Managing Writers

I actually have a small team of writers now; not only to help ease my workload a little, but also to help them get extra cash. It's a different experience managing freelancers-by our very nature, a partnership is a partnership of equals or nearly just like one between clients and writers. As a freelance writer with no little reputation now, I can usually pick and choose jobs that I will like (or at least tolerate) and I try to extend that courtesy to my writers.

It's not just a matter of doing this because I can, but rather because it's more effective. By giving my writers work they will actually enjoy and not just put up with, it ensures that they will stick through the deadlines and the writing with, if not a smile, at least a look of concentration on their faces. This in turn promotes a higher quality of work which is done on time and not delayed or ridden with angst and problems.

In a very real way, I'm more of an agent for my writers than a boss. I try to match my writers' abilities, preferences and scheduling with work so that the work they turn out is something that is worth paying for and something they can be proud of and enjoy. In return, Quill for Hire improves its reputation and gets more work which can then be shared around. Sure it means that I get the dregs sometimes, but as an all around writer, I can write on just about anything anyway. Plus I get no small amount of satisfaction when my writers tell me afterwards that they enjoyed the work and learned a lot from it.

I really wish that all businesses could find a way to make this model work. Instead of forcing employees into a role that doesn't suit, find roles that suit the employee. I'm sure productivity, effectiveness and efficiency would shoot through the roof and you'd have much happier employees with greater degrees of loyalty.

The Christmas Jam

I always have valid excuses for never being around. I have so much practice for not keeping up with things that I always have an excuse!

This time it was unexpected. Normally the Christmas season winds me down with less work since clients are doing Christmas too, but this year it seems like everyone would rather work than shop which means I"m doing a lot of work and not keeping up here! That happens sometimes though and I suppose I should be happy. I'll be happier when the money comes into my bank account ;)

Christmas has also been busy simply because there are five people living here including a two year old and that means a lot of shopping. So busy and expensive! Our savings has been wiped out (not for long, but still) and the credit cards are teetering ^^'. I guess come January, we are doing the hermit thing, lol.

Well, I have some new clients and that's exciting. I also have a new writer to try out as soon as some bids are won. Cross fingers; she's skilled and needs the work badly.

I'm hoping to start doing this regularly again soon; I was doing really well there for a while!

Freelance writing-expect the unexpected, ha ha.

Our Egos aren't That Fragile!

The first thing you really learn as a freelance writer is how to roll with the punches. It's a hard lesson and you will probably get a few ego bruises in the process, but just like weight building where you make yourself stronger, your ego will get stronger too. After a while, being told that your article needs revision becomes an enjoyable challenge, not a reason to cry into your cereal.

But it's really hard to make others believe that. After all, we've grown up with the stereotypical artist's ego; something that is fragile and easily offended. But as any professional artist (or writer) will tell you, our egos are actually made from cement and being told that something has to be changed is a challenge to be met. That's how you know that you are not only a professional, but one who can stick with it; when you can be told that something has to be redone and you just roll with it. You may not agree with it, but you roll with it anyway and learn from it.

This mainly comes up in two ways:

1) You are working with a new marketer or client who is nervous about offending an experienced writer

2) You are the subcontractor for another freelancer who has bruised egos and is afraid to damage yours.

In both cases, all you can do is keep telling that person that you will not be offended if you are required to make revisions on your work. Tell them again and again and again! They may never listen to you and end up stewing in their grumpiness about your work not being up to their standards, but at least your position is made clear.

But there is a limit to this. Some clients simply do not know what they want and end up spinning round and round, never able to articulate clearly what it is they expect from you. It is usually a new client who is guilty of this; they have an idea in mind, but they can't express it to you and so the round of revisions starts and usually ends with two very cranky people who never want to see each other again. I've had this happen to me before and believe you me, being fired came as a distinct relief-to both of us! (Another limit of course is being told that you are terrible, you are useless, you are no good to them. At that point, I generally shut the digital door in their faces. That is just plain rude!)

Which leads me to my final point about our ego and writers, gather in and listen well. If there is one thing we are guilty of in this discussion, it's not asking for details about work. I've done it, you've done it, we've done it. We should know better, but we still do it.

Asking is good. If you want clarification, ask. If you're unsure of something, ask. If you just want to make absolutely bloody certain you know what you're doing, ask. It doesn't make you look like an idiot, it makes you look dedicated to delivering the right work the first time. Even if it's a client you've worked for before, ASK! You never know when something will change and your client will probably forget that you're not psychic; particularly if it's a client you've worked with for a while.

Being willing to acknowledge mistakes, make revisions and ask any and all questions are not hallmarks of being novice. Masters know that the only way to do anything right is to keep trying and keep asking questions. Only novices think they know everything and only need to do it once.

Ciao everybody!

So I thought Christmas was Quiet...

