One of the best ways to earn more as a freelance writer is to develop niche expertise.

Assignments get easier and easier to do, as you learn where the good sources and statistics are for that niche topic. Developing story ideas gets easier too — as sources catch on that you write a lot on their subject, they start tipping you off about breaking news and emerging trends.

You learn more and more about your niche. Eventually, you find you’re irreplaceable for clients in this niche. Invaluable. Your rates go up and up.

Sounds great, yes?

There’s only one big question to answer:

How do you find your niche?

I’m getting this question a lot lately in Freelance Writers Den:

I can’t decide whether I want my writing niche to be A or B.

As soon as I figure that out, I’m going to get started.

Bad news — you will never discover your freelance writing niche by endlessly pondering what topic you should choose as your specialty area.

There is a proven way to do it, though. I know because it worked for me.

How I found my writing niche

One of my first-ever gigs was freelancing for one section of a newspaper, the real estate section. So I wrote a lot about real estate. I found I liked it. The more I did it, the more different aspects of it interested me — how real estate is financed, for instance.

I noticed there were good-paying clients in this niche — real-estate companies, real-estate trade publications. As time went on, I kept growing my knowledge of real estate so I could get more assignments.

My other early gig was writing about community news for an alternative paper. While I found it interesting, it didn’t seem like there was a lot of money in that. And it was pretty straightforward stuff that anybody could report. As the years went on, I pitched fewer of these types of stories.

Later, I was a beat reporter for a business weekly. I got assigned loads of beats — higher education, arts and entertainment, retail, restaurant, franchising, nonprofits, and more. I wrote a lot on each of these topics.

As time went on, I found I enjoyed some of these topics more than others. I noticed everybody and anybody seemed to want to write about arts and entertainment, so I drifted away from that topic.

As my knowledge got more sophisticated, my articles in these areas got more attention. That gave me more credibility as an expert in my topic.

Since I’m a former legal secretary, I loved the lawsuits. Other reporters didn’t want to read those long legal filings, so I became the go-to person to cover business bankruptcies. I learned to read businesses’ SEC filings and charities’ tax forms, too. Soon, I was an indispensable reporter for stories that required document-based reporting.

I was able to build a stable of great-paying freelance clients who craved this expertise. They were easy to land because I had clips to show them that were about their exact topic. These clients were thrilled to get me at any price, because they found it hard to get anyone who understood their industry.

To sum up:

1. I wrote a lot on many different topics, which helped me improve my writing.
2. As I wrote, I learned which topics I liked.
3. Of the topics I liked, I observed which niches paid well, and wrote more on those.
4. I kept developing more sophisticated expertise in my chosen fields.
5. Good-paying clients became fairly easy to land.

What types of niches pay well

I often hear from writers who despair of finding a good-paying niche because they don’t know about financial services, or technology, or healthcare.

Two things about that: When I started, I didn’t know anything about them, either. You can learn as you go, if you have an interest in an area.

And contrary to popular belief, those aren’t the only good-paying niches around.

Anything technical will do. For instance, I recently met a writer whose passionate hobby is jewelry-making. You think there are a lot of writers who know the technical aspects and emerging trends in metalsmithing?

Manufacturers who use that method and need their products described would probably love to meet that writer. Ditto for trade publications for jewelry-makers and other industries that employ metalsmithing.

The myth of the single niche

My story illustrates another point: You do not need or even want to specialize in one, single niche. If your one industry goes in the tank, then you’ve got nothing.

It’s better to carve out several different specialized writing niches where you can claim expertise. At this point, I have many different areas I write on frequently, including legal, tax, insurance, business-finance, real estate, and jobs & careers.

Want to know your best niches? Start writing, and let them find you. You’ll see what you enjoy writing about.

Analyze where you’re seeing the best pay, and keep writing on those topics. The marketplace will point you to your best-paying writing niches.

What are your writing niches? Leave a comment and tell us how you developed your expertise.

P.S. To learn more about lucrative writing niches, see the Great Writing Niches e-course in Freelance Writers Den.

Do I have your attention now?

That headline was pretty grabby, huh. Sort of made you have to click on it to find out how to get good clients.

That’s the magic of a well-constructed headline. It works like a magnet to suck readers onto your blog — and not just any readers, but exactly the readers you wanted. The ones who’re interested in just what you have to offer.

