I’m so pleased to welcome Anne Wayman as a guest poster on Get Paid to Write Online, since I’ve been following her writing blog for years. Today she shares her views on must-haves for a successful freelance writing business.

Don't panic about your freelance writing business - show some moxie instead.

Ask a dozen people, or do a search on the ‘net, about what you need to start a freelance writing business and you’re likely to end up with a list as long as someone’s proverbial arm.

Online you’ll be told about something called the entrepreneur’s personality. This type of article almost always offers test purporting to tell you if you have such a mind or not. Everyone who can fill out their email form correctly passes and qualifies for a course on starting a business that costs – well, there’s that arm again, along with a leg.

You’ll also find lists ranging from 10 to 50 things you must have in place before you dare to step out on your own. Ten might make sense, 50 is a stopper as far as I’m concerned.

Friends and family will have another set of suggestions about what you need that is often comes in the form of “What! Are you crazy?” or some variant.

While some of this information can be helpful, particularly if you take it in small bites, it can also be so overwhelming it will make you think starting your business is impossible – it’s not. There’s a huge difference between what you really need to start a freelance writing career and what’s nice to have.

Three Must-Haves for a Freelance Writing Career

Here are the three things you absolutely must have to start a freelance writing business:

Some writing talent. You don’t have to be Pulitzer Prize material or in line for a columnist job at, oh say, The Atlantic. You do need the ability to recognize and write complete sentences, do some basic research and recognize that ideas are everywhere. Chances are if you love to read and you grew up in an English speaking country you write well enough.

A computer and an internet connection and somewhere to use it. You can set it up on a desk in your bedroom or, dare I mention, the kitchen table featured in so many get-rich-quick schemes, or on your lap in your living room. I have at one friend who runs the majority of her writing business from various coffee shops around town with her laptop.

A bit of Moxie.  Moxie is an old fashioned word meaning, among other things, including. “1. The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage. 2. … initiative… ”

The Most Important Quality for Writers

Of the three I, suspect moxie is the both the most important and perhaps the most difficult to come by. It’s not the skills that are difficult, although there is certainly some of that required. It’s that “ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage” that can be hard to come by, as well as the “initiative.”

Make no mistake about it, starting a writing business or any other for that matter, requires “imitative” and I can guarantee that you will meet difficulties that a bit of bravery will help you solve.

I know from my email that many who say they want to be freelance writers lack the moxie to do what it takes; I’m not sure why.

Some, of course, are just looking for an easier, softer way.

But many suffer from one or both of two fears – rejection and/or not getting it right.

When you have moxie you may have those feelings, but you don’t let them stop you.

That means that although you’re totally panicked at the idea of submitting a query, you do it anyway. Maybe you set a goal of getting it out in the next five days. Even when the fear becomes so strong you can barely type it out, you do it anyway, and you get it in the mail, E or snail.

Or maybe you want to start corporate writing. You determine to contact one local company a day by email for two weeks. As you compose the email you find you’re making typos because of the fear that someone will laugh at you or that that no one will respond. You send the emails anyway and you do it again the next week, making the emails better each week.

And when you get a response from a query or an email you sent regarding corporate writing you open it right away. And you read it until you’re sure you understand what it says.

If it’s a rejection, and in the beginning it usually is, you take a deep breath, and pin it to the wall in celebration because you’ve begun to actually take the steps that will lead you to a successful freelance writing career.

If, as occasionally happens, it’s an acceptance, you celebrate and then get on with the writing so you can do it all over again.

What do you find you need for your freelance writing business?

Anne Wayman is a ghostwriter and writing coach. You can find her at AboutFreelanceWriting and other websites including PowerfullyRecovered! and WhenGrandmotherSpeaks. Her professional site is AnneWayman.com.

Photo credit: Simon_K

For most new freelance writers, writing rates are arguably the most complicated and frustrating part of their new career, for a variety of reasons.

Increasing your freelance writing rates can be difficult, but it's an important part of your continual development

Thinking back to when I first started freelancing, the primary reasons why it was such a headache topic for me were firstly because I had absolutely no idea what a ‘good’ per word / article rate was and secondly because I was, without sounding a little melodramatic, petrified that if I ever increased my rates, all of my existing clients would leave and I’d have to completely rebuild by client base.

Over the following years, I received some great advice on various aspects of freelance writing rates and now, at the start of every year, I take the time to sit down, review what my rates currently are, whether there is justification to increase them and how exactly to increase them if need be.

