Falling ill while having work to get done used to be hard to get out of when you were stuck at a 9 – 5 job at the office. You’d have to call in, explain your situation to your boss or manager, and in some cases, get a note from your doctor that woud excuse your absense. I hated that! Now that I am a freelance writer, I don’t have anyone to deal with except my clients.

Talking to your clients isn’t always as “great” as it was when you had to explain your situation to a boss. Some lousy clients don’t see why you can’t just perk yourself up in bed and write the freelance writing projects they’ve sent you. I mean, you get to work at home! It’s not a real job, right? To us freelance writers, it is our job, and being ill is being ill. How should you handle your clients when you just don’t think your body could take 8 hours in front of a computer screen?

[image by cutglassdecanter]

Got the Morning Jitters

When you wake up and you get that feeling that you won’t be able to write, not because you are too lazy to do it, because your stomachs urging to show its contents to you or you are breaking out in fascinating sweats, be sure to take a good look at yourself. Are you really ill, or is it just that morning sickness crawling over you. Hop in the shower, throw on some clothes and sit at your computer. Still feeling sicker than all hell? If so, it might be time for an extra nap or maybe even a doctor’s visit.

Get in Touch with Those that Matter

If you’ve decided its time for you to take a freelance writer’s sick day, you aren’t scotch free and in bed, yet. You’ve got to let your clients know, especially if you had a project due with a deadline within the day or those coming. If you’ve have your clients phone number, put it to good use. Explain your situation to your client, and ask for a deadline extension or something else you can offer in trade for turning in their work late. I’ve offered a client a few extra articles in return for an extra day extension on a writing project I once had.

Take a Helping Hand

In some instances, your client may let you live out your illness only working you when you are high and dry out of the sick spells. There are those that still won’t understand why you can’t just work in bed, though. This is why I highly suggest you network with other freelance writers for hire. No one says you can’t hire them to help you out with work. Whether or not you want to inform your client that you are outsourcing the work they’ve sent you is up to you. I do it to stay honest, and always let them know the contact information in case they’d like them as a more permanent writer than me. It may lose me work, but it develops trust between you and a client. Trust brings many more clients running back to you for future projects.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Do It

Some cases leave you no other options. You asked your client for an extension with no love. You can’t find a freelance writer you trust enough to work on this project. You are the only one you know that can do this project. If you are truly ill, spread the work out over as much time as you have available. Take numerous breaks, sit the computer on your lap in bed, and drink plenty of water. Don’t forget to use medication. Working while sick isn’t glamorous, but sometimes clients don’t leave us with any other choice.

Have you ever fallen ill on an important deadline date? How did you handle it? Let me know through the comments or send me an email at contact@justindupre.com. I’m always open for a chat or ready to give some freelance writing advice if you have any questions for me.

I love it when you guys send me emails! They are awesome and let me know that people actually find my freelance writing blog one way or another. I got an email from one such blog reader of mine. Let?s call that person ?Stevie? because people named Stevie are awesome for sending me emails.

Anyways, ?Stevie? had a question for me. Stevie is stuck in their corporate office all day, and it has gotten to the point where Stevie needs to get the hell out of there! And what is the issue Stevie needs some solutions for? Stevie just doesn?t know how to get reliable work and seems to be scared that the whole world of freelancing (not just freelance writing) is a world of gimmicks. Stevie asks for tips on getting that good work, and staying away from the crap that many of your friends/?web-noobs? get sucked into.

Original Photo by andertho

Well, Stevie, I?ve never been stuck in a corporate cubical, but I can imagine that it is far from delightful. I?ve worked fast food jobs, and I?ve been stuck in a box selling tickets to the kiddies at an amusement park. It was far from fun for me. I think you?ll find yourself in a much more enjoyable setting as a freelance writer, designer, or programmer, and perhaps you?ll feel rejuvenated with this new love of yours.

Get that fire burning

Breaking into freelance writing is nowhere near 10 on a difficulty scale. I?d rank it closer to a 3. The hardest part about my jump into freelance writing was actually getting past the stigma that I?m not going to get paid, and why would anyone think to hire a young-gun like me for any writing project? I decided it was just time to try it out; my drive for money fueled my fire. I wrote a silly copy advertising what I could write about and posted it on a couple webmaster forums. Within 24 hours, I had 10 responses. My first lesson learned as a freelance writer: Consumers love low prices. I increased my rates shortly after that.

Don?t waste your breath

As a freelancer, you shouldn?t get sucked into those eBooks and membership programs that promise to make you 100,000+ dollars in one month. If you don?t care about losing a ton of cash, blow your money on them and see what you could have found online for free. The only eBook I would recommend is the Rockstar Freelance book published by some of the guys at Freelance Switch. While most of it is free information, it is all packed up in some shiny data formatting.

Baby steps lead to bigger leaps

I don?t know if I can recommend Stevie to go full force into freelancing. Who?s to say that freelancing is more fun than corporate paper pushing in a tiny cube? I?ve had several occasions in which I wished I was stuck being bossed around by the big shot of some dumb company because I couldn?t handle my freelance writing workload. I?d say test the waters part-time before you jump into freelancing as a profession.

Other than that, freelancing is a slice of cake. Take projects you love, set the right prices (that make you more money than you spend without overloading on work), find something that drives your will to work, and do it because you love doing it. Most of all don?t be afraid to get your hands dirty. If you can?t get past your fear of jumping into a new career, how will you ever get past the dread of waking up at 6 AM for a lousy hour-long commute to your 5-by-5 foot box?

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.

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!