Something that's always surprised me about the freelance writing business is just how many writers there are out there who don't seem to realize that they're running a business.
Succeeding in the Business of Freelance Writing
It never fails to surprise me just how many make no effort whatsoever to try and "sell" themselves. Some simply post a quote and nothing else: no information about themselves, no indication about their skills and experience, nothing. Others post a quote with a short message saying, "I don't know what a 'search engine optimized article' is, but please pick me anyway", or "I have no experience in this, but hopefully I'll be able to do it."
Needless to say, the writers who don't bother to sell themselves never get the gigs. So why don't they make the effort? Because they fail to realize that they're running a business.
Some – not all, but some – of the freelance writers we encounter seem to have somehow picked up the idea that all they have to do to succeed is to be good at writing. Unfortunately, it's not quite as simple as that: to really succeed as a freelance writer, you have to be good at selling yourself. And you have to be aware that you're running a business.
Marketing Your Freelance Writing Business Online
If you really want to run a successful freelance writing business, think about getting a website. Most businesses these days have websites: they're the ideal way for customers to find you, read more about your services and get in touch.
This is another area, however, where a lot of freelance writers fail. Because not just any old website will do. Sure, there are some very professional looking websites out there, run by freelance writers – but there are just as many sites which seem designed to frighten away clients rather than attract them. Amateurish design, tacky animations, clashing colors and even, God-forbid, music, are all the sign of the amateur freelance site.
Getting Your Freelance Writing Website Up and Running
While it's tempting to try and put together a website yourself, unless you have a really sound grasp of website design, this tactic can really backfire. An amateurish website tells your visitors that you're an amateur business, and that you don't have enough faith in the viability of your business to invest in a professional website. All of these things are red flags to clients, who'll go elsewhere in a heartbeat.
Get yourself a professionally designed website – and if your budget can't stretch to an entire website, consider signing up for a personal profile, where for only $25 per year you get your own page, complete with downloadable resume, writing samples and client testimonials .
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Given A Choice
I have often tried to imagine what my life would have been like if I could have picked my parents and circumstances in advance. If given a choice before birth I am sure I would have chosen a wealthy, high profile, investment banker father with a mother who spent her entire days planning fundraising soirées for the benefit of underprivileged kids.
My childhood would have been filled with lavish vacations, shopping sprees and summers studying abroad. All of my friends would line up for the chance to stay over at my five story one hundred and fifty room mansion located somewhere off the west coast where the sun was always shining and the olympic size pool was always inviting. My nanny, obviously from some foreign country, would take care of all the daily chores that would have helped me to grow into a responsible adult. My teenage bedroom would have been the size of a normal ranch style house with a closet the size of a three car garage. I would have been the envy of every teenage girl and the crush of every teenage and preteen boy.
I imagine I would have sailed through adolescence and breezed through young adulthood without any obstacles to help shape my moral values. I envision me selecting Civil Law as my profession and the standard successful husband and two and a half kids. My children would grow to become successful adults with professions in the medical, legal and political fields.
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Similar to how infertile couples pick out sperm at a sperm bank I use to think it would have been nice to review the details of what I was being born into. Looking back now I know that choice is not always a good thing. Most children born into the scenario I described above end up killing thirty of their peers in a school yard shooting, after which suicide seems to become their only way out. I believe that there is a higher power that does review the blueprints of families and has a keen sense for why you are placed where you are. Still, when I think back to the sperm analogy used above, I see my parents picking ?purple sperm? and I came out ?green?.
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