Here are 10 great tips for maximising your earnings through your freelance writing; getting paid enough to make a living is an important step for a freelancer and one you have to make if you want to make a career of freelancing.
- Don’t bid for low value work on freelancing websites – it might be tempting but $3 an article is not worth your time or effort, by the time you add up how many hours you spend winning and administering this kind of work, your hourly rate falls to $5-6 which is not enough.
- Don’t quote fixed fees – it’s an easy trap to fall into, it makes you look less of a wheeler-dealer and more like a solicitor. But it’s not a great way to earn money; your earnings should reflect the value of the project to your customer, if you write great marketing copy that leads to a 20% increase in your client’s business it should be worth more than $50 to them and to you.
- Do network for business – get out and talk to your friends, colleagues, acquaintances and spread the word. People who know you are far more likely to value you at a sensible rate when you’re building up your business.
- Do ask for recommendations – every time you work for somebody ask for a recommendation, this will help you demonstrate that there is value in working with you rather than placing business on a price only basis.
- Do ask for referrals – when someone buys your writing service and appreciates it because it delivers the promised results, ask reddit essay writing service them if they know others who would benefit from your services. The vast majority of my business comes through word of mouth referral, so should yours.
- Do work with competitors – if a project is too big, or is not your speciality recommend someone who can help or who can do the project instead. Building relationships with other specialists works both ways; if you help them find business they’ll help you in the future too.
- Always demonstrate value – writing is an ethereal concept if it’s not tied to the benefits it brings, when talking to a customer show that there is value in your writing. Tie the rewards to success if the objective of your writing is to increase visits to their website, offer a sliding scale of fees based on the success of that measure.
- Don’t be afraid to turn down work – many people find this hard to do, particularly when they are just starting out but if you fill your calendar with low paid work you’ll have no time or space for the right work if it comes along.
- Know your worth – if you don’t know it, your clients can’t. You need to calculate what you need to make a living, and to provide the best possible service for your clients. Clients can and will pay more for a dedicated service tuned to their needs, than for generic writers who churn out huge volumes of low quality material.