Is it too early for a Christmas tree image?!

One of the most attractive aspects of being a freelance writer for me has always been the ability to work as and when I want to.

I have realised over the last few months that I work longer hours compared to when working in an office, but I still have the option to choose when I work.

I’ve always loved Christmas.  I’m in my mid-twenties now and I still get as excited as I did when I was seven or eight years old.

Due to this – and the fact it’s one of only a handful of times throughout the year where I get to spend a lot of time with various friends and family, rather than just a fleeting visit or a quick conversation – I always ensure that I have the full Christmas period off.

Sure, I tend to jump on my e-mails once or twice, but I organize all of my work beforehand so that I deliver before I take a break for Christmas, whether the deadline is the 24th December or the 1st January.

This does often mean that December is a busy month – not in terms of average workload, but because I’m trying to finish a month’s worth of work in two or three weeks – but I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s the same with vacations.  Whenever I head away for a week in the sun or even a long weekend city break, I very rarely do any form of work while I’m away, including checking my e-mails – I’d much rather work a few early mornings and late nights before I go to get ahead.

When I’ve spoken to other freelance writers – and other freelancers in general – I’ve realised that this isn’t always the case and many freelancers prefer to do a little each day, rather than have a full week or two off after a mad few weeks beforehand.

At first, I was quite surprised by this, but I have come to realise that apart from  the fact we’re not all the same, working little and often can have its benefits when compared to working a lot and then taking a long break.

You don’t have to reorganize your calendar massively; there’s no need to have long days doing nothing but working and you’re free to enjoy your time equally, whether it’s between Christmas and New Year or on the lead up to the holidays.

As a freelance writer, what do you prefer?  I don’t know what I’d do without that long Christmas break and for me, I can’t see it working any other way.

Image:  FreeFoto

What type of working environment do you find suits you best?

When I started writing on a freelance basis, I was doing so on an evening while I still lived at home with my parents and worked in a full time salaried role.

Being a typical family, it was very rarely quiet throughout the house and so I carried out almost all of my work on a laptop while sat on my bed.

I’d have no TV on, no music on and I’d try and ignore every other possible distraction, such as my mobile phone or websites like YouTube and Facebook.

While I now live with my fiancé in our own house and have done for over three years, up until recently I still found that I would follow the same working habits – get in from work, get changed and then sit on the bed with my laptop and work.

I think the reason behind this may have been the comfort aspect as well as a conducive to work one – not so much in the physical comfort sense (although working while sat on a bed is no doubt comfortable), but the psychological sense.

And for the most part, I’ve believed that this working environment – quiet, out of the way and distraction free – has been the one that has worked best for me.

Since I’ve cut down on the salaried work and have been able to spend more time at home, however, I’ve been able to try different ways of working and realised that my previous way actually may not have been the most effective.

For example, I’ve found that working in an environment that isn’t one where you would traditionally relax does generally help me from being distracted by things I would otherwise do in those environments.

A prime example is working from the lounge. If I’m on my laptop while sat on the sofa, usualy I’m usually either playing games or checking YouTube. Therefore, when I’m working from the lounge, psychologically my mind’s confused why I’m doing work and not having fun and this appears to constantly be at the front of my mind.

Should I work from the dining room, however, I can effectively treat it as an office. I can spread out over the dining room table and because I don’t usually do anything but eat in that room, I find it a lot easier to get into that working frame of mind – and stick to it.

I’ve also discovered that some distractions are good, as by answering my mobile phone every now and again, I find that I keep the calls short and dive straight back into work.

Previously, when I essentially forbid myself from going on the phone while working, I was always clock watching, as when I took a break, I could go on my phone, but then I’d always spend longer on it than I probably should have done.

We all have our own working environments and after several years of freelance writing, I’m still trying to find which works best for me.

Over these last few weeks, though, it’s made me wonder whether or not there is just the one perfect writing environment or whether change is something that we need to embrace to continue to be effective freelance writers producing high quality work.

Image: Constance Wiebrands (Flickr)

Although there aren't myriad culprits here, there are a myriad of culprits

Every now and again here at Get Paid To Write Online, I make a post about words or languages.

