Always. Next!<\/p>\n

Actually, always is a bit deceiving. Yes, you need to do so with new clients. Even an emailed scope of work that they must confirm (and which includes your payment criteria) is better than nothing. But do have something written and approved before moving forward.<\/p>\n

Who is\/isn’t your client.<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

If you charge low rates, you’ll attract the same type of client every time. (Again, raise your rates, okay?) Your client is the one who enters the conversation treating you like a business person, not as hired help who can be dictated to like an employee. Your client is the person who values your skills and will pay your rate or something close to it.<\/p>\n

Your client is not more of the same. Your client is not found on job sites, Medium, Upwork or anywhere where someone else is getting a piece of your hard-earned check (because then\u00a0they<\/strong><\/em> would be your client, right?). Your client doesn’t pit you against 2000 other freelancers in a bidding war. Your client is someone who has budgeted seriously for the job they’re hiring you to complete. They don’t have to be rich — they just have to be respectful of your skills and time.<\/p>\n

That’s the abridged version of\u00a0 how to build a mid-level freelance career. I’ve left out plenty. There isn’t enough room here, and a lot of it is going to vary based on who you are, what your business focus is, and who you’d like to work with. You’ll learn as you go, but hopefully this helps you kick-start the career and get a little higher up the food chain.<\/p>\n

Writers, how did you move from beginner to mid-level freelancing?
\nAny advice for people who want to improve their earnings or client base?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’re a Freelancer: Now What? This post is born of the frustration I feel every time I see mountains of advice on how to start your freelance writing career. There’s so much out there for anyone starting out that it astounds me to hear how some struggle to get up and going. There isn’t a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[627],"tags":[2,3],"class_list":["post-8167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-guide","tag-career-advice","tag-career-boosts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8215,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions\/8215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}