I seem to recall Christmas time being relatively quiet last year, but this year everyone seems to be plowing on all at once. It's things like that which make life as a freelancer... interesting; you can try to track patterns of work all you like, but sometimes your ideas get shot to hell.

Generally, Christmas is quietish, largely because many marketers have families. But sometimes it can get a little nutty because of Christmas sales and a drive to soak up the last dollars before the new year. It's hard to say. The only point of stability I've had three years running is that August is dead and September/October is busy.

And now December I guess. :O

Stability is a nice thing to have, but if you work on commission, things can get unstable really fast. There are some coping strategies to take on:

1) put money away for the dry periods
2) in dry periods, work on personal projects and keep your fingers in the work scene
3) in busy times make sure you have and stick with a schedule. If you're only going to do 2x articles a day for each client, stick with it. Trying to do more will just drive you batty.
4) Have someone watch the toddler. (someone remind me to bribe my sister....)

So, I have 16 days left before my Set In Stone Vacation time for the holidays. (and YES IT'S SET IN STONE DAMN IT!)

In that time, I have roughly 40-60 articles. And I've declined invitations to boot!

My head hurts ^^'. Back to work!

Never Eat Lunch With a Friend...

I was going to be really awesome today. I had my goals set out in stone:

1) Finish a client (CHECK btw)
2) Do three articles for the lovely Sarita (erm, working on that)
3) Do two articles for each of my other three clients (HA HAHAHAHA!)

Yeah.

Instead, I got distracted by a friend I haven't seen in a while and lunch. It was my own bloody fault; every time I tried to leave, I'd start talking again. ^^'. But lunch was fun, I'm just dealing with the aftereffects of having only completed 1/3 goals for the day.

Even when I leave the house, i still manage to get distracted! Maybe I'm just easily distracted, ha ha. Being a work at home anybody in theory means knowing how to mitigate and minimize distractions so that you get your work done. Unfortunately, the reality isn't so much mitigating distractions as learning to work with them so that you still get stuff done, but you acknowledge the fact that it won't be as much as you set out to do. I don't think I've ever successfully finish all my goals for a day; usually I manage 2/3 or a 3/4 sort of thing. It's best not to get frustrated, upset or angry with yourself or you will probably just end up doing less work because you're too distracted by your annoyance at yourself!

So, I'm off to achieve at least 2/3 of my goals for today and then start over again tomorrow night. Such is life!

I wanted to find funny freelance comics

But I can't find any free ones.

Which is fair enough; I think people deserve to be paid for the work they do. It's a bit of a soapbox issue for me actually and one I'll get into later, but it also means that I couldn't find any freelance writer comics :(.

There are some funny things to do about freelancers though; such as clients suddenly changing things around or adding more, weird demands on your time and abilities, and yes-clients coming on to you. (This has happened to me and needless to say, the client saw the digital door). One of the best things to do as a stressed freelancer is to laugh at many of the things that stress you out (if you can).

Which leads me back to my unsuccessful hunt for comics.

But here:

http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/freelance_writing.asp

Chock full of silly freelance writing comics.

....sadly, most of these are based on reality.... ^^'

SEO Madness

SEO Madness.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process by which content is done in such a way as to attract the attention of a search engine through the placement of keywords. But many marketers are now decrying SEO, calling the whole thing madness.

Search engine optimization is important, don't get me wrong (it better be, or I've wasted three years of my life learning it!) But it can get insane. Google.com, the world's largest search engine, is the target you're aiming for and SEO is one of the ways to do it. But Google only looks for your keywords in a few places:

Your Title

In the sentence blip that shows up below the title (usually about 160 characters)
Perhaps a few times throughout the article such as at the end and in a subheading.

That's it!

However, many newbie freelance writers (and many marketers) panic and think that they have to force the keywords in as much as possible. This leads to stilted, awkward, and unreadable articles which readers will ignore and Google will drop like a hot frying pan. The fact is that Google doesn't just rank your site based on keywords, but also on things like how relevant your content is and how many people come in and out. You can't get these two important factors if you overdo the SEO.

If you are going for SEO, it's important to keep the following in mind:

-Your keywords should be placed in such a way that they are natural and easy to read.
-Your keywords should not be intrusive
-You only need a few keywords and phrases overall, not thirty of them (I've seen clients do this and while I didn't say anything, I also didn't jam the articles).

It's up to freelance writers to not only, well, write, but also to advise. Sometimes I've had to tell clients that something is wrong, a product is useless and their format may be off. A good client will listen to you and take your words into account. Bad ones will ignore you. You may still have to work for the bad ones, but at least you will have made your point and they may come back at some point, heads hanging, and say you were right.

Or they might not. But remember: the client is always right.

Even when he's wrong. (unless he violates your conscience in which case, you should just leave the client and find other pastures).