If you know how to write a compelling headline, it can also make editors love your query letter.

It can make businesses read your emailed letter of introduction and give you call.

Great headlines get you good-paying writing gigs.

Then, when other businesses and publications see the headlines you wrote for your clients, they call you up. They can’t wait to have you bring your writing savvy over to their website.

You’re done marketing your writing business. Your strong headlines do the job for you.

Why doesn’t everybody write great headlines?

It’s sort of an art form unto itself.

Lots of us who came up through journalism and newspapers weren’t trained to write headlines. That’s an editor’s job, we were told.

Others have been grabbing titles off content-mill dashboards, where the headline is pre-written by the SEO department.

Bottom line: Lots of writers don’t have any experience or training in how to write headlines. And their careers are suffering as a result.

I have reviewed hundreds of writers’ blogs, and I can tell you, bad headlines are an epidemic. I scan a typical blog, and I can’t even figure out the topic. Nothing makes me want to click through and read more. I’m not surprised when I see there are no subscribers, no comments, and nothing is getting sold.

So if you learn to write good headlines, you can really stand out.

What’s wrong with most writers’ headlines?

Three quick headline-improvement tips:

1. Use key words. Headlines like “Watch out for the red flags,” or “Another day” (both ones I’ve recently read) don’t tell me what the post is about, or who it is for. So search engines don’t find it when I search on what I want to know. And I don’t read it.
2. Tell me your topic. What will I learn about if I read your post? Your headline needs to tell me, so I’ll want to click over and read it.
3. Leave a little mystery. The headline of this post told you there’s a way to write headlines that will bring you great clients, but it didn’t tell you exactly how.  You needed to read the post to find out.

I have a confession to make.

I didn’t write that headline — Jon Morrow did.

Jon is one of the best headline writers around. He wrote the Headline Hacks report on how to create sure-to-go-viral headlines that Copyblogger uses as a guide for its writers.

His blog posts often get 1,000 retweets or more. Maybe you read How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise and Get Paid to Change the World, or A 7-Step Guide to Mind Control: How to Quit Begging and Make People Want to Help You. Yeah. That guy.

How does he do it? I’m going to find out, and you can listen in.

Come hear Jon’s headline-writing tips on a free call. It’s time for our monthly Freelance Writers Den’ Open House call, and I’ve roped Jon into coming to share his headline secrets.

All you have to do is register over on Jon’s site — we’ll send you the info on how to tune in for the call tomorrow at noon PST/3 EST.

If you’re like me, shortly after 2011 ended you wondered: “How much did I earn from freelance writing this year?”

Last year I did a marketing analysis…and this year I wanted to take it a step further and do an income analysis.

Not because I dream of being inundated by people who’d like to sell me products and services because they think I’m rolling in dough (ha! three kids…college tuition…). No.

It’s because looking at where your writing income is coming from is a very important exercise.

You learn a lot about how to improve your business for the next year. I want you to do this math for your writing business, too, as it will help you make better use of your time and earn more in 2012.

I had a goal of cracking six figures because I had narrowly missed that level in 2010, and that pissed me off. I’m very self-competitive that way.

A quick glance at the reports in my handy Freshbooks invoicing system tells me this year I made it. Still a few small tinkerings to do to make sure every gig is included and everything’s in the right column, but as a rough estimate, I’m there.

Just to be clear, I’m talking about what I earned from freelance writing — not including income from my work here helping other writers earn more. (My net freelance income was also a bit smaller than my gross as I did some subcontracting to other writers.)

If you’re wanting to mention to me that the economy kept right on sucking in 2011…yes, I noticed. Still, the freelance-writing market is so large that if you really go after it, you can still find plenty of business and earn well.

How’d I do it? Freshbooks has this great feature where I can instantly view revenue by client, so I have a ready breakdown for you.

Here’s a description of each major client I had in 2011, roughly what percentage of my income came from each client, and how I found them.

