Believe it or not a lot of people with online businesses are not writing their own content. Therefore, the market for online content is huge. Some of the reasons why people are hiring someone else to write their online content may include…
- Not having the time
- Not having writing skills
- Not being interested in writing their own content
- Having too much to write and selecting a writer to write some of their content only, and many some other reasons.
In any case, freelance writers are in demand. However, the questions are, are you up to the challenge to please your client before, during and after your deliver them your content to them? What is the type of information that your potential clients like to see, and what will keep you working for them well after the first draft has been submitted?
Be as Specific as Possible About your Services
On your site or sales page try to be as specific as possible went it comes to the most important pieces of information that you know your potential client might be looking for. If I want to hired any one for any online service the first thing I want to know is the price. Then, I want to know what I will be getting for such price, and how long would I have to wait in order to get my finished product.
- Price
- Service
- Turnaround
NOTE: Now, before I continue I want to specify that there is another brand of writers which won’t post any of this information on their Freelance Writer’s page. As a matter of fact, I am one of them, but I will explain why later.
Now, there are other type of information that your potential client might want to know, such as, keyword density, SEO methods you use, if your are flexible for revisions and corrections, type of contract you are using, and any extras you might be thinking of. However, ultimately, it may come down to a specific agreement with each client while you keep your basics in check, not letting the client take over your slice of the cake.
What Type of Writers do Clients Like to Work With
Reliability
I know we are all humans and, therefore, life happens to all of us. We may get sick and other things may happen that will prevent us to meet our deadlines. However, the list of excuses that some of my clients have heard from their writers is really outrageous. Excuses such as, my computer blew up, I’ve lost my internet connection, my husband died, my dog died, I was rushed to hospital… Of course, if you look at each of those excuses they are all valid, but when a client tells me that he heard them all and some, really, how much of all that is really true?
If you can’t commit to your orders, maybe you should do something else. The first and foremost quality you need to have as a freelance writer is to be reliable and trustworthy.
Article quality
You need to write for what you are paid for. Once in a while I have someone asking me to write articles for them for $1 per article. Of course, my immediate reply to such offer is that I’m not the Salvation Army. I do not write for a buck, but if you pay a buck for an article you will get what you paid for.
On the other hand, when you are paid a decent price (the price you are asking for) to write an article, deliver the quality that you have been paid for.
Article quality includes, misspells and grammar error free. Quality consistency (meaning, your articles quality won’t decrease over time), and of course one hundred percent originality.
If you keep up with those three quality features you will keep your clients.
Stick to your deadline
Once you’ve promised a deadline to your client, stick to it by any mean. Your reputation as a reliable writer will rest on this quality alone. Writers who can’t stick to their deadlines are viewed as unreliable. Even if your writing skills are excellent, but you’re not reliable, no one is going to want to deal with you for long.
If for any reason you can’t deliver the work when promised, make sure you send an email to your client, apologizing and giving them another date at which the work will be completed. Then, make sure you stick to that one. If you can, offer a discount for the delay. This way the customer will not see you as someone unreliable, but as someone who happened to have some type of circumstances that prevented them to do their work on time. And someone trying to do their best to repair the damages, in the most amicable and professional manner possible.
Be flexible
One of my clients recently asked me if I could write 15 articles by the end of that month. The thing was that we were only a few days from the end of the month. However, I said OK. Once I say yes, I make a point to keep my word, and I do my very best to meet the dead line. It was tough considering that this order wasn’t the only thing I had to do, as you can imagine. However, I wanted to be flexible and show my client that I was willing to work with him.
Writers Who are Using Another Method
Now, as I mentioned in my note above, there are some writers that will not give any specific information such as mentioned above, like price and turn around. So, who are those writers and why can they get away with this?
The writers who usually don’t advertise their price, service type and turnaround are writers who advertise their business by branding themselves through guest blogging or by knocking the doors of the potential clients themselves.
In such cases, most of their business is coming from the writer’s own actions. After spending sometimes advertising my writing service the regular way, I decided to start using the second method which I’ve learned from blogger and writer Onibalusi. However, this might not be for you.
It’s up to the individual writer to decide if they want clients to contact them or if they are willing to contact the potential clients themselves while advertising their services with content that they supply for free to popular blogs.
If you enjoyed this post, if you have comments or questions, please, shoot them below in the comment area!
I haven’t dealt with many freelance writers and I can’t imagine being asked to write a post for $1.00, but there are sites out there where you can sponsor ads and they pay exactly that or a few dollars more. Pathetic as it sounds, I know people do it. I think a writers time is just as valuable as the piece they write about and they put their heart into the post. I would hope that the post they create is something they believe in because I can’t imagine writing about something I have no interest in. Either way, this really shows the trials writers go through to get the message out about a website, blog or product. Great post Sylviane!
