This is part two of a three part series.  In part one we talked about marketing yourself as a freelance writer and targeting your marketing efforts.

Here are some more mistakes you might be making:

Mistake #3: You’re not getting personal enough.

Copying a pasting the same generic message and sending it to hundreds of companies may be less time consuming than writing personalized messages, but it might come back to bite youlater.

Think about it. When you get an email (or phone call) from someone you don’t know, you probably delete (or ignore) it if it doesn’t immediate grab your attention. Sending a “to whom it may concern” message is not going to win you any brownie points, and it will probably get your message deleted before anyone even has time to read it.

The solution? Do a little digging to find out who is responsible for hiring writers within each company, and then send messages targeted to each person. Read each company website, and become familiar with what they do and how they go about doing it. Position yourself as the perfect writer for their particular needs or industry.

If you can’t find the person in charge of hiring freelancers, send a brief note to customer service or human resources and ask who you should speak with. Often times, they’ll either send you an email address or forward your message to the right people. If you’re cold calling, ask them who would be charge in hiring freelance talent.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mistake #4: You are pricing your services too low.

You might be tempted to charge rock bottom prices just to make sure you get the gig. Don’t. At least, not unless you want to be earning rock bottom prices months from now.

While it is possible that a low-baller will walk away if you quote professional rates right off the bat, ask yourself: is that really the type of client you want? Plus, once you are locked in at a low rate, it’s very hard to increase your prices later on.

Another pitfall of charging too little is that the good clients, the ones who know the value of quality content, might not take you as seriously. You could be the best writer in the world, but if you’re charging $5 for an article, clients will assume will you don’t have the experience or talent they’re looking for. Know your worth, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve. Don’t price yourself as a bottom basement writer, unless you want to work with bottom basement clients.

If you are a new writer, you’ll stick to the lower end of the pay scale, but don’t price yourself off the scale altogether.

Mistake #5: You don’t have clients sign a contract.

Get everything in writing. For one thing, it ensures that you’ll get paid (or at least provides ammo if you have to dispute an unpaid invoice). Secondly, clients will assume that you’re a real professional if you have a contract. Business owners have contracts. Hobbyists who are trying to make a little extra pocket change, don’t.

Once you have a potential client interested, you want to keep him interested. That means conducting yourself in a professional manner before you ever even get to work.

A contract doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple statement of the project and payment arrangements is fine. Make sure it is stated that the client won’t own your writing until payment is received in full. If you want rights to resell the work, make sure you include those terms in writing as well.

Watch for Part 3 tomorrow!

Are These 8 Marketing Mistakes Hurting Your Freelance Writing Career? – Part 2 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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If you accept clients without requesting that they sign an independent contract agreement or a freelance writer contract, you may want to seriously reconsider the next time you take on a new project. Many freelance writers will not even touch the subject of contracts because they do not want to insult the client and lose a potentially great gig. However, this shouldn’t be the case at all. In fact, any upstanding and legitimate client should show no hostility or hesitation when asked to sign an agreement for the writer.

Why You Should Request a Contract

1. It protects you from being scammed: While some writers still get stiffed from illegitimate clients even after an agreement is signed, a client is typically less likely to disappear without paying you if you have a contract in place. The threat of legal action if the agreement is breached is enough to force some hesitant clients to cough up the dough.

2. It leaves a paper trail: Similarly, if your client does try to disappear without paying you, your contract will help you if decide to take the matter up in court. Clients tend to stiff writers because they do not believe that the writers have time or money to go after them. Fortunately, a written and signed agreement should give you enough ammunition to pursue your case and get what you deserve.

3. It shows good faith for everyone: A signature is like a handshake in that it finalizes the project. It means that the client has every intention of awarding you the job and paying you promptly. It also means that the writer has every intention of completing the task to the best of his ability, for the amount agreed upon in the contract.

4. It lists all terms and conditions: A signed contract actually helps you as a writer. Everything is laid out in front of you, all of the terms, conditions and expectations regarding the work that you have been asked to complete. There should be no question or dispute later down the road when a client claims you did not follow his instructions if you stuck to what was stated in the initial contract.

5. It ensures you are paid fairly: Some clients tend to assign a writer a small number of pieces, only to request additional articles and revisions later. While it is fine to complete more work, you should be compensated for each piece and extra revisions that are not included in your contract. Your workload will increase, so your pay should be subsequently higher as well. Some writers include one or two rounds of revisions at no charge, but when a client starts asking for 10 or more revisions, the time spent rewriting each article can make the writer’s hourly rate hardly worth their time.