Takeaways:

• Social media is increasingly important. Without my LinkedIn and Twitter activity and working on my writer website SEO, I would have been out about one-third of my entire income.
• Keep marketing. Even though I have a stable of great clients, you can’t ever get complacent and stop marketing. As I look down this list, more than half of this work came from new clients.
• Ongoing contracts help create steady income. You want to target magazines and businesses that are big enough to send you a steady stream of work, rather than one-off projects. That really cuts down your marketing time, there’s less feast-or-famine cycle, and it gives you the peace of mind of starting each month with a good chunk of your revenue already booked.
• Keep growing your network. You can never know enough editors and writers. I got a couple of key referrals that led to interesting, lucrative projects.
• Blog in a high-profile place… I was surprised to see how many clients came from the visibility I get from one of my big blogging gigs. Any time you get a chance to write for a high-traffic website where you think prospects visit, you want to do it. Better yet, target this type of client as a goal for 2012. More than one-third of my clients called me after seeing my other work online.
• But don’t blog too much. In 2010, I had more blogging work and earned less. Blogging isn’t the highest-paying form of writing out there, even if you’re getting $100 or so a post, which is my goal. Blogging is good for visibility and I find it fun (obviously!), but save some room for articles, white papers or other better-paying writing assignments.
• Think recession-proof industries. I was also surprised to see how much of my income was focused in financial-services firms. Between them and hospital — another recession-proof area — that’s close to one-third of my total income.
• Keep stretching. This was a year of breakthroughs for me. I did my first government contract, taking a leap into a writing type and client type I hadn’t done before. I also took on a chunk of a business book, writing 3,000-word chapters that each required piles of research. You have to be willing to take some risks and learn new things to move into new, high-paid areas and keep your income growing.
• There’s lots of good business-writing gigs in articles and blogs. As my chart shows, you don’t have to know how to write longform direct-mail letters or ad copy to earn well as a commercial freelance writer. All my corporate work was articles and blog posts this year, plus an annual-report project.
• It doesn’t take a lot of clients to earn a good living. I made three-quarters of my income off about six clients. If you target quality prospects, you don’t need a huge client list to earn well.
• One-off projects suck. I think one of the reasons I earned more this year is I concentrated closely on driving more business through fewer large clients, rather than doing more small accounts. Each client takes administrative time, so fewer is better. I made a decision about mid-year to drop several small-business clients because I felt it was too inefficient to earn that way, and I think that instinct was dead on. As soon as I cleared those few small accounts out, I got huge new projects from better-quality clients.
• Watch your fees. If your clients pay you via PayPal, you are paying as much as 3% in fees. I saw roughly $9,000 of payments come through on PayPal, but I paid almost nothing in fees, as Freshbooks offers a special deal where I only pay $.50 a transaction. I estimate that saved several hundred dollars of income that might otherwise have been sucked away in transaction fees.

I’m not expecting to earn as much from freelancing in 2012, as I’ll be concentrating more on writing my own ebooks, teaching, and creating useful content and live events for members of Freelance Writers Den. But it’s good to know that if I need to, I can earn a good living just from freelance writing.

Want to earn six figures in 2012? You might want to listen in on a free call I’m hosting Thursday at noon PST: “How to Write Headlines So Irresistible, Big-Money Clients Beg You to Write for Them.” I’ll be interviewing the best headline writer on the Internet, Jon Morrow of Copyblogger, and getting him to spill his headline secrets. Register here.

Today, I only want to talk about one tiny thing. It’s usually less than three inches long.

But it can have an outsized impact on your freelance writing income.

Have you guessed? I’m talking business cards here, people.

That’s right, the marketing tool that’s older than dirt.

There’s a reason business cards are still around. It’s because they’re useful.

Even if you have no plans to do in-person networking, I want you to get some. (There’s really no excuse since you can get free ones from places like VistaPrint.)

Why do you need business cards in today’s digital world?

Because you never know.

You never know when a casual conversation at your kid’s school will turn up the news that Joey’s dad heads marketing at a medium-sized company in an industry you know.

And then you start fumbling around and scribbling your number down on a napkin? That’s not very pro. And that scribble will be easily lost or mislaid.

And then you open your purse and take out a business card and hand it to his wife? Now you’re talking.

Next, Joey gets that card and sticks it on his desk, where it hangs around for a few months until he suddenly realizes he’s swamped.

He needs a freelance writer. And he doesn’t really have time to look through 300 resumes off a Craigslist ad.

Then he says, “Didn’t I get a card from a writer recently?” He looks around his desk, and there you are.

Most businesspeople keep cardfiles of business cards, so the card allows your info to hang around their office until a prospect is ready to use you.