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Hi Sonia,
Glad to see you here
Isn’t it a sorry thing that some writers would sell themselves so cheap? As sad and pitiful as it sounds, yes, some people do write articles for anywhere between $1-$5 per article. I have done it myself ONLY for people I knew as a favor to them. But, even that, I tend not to do it anymore. While I am helping them I am not helping myself.
I wish writers would stop selling themselves so low while bringing their job and talent down that way. They think that they are doing themselves a favor, but they really aren’t.
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I couldn’t imagine writing for someone else Sylviane. I so admire freelance writers who are able to do that. At times I even get nervous writing guest posts because I have my own voice and I’ve always been told to write for that bloggers audience. Guess that’s another reason I don’t venture out more in that area.
I do find this trait fascinating though and wish I could just write for a living in that capacity. But, this is definitely not my area of expertise.
Thanks for laying this all out though. Very interesting…
Enjoy your week.
~Adrienne
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Hi Adrienne,
I guess it’s just a matter of getting used too. I’ve written about tons of topics that I didn’t even know anything about which include, weight loss, weddings, jewelry making, natural health medicines, electronics, relationships, several diseases and even porn addiction symptoms. I actually love the challenge and learn a lot about stuff 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
I haven’t used the services of a free lance writer yet. However if I find that I have the need for one, or know of someone who is looking for these services, I now know that I can refer you. 🙂
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Thank you Jamella, I appreciate that very much.
I know this is not a topic for everyone, but I decided to write this post due to a conversation I had recently with one of my clients who was telling all the things he didn’t like about people he had hired in the past.
There are some basics that people who call themselves freelance writers need to know and apply 🙂 Thanks for coming 🙂
Hello Sylvianne, I want to begin in freelance writing because I love to write but then I don’t know how to begin and what are the things that I need to consider before writing.
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Hi Nicholle,
Hope this post helped, then! If you have any questions just ask them here 🙂
I haven’t yet used the services of a freelance writer – I think I must be a bit of a control freak as I think my readers who return to my blog must actually want to read my words (but I could be wrong! lol).
I understand for the purposes of SEO that many people write company reviews and I have to say that I cannot get excited at all about doing them, so if I ever did venture down that route, then I would almost certainly hire a freelance writer to do it.
I am sure your articles are of a really high quality, so I will definitely keep you in mind!
Useful article, thank you.
Nicky
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Hi Nicky,
Nice to see you here. I’ve seen you around before, but never at home 🙂
Most people who hire a freelancers are for what I call “commercial” blogs, not so much for personal blogs where you, as you said, want to be in control. But that’s not in a negative sense, I love to talk to my readers with my own words, thoughts and stories, I would feel very frustrated to have someone else do the talking (writing). See what I mean?
On the other hand, when I am writing for clients I am 100% detached from what I write. Sometimes the subject I am writing on is as far as me as the sun from the moon, so no emotional attachment at all, neither for me nor for my clients as a matter of fact 🙂
Hey Sylviane,
Awesome post 🙂
First off, thank you for check my blog out. I appreciate that 😉 Now, back to your article:
I think this is one of the best posts on freelance writing. I have considered freelance writing to make money in the future (I am kind of following Oni’s method here: Right now, I am focused on building my blog and once I have done that, I can work on making money through advertising and through freelancing). Yes, of course, one has to be careful when working with someone else: Sticking to your deadlines (be committed), plan (and be flexible: be sure that you at least have the time to do it) and spend some time on writing original articles.
Anyways, thanks for sharing the tips. This would be certainly useful to me 😉
Cheers,
Jeevan Jacob John
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Hey Jeevan,
Thanks for the compliment about my post. And, yes, I really try to visit people that are visitng me. I think that’s fair, don’t you think? Just wish everybody thought like me 🙂
I based that post on real life notes that I have taken from people’s (clients) comments, so I thought that quite a few people would benefit from it. I even thought about publishing it on Oni’s blog, but heck I kept that baby for me this time.
Thanks for coming by 🙂
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Hi Sylviane,
I hope lots of freelance writers read this post – you’ve made some excellent points. I write for a living, but I’m not a freelancer. I have hired freelance writers and after weeding through some that didn’t deliver on quality or on time, I’ve finally settled in with a good one.
I pay more, but it’s worth it because she does as promised, is flexible, does what I ask, and her quality is really good and I don’t have to spend my time editing what she does for me. Love it!
Thanks,
Peggy
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Hi Peggy,
Nice meeting you here. Isn’t it great when you don’t have to edit what you’ve paid someone to write? Gosh that would make me mad! I’m glad you’ve found a good freelancer you are happy with.
