If you’re just getting started with a freelance writing career you may have noticed that all of the good jobs ask for writing samples.  But if you haven’t actually had any clients yet how do you get them?

Getting writing samples online is really not that difficult.  There are plenty of places that you can get your work published.  But before you start with that there are a few things you should remember:

1. Your writing samples need to have your name on it.  Without your name on it, potential clients will not know for sure that they were written by you.
2. They need to be of good quality.  Scratch that. They need to be great quality!  If you are going to use them to showcase your writing abilities, make sure that you have put the same effort into them that you would put into a clients work.  Write carefully and use the 3 step writing process to ensure that they are the best you are capable of.
3. They need to demonstrate your scope of ability.  Unless you have chose to be a writer that focuses on a single topic (and although many writers do this eventually, I don’t recommend this at the beginning; you might later fall into a specialty or find you prefer certain topics later but at the beginning you are going to need to be flexible) you will need to show potential clients that you are able to write on several different topics and that you are able to write them as if you were an expert in that field.

Now, the big question – where do you publish this writing?

I strongly believe that writers should spend at least some time writing for themselves.  The best way to do this is with your own blog.  You might want to have a niche blog if there is a specific area that you want to be able to focus on in the future.  But if you haven’t decided this yet you can have a blog that has several different focuses.  Just separate them by categories and don’t go too wide.  Keep it to about 3 or 4 topics and make sure that you identify them.  And remember that just because you are writing for yourself doesn’t mean that others are not going to read them so spell check and edit!

When I first started writing I did a lot of work for article marketing directories.  I used EzineArticles and Bukisa and I’ve since added InfoBarrel.  I know that many writers love AssociatedContent but I don’t write there because I’m a Canadian and I believe that only Americans can earn residuals there.  There are many places where you can write articles and your name is always attached.  There are some extra bonuses to writing articles for article directories.  You can earn some residual income and through resource boxes and your writer’s page, you can get valuable backlinks to your personal blog!

Guest posting is a great way to get some articles out there with your name on it.  I won’t go into great detail about guest posting because I recently blogged about it.  If you missed the post, go read about why I love guest posting now.

Finally, you can think a little less traditionally, too.  Don’t be afraid to be creative about getting your name out there on articles.  If you have an organization that you are particularly fond of, volunteer to write something for them.  Do you have a friend that needs help on their site?  Offer to help them out.  Look for opportunities to get published samples online.

And once you have them?  Be picky!  Don’t give every potential client the same list of published samples.  Choose samples that are most closely related to what they are looking for.  If they are looking for something in the health care niche – find an article that is related.  Or if they want how-to articles make sure that you choose one of your samples that is written in that style.

Getting samples is not hard – making sure that you have samples that reflect your abilities is more challenging.

Are you trying to break into the freelance writing market?  Perhaps trying to get some writing done that is NOT online?  If you are, you may be finding that it can be difficult to get into when you have no credits to your name.  Unlike the online world, having credits and clips can make all the difference between whether you get an assignment or not.

Start by checking out this short video from Anny Wayman of About Freelance Writing. I’ve mentioned Anne Wayman before and if you haven’t checked out her site you should now.  She’s got loads of great advice about writing (both online and offline) and she’s got some great e-books, too.

In this video she talks about getting your first credits by writing for your local/community paper.

Newspapers are not the only place that you can get credits for freelance writing. You can also try newsletters. If you have a lot of experience in a particular industry and have knowledge of something new and interesting, pitch the idea to the editors of an industry newsletter. There are many places that need written content and local businesses are a great place to start.

Have you had success with this? Share in the comments!

When I was teaching the Administrative Professional course at Robertson College we did a customer service module and part of that was reputation management.  One of the assignments that I gave my students was to take a portion of the customer service module and break it down into a more specific subject and give us (the class) more detailed information on it.  One of my students actually chose to research reputation management with SEO.  It was really interesting to see his take on it.

The thing I remember most from his presentation is that people tend to only look at the results on the first page of searches – sometimes the second or third page – so the information that shows up there is really important.  Because people are naturally drawn to the negative you have to make sure that the only thing they see on the first few pages is positive.

