Photo courtesy of law_keven.

If you are looking for a resource to improve your grammar, I highly recommend The Owl at Perdue. A free online resource – The Owl – provides writing tips and resources for your writing. While the focus is on academic writing there are many resources for business writing as well. From white papers to power point presentations, Curriculum Vitae to personal statements – you’ll find all sorts of great resources to bookmark. My personal favorite is their consolidated list of proper comma usage. I have it printed out and use it as a “comma-proofing” guide for my writing.

If you’re already a grammar king or queen you may be interested in some of their resources for technical writers or the section on mentoring and consulting. If you’re a grammarian by nature try their blog: The Grammar Gang.

Other Grammar Resources:

Book: Lapsing Into a Comma
Book: Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Image provided by WayTru.

When I started freelance writing I put zero money down. I began it as an experiement in the evenings after my day job. I knew I loved to write, I had good reviews of my writing and great success in college English classes, but I wasn’t sure how it would work as a business idea. I looked into opportunities on the web and I came across Elance.com and that’s where I started. Instead of putting money down I used the free connects to see how the system worked. I started a great freelance job with my third connect, reinvested the money back into the business and kept going. Now I am writing full-time from the comfort of my own home. However, if I could start over again there is one thing I would have done differently – created a larger financial cushion.

Emergency Funds

It goes almost without saying that when you start up a business venture you need to have emergency funds set aside. When I was moonlighting I had no emergency funds for my business, after all wasn’t this my “extra” money job? Thankfully, I do have a personal emergency fund and when my computer decided to no longer boot that is where I turned so I could keep the freelance funds flowing. In retrospect, even when moonlighting you need to have an emergency fund for your business. The best planners amongst us can’t plan for everything. Perhaps that’s why they “plan for the unexpected.” Even if an expense is planned for it can come as a nasty surprise. After my first year of moonlighting taxes hit with an ugly reality: though I hadn’t earned much that first year it was enough that I should have been paying taxes quarterly. I had spent my “extra” money throughout the year and failed to plan. Ouch, I should have had a cushion.

Learning the Cycle

Businesses expenses and revenue come and go in a cycle. You write, you submit, and there’s a delay in payment. Sometimes you can plan for it and sometimes the client needs to buy a little time. A large financial cushion will help you ride out the cycle. Without this cushion you may find yourself hawking your personal items to pay for rent while you await payment for your work. Assume payments are going to be late. That way, when your client pays you on time you can be pleasantly surprised. If they can’t pay on time for whatever reason, you’ll be prepared and able to cut them a little slack. Don’t forget that this is your business financial cushion and not your personal cushion. Maintinaing two seperate financial cushions will further protect your personal assets.

Every Day is a Rainy Day

We put aside reserves for a rainy day, but it’s important to realize that every day has the potential to turn into a rainy day. In the beginning we may be losing more money than we’re bringing in and this trend can last for quite a while. Did you know that many businesses considered successful lost money in three out of the first five years? Don’t expect to turn a major profit right away. If you’ve quit your day job and you’re just starting to write you may have forgotten to budget in things such as taxes and health care costs. These expenses can be quite a shock to your financial system. Prepare and plan as much as you can to succeed, but don’t forget you can soften the blow of unexpected expenses with a big fat financial cushion. Plan for that and you’ll thank yourself later.

If you’re like me, you put the needs of a client in front of your own. Deadlines are looming and you have to make a choice between doing stuff for you, doing stuff for your family, and doing stuff for the people who pay you. Your family and your clients sometimes struggle for that top spot, but the bottom line is that your needs get put on the backburner. Only they’re not really your needs are they? They’re the needs of your business.

You are not your business.

It may seem obvious, but it’s an important distinction to make. Without it, as freelancers, we become both overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Take on too many clients and we feel that everything is spiraling out of control. We experience burnout, panic, and provide less than quality products for our clients. Take on too little work and we lose faith, damaging our “business esteem” and sending our writing career down the drain. The key is to separate yourself from the business and treat it like the entity it is… a business.

Think about it: If you were to look at your business as a prospective client what would you differently? Would you schedule marketing tasks along side the ones you do for your clients? Would you research keywords and readership trends for your website? Would you have your own deadlines for content creation for newsletters and press releases? If you would do these things for a client then do them for yourself.

Then, as the client, look at the quality of work you create. Is it worthy of higher pay? Is it reaching the right people in the right way? Or do you need to sit down with yourself and have one of those unpleasant chats about moving on? If you can be honest with yourself about these choices and decisions then you will be doing your business and your paying clients a favor.

Looking at your output as a business owner allows you to make abstract decisions about your work and how you should move forward. In some cases this will give you the freedom you need to do what’s right for your self – you become one of your high priority clients! Schedule in your blog posts like you would for a client. Edit your newsletters and polish them like you would for a client. Be your own best client and you’ll be amazed at what you can do.

Why your business doesn’t need a blog

Chance are, if you have made the jump to the internet you have a static webpage. That is, you have a website with several pages that sum up your products/services and provide a means to request a quote. If you have a small local clientel with enough work to keep you happy you do not need a blog. But if you are in need of expanding your client base or boosting your profits a blog may be a good first step into social marketing.

Blogging is simply a means of communication

Consider a blog post a way to “soft sell” your products or services to many people at once. It’s not a daily chant of “buy,buy,buy!” Instead, a blog allows you to chat up customers about what you love most: your products/services. If you own a comic book shop for example, you could blog about the latest releases and give your reviews. If you own a bookkeeping business blog some business tips that will make work easier for the client and tax time easier for both of you. Housekeeping service? Then you can blog some tips on how homeowners can keep their homes looking their best in between cleanings. Blogging is a chance to make an impression and turn a query or interest into a sale.