Image via Wikipedia

What You Should Include in Your Contract

Writing agreements do not have to be pages long, nor do they need to be formal. A simple listing of your duties, your client’s duties and the price should be sufficient. By asking your client to type “I agree to the terms listed above,” you are requesting that he provide his electronic signature to seal the deal. You may also consider including the cost of extra services such as additional revisions or future pieces. Keep in mind that, even though the signature is electronic and does not need to be notarized, courts still view them to be legal and binding.

The Bottom Line

You should absolutely use a writing contract or agreement any time you accept work from a client, whether it is for one article or 100 articles. You would not take a job outside of your home without your employer requesting you sign paperwork, so why should your home business be any different? These agreements protect everyone involved, not just the writer, so a client should have no problem signing one. If he agrees without hesitation, you can move forward with your working relationship feeling more at ease. If he seems hesitant or flighty, it’s best for you to move on and find a more accommodating client.

Mallory Hall has been writing for several years. A mother of two, she enjoys crafting articles around topics such as the freelancing life, parenting health, nutrition, personal finance and the law. You can find her for hire at Guru.com or on Textbroker.com under the author name “M. Hall.”

The Writing Contract: To Have or Not to Have? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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I know there are a lot of writers out there that are new and really just don’t know where to start.  There are many writers who are not new but aren’t sure how to move away from the content mills to more private clients.  There are many writers who just need a few tips to take them to the next level.

And for those writers, I’ve put together a little ebook (well, not totally little) with some of my best blog posts.  But it isn’t just my already written blog post – each post has additional information and a TO DO list to help you put the advice into action.  And yes, there is some totally new information in there, too.

And what will it cost?

No money – just a tweet or a Facebook like! Just click the button below:

Freelance Writing Tips for New Writers is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you might remember me talking about the cool kid that I wanted to get the attention of.  If you don’t remember that read about it here (it will open in a new window so go read it).

Well, I was looking at that post the other day and I thought that I should give you an update.

What happened? Well, I did indeed get the attention of that cool kid.  He gave me the input that I wanted about my blog.  We’ve chatted a few times.  And he’s now one of my clients!

Image by caribb via Flickr

How did that happen?  Well, I like his page on Facebook and one day I saw that he was putting up a new request for a writer on ELance.  I don’t use bidding sites because I’ve never had good results from them.  They aren’t my thing (of course, I know that they do work so watch for a special guest post in the next few weeks from a writer who IS getting results).  I asked him if he’d consider letting other writers apply and explained that I don’t use bidding sites and he said for sure and that I should contact him through his site contact form and he would send me the specs and I could put in a bid.  He sent out the specs and…

I panicked!  I really wanted to impress him and I just got scared.  So I put it off for a day or so and then he contacted me and asked if I was still interested and that he’d like to pick someone for the writing job very soon.

I got my act together and put in the bid and 15 minutes later I got a reply back from him saying that he wanted me to do the job and he loved my proposal.

Well, I was so damn excited I broke out in tears!  I laughed and I cried and my husband didn’t know what was going on.  When I finally told him about the writing gig he was like, “Ya so?” because he didn’t realize that this was the COOL KID!  The COOL KID was going to hire ME!

I finally calmed down and replied that yes, I would love the job.  I did an ebook for one of his niche sites and he loved it.  In fact, he actually mentioned me in a blog post as the writer of his ebook and of course, I very quickly took a screen cap to add to my testimonials page!  :)  But then I started getting emails like crazy from people who wanted me to write for them because I’d written for the cool kid.  It was really crazy for awhile.

I’m working on my second project for him now.

So, I’d say I got his attention.  Am I going to tell you who it was?  No – you have to guess!  or maybe he’ll stop by here and out himself.  Who do you think the cool kid is?  Is it you?

What Ever Happened to the Cool Kid? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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Image via CrunchBase

I have talked to many freelance writers who want to grow.  They want to build on their business, get better private clients, and ultimately, be able to increase their prices to increase their earnings.

I have found that having a web presence can significantly increase your chances of connecting with people that are looking for writers.  And social media is a great way to do that.  Twitter and Facebook are my two favorite forms of social media but LinkedIn, YouTube, and increasing, Google+ are also an effective way of connecting with people.

