Words on the Page

Not-so-new Freelancer’s Guide: Moving Past Beginner Rates & Clients

Posted on by lwidmer

Last week we talked about building a mid-level freelance career. Part of that post touched on rates — specifically, the rate you should be charging. This post is all about two things that get your freelance career moving up the freelance food chain: Better rates and better clients. I think you’re going to be surprised…

The Not-so-new Freelancer’s Guide to a Better Career, Pt. 1

Posted on by lwidmer

You’re a Freelancer: Now What? This post is born of the frustration I feel every time I see mountains of advice on how to start your freelance writing career. There’s so much out there for anyone starting out that it astounds me to hear how some struggle to get up and going. There isn’t a…

Freelance Game Plan: Building a Freelance Network

Posted on by lwidmer

Whoa, we’re over halfway through 2021. That’s crazy. Funny how the time speeds by when you’re trying to reach your freelance earnings goals, right? At this point, you have six Freelance Game Plan posts to consider to help you make more money freelancing. This is number seven. Despite the title of this post, what I’m…

Niche Writing: Spreading Your Niche Net Wider

Posted on by lwidmer

When the world locked down last year, how did your freelance writing business hold up? If you are a niche writer — someone who works in a specialized topic area — the answer depends on your particular niche, doesn’t it? If you are a travel writer, you had to look elsewhere for work in many…

Guest Post: Does that Freelance Job Really Fit?

Posted on by lwidmer

I love it when Randy Hecht does a brain dump. Randy is the moderator of LinkedEds & writers group, and man, has she seen some stuff. Anyone who is a member of the group has seen some stuff because some writers are just putting everything out there, whether they should or not. One of the…

Practically Foolproof Freelance Business Boosts

Posted on by lwidmer

There are no guarantees in freelancing. There. I’ve gotten that out of the way. I bring this up because I’m about to present you with what I think are foolproof ways to boost your freelance writing business. But there’s a caveat: Nothing is foolproof, and less so if you don’t do the work. Too many…

Breaking Free of the Freelance Low-earnings Rut

Posted on by lwidmer

Freelance writer, is your struggle too real sometimes? I ask this because in conversation with another writer, I realized that for far too many writers, breaking out of their current earnings level is a battle they wage daily. In the feast/famine cycle of freelancing, famine has settled in for the long haul. Are you one…

Freelance Game Plan: Planning Ahead

Posted on by lwidmer

Happy June! Who doesn’t love June? Sun, warm temps, outdoor activities …. And a dearth of work as companies and clients go into vacation mode. Not all clients do, but enough people shift their brains to Relax Mode that it’s noticeable depending on the clients you work with. In the past, I saw work drop…

Freelance Scam or the Real Deal?

Posted on by lwidmer

One more time, it was an email that was close, but still nowhere near legitimate. It was a scam, upon closer inspection. And believe me, closer inspection wasn’t all that necessary. Upon first glance, it was obvious. Make that about six emails this month that were scams. So I figured it was time you and…

The Pseudo-Expert, Freelance Style

Posted on by lwidmer

Some days, it’s just easier to not “people.” A friend related an exchange she’d had with a freelancer. It was one of those freelancers who sets up shop and is now the Insta-Expert Flavor of the Month. Now he’s offering to answer your questions on the big, wide world of freelancing. Forgive me if I’m…

Jenn Mattern

“Because if it’s a pseudo-expert, it’s probably something you’ve seen already.”

This a million times over.

It’s a formula.

Someone new comes in, often after taking some online marketing course (or from a membership site teaching them to set up their own sans-expertise). They “curate” content from others with neither credit nor consent. And they target people with 10 minutes’ less experience than they themselves have, convincing them this advice is their own, and getting them to part with money for information already made available for free by legitimate experts.

The fact people keep falling for it blows my mind.

I know we’ve talked about these types for years, and I’m all too familiar with some of the offenders you’ve mentioned. But this reminds me of another example that’s a little different.

Quite some time ago I had a friend I was pretty close to. He was a lecturer in media studies. This was at a time when colleges and universities were just starting to teach about social media and blogging.

