Words on the Page

Why Marketing Trends May Fail You

Posted on by lwidmer

What I’m reading: Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff What’s on the iPod: Skinny Love by Birdy You can tell the holiday season is approaching. Weekends are starting to book up with events (even weekdays — we have an event tonight). Trying to fit it all in becomes a bit of a juggle, but I…

4 Marketing Mistakes Freelancers Make

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: The Hook by Blues Traveler Where did this week go? I’m not busy — in fact, I’m not busy to the point where it’s becoming a bit of a concern. I have stalled projects, which means I have plenty of time to get some smaller, one-off stuff out the door. However,…

Monthly Assessment: October 2015

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Just As Well by Jackie Green Welcome to November — another month, another reset of the earnings goals (for me, anyway). October was a crazy month. I had an unusual start to it, too. My husband had just confirmed reservations for a long weekend in Cape May. You know the drill…

How To Increase Your Monthly Freelance Earnings in 2 Easy Steps

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Built to Roam by Shakey Graves This week got away from me a bit. The workload was limited to a few small revisions. The rest of it was split between working on side projects (which are actually primary projects that will pay off later) and sending invoices. In a few conversations…

5 Ways to Increase (or Get) Writing Referrals

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Song for Someone by U2 I love slow weeks after a long, busy spurt. With a project coming in next week, I’m enjoying the break. The madness should start up again soon. Until then, I’m marketing a little, writing a lot, and getting administrative stuff ticked off my list. I’m also…

Knowing When to Drop a Client

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Lego House by Ed Sheeran It’s been a fantastic week. I finished all my projects by late Tuesday, had one small revision Wednesday morning, and I’ve spent two solid days doing what I damn well please. That included working on two longer-term projects and some poetry. But that’s not what made…

When Unwanted Advice is Warranted

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: The Sky is Crying by Stevie Ray Vaughan It’s been a nicely paced week so far. After a ridiculously busy first week of October, I have been able to take on two larger projects and get them done almost at leisure. At least, it feels leisurely to have a full day…

Writers Worth Tip: Avoiding Empty Promises from Clients

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: You’re No Good by Linda Ronstadt Did you have a nice weekend? We were treated to a jazz concert at the Kimmel Center by my step-daughter in honor of my husband’s upcoming birthday. And what a treat it was! We prepared for, and received, our first frost of the season — saw…

6 Things Freelance Writers Can Learn from a Kardashian

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Got to Give it Up by Marvin Gaye So far, great week. One blip in the client projects from last week, but I got the green light to go forward, hoping we’ll work it out in revisions. I’m okay with that — I have two more projects this week, one starting…

Avoiding the Freelance Writing Burnout

Posted on by lwidmer

What’s on the iPod: Glorious by MaMuse It’s Monday — do you know where your weekend went? It was a good weekend. The only damper in it was my son was on his way when his car started making grinding noises. That’s never good. He had to turn around and head back. However, it was…

Sharon Hurley Hall

Lori, you're speaking my language. I do all of those. Sometimes clients have moved on, but believe it or not, one client who balked at my rates when they went up last year has just come back to ask me to write for them again. 🙂

Emily Fowler

Perfect timing for me Lori! I'm having to look at my workload going forward because I'm having too many weeks like you describe. I already push back on deadlines if I have to (using the reason that I don't want lack of time to impact the quality of my work), and I track projects via an excel spreadsheet (you can take the girl out of the finance department, but you can't take the finance department out of the girl).

I think 'don't answer right away' is something that would make a big difference to me – I've already lose two hours this morning having a back and forth and working things out for a new project. If I'd have left it, I'd be further forward with this week's deadlines!

Paula Hendrickson

We've been in the same boat the past couple of weeks, Lori, and the sheer idea of getting several of these projects sent in this week is motivation enough to plow through the work.

I couldn't charge more, since these were all articles, but the lowest paying ones are 75¢/wd and the best (due today!) is $1.20/wd. So there's not a lot to complain about,pay wise. Oh, I also have a list of 31 executive write-ups due to another client, those don't pay much per word, but no interviews are needed. The only time-consuming part is already done: notifying a bunch of publicists so they can send me the info I need. Each blurb takes maybe 10 minutes to write up, so it's simple, straightforward work.

I've been doing a lot of the things on your list, but I also found it easier to focus on one client's work in the morning, another in the afternoon. Sometimes that gets broken down even further to make sure I keep moving on several projects. Of course, today, I'll focus mostly on the piece that's due today, but I know a 1PM interview for a different article will interrupt me. After that, I'll go back to the one that's due (if I haven't finished already), then turn my attention to one of the other projects until another interview that's slated for 6pm. (Darn west coasters!)

Cathy Miller

I often say I'm semi-retired as I do not take on projects in the volume that you do, Lori and Sharon. I still work 5 days a week (normal hours!) but never the weekends, which I did regularly in my corporate days. My workload is certainly not what it was in my corporate days. And that's VERY much by design.

Besides the fact it almost killed me, I also have family responsibilities, living with my 92-year-old mother. I am not saying my responsibilities are more than anyone else. But they are a priority for me and I refuse to let work take over my life like it did in my corporate days.

So while I feel like a bit of lightweight in terms of projects, I still have the dilemma of knowing where to draw the line. In the beginning, I accepted almost anything that came my way. That just didn't work for me.

It's the rare exception when I do what I call "one and done" projects. It is also the rare exception when I find clients are unwilling to nudge a deadline.

I have had prospects (can't remember any clients) move on because I nudged back on a deadline. Definitely have had prospects move on because of my rates. Used to bother me. Seldom does now.

Lori Widmer

Love when they come back to quality, Sharon! 🙂

Emily, time to raise those rates! You will lose some clients, but it may be time to lose some, by the sounds of it. And same here with the back-and-forth on projects. They're knocking on my email door today, but I'm working through something else first. At lunchtime, I'll respond!

Good way to break up the workload, Paula. I had to prioritize first, then get the hard stuff down on paper. I stuck a release in between projects because they're usually easiest to write.

Cathy, I think that's a healthy attitude. I've gotten much better at drawing the line. There's one of these current projects that may not work out, and I'm okay with walking away from it should it become too much of a hassle. No amount of money could make an impossible situation any better, right?