When was the last time you had ink-stained fingers after reading an article?
It’s been a while for me. As someone who grew up around newspapers, I am almost ashamed to say this: I can’t remember the last time I picked up and read an actual newspaper. These days, I read all my news online.
But sometimes (days like yesterday, in fact), I do miss that tactile sensation of picking up and reading a “real” newspaper.
I had a welcome interruption during my workday yesterday when an old friend of mine called me out of the blue. It was a business-related phone call …read more

I know many freelancers who would love to skip over the marketing and self-promotion part of this business and simply write and edit all day long. And I’ll be the first to admit that I used to fall into that camp.
But unless you get the word out there about your services and what you have to offer to clients, editors, and publications, no one will know about you and your business. And especially in an economy like this one, you want to make sure your name is the one that clients and editors think of first when they need quality …read more

I guess it’s a sign of the times, but more than a few freelance friends of mine are having problems collecting payment for stories they’ve already written and assignments they’ve already turned in to clients.
I belong to a few online writers’ groups and there are a disturbing number of threads these days talking about how people are having to wait longer and longer for payment—sometimes for months. Other writers have turned in assignments, only to find out that the magazines or publications they’ve written for are folding or are experiencing mass layoffs. So in addition to those waiting for late …read more

Since tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d help jumpstart your freelance goal-setting process for 2009.
I don’t know about you, but every year around this time I start reflecting on the accomplishments of the past year and begin mapping out goals for the year ahead. Of course, losing the holiday pounds will be at the top of my overall list.
But typically, I develop a separate set of goals for my work and business life. Throughout the year, these goals help guide my decisions about how I spend my time, the assignments I pursue, the clients I decide to work …read more

Want to know the easiest way to snag a freelance gig?
For starters, don’t look in the classified section or on the freelance job boards. If you answer an ad, you have to assume that you’re competing against hundreds of other eager freelancers for the same gig.
Now don’t get me wrong: I have had some success answering ads. But the bulk of my work is a direct result of my quest for those hidden opportunities that no one else knows about. Under normal circumstances, it really is possible to land some great gigs by visiting freelance job boards and answering ads.
But …read more

Wish you could score some assignments and gigs without having to spend all that time writing, researching, and tailoring queries?
Well, sometimes you can do just that with an LOI, or letter of introduction.
So what exactly is an LOI? It’s basically the written version of a cold call. It’s an unsolicited letter or e-mail that tells a potential client or editor how your background and work experience make you a top-notch candidate for future projects and writing assignments.
Of course, sending LOIs won’t magically land you assignments. But sometimes sending an LOI to an editor or client is all it takes for …read more

For weeks, you’re so slammed with work that you hardly have time to eat, sleep, or breathe. And then finally, there’s that feeling of sweet relief after you hit the send button on that last assignment. But suddenly, you realize your calendar has too much white space and you have no work assignments scheduled for weeks.
While you were busy cranking out all those stories and editing those articles, you shoved your marketing efforts to the back burner. Now, you are paying the high price of the feast-or-famine freelance cycle: no work assignments = no money.
Sound familiar? I have yet to …read more

A couple months ago, one of my friends and former newspaper editors told me that she might be facing a buyout decision at the end of the year. At the time, I had no advice to offer—I left the newspaper industry in 1999, and I never had to face such a gut-wrenching decision.
But after our e-mail exchange, I couldn’t stop thinking about my former editor and all the other friends of mine who are still working as full-time staffers in the newspaper and publishing industries. Every day, Newspaper Deathwatch and other sources continue to report more troubling news about layoffs, …read more

 
Give yourself a pat on the back if you received a rejection or “no thank you” from an editor or potential client this week—it means that you were getting your name and ideas out there. And it also means that you weren’t letting the fear of rejection affect your marketing efforts.
Receiving rejection e-mails and no responses is just part of the marketing process. And it really is a numbers game. The more calls you make, and the more queries and LOIs you send out, the more you’re going to hear “no.” But you’ll eventually start hearing “yes” too. And if …read more

If you’re like most people I know, you’re probably watching your financial portfolios and retirement accounts a little more closely after all the recent mayhem on Wall Street. But when was the last time you took a good hard look at your freelance portfolio—is it time to rebalance?
The prevailing wisdom among sage investors is to diversify, diversify, diversify. And the same holds true for your freelance business. Having a wide variety of clients and different kinds of work helps reduce the risk that your bank account will take too much of a hit if a client folds or starts scaling …read more