What is on the first couple pages when people do a search on your name?  Personally, I love to do searches on my name.

Currently, my Twitter accounts are showing up first and then this website.  When I did a Google search (just now) I also found that I am on Gawkk.com with this video:

Bing and Yahoo get similar results. So, I’m happy with what is showing up.

One of the other things you can do is sign up for Google Alerts. Once you sign up you will be sent an email each time something comes up using your keywords – ie. your name. Yahoo has the same service with Yahoo alerts. Or try using Kurrently to see if your name is turning up on Facebook or Twitter.

So, what are you doing to manage your online reputation?

Did you know that there is a 3 part writing process that is suggested for business writing?  There is!  It is taught in business communication courses but it applies to most forms of writing as well.  It’s very simple and looks like this:

I think the chart itself is pretty simple and doesn’t really need a whole lot of clarification.  The part that always surprised my students though was the amount of time that should be alloted to each part.

The Planning (or Pre-writing) phase should take up about 25% of your time.

The Drafting (or Writing) phase should also take up about 25% of your time.

But the Revising phase should take up 50% of your time.  This is perhaps the most important part of the writing process!

Does your writing process look anything like this?

If you read my guest post over at Carson Brackney’s blog and are now thinking that you can take the leap from part-time writer to full-time writer, I’m thrilled.  One person actually called me her hero.  And then I looked her up (the name was familiar but I didn’t make the blog/name connection right away) I found out that she’s the owner of  SoloMompreneur and now I’m even more honored!

What Makes Me Different?

But then I got to thinking – why can I do this while others are still struggling with multiple jobs and doing what they love on the side?  I know it’s not because I’m “better” than them (I’m not) and I know it’s not because I’m more prepared than them (I’m not).  So what is it?

I thought about my life and the way we live and what is important to me.  And I realized that I live my life very differently from other people.

One thing that a lot of people don’t get is the fact that I am almost 40 and have never owned a house.  Never.  I’ve lived in an apartment for the past … years (since I was 19) and only once lived by myself.  I always had roommates or a spouse.  It’s not because I can’t – I could stretch it and afford it if I wanted to – but I like having others around.  My friend and I actually dabbled with the idea of community living for awhile.  We were going to find a big massive house that three families could live in with our children (none of us were married at the time) and we’d share money responsibilities, parenting, etc.  Of course, one of the mom’s decided that wasn’t for her and we put it on hold.

Anyway – what’s my point?  Oh ya.  I don’t own a house – and I don’t have any intention to in the near future.  Why?  In the short term it costs me less.  I don’t have to worry about broken pipes, leaky roofs, mowing the lawn, fixing the driveway, doors being slammed off their hinges, and so on.  Those things are all my caretaker’s/owner’s problems.  And their financial problem, too.

I know this doesn’t make sense to anyone in the modern world.  After all – house ownership is what we are all trained to want.  And even to believe we need.  But think of it this way.  If I lose my job tomorrow and have to pick up a lower paying job I can just move to a cheaper apartment.  It may not be the one I want or in the area of town I want but guess what?  As soon as money issues get sorted out (and trust me, when you’re living in a dumpy place where the noise outside is even louder inside that’s pretty damn good incentive to find a better job!) I’ll be moving again into something I can actually live with.

This thinking has carried on in other parts of my life as well.  For example, I’ve never owned brand new furniture.  Ok – wait.  When I was 19 I bought a brand new bed. It cost me $99 plus tax.  I got it from the retail store I worked at with my Christmas employee discount, which cut a fair amount of the main price.  But other than that, furniture never comes into my house brand new.  I remember a neighbor came to my door once and told me that they’d bought a new bed and they were going to throw out the old one but it was actually in pretty decent condition so they thought they’d check with me first (how did they know to do that?  No clue.).  My first thought was, “If the old bed is in decent condition why are you buying a new one?”  My second thought was, “Let’s see it!”  And you know, that bed was fine.  No stains, no smell, springs were great – it wasn’t even dusty when I pounded on it!  So, ya, I took it and my son got a double bed that barely fit in his room.  He loved that he could jump to his bed from the doorway.  And because I didn’t pay a thing for it I didn’t care how much he jumped on it.

