Let me start this post by saying I’m lucky enough right now to not have any writing schedule gaps. It’s not always easy to fill your time with writing gigs but when it’s a feast, it’s often mayhem. I tore myself away from a busy schedule (‘cuz I’m nice like that)  to write to you today with suggestions for how to fill the time when you have gaps in your freelance writing schedule.

1. Marketing

The best way to ensure you’re feasting rather than scraping by is to keep marketing. Don’t wait until things are dead slow to do it, if at all possible. When you do have a lag or opening in your schedule, spend extra time on marketing yourself and you won’t likely be seeing too many droughts in the future. Always plan to market but pump up your marketing efforts when you have available cycles.

2. Passive Writing Income

There are some writers who pay their mortgage each month with a cheque from one of the revenue share programs. The great thing about these sites is that one article could earn you income indefinitely. When you have time to spare, take the time to write for sites like: eHow, HubPages, Askables, InfoBarrel, Bukisa, and others and you could afford to take time off more often because you could earn 3 or 4 figures monthly from a small amount of effort. (Note: It often takes time to build these up so it’s not realistic to expect huge success with them over night). If you don’t want to share your income in a rev share program, develop your own content sites or blogs. After all, people are often paying YOU to do this so why not do it for yourself and reap the rewards of residual income?

3. Job Hunting

Cruise job boards like Deb Ng’s Freelance Writing Jobs or Clint Osterholz’s Tuesday column with high-paying writing gigs to keep your eye out for future gigs. Want to write in a certain market? Send out some queries. Want to be on top of job postings? Set some Google Alerts to send you job links when new gigs get posted.

4. Networking

Networking is invaluable when you’re a freelance web writer. Networking with other writers can help you improve your skills and stay up to date on market conditions, tools, and trends.  Networking with your existing and past customers can also bring about new gigs and referrals. Network by hopping onto social media tools, checking out online webinars and chats, or by touching base through e-mail or phone.

5. Chillaxing

When was the last time you took a day off? Regular working Joes and Janes have no idea how many hours freelancers actually put in. Most of us work every day and many of us put in more than ten hours a day.  If you’re fresh out of writing work, give yourself a chance to relax. Maybe work a bit on that fiction novel you’ve been working on / planning / thinking about or spend some time with your family watching a movie with a smorgasbord of snacks and NO pressure to get back to the computer.

What do you do when you have a break in your freelance writing schedule?

(photo: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/jan-willem)

5 Ways to Fill a Freelance Writing Schedule Gap is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

In my last post I talked about the need for a thick freelance writing skin but let’s delve a bit deeper. Beyond being able to take it on the chin once in a while, there will be times when you need to act after being criticised. What should a writer do when a freelance client hates the work they’ve turned in?

If everything you write is getting rejected that’s a bigger problem than I’m prepared to deal with here but if you’re like most freelance writers you get it right most of the time but have the odd occasion crop up where a client doesn’t beam with joy after you’ve sent them your work. An important first question to ask is “Why?”

Why might the writing piece not be what they want?

• Did the client not communicate clearly?
• Did you have an ‘off’ day?
• Was your chosen writing voice wrong for the client’s project?
• Is the client just difficult? Maybe even Bob Bly wouldn’t have impressed them much. (hey, I bet it even happens to Bob once in a while)

What should you do?

1. Try to make it right.

That’s it. No alternatives.

How do you make it right? Ask the client how.  Very often, their response will immediately tell you which of the above categories fits and then you can decide how to move forward. There are times when a simple revision will help, and there are going to be times when you need to spend a lot of time on rewrites. There will also be the odd occasion where you’ll both decide to move on and probably won’t work together again. If you do your best to try to make it right, you can walk away looking and feeling like a professional.

How you make things right is going to depend on the scenario. It might involve a quick fix. Or, you could work tirelessly until they’re happy. You could discount the project so they can hire a rewriter themselves (not typically advisable). Or, you could tell the client your rewrite fee (because you clearly followed their directions and now they’re trying to ask for things outside the scope of the original writing contract) and see if they’re willing to pay for a revision before you touch the work again. Try to take a careful look at each situation before reacting.

Tips for Reducing the Likelihood of the Client Hating Your Writing Work

-Adequate research. Make sure you write with the appropriate amount of authority and that will usually take at least some research. The amount of research should be reflected in your price quote. No one should be willing to spend all day searching for a $15 article. Are you quoting based on the required effort? If you quote a client too low, chances are that you won’t deliver what they want because you won’t spend an adequate amount of time on it. In your mind, you’ve probably assigned a time value to the piece of work because of the dollar value you’ve quoted.

-Ask the client for examples of the writing style they like. They may have a white paper or an article somewhere that could help you find the perfect voice and style for their project.

-Ask explicit questions about the project  before you write. (I always say, “Better questions now than rewrites later.”)Too many writers don’t ask questions to find out what their client wants. I have a questionnaire that I give new clients for their projects.  Your client questionnaire is probably going to be a living document as it’ll change based on your offerings and your experience. Hopefully you don’t deal with negative client reactions often but each difficult project you have will probably teach you something about yourself, your skills, and about how to handle client problems in the future.