Cruises, banner ads and mario kart

Freelancers are a strange niche of people. We have to be. The only way to move from one topic to a totally different topic smoothly is to be kind of strange to begin with. Throw a family in the mix and you can easily go from writing about travel to writing about advertising to playing Mario Kart all in the space of two hours. If this sounds dizzying, then maybe this life isn't for you!

Or maybe you're actually sane.

You know, one of the two.

This has been my life of late: I get up, get my son ready, go to Strong Start or play Mario Kart Double Dash with him (yes, my 2 year old can manage that game so long as he's just throwing items.), then either spend the afternoon taking him to Strong Start or convincing him that we don't need to play anymore Mario Kart (or at least bargaining with him on it), try to write an article or two, cook dinner, do the dishes, get the house vaguely tidy, get William ready for bed, read to him, sign with him, get him into bed, get a coffee, tumble into bed, work for two and a half hours, work on NaNoWriMo for a couple hours and then collapse in a heap. Wake up and start again!

Unless it's Wednesday and Thursday, in which it's get up, play Mario Kart, convince him that we don't need to play more Mario Kart, try to work and then so on. And throw in grocery shopping whenever I can. ^^'.

It's really no wonder that most successful freelancers are single or have had their families move out. It's basically a huge juggling act otherwise and someone will get disgruntled at you! You just have to learn to roll with it and make sure you block out your time.

Now excuse me while I try to write about cruises and convince William that he CAN in fact wait for a bit before we play yet more Mario Kart. ^^'

Job Slump?

And in this case, I'm not referring to a lack of jobs, but rather a slump which makes it hard to work and feel excited about it. I'm in a slump at my job and it's annoying.

This is something everyone deals with: work slump. You feel like you're in a rut, you're tired, your unmotivated and you just don't care anymore. I think a lot of it can be traced back to a lack of sleep (Certainly having my toddler climb into our bed all night, my husband up half the night sick and then waking up at 7am to call his work and tell them he wasn't coming didn't help), but it can't just be that. Sometimes, you just feel as though work is getting nowhere; like nothing you do is actually making an impact anywhere. "Busy work" as the phrase goes-work for the sake of work and nothing else.

It's a reality and that means you need coping mechanisms. Sometimes it can be as simple as switching gears for a while (tonight I'm doing just one article and then finishing my NaNoWriMo novel, or at least mostly finishing it I HOPE!). Sometimes you have to go for a walk, eat a snack, try something new, or take a nap. The point is that a coping mechanism is necessary if you want to get out of your slump as soon as you can. As a freelancer, no one else is going to get you out of your slump-it's up to you. It can be a learning experience to figure out what your coping mechanisms will be and make sure you note them down for reference so that when the job slump comes back, you can use them.

Now, I'm going to slump back to my rewrites (maybe THAT'S my problem; my current projects are all rewrites *snore*) and then work on something else.

Huh, I feel a little better already.

Ciao!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Get Away

What I find curious is one of the selling points of being a freelancer or any kind of stay at home and that is the fact that you get to work at home. While this sounds appealing on many levels (and it is, don't get me wrong), important things are forgotten; namely:

-Home is a source of severe distractions (in my case, a two year old)
-Home is supposed to the place you enjoy, not your workplace

It has been imprinted on our psyche that to 'go to work', you have to 'go' somewhere. Some freelancers combat that by going for a walk around the block before starting work so that they feel as though they 'went' to work, even though they're just going back home. But if you don't do this, you may find that the watery line between work and home ruins productivity. It's easier to get distracted at home, it's easier to feel like you can just pop onto Facebook (for twenty minutes) because no one is going to catch you at it and it's just generally easier to leave work alone and then fall behind.

This is a problem of mine. I'm a relatively swift typist and researcher, but at home, it's too easy to get distracted. So today, as a double experiment, I went to Starbucks and worked there. It was a double experiment because not only was I seeing if I could work there (both myself and if Starbucks would let me) and to see if my husband and my son would bond better without my being there to distract my son.

A 'yea' on all three counts. I worked better, stronger, and actually felt more refreshed after working than at home where I'm trying to work AND deal with my toddler AND do housework. My son and my husband did fine together for a few hours. So, I'm thinking this will be a regular occurrence and hopefully, my productivity will soar.

Sometimes, you can't just work at home; you have to work somewhere else. Now that's something those glittery ads won't tell you!

On Declining Work

Today I declined work, but I didn't decline a client.

This is a key difference that many people forget, but we'll get into that later.

First:

I declined work.

As a freelancer, part of your education will be learning when to say No and why you're saying no. One of the causes of stress for anyone in any working environment is taking on more than one can chew: more work, more responsibility, new work, and doing things that just aren't in your particular sphere. Now, while I heartily encourage learning new skills, you also have to be able to say: You know what? There is someone out there who is far better qualified than I to do what you ask and I think it would be in both our best interests to pursue that line. Or something along that tangent.

