25 Jun 10 Freelance Writing and Work hours

This is one of the most common questions asked by freelance writing aspirants. They want to know if a freelance writer has to work from morning till evening, or just couple of hours a day will be sufficient. Another thing that bothers them in this regard is when one should write? These are valid questions, and need proper consideration before you embark on the freelance writing ship.

When to work?

There is no definite answer to this question as one can work whenever one wants as long as one meets the given deadline. I know many freelance writers that write in the morning, right after they wake up. Upon asking, they told me that writing in the morning is more fun as the mind is fresh and ideas keep coming.

I also know freelance writers who work in the deep darkness of the night. They feel they can produce good quality work in the night as there is seldom any distraction at that hour; no phone calls, no people coming over to meet, and kids and wives remain asleep then.

There are freelance writers who want to work during the day because for them working regular hours – from 9 or 10 in the morning till 5 or 6 in the evening – and maintaining a fix work schedule is important. They feel by working a regular hour they can take time out for family.

There are people who say they do not have any fix timing. They can work randomly at any hour without compromising the deadline or quality of the work to be delivered. They believe that the “hour of the day has no effect on their output”.

All of the people I talked to are excellent writers, and they produce excellent output for their clients. In the light of discussions I had, I believe working hour is not important. What is important is the quality of the output and timeliness of delivery. I must mention here that I do not endorse “working random hours” , as it affects the quality of output.

How long one has to work?

This depends where you are in your career and what your financial goal is. If you are starting out then you have to work long hours to meet your financial obligations, but if you are a veteran then you can work just for 3-4 hours and meet your financial goal, provided it is not very lofty.

I know people who worked for 15 to 16 hours (even more) when they started out, but as they gained experience and got good paying clients they reduced the number of working hours.

If you are starting out as a freelance writer then expect to work for more than 12 hours in a day, but as the time will pass you can reduce this to 4 to 6 hours a day.

Tags: Career, Darkness, Definite Answer, Distraction, Financial Goal, Freelance Work, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing, Proper Consideration, Quality Work, Random, Regard, Timeliness, Valid Questions

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29 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -2

Taking our discussion on freelance writing forward, I will give you some more items that you need to include in your Freelance Writing Checklist, before you jump on the bandwagon. Without wasting our precious time in stretching the introduction, let us begin with the checklist items.

Is your résumé ready?

Sounds familiar? Yeah…every job requires you to have a résumé, and freelancing is no different in this regard. You will need an up-to-date résumé throughout your freelance writing career, and particularly when you are starting out when you have no portfolio to show. Your résumé will tell your prospective client about your experience.

How good is your cover letter?

You cannot do without a cover letter ever in your freelancing write. You will need this every day and for every project you bid on. It is a thousand times more important than your résumé. You need to know that you are not alone when you apply for an online writing gig. You are competing with hundreds of freelancer who is vying for the gig. Hence, to get noticed, you need to have a very attractive cover letter properly outlining your skills and experiences.

The things written above were good enough for any freelancer, but what makes a cover letter more important to a freelance writer is the fact that through your cover letter your prospective client will get the first glimpse of your writing; hence, if it is very impressive then consider your job half-done.

Do you know how to apply?

Well, doing this is not very difficult. It is just time consuming. Before you apply for a gig, you need to find out how the employer or the freelance board through which you are applying wants your application to be.

Some boards just need one cover letter, which you post with your bid, while others may ask you to write a brief introduction while posting the bid, and the rest of the details in a private message.

There is one more difference. The difference is in the way your client will accept your samples: some will ask you to send them links to your sample, while others will be okay with your attachments, and you will also find a handful of clients who will ask you to paste a brief article in the body of a private message. It is also not uncommon to find a client who wants you to write a custom sample for him on the topic or on the subject chosen by the client himself.

Get these things ready, I will be back in the next installment with some more checklist items. Meanwhile, I will also request you to tell me what you feel about the items I have listed above.

Tags: Bandwagon, Cover Letter, Experiences, First Glimpse, Freelance Writer, Freelance Writing Career, freelancer, Freelancing, Gig, Job, Online Writing, Precious Time, Private Message, Prospective Client, Regard

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19 Apr 09 Integrity Selling: Why People fail to make a Sale?

Everyone around is a salesman yet selling is considered to be a very tough job, why? Actually, the problem is in the way we define selling. When we say selling or salesman, a figure starts forming in our mind, a picture of a person who is carrying a briefcase, donning a nicely ironed shirt and well-creased trousers, sporting a nearly perfect smile on the clean-shaved and well groomed look. So far so good, but this is not all. This image of a salesperson seldom produces any positive feeling in any of us. Almost all of us see a salesperson as a scrupulous person who is devoid of any sense of right and wrong, and as the person who is just concerned with making a sale, and has no regard for the buyer whatsoever.

Close your eyes for a while and think, will you like to do business with the person whom you do not trust? Will you put your hard earned dollars in the hands of a person whose intention is not to help you but just to take money out of your pocket? No, you will not do that! Then why do you expect your customer to behave differently, just because you are on the opposite side of the table? Well, no matter how many times you turn the table, and how many people you bring on the other side of the table, you cannot be successful in making a sustainable customer base.

There is only one golden rule of selling and that is honesty. Be honest and sell only the product your customer needs, not the product your company wants to push to every customer. This is what we call integrity selling. Integrity selling will not only build a reputation for you, but it will also give you a rock-solid foundation made of loyal customers to stand on.

Integrity selling is the only way to maintain a long sustainable base of customers. In order to be successful in applying integrity selling in your business, you genuinely need to believe in solving the customer’s problem. I am saying believing, not feigning to believe, as most sales people do. This is how you can build reputation for yourself and your business. Till the time you are concern with just meeting your target for the month or the quarter, you cannot succeed in winning the hearts of your consumer. You need to win a significant share of customers’ hearts to remain in the business for the long run. Integrity selling is indeed tough, but the return it fetches makes it worth trying. As said, integrity selling will build a long term reputation for you, and the more you practice it the more equity gets deposited to your reputation-bank, which in the long run will mean more business for you.

Let’s think over a very famous quote: you can cheat a few people for a long period of time, you can even cheat many people for a short period of time, but there is no way in which you can cheat everyone (or many people) for the longer period of time, it isn’t possible. If you are salesperson, always remember this and never ever try to sell lie. A lie can help you meet the immediate goal, but it will hurt you badly in the long run. It is always wise to fix your eyes on the long term results, short term results will never last.

Tags: Briefcase, Customer Base, Earned Dollars, Golden Rule, Honesty, How Many People, Image, Integrity Selling, Intention, Loyal Customers, Money, Perfect Smile, Regard, Reputation, Rock Solid Foundation, Sales People, Salesperson, Sustainable Base, Tough Job, Trousers

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