6 Ways to Sabotage Your Freelance Career

A friend of mine asked me the other day what I knew about a certain freelancer. It was someone who crossed her email, and there was some evidence I was connected to her.

“Oh, not that freelancer,” I said. That response was telling. I hadn’t heard from said freelancer since 2015. And yet I still knew her name.

While name recognition is what we strive for, there’s a reason why this woman’s name recognition was working against her: She only interacted to ask for something. On three separate occasions, this relative stranger had asked for favors. Worse, she’d done so in a group note. Gee, nothing compels me to run to her aid more than a non-personal group note. Not.

A look at her social media profiles revealed more sins. And that is today’s post — the ways in which freelance writers are sabotaging their careers.

[bctt tweet=”How are you sabotaging your #freelancewriting career?” username=”LoriWidmer”]

Let’s start by saying everyone can make mistakes. We all do. I sure do. That’s how we learn.

But there are people who just don’t seem to move on. They don’t seem to be able — or interested — enough to improve their freelance writing career. How do I know? Easy — they leave signs everywhere of how disconnected they are. Those are red flags to any potential client, too.

1. An outdated profile.

One freelancer has had the same profile up on LinkedIn since 2014. I know because in a note to me, she stated that she’d been freelancing for two years. Seven years later, that profile says the same thing as her note to me. Unless she’s stuck in a time warp, I think she’s not looked at her profile in a while.

Fixing it: Go over the social media profiles. All of them. Even your website needs it. Overhaul the experience, make sure to update dates and mentions of experience, and be brutal in your editing of your own words.

2. Impersonal contact.

That writer I mentioned probably doesn’t bother to send each potential client a personalized note. That’s a big misstep. We like to buy from people we have a connection with. If you’re sending emails that start “Dear Potential Client” or something equally impersonal, don’t bother hitting Send. It’s not getting you anywhere.

Fixing it: Get personal. Know something about that person before you hit Send. Make sure to talk to them, not at them. Research them, even if it’s just ten minutes on their website. Don’t send blindly to multiple contacts. Send to one at a time. Yea, it’s more work. But guess what? You narrow down your notion of your ideal client by putting in the time. That helps you for a very, very long time.

3. Hit-and-miss marketing.

One freelancer once sent out the dreaded Group Email Ask to a bunch of freelancers. Only, she was trying to get someone to buy her ready-made articles. Unless I’m the laziest freelancer on the planet (and I think she may actually hold that title), I’m not really buying content — I’m creating it. She had the wrong audience. Really wrong. Not only did she miss the mark, but she sullied her reputation with those freelancers. Who wants to network with someone who sells content to other freelancers? Or worse, doesn’t know we’re not her audience?

Fixing it: Know your client. I’m not your client unless you’re selling writing-related courses, books, or products. Stop tweeting to writers when you want to be working with accountants. Start vetting who your real client is. Then market to them.

4. Favors up front.

The freelancer who inspired this post asked for a favor. An endorsement. Oh, and review this website and give feedback, too. You know how many personal interactions I’ve had with her? Zero. Not once did she reach out to see how life was or even who I was. Just Hello, do me a favor. How do I tell her it’s never happening? I don’t. I let that request die from neglect.

Fixing it: Stop it. If you can’t be bothered to develop relationships with other writers, they can’t be bothered to give you free advice. Unless they have a blog like this one where the advice is something you could have read for yourself instead of pestering strangers. Build relationships. Put time into learning your craft by reading and researching. Pay for an editor if you really aren’t sure.  But stop expecting others to drop everything and help you when they don’t even know you.

5. The same tactics year over year.

I could see it if this freelancer had made the mistake of making requests/demands of others in her first year of freelancing. We all screw up and ask things like “How do I start?” But four years later, the requests were identical. Come on. Learn something besides begging.

Fixing it: You have a few options: Put the time into learning those things through your own efforts, or reassess your commitment to your career. Marketing isn’t hard. It’s making long-lasting connections and maintaining them. Try one new thing this week. Stick with it for a few months and measure your results. Change it up if it’s not working. Repeat this process for the rest of your freelance writing career.

If you can’t be bothered to at least try to improve without leaning on the same, tired marketing attempts, maybe this isn’t the gig for you. It’s okay to admit that. Not everyone is cut out for freelancing.

6.  Incoherent thoughts.

I chose this one because our freelance equivalent of a flounder has a few sentences on one profile that are unintelligible. Mentioning projects without describing them, connecting them to some mystery thought that only she knows, not describing well at all her background … who’s hiring a writer who can’t get a point across? I’m sure not.

Fixing it: Pay attention to your craft. If you’re weak, take courses or practice regularly (lots of great writing handbooks on the market to help you improve). Slow down. Proofread. Ask a friend (not a stranger) to look it over for grammatical issues. The content you present is your first, sometimes only chance to impress potential clients. It had better shine.

Writers, what sabotaging have you seen lately?
What’s the worst you’ve ever seen?