He didn’t really get social media yet beyond how kids were using it socially. Because I was one of the earliest social media specialists on the business front, he came to me to learn about how businesses could use it, how certain tools worked, how they fit into marketing & PR, and such (which wasn’t uncommon; I had PR professors reach out to do the same after finding my PR & social media blog of the time).

It bothered me seeing that people teaching the next generation about social media were so out of touch with it, but I was glad he and others were at least attempting to learn. In the end, we lost touch.

Fast forward 8 or 9 years, and we re-connected. But the experience was so different. He started “lecturing” me on social media, totally forgetting I was the one who taught HIM the things he was parroting. And worse, he had no idea things had drastically changed over the years.

But he was assured of himself to the point where if I dared to mention something had changed, or reminded him who helped him set up the blogs he was gloating about while telling me I should consider blogging (really??), he got defensive. It was as if he’d blocked all that out so he could fill the narrative in his head about doing it all on his own (and while his blog wasn’t bad, it also didn’t have much traffic, income, or anything else to write home about — more something he enjoyed, which is great in its own right, but hardly made him a master).

How could I, someone who’s actually worked in this area from its earliest days, possibly know what I’m talking about? There was a very misogynist bent to it too. And we lost touch again, and I won’t make that mistake again. It’s even more shocking now this is a guy teaching the next generation when he hadn’t updated his knowledge at all in nearly a decade, while sporting the confidence of a seasoned pro. Yikes.

We’re used to seeing this kind of thing in the freelance writing community because internet marketers tell every newbie than can make a boatload of money “looking like” an expert rather than actually becoming one. But it happens even without the sales pitch at times — sometimes more for ego. It’s always important to be aware of whom you’re learning from.

1. lwidmer
  
  “It’s a formula.”
  
  Yep. It’s a plagiaristic one at that. I’m dumbfounded by the same thing you are — how anyone can fall for this time and again. I suspect there’s a bit of laziness on the part of the people who buy into this. But is it really that hard to look for that information yourself? Hell, most of it is free with a simple internet search.
  
  Wow. Amazing how the minute that guy got a modicum of understanding, he decided he was the expert. Bit of an insecurity showing there! I would be embarrassed to stand in front of a class of millennials and spew out my outdated wisdom every day. Wonder how often his students call him on it?
Sharon Hurley Hall

This is one of my favorite topics, Lori. It astounds me how many relatively new freelancers are willing to mine experienced freelancers for information (whether directly or through their blogs), then quickly repackage that information as a course they can sell to even newer freelancers.

It definitely pays to check these people out to see if what they’re saying stacks up. After a certain point, it’s hard to fake experience and, as for the earnings, it also pays to do the math.

1. lwidmer
  
  Sharon, I think you and I were both taken in briefly by someone who did that. At that point, it was just a blog guest post, I believe. But it didn’t take long to see what was going on!
  
  I think for me, the stopping point was when I was asked to write a chapter of this blogger’s book that she would then sell. And of course, I wasn’t to be paid.
  
  “After a certain point, it’s hard to fake experience…” Exactly this. Eventually, the weaknesses show.
Paula Hendrickson

Those people aren’t freelancing or writing experts, they’re marketing experts. The bulk of their income likely comes from charging gullible newbies for their “expertise.”

One of the worst pseudo experts claimed, on her website, that she wrote for a major publication that’s been one of my top clients for a long time. I couldn’t recall ever seeing her byline. I asked when it was she’d written for them. “Oh, a few years ago.” Fortunately, the publication has an easily accessible, searchable, online archive where you can find articles dating back several decades. I ran her name through — zero hits. I sent her a private mention, saying I couldn’t find her name anywhere in the archives. She said she must have confused it with their rival publication. Riiiiiight. I strongly suggested she remove that false claim from her website. Which she did.

Liars lie. So it’s best to avoid them entirely.

1. lwidmer
  
  Wow. That’s not only revealing about her character, Paula, but it reveals she wasn’t very smart. The internet has a loooong memory. Best to always be truthful in everything you say!