In this short post, I will provide a list of common cause of concern for freelance writers, especially when one is starting out on the freelance writing journey.

Investment

If you thought it is just the number crunchers who worry about investments then you couldn’t have been more wrong. Investment woes keeps freelance writer worried as well, but most of the time it is not the investment in stocks, bonds, and funds that worries a freelance writer, but it is the investment in equipments and stationeries.

Do I need to have that new Mac? Or will windows do? Should I buy a printer, scanner and fax combo, or will the faxing part be dealt with installing fax modem software? These and similar questions pops in the minds of freelance writers quite often, and answer to these depends upon the requirement one has, and the stage of career a freelance writer is.

Working too much

Some people have left their day jobs for freelancing in a belief that he will have to work a lot lesser than they do while in a regular 9-5 job. Well, if the work timing is your concern then leaving your job is not advised because a freelance writer may have to work long hours. If this seems like a problem then revisit your decision. I took this job because working more was never a problem for me because I love what I do. Having said that, I must say that in time, everything will settle down, and work hours will become more regulated, but not initially.

No clients

Not getting enough clients to keep one occupied is another common worry that most of the freelance writers have. If you are in the initial stage of your career then this worry is legitimate. Indeed, getting a new client is difficult, and that is why we stress on retaining existing clients. If you stick long enough to freelance writing, you will see that this worry also subsides in time, as you start getting more and more clients through referrals.

No Money

This concerns all of us. We all get paranoid when it comes to money. After all, this is what we get (along with experience, learning, excitement, and fun) from freelance writing. When starting out, a freelance writer often commit a mistake of grabbing low-paying jobs. This indeed gives you something but not what you deserve for the time you spent. Hence, a freelance writer gets frustrated. Do not fall prey to the clients that wish to take you for a ride by paying you less and making you work more. I once travelled down that road. It was fatiguing. Wait for some time, you will get well-paying clients.

I am sure you’ve heard of de.li.cio.us. It redirects to delicious.com, but as a .us domain and social bookmarking site, I can’t help thinking that their creativity was first sparked from the lack of interesting domain names available. If you can take something short and to the point from your search on word navigator, your next step would be to check it’s availability. The following guidelines can speed up the process:

• Since there are 3,563 words that end in -us at the time of this posting, the easiest thing to do would be to copy and paste each list (by length) into a text document, which took me about 7 minutes. You probably won’t take as long, if you copy and paste only half of all the words.
• In the document, click Edit and Select All. Proceed to toggle the bullets off. Then use Ctrl+F and type us into the search box. Click on Find All. You will notice that the -us ending has been selected for all of the words. Now click on Replace All. Your document should no longer have any of the -us endings.
• If your document is 75 pages long, perhaps it would be best to weed out words before continuing. Or you can copy and paste the words in only chunks (maybe 30 words) at a time into this domain name regristration search (clicking on the us extension, while unselecting the com extension), so that your internet browser doesn’t freeze up during the process.

Of the first thirty words I submitted, 14 were available. Here is my example chunk with unavailable .us domain names crossed out:

fagaceo.us                          furacio.us
felonio.us                          furfuro.us
feracio.us                          garrulo.us
ferocio.us                          gingero.us
fervoro.us                          glaireo.us
filaceo.us                          glamoro.us
flavoro.us                          globulo.us
fractio.us                          gluteno.us
frivolo.us                          glutino.us
froufro.us                          granulo.us
fugacio.us                          gummato.us
fulgoro.us                          gumptio.us
fulguro.us                          hazardo.us
fulmino.us                          hilario.us

Honestly, if I were a business looking for an attractive and modern domain name, gumptio.us would be my first pick! If you don’t know, gumptious is an adjective that means enterprising (synonym to energetic, industrious, up-and-coming). Or how about furacio.us? Hurry up, domain names like these will soon fill up the Web 2.0 (or is it 3.0) scene! If you really don’t care what the domain name is and just want to set something up quickly, your best bet would be to submit one or two words into a domain name suggestion tool.