Things have been somewhat hectic over the last few months and so my working time has been dedicated more to delivering piece after piece than thinking about the various different aspects of writing.

I’m writing this on a Sunday afternoon, however and it’s the first time in a while that I’ve had the opportunity to kick back and look at some of the notes I’ve made over the last few months when it comes to words and languages.

This may sound like a somewhat childish way of working, but whenever I come across a word I don’t know the full meaning of or that I simply think is interesting and want to know more about, I jot it down.

And one of the most prominent words on my list at the moment is myriad.

I don’t use myriad in my writing much.  It’s not because I don’t know what it means or that I can’t fit it into a piece anywhere, but I’ve always thought of it as being somewhat of a traditional, slightly older word.

I’ve just carried out some research into it, however and it’s actually a particularly interesting word.

I always thought that myriad was a word that simply referred to a large number, such as a ‘myriad of people in the street’ or a ‘myriad of boats on the ocean’, but when you look at it’s first usage as a Greek word, it actually referred to the specific number 10,000 and was used to refer to multiples thereof (‘four myriad of people’ for 40,000 people, for example).

While I thought this was interesting enough, I also found out that in the modern day, not only can myriad be used as an adjective, but as a noun, too, making the sentence “there were myriad people outside today” a perfectly correct one.

Another word on my list that I find interesting is culprit and the origin behind this word is arguably more interesting than myriad.

Around 350 years ago, whenever someone was taken to court and asked how they pleaded to a crime, they would give their response and the court clerk would then say “Guilty; ready to pursue or aver our indictment”, which essentially meant that they were ready to start the trial against the person in question.

At the time, French was the official legal written language and so “Guilty; ready to pursue or aver our indictment”, when translated into French, is “Culpable; prest d’averrer nostre bille”.

Similar to legal writings today, this was shortened when written and was noted down as “Cul; prist”.

As with the vast majority of words, over time, this began to be read – and said – as “cul.prit”, eventually developing into simply “culprit” and relating solely to the person being accused of a crime.

Words and languages continue to amaze me each and every day and these two words are prime examples of how fascinating words and languages from all around the world and from right throughout history can be.

Image:  mycebuphotoblog (Flickr)

As a freelance writer, do you know where you have to go next?

Every now and again, I take some time out from work and just look and what I’ve been doing, what I was doing a few weeks or months previously and what I’ve got lined up in the coming weeks and months.

I don’t schedule the time in or set aside hours, I just usually grab a cup of coffee, sit back from my computer and simply have a think.

By doing this, it does two things that have been useful for both me as a person and a freelance writer.

The first is that it allows me to see just how far I’ve come. By looking back on the work I was doing six months ago and what I’m doing now, it gives me a feeling of positivity and a sense of achievement, something that spurs me on to continue working and investing the necessary time.

The second point is that it gives me the opportunity to know whether or not I need to amend what I’m doing as a freelance writer and work out just what my next move needs to be.

For example, when I took some time out to reflect and plan in May / June time of this year, things were looking particularly busy over the summer, largely because I was to start some consultancy work.

I realised that as the consultancy work was going to take up a lot of my time over the next 12 weeks at least, there was no way I would have been able to deliver on each and every regular freelance writing project I had at the time.

I worked out which ones I enjoyed, which gave the best financial return against the time required to complete the project and then passed on any work I was unable to complete to other writers.

By doing this, I was able to not only ensure I continued to maintain a high level of service to my freelance writing clients, but that I was able to devote enough time to the consultancy work, while also having the opportunity to take some time out over the summer.

When I’m looking at what my next move needs to be as a freelance writer at present, one of the most notable points is that it’s time to raise my prices.

It’s been almost two years since I’ve increased my freelance writing rates and although I have carried out several projects over that time that worked out to be higher than my rate card, it’s now time to bring my rate card to this increased level as a standard.

In addition to this, I need to set aside some time to get things properly organized, with set schedules and processes.

At the moment, I’m effectively working four jobs – two salaried, one freelance for an agency and one freelance writing for various clients – and although I’m about to leave one of the salaried roles, the agency work is developing tremendously and I need to ensure that the next few months are properly structured so I can continue to meet the needs of all clients.

We’ll be looking properly at your achievements in 2011 and your goals for 2012 before Christmas, but up until then, have a think about what you’ve achieved over the last few months and what your plan is for the next few months – do you know what your next move needs to be?

Image:  leslie feinberg (Flickr)

Do you really understand just how lonely a freelance writing career can be?

I didn’t always know that it was freelance writing I wanted to do as a career, but from being 8 or 9 years old, I’ve always known that I wanted to be my own boss, something that I always thought would lead me to working as and when I wanted, whether from home or my business’s offices.

To me, it was always the way that I would know I’d ‘made it’ – if I could choose where and when I worked, that meant I was the boss and could make my own rules. It was as simple as that.

When I started freelance writing – and for many years to start with – I worked freelance alongside a full time, salaried position.

I’d go to the 9 to 5 job during the day and then spend all evenings and weekends writing. Yeah, it got to the point where I was really struggling to keep all of the plates spinning, but I managed to do it, as I knew that it would eventually lead to me achieving my goal of being self-employed full time.

Earlier this year, I accepted a part time salaried position that was extremely flexible. I took it because aside from being tired of what was then my current salaried position, the flexibility meant I could work as and when I wanted, which was one step closer to me achieving my overall goal.

And that’s when I realised my goal had to change somewhat.

With the new salaried role, I had to – and still do – work from home. Great. It sounded perfect to start with.

However, it started to get a bit problematic a few weeks in.

Sure, it was great not having to get up early to shower and get ready for work – I could (and hey, it’s turned into a bit of a habit) get up a little later than normal, do some work for an hour or so while having a coffee and then go get showered when I’ve caught up with my e-mails – but after a few weeks of spending all day behind a computer, I realised something that I never thought I would – I was missing people.

I can be a sociable guy. I like hosting parties and I like chatting with friends and family. I’ve even got a bit of a penchant for meeting new people at the minute. But I do like my own time and I’m just as happy reading a book completely on my own as I am mingling with a group of people. It’s because of this reason why I always thought I’d be absolutely fine when it came to working by myself full time.

I don’t think anyone can actually prepare you for it, though.

When you’re working in an office job for 8 hours a day, although you’re in the office, you don’t actually work for all of those 8 hours. You have a lunch break. You make coffee a few times. You go to the toilet.

Sure, you do all of those things when you’re working from home, but without one thing – human interaction.

There’s no going for lunch with a colleague. No having a quick gossip while the kettle boils. No bumping into a colleague for a chat when you’re going to the toilet. None of that.

You can’t even bounce ideas off a colleague without having to jot them down in an e-mail, send them across and wait for their reply.

And the truth is, it’s actually really, really difficult to cope with.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve taken on more projects where I can actually get out of the house and the agency work I talked about last week is increasing day-by-day, which means more meetings, more trips to the office and more interaction with others.

It’s not great all the time, I say that openly, but when you’re given the option of sitting behind a computer by yourself for 8 hours or doing some travelling to a meeting, I know which one I now choose.

Don’t get me wrong, I love freelance writing and I always will, but I think it’s important for new writers to be aware that it can be a lonely career and it could be worthwhile getting into the mindset from the start that you shouldn’t be aiming to working from home all of the time.

Image:  diamond geezer (Flickr)

Understandably, you'd be annoyed with this typo - but should you be annoyed at every typo?

As a writer, most people expect me to be really pedantic when it comes to spelling and grammar.  I’m not just talking about in the business world here, either – some family and friends tend to look at me in a certain way if we’re, for example, sat in a restaurant and there’s a spelling mistake on the menu.

And to a certain extent, mistakes with spelling and grammar do get to me – I hate it when I’m reading a marketing e-mail or something particularly formal, like a company report and there are glaringly obvious mistakes.

However, maybe I’m the odd one out here, but generally speaking, I don’t think the occasional typo or grammatical error is that big of a deal outside of formal instances.

I make spelling and grammar mistakes occasionally – we all do.  I’ve made them here at Get Paid To Write Online before and OK, I understand that this is a freelance writing blog and these types of mistakes shouldn’t be apparent, but it does get to me a little if after spending time writing a post, the only point someone can comment about is if there’s a typo in it.

Just to clarify, I’m talking about Get Paid To Write Online purely for the fact it acts as the perfect example to my point.

My problem is that Get Paid To Write Online is a social blog where writers can talk openly about any topic they want and receive help and advice on progressing in their freelance writing career.

In essence, the blog is a networking group where you can share your thoughts and ideas, ask questions and generally socialise with other writers, right?

Therefore, if you entered an offline networking group with other people similar to you and someone pronounced a word wrong when speaking, would you focus solely on that one word, rather than what they were talking to you about?

I do, genuinely, understand why people – particularly writers – get annoyed when they see a piece scattered with spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.  As I said, this gets to me, too – in certain instances.

At the end of the day, blogs like Get Paid To Write Online are social blogs.  None of us have to participate here in a way that means we have to get every single word correct because, simply put, we aren’t under any pressure – making a spelling mistake here isn’t going to cost us a project or a contract.

N.B. – I’ve read through this a few times and I’m aware it might come across a little aggressive!  I really don’t mean it to be like that, I simply wanted to get across the point that from my view, a spelling mistake on a blog where you’re interacting with friends and colleagues shouldn’t be that much of an issue because it isn’t going to have a detrimental effect on your career or finances. 

Image:  fusionmonkey (Flickr)

Can offering your services at a reduced price have a negative effect?

I had today’s post written and ready to publish, but earlier in the week something happened which made me put my original post back a week and write this post instead.

Recently, a writer friend contacted me asking if I would be interested in any 500 word pieces on a range of different topics, up to around 100 pieces. I’ve known the guy for quite a while now, although he’s only a relatively new writer.

For these pieces, he was asking for $20 each. This is well below the rate I’ve paid for work from him in the past, but as he happily approached me with this offer, I wasn’t overly concerned at the fact that the rate was low.

Sure, I’d never willingly ask a writer – or in fact anyone else – to produce work for me at a price that I knew was well below their standard rate, but I trust the writer and assume he knows what’s doing in most respects.

I didn’t need all of the 100 articles, so I got in touch with a few writers and colleagues to ask if they would be interested in taking him up on the offer. Some people said yes, others said no.

Later that day, I mentioned it on Twitter. A few people got in touch wanting more details and Carol Tice replied to the tweet saying that she believed the rate was particularly low – something that I do agree with.

I explained that although the rate was low, the guy was offering the articles at a reduced price that was – in my eyes – too good to turn down, using the phrase “I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth”.

Carol replied that from her view, she didn’t think $20 a piece was a gift.

Now, before we go any further, I just want to make it completely clear that I respect Carol as a writer immensely and this isn’t in any way, shape or form an argument, but simply my thoughts on the topic after what Carol said.

On one hand, charging $20 a piece isn’t a great price. I’ve talked about this before, albeit on the lower price of $10 a piece, but the same principle applies – many writers often see $50 a piece as an absolute bare minimum that they could deliver a piece of work for.

Furthermore, as I said above, I wouldn’t expect a writer to create a piece for me at $20 a piece if I was to approach them and I know other writers wouldn’t expect me to create pieces at $20 each either.

On the other hand, however, this guy was offering these pieces at a reduced price for what I can only assume was to raise the awareness of him as a writer. There’s no doubt that the price was great for buyers and although it’s not fantastic for him, he must have done his calculations to know that he could afford to deliver the work at that price.

Although I can see the point that the writer should be charging more per piece, but if this is a promotional offer and he can get 100 articles at $20 a piece after only what was initially one e-mail, that’s $2,000 he may not have otherwise had.

In my eyes, it’s no different to when I walk into the supermarket and see a new bottle of wine on offer at £5 when it should be £10. I’ll buy it and if I like it, I’ll go back and buy it again, whether it’s still on offer or not. If I don’t like it, I won’t buy it again, irrelevant of the price.

I can see the point that I believe Carol – and no doubt many other writers – makes and that if you’re charging a low price for your work, you’re going to always be expected to deliver work at that price, but if everyone is aware it’s an offer or promotion, would this still happen?

I’ve offered similar things in the past, asking regular clients if they’d like additional work carried out on top of their standard project for a reduced price – mainly maintain that positive working relationship – and I can’t think of an instance where it’s had a negative effect.