And in this two part blog post, I’m going to explain exactly what I do, step-by-step, to hopefully give other freelance writers who are in the position most freelance writers were in once, a helping hand when it comes to increasing your freelance writing rates.

Step 1:  Review my existing rates

When I’m looking at increasing my freelance writing rates, the very first thing I do is review my existing rates and question whether I actually need to increase them.

In all honesty, I haven’t ever said to myself ‘No, I don’t need to raise my freelance writing rates this year’, but I always ask myself the question.

The main reason behind this is an increase in my rates could lead to a drop in business, whether that’s because I’ve continued to raise my rates year-on-year and I’ve priced myself out of the market or the economy has had such a detrimental impact on my target audience that I need to remain as competitive as possible to continue a steady stream of work.

Step 2:  Can I justify increasing my rates?

There is often a belief amongst many new freelance writers that because they’ve been writing at a certain rate for 12 months, the absolutely must increase their rates, irrelevant of any other impacting factor.

The problem is, not all freelance writers can justify increasing their freelance rates, particularly with regards to existing clients.

With new clients, it isn’t such an issue – you’re offering a price for a project and if they can afford it, great, if not, they’ll move on – but with existing clients, you need to be able to justify increasing your rates if you want to remain working with them, as you’re essentially asking for more money for exactly the same output.

One of my favourite methods of justification is being able to prove that the writing I’ve provided over the last year has been particularly beneficial to the client – being able to show actual proof, such as an increased conversion rate or better search engine ranking is fantastic – and without the work, there would be a noticeable drop in certain aspects of their business.

Considering, as freelance writers, we often promote other people’s products and services, I’ve found that a lot of writers struggle with justifying an increase in their rates – the equivalent of basically telling people how good you are.

You don’t need to blow your own trumpet to the customer and make them think you’re the world’s best writer, but you do need to be able to impress them enough for them to see how beneficial the service you provide is.

The information here details two of the three steps I carry out at the start of each year and next week, I’m going to explain how I exactly increase my freelance writing rates after I’ve reviewed my existing rates and justified an increase.

Image:  damozelijane (Flickr)

By Lori Widmer

It’s tough when you’re first building your writing career to make the right choices. The easy choices aren’t necessarily the best choices, but when you’re fresh at it, how do you know?

When I first started freelancing, I chased the money – meaning I never turned down a client no matter how bad the fit was. The result: lousy working conditions, terrible pay, and referrals from cheap clients that led to even more cheap clients. I was stuck in a rut.

No more. Thanks to lessons learned the hard way, and lessons taught by other freelancers, I can now spot a lousy deal in milliseconds. I’ve now adopted three rules by which I judge all clients and offers.

Rule #1: Don’t pay for access to clients. That includes bidding sites, sites that require a fee in exchange for “access” to projects, and clients asking for “processing fees” or any other remuneration in exchange for a job. The idea behind freelancing is to be paid for your work, not the other way around. Worse, these sites often offer “premium” projects the likes of which can be found on Craig’s List – $4 an article? Really?

Rule #2: Don’t bid. Refer to rule #1. Let me qualify this because we do have to provide bids to clients frequently – don’t bid against writers in any open forum. That cheapens both the writer and the fee. Also, don’t bid on any project without contacting the client directly or knowing anything about the project. Instead, set your own rates. Do negotiate with clients so that you come to mutually agreeable terms, but don’t attempt to barter on a job board. You’re a professional. Professionals don’t beg.

Rule #3: Don’t weed through ads. I can’t remember the last time I scored a client gig through an advertised job. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I even looked at the ads. There may be true jewels among the rubble of job listings sites, but each one you find is also being found by thousands of your peers. Instead, choose your own clients and contact them directly offering your services. This does two things – it allows you to reach clients who truly value your skills, and it allows you to control your own earnings. Job listings usually state a rate, and it’s usually not up to what you should be earning.

By following these three rules, you can shed the low-paying gigs and lift yourself and your career out of an ever-deepening rut. It requires a little more work from you, but once you’re earning to your potential, you’ll be glad you put the effort into it.

What rules have you established for yourself and your business?

Lori Widmer is a veteran writer and editor who holds fast to her own rules. Her specialties include business and trade writing, and she teaches marketing and business development skills to freelance writers. Her e-book, The Worthy Writer’s Guide to Building a Better Business, is now available.  She blogs daily at Words on the Page.