Don’t Get Frustrated. Get Prepared Instead

Here’s my advice:  Be prepared for a rewrite every time. If you find yourself feeling like you are getting frustrated about rewrite requests, it’s a good idea to consider when sending in a project that it’s always going to be a first draft. If you always anticipate at least one rewrite in terms of planning your time and pricing out the project, you’ll feel much less frustration when you’re asked for a rewrite. If you have any sage words of advice for dealing with clients that hate something you’ve written, please share!

When the Client Hates Your Writing is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Some people who write for the web do it for money. Some do it for the passion of writing. Most that do it do it for both reasons.  Unless you’re writing for yourself in a journal nobody will ever see or on a website that doesn’t allow others to post comments (and you never Google yourself to see if anyone is talking about you), you’re opening yourself up to criticism. Freelance writing requires a thick skin at times.

When someone doesn’t like something you’ve written it can be hard on the ego.  Sometimes the client is right.  Sometimes, the client is wrong.  Sometimes neither of you is wrong. It’s important to realise that this can be a very subjective industry. What you deem as a perfect paragraph just might not resonate with your client. Try not to take it too hard. It happens to Pulitzer Prize winners, too.

Fear of Rejection

Do you hesitate to query for a writing job due to potential rejection? Do you sit on pins and needles, waiting for a reaction on work you’ve done? Very few successful published authors have never had a rejection. Freelance writers are brave. You open yourself up to potential criticism on a daily basis. But, it’s a necessity.

Every time I submit something to a client for their review, there’s a chance that I’ll get a less than delighted reaction. Time teaches you a lot of things and time with clients will teach you about what it is that they deem ideal for their projects.

The first dealings with a new client are a time of risk. Recently I had an assignment come back with a note to look at the document for feedback. The thing had the “track changes” feature of Microsoft word turned on. I cringed. That feature tends to ruffle my feathers at first. At first glance, after opening the Word doc, I saw the right margin filled with arrows and commentary. My heart sunk. The thing looked like a dog’s breakfast after the client had taken their “red pen” to it. I didn’t even closely look at first. Because I could feel my jaw tighten, I decided to give myself a ten minute break. I think I chose to scrub the kitchen counters to within an inch of their lives and then I avoided the document like the plague for about a half an hour. But I was useless at anything else because “it” was waiting for me.

When I forced myself to come back to it, it actually wasn’t all that bad and took just a few minutes to revise. The anticipation of criticism got my back up so much that it was impacting my productivity. I was stressed and apprehensive before I even saw what the criticism was. I think this is was a  good lesson to myself.

Working with multiple clients opens you up to dealing with many personality types. That can be good and it can be difficult at times. Some of those clients you’ll gel with and others will make your life temporarily miserable. Some are easy to get along with and others are so anal retentive that it’ll drive you half crazy to deal with them.

Is the Client Always Right?

Sure, there are times when the client is being unreasonable. But they’re the client and they’re paying you to write what they want. If they won’t listen to your side or to your years of expertise on a matter, there’s not much that you can do. As a freelancer you have every right to opt to not deal with someone again after a project that hasn’t gone well.  You also have the right to re-price if the rewrites go beyond the scope of your original agreement. Keep in mind that being accommodating (as long as it’s not to a fault. Freelance means freedom, not free writing.) is important in the services business and the first project with a new client is always a time of discovery and risk — to both of you.

I’ve seen writer forums littered with complaints about clients and editors that shredded a writer’s work to bits. Some writers take it very personally. If you’re the sort who takes everything to heart, you’re probably a passionate person and that can be a really great trait in a writer. But if you don’t want anyone critiquing you, you’re probably not going to be successful at writing for other people. We all love it when we get a rave review but how you handle rejections or negative reactions can actually make or break your success. If you’ve been writing as a career for any length of time, chances are that your reactions now are very different from how you’d have reacted early on in your career.

Learning from Criticism

I try to take each less-than-rave review and learn from it. Criticism can help you be a better writer.   Perhaps one small bit of advice could help you take your writing to the next  level.  I try to learn from criticism, even if at first it ruffles my feathers.  It might teach me a new skill, it might teach me patience, or it might help me decide whether or not a client and I are suited to continue working together.  Has your writing skin thickened over time?

Is Your Skin Thick Enough for a Freelance Writing Career? is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Here’s a strip I think many of us can relate to, and with a long weekend just starting, it seems timely to publish it here. Newsletter subscribers got a preview some time ago.

Writing Talk – Freedom is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Here are the belated follow-ups to my comic strip titled Scam spotting. Hope you haven’t been caught by any of these.

Writing Talk – More Scams is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Scams are still alive and well in the freelance writing world, and it’s not always possible to tell when they are happening. Here’s a scam that many of us have had happen.

Writing Talk – Scam Spotting is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Here’s another in my Writing Talk comic strip series. Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned the blog, but I’m planning something big for my next post and it needs a little time to germinate. So here’s a strip on bidding for freelance writing jobs.

Writing Talk – Bidding Woes is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

Here’s something new for the blog: an occasional comic strip about an aspect of the writing life. The series is called Writing Talk. Here’s the first strip: Rate Rant

Writing Talk – Rates Rant is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.