In my case, I was asked if I could manage social media. I can't. I'm really bad at it actually; I get bored easily, I wander away, I never know what to say and I forget to retweet. I don't even have a Google+ account for pity's sake. (beyond the default one I have just for being on Google, but I've never actually signed into it). Social media is just not a realm I'm interested in, let alone capable of handling. Does this mean that I should try anyway? I did, about a year ago. While the client never dropped me (he was a longstanding client) I know that I just didn't do a good job and as a result, that part of my duties faded out. With a new client, such as the one who asked today, I outright said no. I didn't want to lose the client to my pathetic social media skills and besides, he said himself that he had about three truckloads of writing work for me anyway and that IS in my sphere.

Now to the differentiation that this entails.

I declined the work. I didn't decline the client.

Many new freelancers think that if they say 'no' to a particular job from a client, the client will drop them like a hot potato. I know I used to think that which lead to uncomfortable work! However, this is just not the case. If a client asks you if you can do something and you can't, just say no. Politely of course. Explain why that job isn't in your realm of skills and how they would be better off asking someone else. Offer to help them find that someone else! (In my case, I suggested another client of mine on the same bidding site so hopefully the bidding site won't kick up a fuss XD) This all makes you look professional, humble, intelligent, and honest and if the client is worth his salt, he'll just put you back on what you were doing, recognizing that the original work was where you shone and where you are best put to use. It's not like he's going to go: Well, you won't do XY and Z? WELL SCREW YOU BUDDY, YOU'RE NOT DOING AB and C ANYMORE EITHER! {insert evil laugh here} (Unless he's a real jerk, in which case, trust me: good riddance)

So, if you get asked about a job and you really don't think you can do it very well, cut it to the bud. Thank the client for thinking about you, but explain that you're just not comfortable with that sort of work and that you'd both be better off with the work you were already doing. At the end of the day, you will actually get more respect for it.

Are You Scared to Check Your Email?

Sometimes I'm really adverse to the idea of checking my email. In fact, I'm downright scared to! Today, I'd really just rather run screaming away from my inbox, though with another writer to coordinate and waiting on some work, I really can't.

Three years ago, it was for a very simple reason: it would be empty. No work, not bids accepted, no nothing but a newsletter advertising more jobs that I probably wouldn't get. I would check that email account obsessively, every hour on the hour, and a job that took me was a reason for the happy dance. Of course, there would be far too many emails of 'Your bid was not accepted' and that was always depressing. I hate getting overlooked in favor of someone who bid half what I did and promise to do the job in one day. (I always wonder how anyone pulls that off, but that's a story for another day.)

Now I have the opposite problem. Sometimes I just don't want to check that inbox because I don't want to find out that I have yet more work to do. Yeah, I know, goofy isn't it? When you work on commission, the more commissions you have, the more money you make-simple! But the reality is, sometimes you're just too tired, too overwhelmed, too sick and too burned out and the last thing you want to do is see that little black 1 by your Inbox. There's the moment of prayer and then...

Windows Live Update message.

PHEW!

Until the next piece of mail comes in....

So, if you're anxiously awaiting that piece of mail that says you got the job, enjoy it! Because in a year or two, you may be dreaming of the day when your inbox is down for 24 hours so you have an iron-clad excuse not to check it. Sadly, this has yet to happen to me when I'm stressed out. And if you're in the same boat as me, don't feel bad. Everyone gets burned out and would rather just not see their inbox for a day.

Of course, when that stretches for a few days, panic sets in... Maybe we're just hard too please.

Until next time!

So You Want to be a Freelance Writer

Well, this won't be your average blog about it!

In the three years of working as a freelance writer, I'd like to think I've learned a lot about the business. I fully acknowledge that I have a lot more to learn, but at least I have something of a grounding. I also know that a lot of people look at internet work, including writing, with something of a skewed lens: either they look at it as a way to free themselves from the 9-5 office (it is, sort of) or they look at as something strange and mythical-like a sasquatch. You like to believe it exists, but you also think that there's just an oddly shaped stump beneath all the hype. (again, this is sort of true!)

So what will follow in this blog is a real life account of a real life freelance writer (me!) I'm not overwhelmingly successful yet, mostly due to a certain 2 year old who is even now coming over to bug me (say hi William), but I have been observing trends, how people think, and what goes on backstage and I want to impart that knowledge. So, put the money away that you were going to spend on books and lists (or donate it to me; I'm not fussy :D) and please feel free to subscribe. I hope to update regularly with my thoughts on freelancing, my observations, no few rants, some good bidding sites, clients... and probably a healthy smattering of life and humor and annoyance too.

Please pull up a chair, drink your coffee and grab a donut from the side.

So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer!