If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you’ve seen a lot. I’d bet you’ve seen something like what Randy Hecht shares with us today. Randy is the moderator of the popular LinkedIn forum LinkEds & Writers, which has a large population of working freelance editors and writers — the site’s target audience. As you might…
Author: lwidmer
How to Lose $$ with Bad Freelance Marketing (and how to fix it)
Freelancers, are you killing your chances of gaining a client or a network connection? Do you know if you are? Hint: you are if you do anything like this: Writer Jane submitted a thread to a writers’ forum. The moderator, another writer, turned it down because it was promotional, which is against the forum rules….
The No-nonsense Freelance Negotiation Tactic
If you wait long enough (five minute usually), the universe will hand you a blog topic. In this case, it was a fellow writer who sent along her own scenario that serves as a reminder to all writers that you can — and should — stand up for your freelance writing business. Here’s the scenario…
When is a Freelancer Not a Freelancer?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Looking for writers with a background in digital news reporting to write for us on a freelance basis. We would need 40 hours per week and the hours would be 9-to-5. See anything wrong with that? You should. And your obvious follow-up question to the job poster…
Freelance ‘Anti-Niche’ Niche Boost
I’m going to say something that’s a little controversial — We’re all niche writers. We’re also all generalists. No matter what you start out writing, you eventually end up with two things happening: You start to write a lot of the same topic or writing form (blog posts, ghosted articles, case studies, etc.) You write…
AI and Freelancing: The Good & Bad
I was on YouTube the other day and I saw a series of videos about the glories of AI and how this “new” technology is going to revolutionize work and the way we live. And of course, the comments were doomsday-style warnings about how it’s going to kill freelancing. Here’s my thought about AI: AI…
Freelance Rates & Raises
Sometimes you go online and for some reason, you simply don’t expect to see the stupid shit people will say in public let alone the tangle that is their thought processes. I was on a writing forum yesterday when I saw what has to be some of the most absurd thinking I’ve seen in a…
Writers Worth: This Job, Not That Job
You know, someday I hope that the world will sort itself out and that freelancers will shun the crap that is posted on job boards. Alas, that is not happening today. Thanks to Paula Hendrickson, who shared this particularly ridiculous job listing that came to her via a friend. And while this one pays better…
Freelance, Not Employee: A Quick Guide
If you missed yesterday’s #FreelanceChat, you missed a good discussion on client boundaries. (Head over to Twitter and check it out.) It brought up a serious issue we freelancers have to deal with — how to know when a client is treating you like an employee. It’s certainly happened to me. One of those occasions…
Freelancing 2023: New Client or Waste of Time?
I love #FreelanceChat on Twitter. The topics are often solid and the discussion gets lively. (Every Thursday at noon ET.) In a recent open-mic chat, someone asked the question: How do you know when that client prospect is not going to hire you? That’s pretty important to know, right? Let’s look at this scenario and…