But I don’t have the time or experience to blog

The extent to which you use a blog to promote your business depends on what you want to accomplish and what means you have available to do it. At WeeWebWorkk we offer services for all levels of expertise. I can host your site for you and get it started with a free layout. I can consult with you via phone and then ghostwrite blog posts based on our conversations. Or I can post material that is beneficial to your clients based on the specific industry you are in. Or, if you prefer, follow the free WeeTutorials and develop your own business blog.

Remember, a blog is a form of communication between you and your clients, so be sure to use it wisely.

So what are some examples of goal concepts? I have defined my Freelance Writing Mission in two ways: what I want to accomplsih and what I want to earn. As a Part-Timer, my goals aren’t exciting (at least not this year) but they’re my own. In 2009 I hope to earn $10,000 from my Freelance writing, and I want to attempt passive income creation. That’s it. Nothing fancy. But all of the decisions I make in 2009 will have to go to one of these two goals.

At the beginning of 2009 I may set up a quantitative goal to gain 10 clients with reoccuring work, but perhaps I land that lucky one who want’s to sign me up for an eBook a month. Do I stick to my 10 clients? Or do I recongnize that one good client helps me fulfill my goal and concentrate all of my efforts on them? Obviously it’s the later choice.

It’s always good to have that original plan though, because a plan is what defines your actions. And honestly, you need to start somewhere. So, before the holiday bustle comes around, lets each sit down and develop our goal concepts for 2009 and an action plan to achieve them. If we start now, we may have them ready to implement at the beginning of the new year. Consider it an early gift to yourself!

My husband and I had just purchased our first house, and we were just able to make ends meet. With two young boys and a one income family, we needed to find a way to supplement our income. While I was looking for opportunities I could do at home, around a job that requires rotating shift work, and something I could do when my kids were napping – I found Associated Content. I couldn’t believe that people would allow you to write about anything that fascinated you and then pay you for what you wrote. So I tried it. My first article was entitled “How Film Music Can Improve Your Writing” and it sold for $2.44. (I’d frame the money and put it on my wall, but it was an electronic payment )

It was something I just threw together – combination of two of my passions. And it was a great way for me to get my feet wet with this freelance writing thing. It’s something I recommend anyone who is interested in freelancing try. Even the established authors – because you can experiment with topics, deadlines and styles… and receive payment for it. Sure it may not start out as much, but posting on Associated Content is just one of the many ways I began my Freelance Writing Career.

photo credit: Vince Kusters

I have been a fan of WordPress for several years now. I had been hard coding sites for a while and found it time consuming. Instead of providing content, I was constantly redesigning the look and feel. Then a friend introduced me to the WordPress platform – and I was in heaven. While I can still tweak the look and feel of the site to my hearts content (and without learning a completely new programming language!) it allows me to focus on what I really want to do: post quality content.

Content is King

You’ve read it over and over, that without quality content you’re website is over before it has started. So for a writer you want to make sure that the platform you choose for your website allows you to put in your content easily. I chose WordPress because of how user friendly the back end is for people who are providing content. I can access it from anywhere and put in content – and so can other authors. I want my guest authors, or myself to be able to easily put in photos, video and text and I don’t want to have to code the layout every time I get a Word document. Which leads us to the second reason WordPress is perfect for writers….

Design is Queen

Presenting the content in a clean fashion is almost as important as the content you provide. If your page is covered in several different blocks of text without formatting or color to differentiate where one thought begins and another ends, your readers will be confused. I can’t tell you how upset I have been when I clicked on an advertisement link that I thought was part of the content I was reading and then having to click back to find the original. Sometimes, the simplest design addition of a different background tint for a different section can make all the difference to your reader.

WordPress makes this easy for the writer by providing easy instructions on how to upgrade themes. You can often find these for free in theme directories. The template I am using for this website was made by David Hoyt and was found in the WordPress.com Theme collection. It’s a simple theme very well executed. I just tweaked a couple of settings and ta-daa – easy to read, classic, website. Thanks to David’s hard work, I can move beyond worrying about the design and concentrate on my content.

The other thing to keep in mind when looking at design is bandwidth. Without going into all of the details of image size reduction, you can tell if you’re website is suffering from bandwidth problems if it takes a very long time for your page to load. It doesn’t even have to be images. If you have a link to an off-site ad network that takes forever to load, it’s possible that your text will not be displayed until the ad is. This keeps your reader waiting. And if they want to look at multiple posts on your site they’re going to become easily frustrated waiting for ads to load every time they click on an internal link. Constantly check to see how long it takes your page to load and if any of your plugins are the culprits- don’t drive your visitors away!

Make sure you keep in mind that no matter how pretty yur website looks, if you don’t have the content your readers need the design means nothing. Again, content and design work in partnership to create a successful blog/website/product.

But the Pawns do All the Work!

Ease of use and navigation will also help your readers find what they’re looking for. WordPress makes this possible by offering two different types of posting: static pages and blog posts. The static pages serve as the meat and potatoes of your site. This is the content that shouldn’t change. Your prices, your portfolio, client statements, etc. This is all of the stuff you want your readers to have super easy access to.

The blog posts are part of the new wave of content marketing. Constantly changing content that helps build a relationship with your readers over time. WordPress allows you to create both types of content with the simple press of a button. Both of which are easy to edit, thus allowing you to change your prices, put new items into your portfolio or add a new quote from one of your clients.

WordPress allows you to easily update the areas of content and design so you can work on creating. With all of the other things you’re trying to accomplish as a Freelance Writer you’ll need to find tools like WordPress to simplify delivery to your audience.