Really interested in knowing what others think on this. There are plenty more experienced writers than me out there and this could be something that I’ll happily admit I was taking the wrong view on

Image:  mediaboytodd (Flickr)

I've been here at GetPaidToWriteOnline.com a whole year!

One year and one week ago, I wrote my first post here at GetPaidToWriteOnline.com.

I honestly don’t know where the time has gone.

I remember being at my parents, having dinner about 13 or 14 months ago, checking Twitter on my phone and happening to see a tweet by Sharon explaining that she was looking for a new blogger.

I dropped her an e-mail, we discussed a few things and a few weeks later I was publishing my first post.

54 posts later and I can honestly say that my weekly post here is one of my regular pieces of work that I look forward to most.

I’ve met a massive amount of people while being here and feel extremely honoured that this blog continues to get a substantial number of visitors each week coming back to read the posts that I put up (and Sharon’s, Dana’s and every guest writer’s, of course!).

So first of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to both Sharon for allowing me to continue writing here after what has been a fantastic 12 months and to each and every one of you for reading my posts and taking the time to comment.

Honestly, thank you.

Now it’s time for the apology.

As many of you will be aware from my previous posts, a while ago I decided not to go freelance full time.  It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for years, but when it came to the point in my life where I had the opportunity to do so, I realised that it wasn’t going to be the best move at this moment in time and I opted for a consultancy role that was too good to pass up on, on a part time basis, solely so it allowed me to freelance still.

However, as some of you will have noticed, aside from my weekly posts, my presence in the freelance writing community has been diminishing over the past few months, to the point where I haven’t even responded to comments on my own posts.

The reason behind this is that – and this is actually a little difficult to say – I think I had taken too much on.

My initial plan was to leave my office job, spend three days on the consultancy role and two days freelancing.

It hasn’t worked out exactly as planned, though.  I’ve ended up staying on for two days a week in my office job for a few months and my consultancy role involves more travelling than I first anticipated.  This isn’t a bad thing as I love travelling, but by adding three or four hours onto the end of my day, it’s three or four hours that I would have otherwise been freelancing.

I think the perfect analogy of what’s been happening is to think of the various aspects of my working life as spinning plates.  I’ve managed to keep them all spinning relatively well for a few years now, but in recent months some of the plates have been neglected, such as the freelance writing community interaction, which is something I miss dearly.

And it’s for this reason why firstly, I apologise and secondly, I’ve started to reschedule my working life so it’s a lot more manageable.

I’ve had a few relationships with freelance writing clients that have come to a natural end in recent weeks and I haven’t replaced them and I’m trying to focus a lot more on the projects I really enjoy working on – such as writing this weekly blog post – as simply put, I’d much rather be working on projects I find personally attractive rather than financially attractive.

The thank you, the apology and now for the question.

I know it may only seem like a small aspect to some of you, but I really have missed being involved in the freelance writing community.  I’ve started to go back and respond to comments from recent weeks, but it’s not the same as being actively involved and getting the feeling that you’re truly a part of a community.

Therefore, the question I want to ask is just a short one, but one I really want to know the answer to.

How are you?

Image:  jessica diamond (Flickr)

Would you consider something other than money as payment for your freelance writing services?

I’m a big fan or having lots of ideas on the go at once, thinking about them in short bursts on a sporadic basis, as I’ve found that, personally, if you’re focused on just one thing at any one time, you can become too obsessed with it and everything else can be neglected.

If I’m mulling over several thoughts and ideas at once, however, I find that they naturally bounce off each other, often producing answers to questions or additional thoughts.

One of those questions that I’ve been thinking about for several months now is whether or not I’d ever write for something other than money.

Although I’d been thinking about this before our trip, this all started properly after a visit to New York.  My fiancé and I are in love with New York City and try to visit whenever we get the opportunity.

After our last visit, I remember sitting down and thinking that if the hotel we stay at required some type of writing produced on a regular basis, I’d happily accept a stay in the hotel rather than money.

The same thing happened a few weeks ago when we visited one of our favourite local restaurants.  After we’d finished off our food and wine and chatted with the owners, I realised that I’d be more than happy to provide my writing or consultancy services in return for a regular meal at the restaurant.

