Comments on: 6 Ways to Increase Writing Income

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 15:08:25 +0000

I hate that feature, too. They're not thinking about the freelancers.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 20:21:36 +0000

My browsers are all regularly updated, Lori. But the way LinkedIn insists on listing one "current" job means every time I try to add a new client it wants to say I have a new position….even when I add it under Freelance. It happened a couple weeks ago – I tried to add another client under my freelance section, and LinkedIn insisted on including employment dates – wouldn't let me add it without the dates, so I didn't add it.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 17:50:07 +0000

Cathy, I had the same light-bulb moment. I saw someone's LI profile and saw some very specific wording. It dawned on me. :)

Likewise with updating the profile. That puts you on the LI feed, and it doesn't hurt when people are looking at your Twitter profile, either. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to go over website copy every year, too.

Eileen, that's a great point. We should be thinking beyond the line-item lists, shouldn't we?

Paula, it should be pretty easy -- I've not had troubles. Are you working off an old browser or something? Not sure why you'd get errors.

Keri, thanks for the hint on Google+! I don't use it as much as I should -- great to know!

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 17:40:42 +0000

Thanks for the LinkedIn tips, Eileen & Cathy. Now I just need to find the time to update my profile.

By: Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 17:37:06 +0000

Thanks for these Lori, they're all great :)

Brainstorm the possibilities - I get a daily email from a UK business site, usually have a quick browse then ignore, but today I suddenly realise there's so much valuable information in there. X company just partnering with Porsche in the UK? Y company had £1m investment from technology fund? I sent off a few emails along the lines of 'congrats on XYZ, do you ever use freelance writers etc.', and I've had a number of promising responses already. If I can do that every day . . . who knows?

Promote your current projects - I'm struggling with this at the moment with a particular website project, it's a biggun, but I don't think my client is keen that I mention it, even very vaguely, because he's worried that he'll 'lose his credibility' if people think he doesn't do everything himself. I've tried to sell the benefits of me marketing his product, but I don't think it's going to happen. Sigh.

By: KeriLynn Engel

KeriLynn Engel — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:00:56 +0000

Awesome, such a practical list! I definitely need to update my bios- it's been at least a few months for LinkedIn.

And I need to get back in the habit of writing more about my work on social media! Such a small thing but it helps a lot. And if you're doing it with keywords on Google Plus, it could help you with your rankings :)

I'm definitely planning on raising my rates for 2015! It'll be my 1-year anniversary full-time freelancing, and I finally have the confidence to do that now and not worry about losing all my clients :D

Thanks for the great tips, Lori!

By: Cathy Miller

Cathy Miller — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:52:07 +0000

Paula – I put my specific gigs under Projects. That way it doesn't change your Business Title or job. And you get the benefit of more keyword use.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:29:34 +0000

Paula, there's a setting somewhere on LinkedIn where you can turn off updates when you noodle with your profile so that it doesn't launch all those annoying updates out to your network. In fact, I need to go turn mine back on now that I've completed my update ...

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:20:15 +0000

Okay, I'll say it: Me three.

I don't even remember the last time I updated my bio or my LinkedIn profile. (The LinkedIn one is daunting, since every time I make a tiny change it seems to cause a cascade effect of incorrect updates. LinkedIn's incessant need to list your "current job" isn't very freelancer friendly.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:20:41 +0000

I second the bio improvement. In my case, it was my LinkedIn profile that I updated following the guidance I found in a book by a LinkedIn expert. It brought me almost an immediate inquiry, and we are in the "send me samples" stage.

In the bio that I send out with client requests for samples, I also include a list of recent projects I've worked on (very, very brief: e.g., "Ten landing pages for a google adwords campaign") and a client list. A prospect told me in an email, "Wow, I am impressed."

This was not an area I'd paid much attention to until recently, but now I'm a believer.