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When your alarm goes off at 7 a.m., you don’t even think about hitting snooze. Before your eyes open, you smile — your workday ahead is filled with projects you can’t wait to start. You make a cup of coffee, straighten up a bit and are sitting behind your laptop by 7:30. The work day whizzes by, a flurry of emails and client phone calls, final edits, and met deadlines. You’re exhausted by 6 p.m., but feeling accomplished and happy.
A day in the life of a freelance writer isn’t quite so smooth and rewarding, but working for yourself comes with a ton of perks. Americans agree — 53 percent of them freelance, ranging from moonlighters (who do it as a side gig) to freelance business owners. The freelance job market is on the rise, too, and freelancers are more respected now for their career choice than they used to be.
How do you handle this type of career, though? When everything falls on your shoulders and you rely on your clients to stay afloat, how do you create a business-of-one that puts your needs first? As a freelance writer, you don’t always have to be at the whim of your clients. Remembering why you started down this career path, rounding out your specialties, and getting firm with boundaries will help you build a career you love and one that serves the clients you want to work with.
Benefits of Working as a Freelance Writer
If you want to be paid as a writer, it’s tempting to get an in-house job. Freelancing has benefits that employees don’t get, though:
- Depending on the jobs you choose, you may have total control over your schedule.
- You have final say over the clients and projects you take on; if something doesn’t interest you, is in conflict with your ethics, or you just get a bad feeling about it, you can simply say “no.”
- You can diversify your projects and income streams. You’ll be able to mix-and-match projects to fill your schedule as you wish and get experience in niches you want to develop more.
- Once you hammer out the details of working from home — creating a designated workspace and motivating yourself to get to work and stay focused — working from home means wearing whatever’s comfy, taking short breaks in the comfort of your living room, and never having a traffic-filled commute to work.
However, there’s a trade-off for all of these benefits. For example, having total control over your schedule can lead to under- or overworking, which can impact your profitability or your health. The freedom to diversify your projects can lead you to take on too much at once. The key is to choose the difficulties you’d prefer — would you rather face these struggles, or the ones that come with an in-house job?
Add-On Specialties That Will Help Your Career
When you’re ready to round out your experience, there are certain skills that will make you more appealing to clients. Not only will you be able to offer more services and perform your job better, but you’ll also be in a position to raise your rate. Here are a few skills that savvy freelance writers make sure to develop:
- SEO: Much of the content that’s on a business’ website is there for SEO purposes. Knowing the basics of SEO will help you land more clients (and odds are you’ll be asked about your SEO experience during your consultation or interview). You’ll have to be able to determine SEO keywords, know how to work them in naturally, write metadata, and link internally.
- WordPress: Today, many businesses and professionals have WordPress-based blogs and websites. If you’ll be writing any type of website content, it’ll help your client if you can also post the copy to WordPress and optimize it for the platform.
- HTML: While not a must-have skill for freelance writers, knowing HTML basics may help you work with a client that prefers formatting with HTML instead of other formatting tools.
In addition to offering these extras that a lot of clients will want, consider specializing in certain niches. Becoming an expert in a few fields is more helpful for targeted websites than knowing a little bit about a lot of topics. Freelance writers hired for “general topics” — meaning they could be asked to write about anything from pet care to car buying — may not be able to make as much as freelancers who specialize in niches.
Setting Boundaries
At first, freelance writers may think that they don’t have a boss — or that they’re their own boss. Sometimes, though, freelancing can feel like you have several bosses. Each one of your clients is going to have their own specifications, expectations, and requests. If you’re not careful about setting boundaries and clarifying your own expectations, you could get taken advantage of.
Have a contract: While it’s costly, it’s best to have a lawyer write your contract. You’ll want to include information about project scope, payments, revisions, and copyright, for starters. Ultimately, the contract is in place to protect both you and your client, and to ensure you’re both clear on what’s expected.
Create a payment process: When it comes to invoicing clients and getting paid, come up with a set of guidelines for yourself and for them. Decide how you’re going to invoice (software and timing) and when you want to collect payment (before, during or after project delivery).
Decide on methods of charging: There are a few different ways that freelancers can charge for their services. If you charge hourly or work with a client who wants to pay hourly, you’ll have to set guidelines regarding overtime. If a project takes longer than one of you expected, decide ahead of time how you’ll be compensated.
Before you start working with clients, decide how you want to conduct your freelance writing business. There are a lot of opportunities out there for freelance writers and they’re only growing with time. You have the freedom to set your own rules and design the career you’ve been dreaming of.
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