How to make your business card better

Here’s the thing about most business cards: They’re boring.

When you’re a freelance writer, you can’t let that happen to your business card. That little square of paper is an opportunity to show you are a word stylist.

Mine shows my title as “CEO and Janitor,” which almost never fails to get a reaction.

Linda Formichelli’s says “My clients think I’m swell.”

You want something on there that starts a conversation, and gives a sense of your personality. Otherwise, you haven’t made the sale that you’re a creative writer.

You can also use that often-blank other side of the business card to make your card one that’s never thrown away.

How? Put an offer on it — 15% off your first project, or a free half-hour consult. Whatever makes sense for your business.

Now that card is never hitting the trash — that’d be like throwing away money.

21st Century business cards

Beyond the writing, what can you do to make your business card special?

I use one of the most obvious ways — instead of paper cards, make business-card magnets. Those get tossed onto the front of the filing cabinet and then stay there forever.

The minute you hand it over, people feel the weight and start looking it over. You’ve made an impression.

Magnets cost more than business cards, so I’m saying, “I take this seriously. And I’m not cheap.”

Also, when’s the last time you threw out a refrigerator magnet? They’re so useful!

If you’re really slick, you could put a QR code on your business card that leads savvy recipients to more information about you — maybe a special offer page on your writer website, or a free report they can read.

You can also give your business card social-media style with new formats such as Meet-meme, a baseball trading-card style business card that can include lots of your social media stats…and a QR code, too.

There are loads of eye-catching new twists on the business card you could try. For inspiration, here’s a great post that’s got 21 different examples of ways to use QR codes on business cards.

Whatever strikes your fancy in business-card style, get business cards. They’re as much for you as they are for prospects.

When you hold those little rectangles in your hand, you can’t deny it — you’re a freelance writer. You have a business. You’re looking for clients.

Now, you’re ready to go out and promote it.

Do you have a business card? If so, share what makes your card stand out.

Next up on Marketing 101: How to get a steady flow of new-client nibbles without a lot of work. Click here to see the first episode of Marketing 101…it’s an important one. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss upcoming installments of this 21-week marketing series.

Business card photo: contracox on stock.xchng

Have you picked up some new lingo recently?

Retweet. Blog. Hashtag. Friend. Like. New words, and old words with new meanings.

Freelance writers should pay close attention to these changes. Because words are powerful.

New words signal a shift in our culture. The way we communicate is changing — and I believe it’s going to transform how writers earn a living in the future.

What’s happening now reminds me a bit eerily of the old Twilight Zone TV series’ episode, “The Parallel,” in which an astronaut returns to find Earth is similar to — but not exactly like — the planet he left.

One notable change: He can’t read anymore, because the language has evolved in a different direction. His child has to teach him how to read again.

Otherwise, he’ll be left behind in a bewildering, familiar-yet-strange society.

This is where freelance writers who don’t know social media are right now.

There’s a new language that’s emerged, and a new way of connecting. If you don’t understand it, I believe you will soon find yourself in a parallel world — one where you will struggle to earn well.

Eventually, you may find yourself with a limited potential client pool, as social media spreads into every corner of media and business life.

A couple comments I’ve heard recently:

“What’s a hashtag, anyway?”

“My editor told me to send the related links with my story…what does that mean?”

When I see a blog-post headline like, “Another Day,” I know that blogger doesn’t understand Internet search and how important headlines are now.

What’s happening here?

Writers are getting left behind

These writers are slowly making themselves obsolete, because they don’t know how to communicate online.

I don’t tell you this because I want to scare you.

I want you to see this coming and get ahead of it.

Why you should learn about social media

Writers who aren’t on social media often tell me they don’t do it because they don’t get it. Where’s the payoff?

So here’s what social media has done for me lately:

• One editor I found on Twitter last year assigned me ten $2,000 online articles.
• I routinely locate hard-to-find sources I need by asking my network on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• I connected with the founder of a major corporation (unreachable through ordinary corporate-PR channels) whom I urgently needed to speak to for a book gig by commenting on his blog.
• I discovered business-finance sources I needed for one story no longer check email, and can only be contacted on Twitter.
• A top blogger contacted me for a guest post after seeing one of my posts linked on Twitter, which led to several awesome writing opportunities.
• I make $100 an hour training small business owners on how to socialize their blog posts.
• I got lucrative blogging gigs for both magazines and businesses based on my social-media audience and knowledge of social-media promotion.