I even remember having the same thought when I was looking into getting an iPad.

After thinking about this for months, it got to the point where I was about to begin putting together a pitch and package for some businesses, starting off with the usual information about being freelance writer and the services I offer, but explaining that I wouldn’t be looking for payment in the financial sense.

There was, of course, more to it than this, but you get the idea – I was happy to receive some type of reward other than money for my services.

Before I finished drafting the pitch and package, I had a change of mind and the main reason behind it was that as fantastic as it would have been to know that I could have travelled to New York without having to worry about arranging accommodation or be able to book a meal at a favourite restaurant without having to think about cost, it wouldn’t be a great way to live financially.

At this moment in time, I’m not in the financial position where I want to be in my life.  I’m not ‘off schedule’ so to speak, but I have somewhat of a loose path that I want to follow throughout life when it comes to money and I don’t feel that offering my services on a general basis for something other than money would be the best option.

For example, lets say I was working with a technology outlet and they were paying me £400 a month to produce their blog posts and rewrite their website content.

If they pay me £400 a month in cash, that’s £400 that can be put towards anything I want to, be it grocery shopping or a holiday.

If they were to pay me in something other than money, such as gift vouchers worth more than £400 or the latest piece of technology every month, as fantastic as that would be, it would be extremely restrictive and it would mean that I was, in effect, earning £400 less each month.

I honestly think that providing your services for something other than money is a great idea and one that could be particularly attractive to businesses.  It’s something that I’m not not going to do at all just yet, but what I’d receive in return for my services would have to either be particularly useful to me or be the better option to the traditional financial payment.

Have you ever received something other than money for your freelance writing services?  If you have, would you ever consider doing it again?  If not, is this something you would think about for the future?

Image:  HowardLake (Flickr)

Do you find you work on freelance writing projects, in one way or another, from sunrise to sunset?

Last week, Carol Tice made a post on her blog about practical tips for freelance writers, from freelance writers and as you’d expect, the post was really informative.

Although each point mentioned could be talked about in-depth, the second one that was mentioned in Carol’s list – relating to how much time you spend outside away from your ‘writing cave’ – made me stop and think.

For the past two years at least, I’ve focused the work side of my life on freelance writing.

Even though I’ve been working in a salaried role alongside my freelance writing career, as I knew my daily tasks from the salaried role inside out and I could effectively carry them out on autopilot, I had no need to think about that side of my work in-depth and it has seemed that any work related thoughts I’ve had have been around freelance writing.

However, it wasn’t until I recently accepted another salaried role which has meant I’ve had to spend time focusing on that that I’ve realised just how wrapped up I’ve been in the freelance writing world.

On a morning, I would wake up and while still in bed, check my e-mails on my iPhone.

I’d then jump in the shower and while getting ready, have a look on Twitter to see if there was anything I needed / could reply to (I use Twitter almost exclusively for business purposes).

Working on writing projects at various points throughout the day, any breaks I had would be spent on freelance writing blogs, interacting with other writers in the community, pitching ideas to editors, contacting potential clients or replying to e-mails, all related in some way to freelance writing.

Although I’ve always thought that this was a positive experience – being so heavily involved in the freelance writing world – it’s only since I’ve been effectively forced to think about something else in terms of work that I’ve realised being so focused on freelance writing isn’t necessarily all good.

When you’re so involved with a topic, it can be difficult to think about something else and your concentration can start to lapse – we’ve all been there where we’ve worked on a certain project for so long that the words on the screen start to blur, the creative juices are reduced to a trickle and the only way to get back on track is to take a break for a while.

By focusing on another work related topic, it’s given me a break from freelance writing – one that I didn’t think I needed but which I obviously did – and I’ve found that things have been different, in a positive way, ever since.

I’m focusing better, words are flowing easier and everything seems to be a whole lot more organized.

Of course, there’s every chance that this could just be psychological and nothing has changed at all, but I feel confident when saying that focusing my attention on something other than freelance writing in recent weeks has only benefited my freelance writing career.

How many breaks do you take from freelance writing during the day?  How about during the week?  Do you have anything else to focus on or do you think that being so intensely involved in freelance writing is benefiting you immensely?

Image: Graham Loveland