Freelancer: Just how happy are you? Really? I didn’t set out to ask, nor answer that question this month. Yet after nearly three weeks of being away from the computer and driving across the country, it’s exactly the question I found myself wrestling with. And wrestle I did for about 1,967 miles. Yet somewhere mid-Kansas…
Author: lwidmer
Freelance Shorts: Random Advice to Improve Your Writing Biz
With summer bearing down, it’s a great time to reassess your freelance writing business. Anytime is a good time, but if things are slowing down or you’re needing to step away, use the time to find better footing within your business. Since it’s also a time when my life goes into vacation mode and utter…
Tuesday Freelance Take: Taking Time Off
It’s the unofficial start to summer. A time when vacation schedules are blown up by deadlines, laptops are packed along with beachwear, and conference calls happen from the car. Such is the life of a freelancer. Or not. How about not? My summer is already mapped out. I have three months of traveling, with some…
1 Move That Can Increase Freelance Income (and it’s not what you think)
On a former teacher’s Facebook post recently, I was bemoaning how I’d been writing in my specialty area for 22 years and how I still get sources — typically men — overexplaining the industry to me. You know, the industry about which I’ve written articles that they’ve read. In one hilarious case, an over-explainer actually…
The Truth About Job Board Freelancing
You’ve done it. Admit it. I’ve done it, too. You’re not alone. I’m talking about applying to ads listed on job boards or (gasp!) on paid job listing sites. The ads are enticing. The posters are asking for exactly the skills you have. So what the hell, right? Apply. Take a few minutes — maybe…
1 Top Freelance Switch for Better Clients
I saw an article promoted last week on Twitter that was labeled “excellent” by the poster. It was writing-related, so of course I clicked. Should have saved my digits the energy. It turned out the article was the basic beginner freelancer stuff. Not that there’s a single thing wrong with helping freelancers get started. I…
4 Better Freelance Client Moves
“Find freelance work on Google.” “Write for greeting card companies.” “Easy way to find magazine gigs.” Know what all of these have in common? Well, besides being tweets I’ve seen recently. Every single one of these statements is a quick way to get work. But each is also a quick way to go down the…
What to Do When an Anchor Client Disappears
Let me start by saying how much I hate the term “anchor client.” Reason: There is no such thing as a sure thing. So, considering someone an anchor of your business is a seriously bad idea. When that anchor breaks away, you’re drifting. Another reason: You tend to moor yourself and your businesses to anchor…
Writers Worth: This Job, Not That Job
Oh, FFS. Maybe job posters haven’t read yet about The Great Resignation. Maybe they think that writers are really that damn desperate for work that they’ll work for pennies. Literal pennies. Such is the assumption one hapless job poster has made in this job sent to me by Paula Hendrickson. The assumption is that we’re…
What You Can (& Should) Say to a Freelance Client
A close relative of mine is a stickler for obligations. That’s good. And bad. See, if a doctor’s office hands her an appointment time, she accepts it, even if it means rearranging her entire life to make that appointment. It never occurs to her to say “That won’t work. What other days do you have?”…