Photo credit: Bruno Boutot

Would you consider money to be the most prominent aspect of your success?

There are a lot of great freelance writing blogs out there (including Get Paid To Write Online ) and while I don’t get chance to look at all of them every week, I tend to have a day once every week or two where I go through several blogs and see what other freelance writers are saying.

Earlier on today, I came across a post by Allena Tapia from 4th January where she explained that someone had made a comment on a piece she wrote for The Huffington Post, essentially saying that she wasn’t a successful freelance writer because she had time to volunteer at her child’s school.

Now, I don’t know Allena personally, but from what I’ve read about her / from her, I’d say she was a particularly successful freelance writer and I believe our views on success will be similar – if you can make a full-time living from freelance writing while also being able to live the life you want, that would make you pretty successful in my book.

This person who commented on Allena’s piece, although I don’t agree with their comment, obviously doesn’t believe that this is what success is based on and it appears that they believe the more  time you’re working throughout the day, the more successful you are.

One of the issues – or benefits, depending on which way you look at it – with freelance writing is that as it is such a varied profession, it’s extremely difficult to pigeon hole people into being successful or unsuccessful.

With other careers, there are often pre-planned routes that lead to a specific point whereby you – and people around you – can assume that you’ve become successful within that career.

And while there are some writing career routes that do have more of a structured path, your standard freelance writing career isn’t one of them.

What also makes measuring success difficult as a freelance writer is that success can come in many different forms and your idea of success can change from one form to another over even a short space of time.

For example, when I first started writing, I remember I had the goal of wanting to earn more from freelance writing than I did from my salaried role and once this was complete, I’d consider myself to be a successful writer.

After achieving this goal, however, my idea of success changed and I wanted to write full-time in place of my salaried role – and now my idea of success has changed once again, as I want to continue to increase my income, but lower my working hours.

There’s no doubt that everyone’s view of what it takes to become a successful freelance writer differs – often widely so – but I would go as far to say that the person who commented on Allena’s post was in the minority when judging success, as I don’t believe there are many people out there who truly believe working all the hours available makes you a successful freelance writer.

Image:  tobym (fotopedia)

I enjoyed this guest post from Victoria Virgo, which shows how she has started the writing year right by booting out procrastination.

The first thing is admitting you have a problem. OK, here goes. Hi my name is Victoria and I am a procrastinator. I will find any excuse not to get things done but this year I am trying to figure out how to achieve my goals while suffering from this unfortunate affliction. The good news is that I have now learned a little secret that is helping to keep me on the straight and narrow and towards the righteous path of achievement and success.

It is the beginning of a brand new year and just like scores of other people all over the world I have prepared a well crafted list of things that I hope to achieve over the next 12 months. The majority of New Year’s Resolutions lists normally comprise of something to do with weight loss, perhaps getting a new job or even finding true love. Actually, to be honest with you I have left that last one off my list for this year and am instead opting for a cosy water bottle to keep me warm on a cold night. Well frankly there’s no room left in my bed what with the pile of self help books and self improvement magazines that have now taken up permanent residence on the left side of to the bed.

Anyhoo back to the point of this post – I am sure that by now you can be in no doubt that I am a procrastinator and will take any opportunity to go off at a tangent. Focus, Victoria, focus.

The Secret To Achieving Your Goals

The little secret that I have discovered is actually not that much of a secret. Everyone knows what it is but we seem to conveniently forget it every time we look failure in the eye. The secret to success comes down to proper planning and execution, plain and simple. If you are serious about hitting your targets you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What is My Goal?
• What Do I Need To Do To Achieve This Goal?
• When Do I want To Achieve This By?

As you can imagine, these questions will send someone like me off to procrastination heaven. I have therefore given myself permission to rest my chin in the palms of my hands and look out into the middle distance as I ponder the what’s and wherefores of these three valid points. Actually I allow myself about 5 minutes then snap back to reality and write out a step by step response to each question.

The Goal Setting Process in Action

Here is how I have used this simple process to achieve one of the goals on my New Year’s Resolutions list.

What is My Goal?

To write an article and get it published as a guest blogger.

What Do I Need To Do To Achieve This Goal?

Make a list of blogs that accept guest posts. Find out about the site owner and the type of articles that they are looking for. Create a suitable article and submit it for publication. I will write a fresh new article and submit it to a blog owner at least once a week.

