Freelancing

When your inner fire starts to burn low, what’s a freelancer to do?

by

freelancer flameAs freelancers we work alone.

A lot of the time that’s a good thing. No time wasted on commuting. No time lost in dreary meetings. No ducking behind the cubicle to avoid the most annoying person in the office.

But…working alone can be tough sometimes too.

It can be particularly tough when your inner fire begins to run low.

What you’re inner fire? It’s the source of drive and energy that propels you forward each day. It’s the driver behind all your hopes and ambitions for the future.

It’s that same energy and belief in yourself that probably got you started as a freelancer in the first place.

Once you have launched your business, you still need that fire to burn bright. It’s what keeps you moving forward. It’s what drives you up to higher levels of success.

But…and I think this happens to all of us…there are times when the fire burns low. And because we work alone, there is nobody else close by to help us fan the flames back to life.

So what is a freelancer to do?

Read the full post…

One simple question that can increase all your online writing fees.

by

freelance client questionsAs freelancers we often take on a project from a client and then write that web page in isolation.

But that’s not a very smart thing to do.

Whether you are writing a product category page or a blog post – or anything else – your work is part of a broader strategy.

If you write a product category page, that page will be linked to from other places, and it will have outbound links to other pages too. It will take its place at a particular point within a sales funnel.

If you write a blog post, that post will be part of a content publication plan that is aligned with your client’s marketing plan and calendar.

In other words, whatever you write for a client, it fits into a broader picture.

Read the full post…

How I would pitch my social media services to prospective clients.

by

social media fire hydrantI don’t offer professional social media services.

But if I were at a different stage in my career, I would. In fact, I would be all over social media.

Why? Because every successful freelancer fills a need on the client side. If you want to be a highly paid freelancer, you need to offer a service and skill set that companies desperately need. And right now I see millions of companies that desperately need help with social media.

Putting aside the tiny percentage of companies that are being really smart and successful with their social media marketing, I would address the other, much larger group.

These are the business people who feel like they are trying to drink from a fire hydrant. Information about social media and how they should use it is hitting them from every direction at an impossible speed. They feel battered and confused.

Read the full post…

Differentiate your writing services with an area of technical expertise.

by

precise skill set working with watch repairIf you are a freelance writer or copywriter, you probably have a fairly broad skill set.

If I asked you what you did, you might say one of the following:

“I’m an online sales copywriter.”

“I’m an online content writer.”

“I’m a social media writer and marketer.”

There is nothing wrong with those descriptions, in so far as they describe a general area of expertise. Behind that claim you could have a ton of training and professional experience.

The limitation of describing your value in these broad terms is that you will find yourself lumped together with thousands of other people who describe themselves in exactly the same way.

For example you could be a terrific online copywriter. But when someone hears you describe yourself with those words, they might think, “Yep, you and a thousands of other people like you.”

Read the full post…

If fate doesn’t disrupt your career path, you should do it yourself.

by

disruption in the freelance lifeI guess many people prefer at least the idea of a career path that doesn’t get disrupted.

I’m not one of those people. I’m a big fan of disruption.

Sometimes fate hands me a huge and unexpected change in direction, like when I moved from the UK to Canada.

At other times, when I grow tired of waiting for fate to step in, I engineer a dramatic change of my own…like when I shifted from being a direct mail copywriter to being an online writer, at midnight on December 31st, 1997.

When I look back, even to when I was a teenager, I was a big fan of stepping sideways at precisely the point when the direct way forward was most clearly illuminated. (Got a place at Cambridge University in 1975. Decided to get a job in a stone quarry instead.)

How come? Why do I insist on disrupting my “way forward”?

Read the full post…

When a freelance niche appears to be too narrow, but isn’t.

by

narrow freelance nicheI’m a big fan of choosing a niche when you set up as a freelance writer or copywriter.

By that I mean that you should not set up as a generalist: “Hi, my name is Nick and I can write your direct mail, your social media, your White Papers, your video scripts and more…across every industry imaginable from the fashion world to industrial fastenings, and everything in between!”

If I did that I would be perceived as a generalist, a jack of all trades and master of none. How can people see me as an expert if I claim to be “expert” at everything?

It’s far better if you decide to become a true expert within a defined niche.

You can niche yourself by industry, “I serve companies in the consumer electronics industry.” Or by writing skill, “I write shareable content for the web and for social media.”

Do that and your prospective clients will know what you do, and choose you over other freelancers because you are an expert in your particular specialty.

Read the full post…