I’m still up north enjoying what I hope is a rain-free week. I’m so over the weather in the Northeast.
Today, let’s talk about freelance writing advice. In particular, those who give it, and those who give it and have no business doing so.
Take a look at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or any social media outlet. There’s a ton of advice floating around. And it’s not all good.
I’ve seen plenty of lousy advice from really popular bloggers. Just because they’re popular doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. But how do you vet this stuff? Suppose you’re looking at a blog post and the advice looks good, but seems kind of similar.
That’s when you do some investigating. Anyone can repeat and rewrite other people’s advice. You, my friend, deserve to get advice from someone who’s actually doing what they’re suggesting. Or knows what the hell they’re talking about.
Here are some guidelines for vetting advice:
Does it come with products attached? Even if it does, that’s not cause for automatically dismissing it. Look closely at the advice. Do you like what you hear already? If so, maybe sample the product, if possible, before committing your money to learning more.
Does it sound sensible to you? While people may use various methods of winning clients or negotiating or whatever the topic at hand, you may not find it sensible. That’s where the next new method gets its start, if you ask me. For example, since we’re talking about it, the long sales page may be the method that nets the most return today. But what about tomorrow? True, it’s effective today, but what’s the shelf life of something being used/abused too much? When it comes to advice, ask yourself: is the advice something you can apply to your own personality and business that won’t come across stilted or forced?
Does it fit with what you do? Are you really trying to attract book publishers, or is your market more for the technology realm? Specific advice isn’t one-size-fits-all. Look for unique differences and how they would translate to your business before accepting the advice verbatim.
Is the person giving advice trustworthy? I don’t think I need to tell you there are people out there whose main objective is to earn money from you. There are people who slap together webinars, e-books, and other products with little thought toward the content and more thought to how to repackage and resell. Do you trust that the person advising you has your interests ahead of their own? What background does the person have? How involved are they in the very thing they’re attempting to advise you on?
Is it something you can see yourself doing? If you can imagine that advice fitting into your life and you being able to replicate it with success, then it’s for you. If you see any reason why it may not work — you’d have to put too much money or effort into it, for example — look for ways to amend the advice, or forget it.
Writers, how do you vet writing advice?
2 responses to “5 Ways to Vet Freelance Writing Advice”
For me it’s do they walk their talk? Do they actually do what they’re telling others to do? Do they actually have any credentials, or is everything geared toward selling their advice?
Credentials — exactly this. Who is the person selling? What’s their background? Are they embellishing any part of their credentials, such as awards (I’ve seen people claim “award-winning” when the awards were blog awards given by other bloggers), their specialties (can you really call yourself a business writer when you’ve written something like “Top ten apps for business professionals”?), you name it. How long have they been a working freelancer — not a selling freelancer, a working one? Is the majority of their advice easily obtained elsewhere with a Google search or is it innovative in some way? Is that advice coming with an offer attached (one you have to pay for)?
After seeing countless instances of people preying on freelancers, I’m a massive skeptic.