Image via CrunchBase

Here are ways that social media can help you connect with more people and increase your web presence:

1. When you use social media platforms and talk about what you do people begin to identify you as “the writer”.
2. When you connect with a variety of people – not just other writers! – you can see when they are in need and be available to offer your services.  One of the best gigs I have gotten so far was from a Facebook connection with someone that has a HUGE web presence.  I saw that he was in need of a writer and contacted  him.  When I finished the job, he mentioned me on his blog and since then I have not had to look for work.  People generally come to me because of him and I even had to increase my rates!
3. If you see that someone just needs advice on something that you are knowledgable you can offer it and if they need a writer in the future they will be more likely to contact you.
4. When people connect with you through social media they feel like they know you more.  When they feel like they know you they are more likely to recommend you to those they know who are looking for writers.
5. People tend to outsource to people that are already within their circles if they know of someone.  If you are interacting with people, sharing information, having conversations, you will be more recognizable.  People will think of you first when they need your services.

Image via CrunchBase

If you want to increase your web presence get out there and be visible.  When you are on Twitter, don’t just tweet links to your work.  Tweet about your work.  When you tweet something like, “I’m so excited about the writing I will be doing with my new client!” or “I love writing about real estate for my new client”, the people who follow you will see two things: 1) that you are a writer and 2) that you love your job.  That can say a lot about you.

Join groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Show enthusiasm and be ready to help.  And when the opportunity arises, don’t be afraid to contact people directly and let them know that you are avaialble!

Ask questions, show interest, get involved in a community. The more involved you ae the more people will recognize your name!

Now, I know, you are thinking that this takes so much time!  But really, it doesn’t have to.  Concentrate on one social media venue at a time.  Schedule time to be avaialble and visible.  This isn’t optional if you want to grow as a freelance writer.  Marketing is part of your job.  This is the same thing as  a business man taking time to go to public speaking events and share information on what his business is doing in their area of expertise.  This is the same thing as going to a workshop or a networking event in real life.

Can you skip out on the whole social media thing?  Sure, but if you do you’re missing out on a great opportunity to connect with people.  I don’t want to miss out on that – do you?

5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Use Social Media to Increase Their Web Presence is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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Click here to visit I Need a Writer!

Hi all!  I know I said I was going to be taking a bit of a hiatus from this blog but I just wanted to quickly stop by and let you know that I and a couple other writers have opened up new writing services.

It is not terribly different from other services out there but we are working through WriteSwap.com.  Through WriteSwap we are guaranteed to get the money from the work we will do and clients can have some control over the work they ask for.

Our site is called I Need a Writer! and you can either order packages that we have already put together or you can request a package – you can even request a specific writer to work on the package for you.

Some of the sample packages you’ll find:

• I Need A Writer!: Brand New PLR Package
• I Need A Writer!: Single Blog Post – Bathroom Renovations / Redesign
• I Need A Writer!: Single Blog Post – WAHMs
• I Need A Writer!: 5 Hight-Quality Articles On ADHD
• I Need A Writer!: Set Of 5 Diabetes Articles or Blog Posts
• I Need A Writer!: Coffee PLR Set

If you have to hire a writer, come and check us out or if you know someone that is looking for writers send them our way!

New Service – Team of Writers Available is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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When it comes right down to it, I know that as a freelance writer, you are busy.  Whether you are a freelance writer that supplements the household income by writing or a freelance writer that is working part-time or a freelance writer that using writing as the main source of income for the household, we all have to make sure that our time is efficient.

And it is true – social media can be a big time sucker if you aren’t using it with purpose.  But have a focus, and know why you’re using it and social media can be a great investment of your time.

Why?  Well, there are 50 good reasons why!

Here are 50 reasons why you should be using social media:

To Build Awareness

1. Promote your website. Your website has no value whatsoever if no one knows about it.  Whether you have a blog or a simple site that displays the services you offer and some samples, you need to be found for it to have value.
2. Establish a web presence. Potential clients will Google you and if they find nothing they will assume that you are new and inexperienced.
3. Promote your articles. Whether you are writing articles for back links or for residual income, they are worthless if no one is reading them.
4. Build a brand. Who do people buy from?  Usually, they buy from brands they are familiar with.  So, whether you are using a business name or your given name as your brand, increase awareness of it.
5. Give away free reports. Free reports can show off your skill as a writer and your knowledge of a specific niche.  You can also give potential clients a prime example of a product that they also can use to promote their business.  Give people the permission to share your free reports.
6. Demonstrate your strong ethics. By being professional, respectful, and mature you can display a major characteristic that clients look for.
7. Share your resume. There are several ways that you can share your resume such as a page on your site, your LinkedIn profile, or one of the many resume building websites that are available.
8. Let people attach a face to your brand. People feel closer when there is a face that they can identify.  They like to know that there is someone behind the brand and they are more likely to feel they can trust you.
9. Share what others say about you. When others have good things to say it validates what you have been saying all along.  People are much more likely to believe what someone says about you than what you say about you.
10. Stay in the forefront of people’s minds. When people have writing work you don’t want them to think, “How am I going to find a writer?”  You want them to think of you because they already know you are a writer and they believe that they can trust you.