Thanks for coming by. Really appreciate that 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
I take my hat off to freelance writers that can just sit and pour it all out.
As I’ve said before I’m not a natural writer. I spent my working life on building and demolition sites which didn’t involve writing at all. Ask me how to pull down a block of flats and I’ll explain exactly how to do it in about 15 minutes, ask me to write about it and it’ll take me at least a day.
Then if you gave me a title and requested some writing it would take me a day to think about it and then a couple more to write it out.
I couldn’t ever write for someone else, maybe a guest post but writing like a freelance writer…. Not on your nelly 😉
Like I said Sylviane, I take my hat off to those that can but for me it’s that age old saying “you can’t teach an ol’ dog new tricks” but I do try 🙂
Thanks Sylviane,
take care,
Barry
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Hi Barry,
Long time no see 🙂 Nice to see you again 🙂
I always been a person of words all my life. Before I could really read fluently, I remember taking children books and making up the story as I “pretended” to read. I was doing it so well, my mother thoughts I was really reading, sometimes 🙂 Now, don’t ask me to keep your accountants up, thought. I totally suck with numbers 🙂
We can’t be good at everything, can we?
I fixed the comment area on my pages. It was actually a theme setting and I didn’t know how to do it, but the theme guy told me how 🙂
Have a great day, Barry 🙂
Sylviane,
This is valuable information for anyone looking to be a freelance writer. While I admire people who can do this it just boggles my mind how you can do this. There are so many variables to consider when writing for someone else.
I did outsource for a bunch of articles a couple of times, but my goal was to have the articles more for back link bait than anything else. They were used for other projects and not on my primary blog. But I do not outsource any content on my main blog. That’s my voice and I feel people should not outsource this part.
now would you consider a freelance writer different than a copy writer? I hired a copywriter for the purpose of a product I launched a while back. Do you write sales copy as well as articles?
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
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Hi Ken,
So nice to see you here 🙂
Well, to answer your question, while a copy writer can also be called a freelance writer, I feel that copy writing is a whole set of skills on it own.
To be honest, while I know and have practice some of those skills required to write a sales copy, I only wrote two of sales copies. One was my own and the other a product that I sell on a partnership with another marketer. However, I do not feel skilled enough to write a sales copy for pay.
On the other hand I am pretty comfortable with any type of articles even if the topic doesn’t interest me at all. I’ve written about so many different topics I can’t recall them all 🙂
I think copywriters and completely underrated and undervalued. Here\’s a really good reason not to post pricing on your site: because there is none! It\’s impossible to say you\’ll charge $x per page (or something similar) when the project can vary so wildly. What if you need to spend 4 hours interviewing or researching before you can write? What if you\’re writing something very detailed and technical, vs creative and freeform? What if you\’re writing a blog post vs a newspaper ad? These things require a different amount of time, attention, knowledge and expertise.It\’s tough because many people just look at the price tag ($20 per page? I\’ll take 10.) and not at the value. That\’s why it\’s so important to have a portfolio, good testimonials and exactly what you said – your own personal brand. Copywriters are a dime a dozen (almost literally). But good copywriters are a treasure.Thanks for sharing your insight and stick to your brand. It\’s the only way to really rise above in the end!
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Hi Carol Lynn,
Nice to meet you 🙂 So glad you came.
Your comment tells me that you know quite a few things about what a writer goes through. It’s so true that every job is totally different and some subjects call for more research and work than others. Therefore, they can’t be priced the same. In other words, the more custom the article will be the more it will cost and that fair, isn’t it?
Yes, I write for clients as part of their web, search and social marketing. Although I don’t do it freelance (it is part of my business’s total marketing packages), it is quite challenging to get people to understand the value of good copywriting. Many people think, “Oh, I’ll just do that myself and save money.” Or they argue price without realizing how much time goes into interviewing, researching and writing to their market. At any rate, I have great respect for good writers and believe strongly in paying those that I hire what they’re worth!
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I outsource my article writing quite a bit and have worked with some really great writers. I like your tips for getting a client to stick around and become a repeat customer. Reliability is huge but so is accuracy — being accurate about what you can and cannot do. I once wasted a whole month on a project because the freelance writer said she she deliver something she could not.In this case,
I wasn’t a repeat customer, but in general I\’ve been very pleased with the quality of the work I\’ve received. Well written, Sylviane
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Hi Bob,
First off, thanks for coming by my way, Bob 🙂
You’ve got a great, great point. No writer should be afraid to say, I can’t write about this subject, for any reason that might be. Sometimes when I write a good amount of articles about a specific topic, I kind of run dry. In such case I have to say, let’s stop for now 🙂 We are humans, not machines 🙂
Hi Sylviane, Thank you for writing this article. So far everything I write is done by myself. I am, however, at the point of thinking about hiring someone to help out. People told me to go to fiverr.com…..Hmmm! I tend to shy away from that and also the $1 deal.
