I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the freelancer I was and the freelancer I am now. They are two different people, my friends. The old me was a hit-and-miss freelancer. I lost my job suddenly and had two kids to support. So my freelance career back then was pasted together. I’d take whatever gig…
Career Guide
6 Revealing Freelance F-Ups
Ah, December. A time in which you’re either refreshing your email constantly looking for client work or so busy you forget to wrap presents. Or buy them. No matter what camp you’re in this year, let’s start December with some fun facts. Freelance tells, let’s call them. Observations from some of the shit that’s been…
4 Ways to be Your Own Freelance Coach
I’m going to share a secret with you: Business coaches are helping you discover some pretty common-sense stuff. Okay, not a big secret after all. But a coach — a good coach — can help you uncover the simple shit you’re overlooking. They can give you some pretty good advice on what to try to…
3 Steps to Blissful Freelancing
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…
Your Freelance Client Magnet
What does a successful freelance writing career look like to you? Ask a hundred freelancers and you’ll probably get that many different answers. Success could be something as lofty as making enough to retire by age 50. It could be making enough to pay the bills and bank a little. Or it could be working…
Countdown to Freelance Success
Maybe it was the poster on a forum who was asking for advice on whether she should update her 19-year-old manuscript before publishing it. Maybe it was the writer I met recently who, despite being a career veteran, couldn’t make ends meet. Maybe it was the Twitter connection who shunned all advice and clung to…
1 Career-boosting Freelance Shift
In talking with a writer chum yesterday, I realized the difference between successful freelancers and those struggling to get a writing business going in the right direction. Actually, it’s just one difference. There are plenty more, but this one is a biggie. It’s also a difference that had me struggling at the beginning of my…
No-Marketing Guide to Freelancing
Everyone has a sweet spot. It’s that place where the struggle is over, the work and clients come easily, and that working-hard mode you’ve been in for ages has shifted to the hardly working mode. And you’re actually better off. Man, what a sweet spot that is. But what a ton of work you put…
Not-so-new Freelancer’s Guide: The Professional Business
Back in July, we set off on a journey, talking about how to ramp up your established freelance writing business. With so much beginner advice clogging the airwaves, I thought it might be a good idea to move beyond beginner stages and into building a stronger freelance writing career. Today, we’ll be covering the last…
Not-so-new Freelancer’s Guide: Building Name Recognition
You’ve been at this freelance writing business for a while now. People should know your name by now. So why don’t they? Continuing what we started at the beginning of the month with our first Not-so-new Freelancer’s Guide, let’s just tick down the list of things that more experienced freelancers need to know, but aren’t…