To Learn

1. Become an expert in your niche.  If you write about a specific topic, you need to make sure that you present yourself as an expert.
2. Find concise batches of information through lists.  Most social media sites have some sort of list function.  Use it.
3. Find people to interview. Our articles are more valuable when they have real people in them.  Also, interviews with professionals give your work credibility.
4. Find out about industry events.  Industry events give you the chance to network on a whole new level.  Learn, make new friends, and find business opportunities.
5. Find off-line promotional opportunities. Speak at an event, offer a free copy of a book, or give someone a quote to use.
6. Find out about free webinars.  You’ll learn loads and you can often save the audio version to refer back to later.
7. Learn more about SEO – if you’re a writer this is not negotiable.
8. Find new slants to articles you’ve already written. Those articles that took you half an hour to write can be re-worked for a different market and pay again.
9. Ask questions. There are so many people out there that are willing to share what they know – all you have to do is ask!
10. Get recommendations and share them. You can get recommendations for products, service, tools, and more.  Don’t rely on advertising.  Experience is a much better means of evaluating the value of a product or service.
11. Learn new skills. New skills will only make your business stronger.  The more value you can offer clients the more you can charge.
12. Beat writer’s block. We all get it from time to time.  Social media offers multitudes of opportunities to get past it.
13. Find tools to make your business easier. Finding the right tools to run your business can make a difference between working 4 hours a day or 6 hours a day.
14. Find resources for support. Knowing where to go to get help or where you can find other supports as a writer can ensure that this stays a career you love and not a job that needs to get done.
15. Be more efficient by using tools that allow you to use more than one social media source at once (you all know I love Hootsuite!).
16. Increase your writing skills. Writing for social media content involves being very concise.  It’s good practice to communicate with less words.
17. Create a swipe file. Ever find yourself running out of ideas to write about when you write in the same niche (even if it is just for a period of time)?  A swipe file can make your job a lot easier and the ideas you get from social media can help you create your own.
18. Get motivation. Let’s face it – we all need a little motivation from time to time.  Social media networks are filled with people and ideas that can motivate you.
19. Be more portable. Your work and the people you work with can follow you around.
20. Get information. How do you flesh out those articles?  How do you grow as a writer?  How do you develop new skills?  All by finding and putting to use information.

To Build Relationships

1. Find a mentor. Gee, I can’t tell you how much having a mentor has helped me.  If it were not for the fact that Sharon Hurley Hall believed in me, I don’t know if I would have pursued freelance writing as a career.
2. Mentor others. Do you have experience and knowledge?  I’m sure you do.  Give back to the community by sharing what you know with someone new.
3. Find places to guest post. Guest posting can be a great way to enter a new clique.
4. Find other writers/business people to collaborate with.  Joint projects can help you expand your circle and increase your chances of meeting new potential clients and partners.
5. Arrange real life meetings. Whether it is clients, partners, or just other writer friends, real life meetings just make what you start online stronger.
6. Find places to outsource things you don’t like to do or aren’t good at.  No one can be great at everything and finding the people who can do certain tasks better can save you time and money.
7. Connect your networks. You are likely on more than one network so make sure that people can find you where ever they go.
8. Get peer feedback. Others often see things differently than you do.  Ask for their opinions so that you can see it, too.
9. Develop relationships with other writers. We all need friends that understand us – other writers!

To Increase Income

1. Increase residual income possibilities. Are your writing articles on residual earning sites or maybe trying to sell an eBook or trying to make money from advertising on your blog?  Have a social media presence increases your exposure.
2. Find jobs. Yes, you can find jobs.  There are many ways to do this in social media and some sites (like LinkedIn) are better than others but there are other opportunities as well.
3. Develop relationship with potential clients. People use the services and products of their “friends” – so be friendly!
4. Find out where your clients are hanging out.  Why be where they aren’t?
5. Find out what clients really need! No one will use your services if they don’t really need them.
6. Pitch ideas to potential clients. Feel them out and throw out an idea or two.
7. Expand your market. If you normally provide your writing services for online content companies you might be able to expand to individuals or larger bricks and mortar companies.
8. Launch your own product. With your own products you keep all the income.
9. Understand your clients.  Find out what they think, what they value, what kind of education they have.  The more information you have about them the more likely you are to be able to market yourself to them.
10. Get more exposure to a wider array of clients.
11. Build your email list.