When Do I Want To Achieve This By?

Within 3 months.

The Results

I happily got to work and lookey here, this is my first guest post. Hurrah! By getting organised and breaking my goal into bite size tasks, I was able to tame the procrastinator within and get the job done.

This process can be applied to almost any goal that you set for yourself. Once you know what you want you can then work out the steps you need to take in order to succeed. I hope this approach works for you too. Good luck fellow procrastinators.

(Image: By Jorge Barrios (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Victoria Virgo is a freelance writer from London, England. You can visit her personal blog My Daily Cuppa to discover how she is dealing with procrastination. She also owns Two Pretty Things where she writes reviews on whatever takes her fancy. 

My goals for 2012 seem to revolve around having a happier time - how about yours?

Before Christmas, I explained that I wasn’t going to set any goals for 2012 until after we’d welcomed in the New Year, taking a step back from my usual way of working.

The reason behind this was that I’ve noticed in the past few years that I generally feel different towards freelance writing and my career in general after I’ve had chance to relax and spend time with friends and family, rather than in the often manic month of December.

I did make a few notes about what goals I would have set if I planned them in December and as expected, they have changed, with the following being my goals for the coming year.

1.  Get more into working from home

As some of you will be aware from my previous blog post (Working From Home vs Working In An Office – Which Do You Prefer?), I’m a bit indifferent to working from home at the moment.  After years of working towards having a more flexible schedule, generally revolving around working from home rather than an office, I’m surprised at how I’ve struggled somewhat with working from home.

I believe this is down to the work I carry out (which I’ll cover in goal #2) and the fact that after working in the public sector for the past 8 years, I’ve become somewhat accustomed to an extremely structured way of working.

I’ve always wanted to work from home and so one of my primary aims for 2012 is to embrace working from home as much as possible – it has so many benefits and with so many people stuck in 9 to 5 jobs, I’d be stupid not to savour and enjoy every moment I have to work from home.

2.  Start doing more work I truly enjoy

The last 12 months turned out to be quite a whirlwind time for me in terms of my career, as I changed my salaried role and almost all of my freelance work.

What I’ve realised over the past few weeks is that while the salaried role is great in various respects, from financially to the fact that I get to travel, it’s not something I truly enjoy – unlike my freelance work.

I’m not saying that I’m going to give up my salaried work completely immediately, but by the end of the year, I want to know that I’ve made at least some steps forward to carrying out as much work as possible that I really, really enjoy.

3.  Start improving my working relationships

The past year has been somewhat manic for me and one of the aspects of my career that’s suffered is my relationship with various colleagues.

I started to develop some really great friendships with a lot of freelance writers, but unfortunately, I didn’t get chance to do a lot of socialising and networking in 2011, so they’ve suffered.

For the coming year, I want to get these relationships back to where they were – good working friendships with people I know I can rely on and talk to.

4.  Learn the basics of a few languages

One of my goals for 2011 was to learn French and although I started, I never got round to giving it the time needed to develop my knowledge.

So, for 2012, I want to give learning a language another go, but in a slightly different respect.

I like travelling and wherever possible, I like to try and say a few basic words and phrases.  At best, though, they are basic phrases (and are very often non-existent) and so by the end of 2012, I’m looking to have developed a basic understanding of a few different languages, at least to the extent that I don’t have to consult a phrase book when I want to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you, for example, every time I visit a different country.

For me, those are my goals for 2012.  Not extensive by any means, but each and every one of them has been thought through and I’d be absolutely delighted if I could achieve them all over the coming 12 months.

How about you?  What are your goals for 2012?  My goals seem to revolve heavily around having a better, more enjoyable personal life – do yours or are they more focused on heavily developing your career?

Image:  ucumari (fotopedia)

Spike Wyatt’s book on freelancing grabbed me from the title. ‘Going the Half Hog?’ I asked myself. Did this mean a half hearted approach to freelancing, as opposed to going all out aka the full hog? No, it didn’t. Instead this is a book for those who want to make a part time income or work part time as freelancers.

The book is subtitled Freelancing without Marketing – another draw for me. Sure I can get my writer marketing done in a short time, but not marketing at all? I was intrigued.

