Sometimes you come up against someone who, for whatever reason, cannot help being an asshole. The person who tells you that your assigned article is not the one you should be writing, but this one is better, and proceeds to talk about their chosen topic. Or the person who blames you for their mistakes. Or the…
Tag: client issues
4 Ways to Reinforce Your Freelance Boundaries
It’s the holiday season. One down, several to go before January. Now is the time when client budgets are either spent or being spent rapidly. It’s also a time when clients make unusual requests. Some of those requests are boundary breakers. And it’s up to us writers to know when to say no. One example:…
Clarifying Your Freelance Writing Project
I saw this tidbit in Michelle Garrett’s newsletter this week: Did you hear the mic drop right there? Or was that your head nodding wildly? I know for me, it was the moment I went “YES, thank you.” Because like you, like nearly every single freelancer who has ever worked for a client, I have…
6 Sh*tty Tricks Bad Freelance Clients Pull
I love every one of my clients. I bet you love your clients, too. But before any of us found such great freelance writing clients, we had to wade through some fairly questionable people who tried a lot of different tactics to get more work for less cash. That’s just sh*tty behavior. Fortunately, such people…
The Sentence That Can Save Your Freelance Writing Bacon
We see a lot, we freelancers. We see countless job postings promising “Make money freelance writing!” that turn into some pretty questionable terms just after the initial “We want you, freelance writer!” call to action. They do want us. However, they want freelance writers who are willing to compromise on quite a lot in order…
Spotting Lousy Freelance Client Prospects
At first, the excitement is almost palpable — a new client prospect has reached out. You respond quickly (but not too quickly — don’t want to seem too eager). They write back. The dialogue has begun. Maybe it moves to the phone at that point. If so, you talk about project needs, your background, their…
The “What Should I Do When” Freelance Post
Not long ago, I followed up with a client with whom I’d gotten all the way to the part where they send the NDA and contract. It never arrived. It wasn’t as though they weren’t eager to get going on the projects, nor was it that I’d done anything to make them bolt. A pandemic…
Freelance Writing Projects: Warnings Signs (& fixes)
A writer friend called me the other day about a project a contact had proposed. As I listened to my friend’s overview of the project, I got the same gut response she did — This project is, and always will be, a nonstarter. Not everything we writers deem to be a lousy business idea is…
Why Burning Freelance Writing Bridges Sucks
A short while back, I got an email from someone I’d done some projects for once upon a time. The note set me back on my heels. Let me back up — the fact that I got a note from this particular contact at all was a pretty major shock. This is a former client,…
Freelance Technique: Getting to the Meat of the Project
A number of years ago, I was hired by an association to rework their website. Turned out, the job was a bit bigger than just the website content. A bit more about that in a minute. The client wanted a rewrite of their existing content, so I went to the site. I read through four…