an excellent way to keep a track of your conversations in a message-by-message format without breaking them with other’s emails.
That took care of most of my digital spring cleaning, and it only took about an hour’s time. I expect it to actually save me a few more hours in the not so far away. With the emails written, I plan to gain a few more projects and make a lot more money within the coming days, and I’ll need it! Tuition for my next term of college is due tomorrow. Hope they accept credit cards!
Get Those Old Clients Back In
You’ll never know when you’ll have a great client before finishing any freelance writings projects. As a professional freelance writer for hire, I can tell you that there have been plenty of times where I thought this new client of mine would be fabulous. In the end, all this writer was left with was a major headache. That’s why I love my return clients.
Generally, if I have a sour patch with some client, I am inclined not to work with them, again. The bad ones are far and few between, but they usually get left with the idea that I didn’t agree with their fickleness on my services or on what exactly they needed completed. So when I don’t get a rush of new clients, or I turn off my bright neon ‘freelance writer for hire’ sign, I tend to push my services back on those that I loved writing with.
My main source of communication is via email. I live in Thailand, so it’s not like everyone of my clients are going to want to call me (although there are the few ‘odd ones’ that seem to live off long distance, expensive phone calls… just teasing!). When I get a client, I add their name, project name, and email to an Excel spreadsheet so I have all their contact information and data needed to contact them about their project.
This works excellent when I haven’t had an order from them for a while. I load the spread sheet up, look at the data, and start sending emails. No, I don’t bulk spam my clients. I am a professional freelance writer, and I wouldn’t be writing if I didn’t love it. Each one of my past clients gets a lovely, personally addressed email sent straight to their inbox.
Within the email I’ll greet them pretty informally, unless I remember that our contact periods were brief. I’ll send a light reminder of who I am, and what freelance writing work I did for them in the past. Then I ask, “Where the hell have you been!?” That’s a joke. I’ll just tell them that I am always here to write on this and this subject (that they might be interested in (look at the past projects and what you wrote about for the client)), put a link to the best freelance writer for hire’s website, and give my parting words. Something along the lines of, “I hope we can collaborate on a future freelance writing project soon!”
How well does this work. It takes some time to complete a few 10 or so emails personalized for your clients, but I find my clients tend to always come back for more afterwards. Even if the response isn’t immediate, some of my clients have replied with comments like, “Thanks for the update!” and “I’ll see if there are any projects I need coming up soon. Thanks for reminding me that you are around, Justin!” I’ve even gotten referrals from clients forwarding these emails to their friends and associates looking for a freelance writer available for hire.
And you get the satisfaction of pleasing an old, return client. The renewed sense of gratitude from them will always keep them coming back to you for more writing.
Set Your Status High
Some people ask me how a “child” (me) can make more money, by simply typing some letters, than someone with a college degree in business management from a state university. Well, A) I’m not a child. Thank you very much. I’m 20 years of age, practicing a profession of writing and B) There really is no B. I can collect more money from my services because I know how to set my position higher than that of a college graduate and my target audience of clients needs writers like me.
It really isn’t that hard for anyone to get better benefits on a job for any career path. Quality research time and knowing what skills are needed to advance is all it takes. When I see a client searching for someone with a specific skill, and I notice those with this skill consistently get higher paychecks than those practicing in other fields, I hop on that train and study. While broadening my knowledge of professional freelance writing, I expand upon what I can already do, and in the eye of possible clients, they hit love at first sight.
Making yourself attractive in the eye of your employer doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be sexy (have you noticed, though, the sexy female employee is generally the secretary only being paid 30k a year). Broadening your skills and nailing it on the head of an employer is what they are looking for.
When a possible client for my freelance writing services contacts me, I immediately open my portfolio and exam what has shown off that skill they seek the most. If I haven’t nailed that skill yet, I give myself 24 hours to hit it. Research, research, writing, research, a little coco, and some more writing will help me smooth out any braised edges on that skill. At the end of 24 hours, if I haven’t seen an improvement, I won’t take on that project as I wouldn’t want to lose a possible future client in case they return. If I, however, believe that this is the god of all projects and my skill grew sufficiently enough, I’ll send my proposal to take the task off their hands, along with all that research I spent.
Even if I don’t get the job, I built up an extensive mass to my freelance writing portfolio, which comes in great use further along the road.