It’s already an advantage if you’re social-media savvy

But a year or two from now, you may be unable to develop queries and get the interviews you need for today’s online markets. Which are growing bigger and more lucrative all the time.

So if you haven’t already taken the plunge, get started and learn it. There’s plenty on this blog about Twitter and LinkedIn (even more here), and more all over the Internet.

Yes, it can seem intimidating when others have thousands of followers.

But I can promise you, it won’t be easier to start next year.

Are you active in social media? Leave a comment and tell us about how you use social media as a writer.

I’m not the greatest writer ever to pick up a pen.

In fact, I marvel at the work of more skilled writers almost daily.

I consider my husband who went to UCLA Film School to be the creative genius of the family.

I certainly feel I’m a competent writer. But I’m not outstanding.

So how do I earn six figures as a freelance writer? (Yep, happened again last year.)

How do I pull that off, when hordes of more talented writers can’t seem to keep their fridge stocked on what they make from their craft?

Here are the reasons I believe I’m an outstanding earner, even though I’m not an exceptional writer:

• I’ve got positive vibes. I like myself, think writing is really fun, and know I have a lot to offer clients. I think prospects pick up on that.
• I’m willing to put myself out there. When the economy went down in 2009, I learned how to market myself as a freelance writer. From scratch. I went to in-person networking events, answered online job ads, got on social media… I became a marketing machine.
• I love to learn new stuff. When I discover an obstacle to my earning more, I climb right over it. Technology is not my strong suit, but I slogged along and learned how Twitter worked. I learned about SEO. I learned three different blogging platforms.
• I’m kind of a dork. What can I say? I was a legal secretary for years. My dad sold life insurance. I used to think this was a shameful history, until I started making big bucks writing on legal and insurance topics. Often, these gigs are not for national magazines, but they pay the bills like you wouldn’t believe. Speaking of which…
• I don’t need my name in lights. While a lot of writers dream of seeing their byline on the covers of glossy national newsstand magazines, I’m not hung up about where my work appears — or if my name is even on it. I’m open to both publications and businesses as clients. That flexibility keeps my income growing.
• I can’t resist a challenge. When a client throws me an assignment about something arcane — say, actuarial forecasting — I’m delighted. I get bored if I’m writing on the same topic all the time, so I welcome writing gigs that force me to stretch.
• I negotiate. Where most writers seem to jump at the chance to work for any rate no matter how bitty, I’m a student of the art of dealmaking. I’ve earned tens of thousands more over the years by making counter-offers and holding out for a rate I believe is fair.

What skills have helped you earn well from writing? Leave a comment and tell us about your strategies.

P.S. Here’s how you can become a high-earning writer: Get the knowledge you need to land good clients and run a successful freelance-writing business in today’s fast-changing media world. The Freelance Writers Blast Off Class – a 4-week course I teach with Renegade Writer Linda Formichelli — starts next week. (Congrats to Christen, who won a ticket to the class’s Participation level in my Friday contest, and to Jason, who won a ticket to Audit the Blastoff.)

Due to the holiday, Blast Off registration has been extended through tomorrow (Tuesday).

When you think about your freelance writing goals for 2012, do you feel excited? Terrified? Worried you won’t be able to earn enough?

Today’s your day to tell me about it.

I’d really like to know: What are the biggest problems you face today?

What obstacles are keeping you from earning what you want as a freelance writer?

These are the questions on my mind as I get ready to put on my Freelance Writer’s Blast-Off class again, the small-group coaching course I teach with Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer.

We’ve made some changes to the Blast-Off to include more one-on-one consulting in the program, which we hope will make it more effective than ever.

But I want to make sure the class covers exactly what writers need to know to be successful in 2012.

So tell me — what’s keeping you up at night?

Just to make it a little more interesting, the most fascinating answer wins a ticket to the Blast-Off class’s Participation level — a $197 value. I’ll name the winner Monday.

Worried about how to jump-start your freelance writing career? Check out the revamped Freelance Writer’s Blast-Off class — it’s got three different ways to participate. Registration closes Monday and class begins Jan. 24 — check out the course outline here.

by Linda Formichelli

I see it all the time: Aspiring freelance writers stay stuck in newbie-land because they don’t know precisely what to do. They fear that they need to always be doing the exact right thing at the exact right time — or why bother?

