I’m going to start this post by saying that I have a love-hate relationship with freelance writing. I love the money…I sometimes hate the business model. So, I took some time off from freelance writing and spent some time observing the habits of super successful freelance writers. I’m not creepy…just in their business LOL!
Fortunately for me and for you, I’ve figured out their make more money blueprint and will be sharing it with you. I made a number of mistakes during my freelancing and I’m not interested in repeating them. Also, I really love the money that you can make as a freelancer.
Tactic #1
It’s not just about the quality of the pitch-it’s the quantity and the frequency. What on earth do I mean by this? My friend Holly Johnson from Club Thrifty is KILLING it as a freelance writer. I’ve followed her journey for awhile and have spent some time trying to figure out her process. Again, I’m observing, not being creepy LOL! She does three things that every single freelance writer should do.
- Pitch often-I can’t say for certain how often she pitches now. But, I’m sure that it’s more than most people. She doesn’t get complacent when it comes to building her client base and is very aware of the fact that clients come and go. She has enough clients at any given time and enough pitches going out that she doesn’t worry about losing income.
Tactic #2
Have daily earning goals-If you’re in her Earn More Writing Facebook Group you’ll see Holly posting DAILY earnings on completed work. She is NOT playing around. There is a ton of work to be done and she understands this. She is always working on something almost every single day.
It’s my opinion that her daily earnings goals also drove the amount that she would pitch. Basically, she needed to be completing projects in order to get paid, so she pitched (I think) until she had enough work to meet her daily earnings goals.
Tactic #3
Drop clients that take up too much time, drive you crazy, or require way too many edits. If you’ve done any kind of freelance work then you’ve had one of the previously mentioned experiences. A client that expects the sky and the moon, but won’t pay a rate to match that expectation.
Maybe you’ve had a client that expects you to participate in activities outside of the scope of work you’ve been hired to do. Or, maybe the client indulges in habits/behaviours that suck your mental energy dry.
What do I mean?
- Participate in unpaid meetings. This one is tricky because you will need to meet with your clients from time to time to discuss projects, expectations, etc. But, when you begin to feel like you’re now an employee…that’s not what you signed up for.
- Endless edits-I’ve had clients who basically don’t edit my work to clients who I’ve done so many edits for that I ended up dropping them because the amount of time working on edits lowered my ROI substantially. There is a middle-ground. It’s reasonable to edit work. But, the edits should be relative to the type of post that you wrote. If you’re putting together something technical-expect a reasonable number of edits. If it’s a blog post and you go beyond 2-3 edits depending on the length of the post…the editor might have unreasonable expectations.
- Late Payments-No. Just no. Now, by late payments I mean payments way beyond what your contract states is ok. Late payments happen. But, if they are constantly happening that’s a client that needs to be dropped like a hot potato. They don’t respect your money.
If you have constant pitches going out and a large client base, you can comfortably let these problem children go.
Tactic #4
Teach other people how to make money as a freelance writer. Almost every single business has a digital footprint. Small business entrepreneurs might not have the mental bandwidth to handle writing content for the websites in addition to running their business.
Teach other people how to pitch, find, and keep clients. There is so much digital content that everyone who attends the FinCon conference could begin teaching how to do this and there still would be tons of people lined up to learn how to freelance.
Tactic #5
Become the “Go To” authority. An authority can do the following (and make money doing it).
- Run webinars
- Become a speaker
- Write a book
- Partner with organizations to share your expetise
- Become a podcaster
Basically, there are a number of ways to make money beyond just freelance writing…and I would strongly, strongly suggest exploring the ones that resonate most with you.
Tactic #6
Ask yourself, are you self-employed or running a business? The answer to this question will really drive how you focus on your business. If you’re “just” self-employed, it’s likely that you won’t pursue some of the other money making opportunities that are out there. If you’re viewing yourself as a business, you’re more likely to focus on creating additional income streams outside of just freelancing.
Tactic #7
Create a resource and grow your email list. Over time you can create passive income with that email list. I made the mistake of not growing my list strategically enough and that’s a mistake I won’t make again.
Finally, commit to the process and recognize that you will need to work hard. Seriously. You don’t have to be a freaking genius to make good money as a freelancer, but you do have to rise above all of the other wannabee writers.
In order to truly commit, have an end goal in mind and take daily actions to meet that goal. These tactics will be the ones that I use to grow my freelance writing business. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
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I totally agree with these, especially #2 – having a daily income goal. I just started doing this and I’ve seen my income shoot way up. Before I was happy if I just got some work done on at least two pieces a day, but I think that led to me being complacent. Now, I don’t stop writing each day until I’ve made my daily income goal – except for these past three days, because I’m working on a big multi-day project that will pay enough for three day’s worth of income goals. 🙂
Lindsay!! I’m so excited-my comments are working. That Grayson Bell from iMark Interactive is a WordPress genius. I think the income goal is important because it drives consistent focused action. And, let’s face it-if you have no income goal you’re just kind of floating through your daily work life. I’m about to begin pitching this afternoon and before I do that I’m looking at my financial goals. This will be one of my income streams so I actually am looking at goals for those other income streams and making them seamless and cohesive for me (so I can meet each goal)
I also have a love/hate relationship with freelancing. It was my best side hustle for a minute, but I got tired of it. It was a lot of work. I haven’t had any consistent clients for 3 months. Part of me wants to give it another shot, while the other part of me is fine working on my stuff.
It’s a fine line. I tend to work really well when I have a ton of work projects that have to be focused on and sent out. I think one of my biggest struggles for the past couple of years has been not working enough. It has been really easy to get distracted. Now, I’m amping up my workload because I have some VERY specific financial goals that I WILL knock out in the next 12-15 months. Not playing around anymore.