03 May 10 How Calling a Client is Important for Your Freelance Writing Success

Even I do not like talking on phone with my clients. But that does not mean I do not call my clients. I do, and I do it with a purpose. I call my clients to know about him and his business. This helps me a great deal in working with him.

I will not tell you that you will get gazillions of benefits should you occasionally talk to your clients, but I can surely tell you about some benefits — that you will care about — of talking to a client on phone.

Benefits of doing business on phone

The fastest mode of communication: You may think chatting, texting, and e-mailing are the fastest modes of communication, but they are not. They are not real-time, in a sense that telephonic conversation is. You can ask questions and seek answers to them in real time. The movement of communication thread in telephonic conversation is very swift.
No ambiguity: It also reduces ambiguity. Unlike text, which could be interpreted in many ways depending upon the reader, spoken words tend to be clearer, as it gives away the intention of the speaker.
Get response without delay: In a typical e-mail or chat communication, you send a message, your client reads it, he takes his time, type a response, and send it, and then you get to read it. And if you need further clarification, you start the process all over again. This is time consuming. Contrastingly, question and answer is live on the phone. There is no time-lag between question asked and answer given.
You get to know your client: Knowing the nature of your client is very, very important. On e-mail, you get limited knowledge of your client. Of what kind of person he is, what he likes, what he hates, what he is fanatic about, and what he expects of you. This knowledge is a gold-mine. It will help you customize your offering.

There are many more benefits, but these are the ones that will help you increase your business. Do you still think you should not call your client?

Tags: Ambiguity, Clarification, Customize, Doing Business, E Mail, Freelance Writing Success, Gold Mine, Intention, Knowledge, Limited, Modes Of Communication, Nature, Question And Answer, Real Time, Send Message, Spoken Words, Swift, Texting, Time Lag, Time Type

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30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

In the last two articles of the series, I shared things that you need to do to prepare yourself for the freelance writing career. In this article, I will tell you what you should do once your résumé is in place, you have written a good cover letter, and you have built your portfolio.

How much do you deserve?

This is going to be tricky. You have two big giants to tackle: The pay rate in the niche you have chosen to write and the amount paid to new writers like you. For this, you will have to do some research. Ask as many people as you want to ask, and go through as many project postings as you can and see the bid people have made there. This will give you an idea about how much your niche pays.

Visit freelance forums and blogs

Freelance forums and blogs are the goldmines of resources. Hence, you should consider being regular on one or more freelance forums and blogs.

What are the best practices?

Not knowing the best practices of the industry and not applying it are two different things. You should research and find out not only the rates, but the prevailing best practices of the industry as well. You also need to know the payment terms used by the genuine employers.

Find Jobs

This is what you were preparing for all along. Visit different blogs, freelance exchange websites and get yourself registered, if asked to, and start applying for the jobs that interest you.

Fill in all the details in the form, when registering into freelance exchanges. I would recommend uploading your image as well, and not any avatar or any funny picture. You should look professional, in the photograph. I prefer it this way because a photograph tells the prospective clients about you, and on the Internet, everyone prefers doing business with an idiot whom they know then any undercover genius about whom the clients have no clue.

Research your clients

To safeguard your interest, you need to do some research on the clients before you accept the job proposal sent to you. Not every client is created equal. Some are crooks as well.

Read, Read and Read

It comes at the end of everything, isn’t it? That is why it is important. You will have to read as much as you can: read about freelancing tips, read some authors from your field, read how things are changing, etc.

This brings us to the end of the Freelance Writing Checklist series. I wrote three articles in this series, links to which are provided below:

Freelance Writing Checklist part -1

Freelance Writing Checklist part -2

Freelance Writing Checklist part -3

Hope you liked the series, your views and reviews are welcome. You can either use the comment box to share or view or you can mail me on bikramksingh [at] gmail [dot] com. waiting to hear from you.

Tags: Avatar, Best Practices, Blogs, Cli, Clue, Cover Letter, Doing Business, Exchange Websites, Forums, Freelance Writing Career, Giants, Goldmines, Job, Niche, Photograph, Project Postings, Proposal, Prospective Clients, Two Different Things, Undercover Genius

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03 May 10 How Calling a Client is Important for Your Freelance Writing Success

Benefits of doing business on phone

30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

How much do you deserve?

Visit freelance forums and blogs

What are the best practices?

Find Jobs

Research your clients

Read, Read and Read

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