Going the Half Hog Contents

I found Spike’s book an easy, no-nonsense read. The contents list includes:

• How to freelance as a writer
• What you need to get started as a half-hogger
• The basics of online content creation
• The “natural marketing” alternative that takes almost no time or effort
• Where to find freelance writing jobs that suit you
• How to sort through the crap jobs and find the gems
• The major ways to earn – all with their pros and cons
• Avoiding the cheats and scams
• The editing and proofreading route to success

The Best Bits of Going the Half Hog

I knew I was going to love the book when I read the disclaimer, which stated: ‘the author has been known to talk crap’. From then on, I was clear that this was going to be a down-to-earth read with no pseudo-guru-speak – yay! And I was right.  Spike promises ‘real information with actual, explicit ideas and guidelines’ and that’s what he delivers. Among my favorite bits were:

• on what clients really want – most just want a reliable, professional writer who will produce high-quality work on time, every time
• on getting paid – Repeat after me: you deserve to be paid the same as full-time freelancers of similar talent for similar work.
• on running a writing business – There is no ‘right’ way to run a business, beyond a few simple concepts such as honesty, integrity, producing quality work and meeting deadlines
• on how to freelance successfully – Provide solutions. Create accurate specifications. Offer simple, clear contracts. Keep deadlines. Do quality work.

I also liked the 5 principles of being a good freelancer – simple rules which anyone can sign up to – and the questions you need to know the answers to when you get started. These are especially useful for new writers. New writers will also get value from the section where Spike provides a simple structure for writing articles for an online audience.

My one point of disagreement with Spike was on the importance of spelling, grammar and punctuation. He says: ‘I’m not saying that spelling, grammar and punctuation are unimportant: they just don’t have to be perfect for the majority of online media.’  I say: people notice these things, even if subliminally, and it’s important to get them right. That’s the only niggle – and I’m still prepared to recommend the book.

I know the experienced writers out there are wondering what’s in it for them. I can tell you where I learned something – in the section on scams and cheats. I’ve seen my share of writing scams, but Spike added a couple twists on them which haven’t yet come my way (probably because I stay off the bidding sites.) It’s always good to know about these things in advance.

The Verdict

Overall, I think Going the Half Hog lives up to its description:

With this unique, straightforward book you’ll learn everything you need to get started as a freelance writer, including content creation, ways to earn online, where to find freelance work that suits your skills and schedule, how to sort through the rubbish jobs and find the gems, how to avoid the cheats and scammers, a “natural marketing” alternative that requires almost no time or effort and lots more to build a solid foundation that you can scale up whenever you want.

With all that value, at $7.50 it’s not hard to see this as a good investment in your writing career.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Going the Half Hog and I like it so much that if you click on the links below and buy it, I might earn a few cents.

Check out Going The Half Hog: Freelance Writing Without Marketing (or the Kindle edition) on Amazon.com

Check out Going the Half Hog: Freelance Writing Without Marketing (or the Kindle Edition) on Amazon.co.uk

Could this really be the best way to work?

Over the last few years, I’ve worked in a variety of different roles while being a freelance writer, from an MIS Officer through to a consultant for a technology company.

Up until 2011, all of my freelance writing work was carried out on an evening and weekend.

It started off as a way to fill some spare time I had, developed into a way for me to be able to work for myself and has now opened up a range of opportunities, both writing and non-writing related.

At the moment, I’m a freelance writer for half of the week and I’m in a salaried role for the other half.

For both, I’m predominantly home based.  While there’s a lot of travel involved with the salaried role and I do have to travel occasionally for the freelance writing part of my work, I spend a lot of time working from home.

This started in the summer of 2011, working a day or two from home and in November 2011 it grew to being working from home for most of the week.

At first, I thought it was great and to a certain extent today, I still do think it’s great – the freedom is fantastic and I’m not restricted to working 9am to 5pm.

One of the major pitfalls I’ve discovered about working from home, however, is that it can be particularly lonely, something I’ve discussed previously.

While I thought I’d be able to get past this loneliness, it’s actually proving a lot more difficult than I first thought and before Christmas I started to make more of an effort to get out of my house, spending more time on-site and visiting clients.

This last week, however, I’ve started to wonder whether I’d be better suited to going back to an office based job – a writing / communications one – even for a day or two a week, simply for the social aspect.

What’s slightly confusing for me is that I love my own space.  Sure, I love spending time with my Better Half and seeing friends, but I’m quite happy to be left by myself to do whatever I want.

When it comes to work, though – and I never thought I’d say this – I do miss the general day-to-day interaction with others.

