Staying On Top Of Freelance Writing

If you write for a living then you will know that the freelancing life is one of ups and downs. One week your inbox is full of clients wanting repeat work and people who have been referred by an existing client and the next week you're Betsy no mates. One way to avoid dreading the down times is to continually market yourself and your services.

If you are not afraid of cold calling then put together a template letter that you can use if you come across a site and feel that you can help them by rewriting their pages, then get the contact details and send them the email. Things to include in such an email are links to your portfolio or to other sites that you have worked on, basic rates for a particular job such as rewriting their sales page and a brief summary of niches you have written for and any other relevant experience. If you only follow this one tip you won't be so worried about down time.

Keeping it all in Order

Staying on top of all things that you have to do in your freelance writing life needs a bit of organization. You should have some idea of the best time for you to write and when you can do other things. You need to include looking for new work, social media sites and self promotion into your daily schedule. If you find that there is not enough time then find out where it is going. Try keeping a daily log for two weeks jotting it down whenever you stop writing and do something else like answering the phone or spending too much time with your Twitter pals. Once you find out where the time is going as opposed to where it should go it's easier to write out a schedule where some of these activities are written in.

Time Tracker

If you don't already have a system for keeping track of billable hours and project details then you should get one fast. I use Time Tracker it really is a simple piece of software that lets you know just where you are at on each project, how much time they take and your earnings. There is also a section for adding any notes about a particular client, useful if you're looking for repeat work from them. If you use this along with your daily do list then you should be able to stay on top of things.