The Writing Habits of Effective Freelancers
I’ve been deriving the lion’s share of my income over the past two years from the writing I do for various clients. Currently, I have paid positions as a blogger, a web content provider/article writer and as a magazine columnist. In addition, there are the occasional press releases, resumes, and other writing projects that come up from time to time.
Most of My Income Comes From Writing Projects
I still derive income from ads and certain non-writing sources, but freelance writing is at least 85% of my monthly income. This pales in comparison to three years ago when managing web sites, forums, and relying heavily on ad income held my business up. I’m glad that I’m writing more than ever before because this is what I prefer to do with my time.
I’m saying all of this as I just visited Anne Wayman’s blog where she posted the question, “What’s Your Writing Routine?” and I responded with my answer which you can read over there.
Personal Writing Followed By Client Work
Although I do have a writing routine, it isn’t set in stone. There are times when I have my blog posts prepared in advance and have them set up to appear shortly after 3 a.m. local time and there are other times when I either skip blogging or add something later in the day.
As far as work for clients goes, I start my client work a few hours into my day. The reason? Because that is when I am the sharpest — my creative juices are flowing and I’m ready to rock ‘n roll!
Hitting My Writing Stride
Yes, I can write at odd times of the day (odd for me, that is) but I know that my best work takes place between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The house is quiet, the kids are in school, and I’ve put behind me the day’s personal marketing and blogging tasks.
Oh, there are days when I do not write for clients at all. I don’t normally work those days into my schedule, rather I know that my work is better saved for yet another day.
There are some advantages to working as a freelance writer — flexibility of schedule is one of them.
Thanks for the info. I’m leaning towards pursuing some more freelance writing myself, so this is helpful.
If you are a good writer you will find a lot of online income like pay to blog, reviews, etc. I wish i am good at writing too but sadly i dont have the talent in writing.
I envy those who can do creative writing. They have a lot of potential to be successful especially to SEO world. There are a lot of webmasters that are looking for good writers to create good high quality content for their websites.
I think your theory applies on any kind of freelance work. I am programmer, not writer and since I work as freelancer I discovered that is much harder this way than being an employee. Organizing and prioritizing projects, marketing, simple accounting work, scheduling meetings or virtual discussions…. Still, to be on your own might be more difficult, but it definitely has more advantages.
Steven: If your passion is writing, start out small to get a feel for your style and the marketplace.
Jeep: A writing talent can be developed, but there are other ways to make money online without be especially skilled with words. For instance, developing high quality websites is a skill I admire in others.
Palaboy: There is a need for quality content on the internet. However, not many people will pay a competitive rate to hire talent to do this work for them.
Sintra: I enjoy working for myself, but I do work harder. I pay my own salary, benefits, taxes and I don’t get paid leave or holidays.
Yes, what I said does apply to just about any type of freelance work — managing your day is the key to success.