Couches, tables, chairs, office desks – all of those things have come either free or bloody cheap.

Ok – they don’t match.  So what?  If I had friends that cared about matching furniture I’d find new ones.  Really.  You sit on it.  That’s all it is for.  Even when it doesn’t match you can still make your place look great.

A True Story

I know this is getting long but before I get to the point of the title I want to tell you about the parent of one of my daughter’s friends.  She has multiple children (let’s say more than 5) and some of them weren’t in school yet and others were finishing high school.  So she needed a lot of room.  In Canada we have a social system that helps out people in that situation.  They are able to find housing that actually suits their needs.  Not my point though.  Well, I went to pick my daughter up from her place one day expecting they typical housing set up (basically it feels like you’re living in a ghetto) but instead walked into a home that looked like it should be in a magazine.  She had furniture of different shapes but it was all covered in this great striped fabric.  The curtains didn’t exactly match but they went very well with the decor.  She had all these great touches that made the place look like she’d paid someone to decorate it.

I had to ask: “How can you afford this?”

She hesitated for a moment before she said, “Well, you’d be amazed at what people throw in the garbage.”

My jaw dropped to the floor.  Really?  Could all this be people’s castaways?

She confessed that she regularly found furniture, slabs of carpet (completely unused), reams of material (also unused) and all sorts of things in the trash of rich people’s houses.  And yes, she took them.  She took them right back to her place and made it all work.

Now, I’m not suggesting that y’all take up dumpster diving (although I have been known to grab a thing or two that is sitting beside a dumpster and fix it up) but what I’m saying is that our society is trained to believe that everything we have needs to be brand new or that we need to replace things as soon as they start to show some age or that we can throw out stuff just because it doesn’t suit our immediate needs.  If we started questioning that train of thought, I’m tell you that we could all live on a lot less and our lives could be much less expensive!

The Book That Changed My Life

Now – to the point of the title.  Until a few years ago, I never had a salaried job.  I worked a lot of split shifts and my income was never guaranteed.  And it was friggin’ hard.  Until I came across this book called How to Live without a Salary by Charles Long.  It’s about “living the conserver lifestyle” and his book changed my life.  I don’t want to go on and on about what’s inside because that will make this post insanely long but to sum it up (from the back of the book)

As a Conserver you will learn how to:

• avoid consumer traps
• budget effectively
• analyze your true needs
• plan your personal attack on inflation
• make a casual income
• utilize second hand buying and auctions
• find alternatives to buying
• save on taxes and insurance
• begin the Conserver lifestyle yourself

(Want the book? Just go click on the picture. And yes, if you buy from this link I’ll get a tiny little kick back!)

This is an OLD book (my version is a reprint from 1991).  But the wisdom in it is especially pertinent to today’s life.  We’ve gotten carried away with what we think our needs are.  We don’t need cell phones (I know you think you do but people did just fine without them before they existed) and we don’t need to replace everything on a regular basis and we don’t always need to buy retail.  You don’t have to own a brand new car (and sometimes you might not need to own a car at all!  What a concept!).

Now, if I didn’t subscribe to this Conserver Lifestyle there is NO WAY that I could be dropping a salaried job with benefits included and a regular pay check.  Not a chance. But because of the way I choose to live my life I can now work at home full-time doing what I want to do.

You Can Do it, Too!

If you really, really want to work at home full-time I encourage you to consider what sacrifices you are willing to make.  Consider what you have that you don’t really need.  Consider purchases you’ve been planning to make that you maybe don’t really need to make right now.  Be realistic but don’t buy in to our societies ideals of everything needing to be bought right now, right off the shelf.

Think about it.  Maybe you could go full-time a lot sooner than you thought!

(BTW – I will be honest that there is one thing we pay for – computers.  Although we do still save money by buying refurbished but that is our one big expense every 3 years or so!)