Although my husband is a professional writer, he doesn’t have time to help me out because he is an internet marketing coach. He has enough on his hands. I tend to shy away from the time it will take to hire a writer. Trust, like anything else out here is the issue.
I would like to hire someone that was referred to me.
Why? Because the past two years on the internet myself, I have been writing good content, and also commenting more than one liners.
Now you have my wheels turning,
Thanks so much for the heads up on this subject. It is greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Donna
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Hi Donna,
Gosh I wanted to tell before but I didn’t… your picture on your avatar here looks just like my auntie (my mother’s sister) when she was younger. Every time I see you on my blog for a second I think that my aunt left me a comment 🙂 I thought I had to let you know that 🙂
To get back on our subject here, I’ve heard some people saying that they get good articles for very little money, and that’s possible, but for a buck, unless you get it from the Philippines like a guy told me recently, I can’t imagine that you would get good quality here for $1. Then there is also the fact that it might seem OK, but is it original? God knows!
I have never heard of anything good or bad from fiverr and I almost wanted to hire someone there to install my Thesis theme on my other two blogs, but to tell you the truth I got cold feet 🙂
If there is anything I can help you with just shout me an email if you wish 🙂
Have a great one, Donna and thanks for coming.
Hi Sylviane, No this is not your aunt ha ha ha
I wouldn’t use them for an article. I’m more the do-it-yourself kinda gal. But I have hired some in the past to do some technical stuff and it worked.
-Donna
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Hey Sylavine,
I recently took up freelance writing more seriously and still have to have the hire me page on my blog. Should you think I should include it though it is my personal blog? I am still working on finding more credible work around and yes, I get those offers for 1 $ … why would people even bother with making such an offer?
Some clients do ask for more commitment and ask for more changes and editing over and over again; that gets a little tiring for me! Is there some kind of rule you have to the number of times you will edit after submission?
Hi Hajra,
To answer your first question, if you don’t have a “hire me” page yet, yes, you should have one.
In order to avoid the endless revision marry-go-round, make sure you understand what the client “really” wants from the get go. Usually, after just an email or a conversation over the phone I can tell if they are going to be picky or not, but that I can’t tell you “how” I just feel it from experience, by the tone of they message.
If you are not sure, ask them frankly, do you have a “very specific” idea of what the article should be or do you trust my own judgement? If you have any specifics you’d like, please, let me know now, so we can avoid multiple revisions.
If you feel like someone is pushing you buttons with an abnormal number of revisions give them an ultimatum like OK, I will do this, but this is the my last revision for that price.
I hope this helps 🙂
I have to start working on the hire me page. But yes, one person in particular just is making it very tough with revisions and editing. Though we discuss what we really want and all, once I send the finished piece there always is something they disapprove of. I do the revisions, but the number just becomes too much. I actually had to edit and re edit one article over eight times! But yes, I like the ultimatum suggestion!
Thanks so much! 🙂
The secret to getting customers in freelance writing (or any other business) is effective marketing. You need to know how to promote your products and services to your target market. Obviously, you have to be priced right and provide a quality product. But without effective marketing, even a talented writer will starve. Just my thoughts.
Hi Charles,
Sure effective marketing is very important no doubt, but I also know writers who have attracted the attention of publishers because of their excellent writing. So, content is still really kind in this regard.
Now if you can do both, great marketing and follow up with your good work, there is no stopping you.
What a good post! I have a business friend who is looking to hire freelance blag writers. Where can he find them?
Do you mean a blog writer? If it’s the case he can contact me right from the contact tab on this blog 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
Fantastic post!
I got a good roar out of your photo of the freelancing cat. LOL That was too cute and by the looks of his face, very appropriate! I would be making a very similar face if someone asked me to pour out my talent for only $1! Oh my goodness!
I think you laid out some excellent points of consideration for anyone who is considering listing out their qualifications and what their charges are. It’s up to us to know what we are worth!
I think that this was well written and I’m so glad that not only do you NOT sell yourself short, but that you are also providing sound wisdom for those who may be considering “dropping their pants” because they’re just not yet bold enough to ask for what they are worth!
Great message!
Cat Alexandra
Hi Cat,
I just realized that I had never replied to this comment of your, because It my have never showed up on my dashboard.
I’m glad you got a kick out of my kiddie picture here. I love my pictures to be funny.
Thank you for coming by 🙂