Guess what? There is no one exact right way. There is only the right way for you.

And how do you find out the right way for you? By experimenting.

Here’s how:

1. Ask “What If?”

Successful writers don’t take anything for granted. Sure, they learn all they can from the pros, but they also use their imaginations to develop new and better ways of writing, marketing, and conducting their business.

Pros come up with new theories and test them out. “What would happen if I pitched editors on the phone?” “What if I snail mailed sales letters instead of sending e-mails to copywriting prospects?” “What if sent my clients gifts for Valentine’s Day instead of Christmas?”

Experimenting with different tactics by asking “What if?” will keep you from following the crowd like a writer sheep. For example, while everyone else is bombarding clients with cards and gifts at Christmas — and getting lost in the rush — you might stand out by sending your gifts on a different holiday.

I did this myself: One year on tax day, when I calculated that Family Circle made up most of my income that year, I asked myself, “What if I sent them a Tax Day gift to say thank you?” And I did.

You can be sure that my Tax Day gift stood out a lot more than the crush of holiday cards and candy they received in December — and I went on to write close to 20 articles for this magazine.

Buck Conventional Wisdom

Following conventional writing wisdom will only get you so far. You never know what will really work for you until you experiment with different ways of doing things.

It helps to know the rules that everyone else is playing by, but you need to tweak the tactics you learn to make them fit your own circumstances and personal style.

For example, when I first started out I was writing one-page queries like all the writing books and magazines advised writers to do. But only when I started experimenting with longer queries — up to three pages — did I have success with the coveted women’s magazine market. I bucked the conventional wisdom — and it paid off.

What you read a piece of advice, remember that’s what worked for some writers (or even for only one writer). That advice is usually a great starting point and will get you on your way — but you can only do as well as the other writers who follow that advice. To reach the highest level of success you can, try out different tactics and see how they work for you.

Ready, Fire, Aim

Most new writers take the conventional approach “Ready, aim, fire.” The problem is that this becomes “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…” That’s because you don’t want to take action until you’re absolutely sure you’re doing the right thing — which means you never take action at all.

The personal development blogger Steve Pavlina recommends taking the approach “Ready, fire, aim.” It means you choose something to do — anything at all — do it, see what happens, and correct course as necessary. It’s the only way to discover what works.

For example, instead of not pitching editors because you’re afraid your queries aren’t perfect, just start sending them out. Send out dozens. You’ll learn quickly enough if you’re doing it right from the reactions you get from editors. Lots of acceptances and “nice” rejections that invite you to keep pitching? You’re doing it right. Lots of form rejections? Something’s amiss. Tweak your tactics and keep trying.

It’s better to get out a bunch of “almost there” marketing and experiment with ways to make it work than to hold off until everything is perfect — which will be never.

Have you ever experimented with different ways of writing or marketing? Let us know in the comments.

Linda Formichelli writes the Renegade Writer blog, and teaches the Freelance Writers Blast Off Class for Newbies with me (registration for our January class closes next week).

]]> http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/11/3-ways-succeed-freelancer-conducting-experiments/feed/ 34 http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/09/10-biggest-obstacles-launching-freelance-writing-career/ http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/09/10-biggest-obstacles-launching-freelance-writing-career/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000 Carol Tice http://www.makealivingwriting.com/?p=1524

Are you having trouble getting your freelance writing career off the ground?

On one of my weekly podcasts recently, I was shocked to hear how many writers said they’d been trying to get their writing career going for a long time.

More than one had been trying for 10 years.

That’s bad! People need to eat.

And writers need to be able to earn a living with their work.

My personal New Year’s resolution is to help more writers begin to take action and become successful freelance writers in 2012.

Linda Formichelli and I got together to talk about it on Skype the other day. From that conversation, we put together this half-hour Webinar. It’s free to watch. Just a little New Year’s gift to my readers.

In it, we discuss the 10 most common obstacles to freelance writing success, and how to solve them.