Can you think of any other reasons that freelance writers should leave social media? Leave a comment!

50 Reasons Freelance Writers Should Be Using Social Media is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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I’m a freelance writer but I’m kind of obsessed with social media so most of this blog is about my journey as a freelance writer and my obsession with social media.  Makes sense, right?  I love blogging but I really love how you can use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote yourself online.  Of course, I’m active in all three of them and if you want to connect with me on either one you’ll find my pretty social media icons to the right.

Grab A Coffee and Make Yourself at Home is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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You know, I have to say that I am just getting so tired of this debate.  Some writers think that they have the right to judge those who write for low pay.  Some writers think that because they are making “more” (whatever that may be to them) that other writers should turn away low paying writing gigs because they are worth more.

Well, they may or may not be worth “more” but really, who are you to say what pay they should write for?

Someone posted about this on a writer’s forum I frequent.  I generally do not get involved in these things but I’m so sick of hearing it.  The general gist of the original post was that writers shouldn’t be writing for less than 2 cents/word and that if they couldn’t get work for that much they would be better off putting the work on their own blog and putting up Google Adsense and making money from that.

My reply:

Honestly, I am just sick to death of hearing this debate.

There are different markets out there for everything so why shouldn’t writing be the same? The markets that one cent a word writers are writing for is completely different from the five cent a word markets. The writers are different, too, with different needs.

Remember for some writers $10 an hour is more than they have ever made at a regular job. So, to them, one cent a word is great when you can pound out 4 500 word articles in an hour because they are just that easy. I started out writing at 1 cent a word and I still occasionally take writing at that rate if it is super simple and requires very little thinking. I do re-writing at that rate because I can do a 500 word article re-write in about 8 minutes.

You can tell me what I “should” be writing for all you want but the bottom line is that I am going to do whatever I need to do to support my family. I am going to do whatever I need to do to NOT have to leave the house to go to a job so that I can be here for my kids and for my often sick husband. And NO ONE has the right to tell me that I should stop writing for low rates when I need to.

You know, the money I am making now is substantially higher than than it was at any of the outside the house jobs I’ve ever had but I’d bet that there are lots of you who would think, “That’s all she makes?” But you know, when my daughter was a baby I was working my butt off at minimum wage as a cook – working stupid hours and sweating in a hot kitchen. And I make a hell of a lot more than that now. 3 years ago I was working in a market research company and still making less than $20 an hour, plus I had to pay for transportation and buy nice clothes and other expenses that go with working in an office.

So, if a woman (or man for that matter) decides to take low paying jobs (whether writing or anything else) in order to make her family a priority it is no one’s business but her own.

There is NOTHING wrong with taking a lower pay to take care of the one’s you love and to be with them.

And I didn’t think to put this part but regarding putting content on your own blog and putting up ads –  well, you need traffic to get money from ads don’t you.  And it is just not that simple.  You know, I’ve had this blog up for over a year and I don’t think I’ve made a cent from it.  And my traffic, quite frankly, sucks.  I’m just not a great marketer.  I know that.  But I love this blog, so I keep working at it.  Will it be profitable someday?  I hope so.  Is it now?  Not really.

To me, the bottom line is that you do what you need to do and what you are comfortable with.  If you’re comfortable writing for peanuts, you enjoy it, and it is accomplishing whatever the purpose is then keep doing what you are doing.  But if you want to make more money?  There are ways and those who want to will find them.

Write for peanuts if you want to – but if you don’t want to, work hard, read from the experts, and apply for bigger jobs – they will come!

How Dare You Write for Peanuts? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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We all get it once in awhile don’t we.  Writer’s block – the thing all writer’s fear most.  And it always seems to come when we want to write something that most.  We need to get a blog post out or our newsletter is late or something – but that’s when writer’s block peeks out at us.

Take a look at this video though.  The guy makes sense.  Joel Comm – I’d never hear of him until now but he seems to be pretty popular and I like his energy.  He has a blog, too of course.  Find him here.

So, some of the things we can do to get rid of writer’s block:

• Take a walk.
• Change your environment.  Instead of writing in your office, go write outside or in a cafe.
• Go somewhere where there are people.  Go to the mall and people watch – but don’t forget your notepad and pen because I’ll bet anything you’ll get ten ideas for things to blog about.
• Do some housework.  Doing dishes never fails for me – I always get my best ideas when I’m up to my elbows in soap suds.
• Play with your kids.
• Pet your cat or dog.

What do you do to get rid of writer's block? Discuss...

Give Writer’s Block the Boot! is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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