Randy Hecht is the consummate writing professional. She runs a very successful freelance business, Aphra Communications, and works with international businesses handling technical and shareholder-facing content. But even the most professional freelance writer runs into things that are inexplicably awful. Randy and I often compare notes behind the scenes regarding freelance life, clients, lousy gig…
Freelance Writing WTF: This Job, Not That Job
Sometimes in freelance writing, you just have to go with your first reaction, hence the WTF in today’s post title. Because it’s a true WTF moment. This is the message I received on LinkedIn offering me a freelance writing gig. And it’s bad enough that it’s perfect for my ongoing This Job, Not That Job…
Wednesday WTF: Freelance Writing or Serfdom?
When it comes to freelance writing, there’s little that leaves me speechless these days. This post on a Facebook forum sure did. The Post I’ve been writing for a “national magazine” which no one has heard of, for a few years now strictly on freelance basis for the quarterly publication. My editor/publisher only pays per…
Freelance Files: Is This Client Worth It?
It’s been a while since we exercised our client-vetting skills, which is what this Is This Client Worth It segment is about. If we see real scenarios and how it turned out, we might get better at vetting potential clients. Let’s consider this scenario: The client reached out via an established contact. He needed a…
The In-demand Freelancer Persona
I saw an interesting discussion on a LinkedIn forum recently that got me thinking about the way we present ourselves to potential clients. The discussion was around the use of LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” banner that one can put on their profile picture. It is meant to signal to future employers that this is a…
Freelance Game Plan: Finding Client Contact Info
There it was. Or rather, there it wasn’t. Looking for contact info for prospects yesterday, I realized that my usual ways of finding that info weren’t working. There were several reasons for that, but the running theme seems to be poorly written websites that assume you know who’s running the company. That’s right — nowhere…
Monthly Assessment: March 2024
For those of you who have followed this blog for a while, you may remember the Monthly Assessment series. When I redesigned in 2019, I had all intentions of restarting the assessment series. So many of you were happy for the monthly reminder to self-evaluate and attach some accountability to your freelance business. Then 2020…
Your Freelance Career Speed Bumps
If you look online long enough (two minutes), you’ll find ample evidence of why some freelance writers are still struggling with running a successful freelance business. I present Exhibit One here, a writer who, upon attempting to identify the roadblocks to their success: My credentials don’t align with straightforward career trajectories. (They go on to…
Client Red Flags Every Freelancer Needs to Know
I was reading through some old social media posts recently and came across discussion of a job posting that just plain sucked. In fact, I blogged about it not long ago right here. The issue was that the job poster, a household-name publication, was presenting a full-time employee position as a freelance job. Why? Because…
Your Freelance Writing Career: Finding work now, building for the future
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Freelancer asks the question: “How can a new freelancer become popular on freelance job websites?” Writers responded. “Create a strong profile.” “Post your portfolio.” “Get good reviews.” “Become a package designer.” Except for the obvious “Huh?” of that last one, these all seem like fair answers. Notice…