What’s on our list? Here’s the top three:

1. Fear. This is always at the top of the charts. You’re afraid you’ll be laughed at, you won’t be good enough, you’ll screw up, or that the economy is just too tough out there.
   Solution: To overcome your fear, try to experience it. Arrange for friends to laugh at one of your articles. You’ll see you survive — and that really, that’s probably not going to happen.
2. Overwhelm. There are so many possible markets to pitch, and so many ways to do marketing. It’s easy to get boggled and do nothing.
   Solution: Stop trying to find the one best way to pursue freelance writing, and start getting out there. Break down your goals into small steps, and begin to take action. Choose one direction — one type of marketing, or one writing specialty — and focus in on only that.
3. You don’t treat it like a business. Are you writing without a contract? Do you take the first price a prospective client offers you, instead of negotiating? If a client is late paying, do you just wait around for them to cut you a check? Stop being taken advantage of and take a businesslike attitude.
   Solution: Imagine you have a small retail shop, instead of a freelance-writing business. How would you run it? Do those business basics — negotiate, have a contract, collect what you’re owed, keep good records, and above all, consistently market your business.

For the other seven of our tips on overcoming the top freelance obstacles, head over to this page to register and watch the video — then, grab our free handout with all our tips. Linda and I share a lot of personal stories about the obstacles we faced starting out in our own writing careers, and how we overcame them.

What’s your biggest obstacle to freelance writing success? Leave a comment and tell me about it.

P.S. Unfortunately, the time to view this free video has now expired…but if you’d like to catch me and Linda live, check out our upcoming class: The Freelance Writers Blast Off for Newbies. It includes four live presentations where you can get your questions answered and learn how to grow your income. Registration closes Jan. 17.

]]> http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/09/10-biggest-obstacles-launching-freelance-writing-career/feed/ 18 http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/03/shape-flabby-writing-simple-steps/ http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2012/01/03/shape-flabby-writing-simple-steps/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000 Carol Tice http://www.makealivingwriting.com/?p=1519

The new year is finally here — a time when many people create resolutions about losing weight.

For freelance writers, it’s a good time to think about a different kind of weight-loss program: One to trim flab from your writing.

If you’re not getting visitors to your blog posts, or your query letters aren’t getting you gigs, it’s possible you could do better if you put your writing on a fitness program.

Because let’s face it — loads of people can write.

But not everyone can write tight, where each word is perfect and there’s no extra verbiage cluttering up the piece.

Great writing is always like that — every word in its place, and no extra fat.

Here are five tips for sculpting your writing into lean, effective prose that helps you earn more this year:

1. Shape up your headlines. Does your headline grab readers’ attention? If not, keep working on it. In my experience, most writers could stand to spend more time burnishing their headlines. Catchy headlines with key words for search engines are essential for success in the 21st century.

If you’re writing a query letter, be sure to include a strong proposed headline for your post. This will give the editor an immediate sense of the story angle you’re discussing, and also can signal that you understand the publication by delivering a headline in the publication’s own style.

Final tip on headlines: Write the headline first. The exercise will sharpen your focus and make your piece easier to write. That saves you time, results in better work, and enables you to crank more writing volume in the course of a year.

2. Get rid of that. And “very.” And boring past-tense verbs like “has been” and “going to.” Scour your piece for extraneous words and phrases that don’t add anything to the sentence, and trim them out.

3. Lose your loose ends. Does your writing tend to go off on tangents or include a lot of side points? Often, those lose the reader and disrupt the thread of your narrative. Snip those out and consider giving them an article or blog post of their own instead. The result will be a better shape for your current piece.

4. Get shorty. Especially for blog posts, be brief. Short sentences are great. If you wind on for four lines in a single sentence, you may lose some readers. Short paragraphs are great, too. Re-examine each sentence in your draft and think of how you can say it in a more concise way. With more articles moving online and wordcounts shrinking at print magazines, acquiring the habit of brevity will serve writers well in 2012.

5. Make your workout flow. Take a moment at the end of a draft and look at the final sentence of each paragraph, and the first paragraph of the next one. Do those flow well together? Does the final sentence of one graf lead directly and logically to the first sentence of the next? If not, whittle the sentences down and make them relate well. Any disconnect between one graf and the next gives the reader a reason to stop reading. Paragraphs should be knit together like a good sweater, with no dropped stitches. Improving your paragraph transitions often trims out excess words, too.

What exercises do you use to shape up your writing? Add to my list in the comments.