My work doesn’t suffer in any respect by working from home and I don’t think it ever will, as I love the work, but it’s just that it can be slightly difficult, on occasion, to get motivated without anyone to bounce ideas off or to simply have a chat to.

For those of you who have worked both from home and in an office, which do you prefer?

And for those who’ve only worked in one or the other, have you considered working in the other?  Do you think it would be more beneficial to you as an individual?

Image:  fancycwabs (Flickr)

Happy New Year! I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions this year. They just don’t work for me. Instead of focusing change on a single date and period in the year, I’ve found that true change finds its own level. It happens when you are ready to take the steps to make it work – and that can be at any time of year.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t have plans and goals. I most certainly do. Last year’s goals included broadening my client list, which I achieved, and it remains on my list for this year. As planned I increased the number of clients in my local area, though I still haven’t done any local marketing to speak of. I didn’t make as much progress with ebooks as I intended, so I want to rectify that this year, and also reissue my most popular ebook, Getting Started in Blogging, for the Nook platform.

This year’s list looks pretty much like last year’s, though I am considering a couple of new moves like:

• unsubscribing from all email newsletters and mailing lists and seeing if I miss any of them (with the exception of one I pay for which I know is valuable)
• closing all the accounts for online tools which I no longer use
• shifting business interaction from my Facebook page to Google+ (I don’t know if my 300+ fans would be upset or whether they would move with me)
• sticking rigidly to a four day work week (I have tried this before, with limited success)

This last one will be the key to making all my other goals work and avoiding burnout, so it’s the one I’m going to focus on first. To make it work, I’ll need to structure my client load carefully and be more efficient on those four days. Wish me luck – and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Start 2012 with a bang by improving your social network activity

Happy New Year!

I hope you’ve all had a fantastic Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful 2012.

Over Christmas, I took the time to look at the blog posts I’d made throughout the year and realised that I hadn’t talked much about activity on social networks, something I strongly believe is imperative to the continued development and success of any freelance writer.

Therefore, linked in with New Year’s Resolutions, take a look at the following five tips, which explain how to boost your freelance writing career on social networks in 2012.

1.  Sick to the 80/20 rule

One of the most valuable pieces of information I’ve ever come across in relation to activity on social networks is to always stick to a 80/20 balance – 80% useful, interesting and helpful information, 20% sales, self-promotion and direct career progression talk.

There are far too many people out there who use Twitter, for example, for nothing other than publishing their latest blog posts.  As great as this can be when integrated with a larger strategy, it won’t do much at all without other tweets that are helpful or informative to your followers.

2.  Don’t blatantly advertise.  Not all the time, anyway.

Just because 20% of your social network activity should be activity that directly helps you to progress, you should refrain from blatant advertising.

Social networks are just that – social.  If you were in a room with 100 people, would you stand up and say “Hey, hire me, I’m a fantastic writer!”?  Chances are you would do it in a much more social, conversational manner, such as speaking to a few individuals, explaining that you’ve got some availability as a writer, you feel you could help their organization and if they’d like to chat, you would happily give them a call.

Of course, a little blatant advertising isn’t going to damage your reputation massively, but keep it to an absolute minimum.

3.  Remember you’re a brand

Although you’re a single individual, as a freelance writer, you’re also a brand and you need to ensure that you keep this in mind at all times, not just when you’re looking at activity on social networks.

What I find works best is if you think of yourself as an organization with a few employees and carry out your activity like this.  You’re still going to want a few personal comments in your activity, but refrain from – or at least think intently about – making comments that are too personal and may impact upon your career, such as political comments.

4.  Little and often is better than bulk

With so many things to do as a freelance writer, it can be difficult fitting in regular social network activity, with many people putting aside time once or twice a week to dedicate to their activity.

While there’s no doubt some activity is better than none, it will always be much more effective if you set aside time every day to carry out a little activity, rather than a lot of activity once a week.

5.  Don’t let it take over your life

One of the problems I have with social network activity personally is that 10 minutes can easily turn into two hours, which ends up having a detrimental impact on my schedule as a whole.

Linked in with point four, a properly created social network schedule – and one that you ensure you abide by – will ensure that you really do only spend the right amount of time on your chosen social networks each day.

Whichever social networks you choose, you can be certain that by following these five points, you will continue to progress as a freelance writer and develop your career overall.

Image:  suneko (Flickr)