New Freelancer Writers makes tons of mistakes while starting their journey and they find themselves in a hotspot once they find themselves loosing their precious time and money.
Today, I am going to discuss 7 Mistakes new freelancer writers make and how to avoid them. There is no rule to make things go your own way, but the article will help you at least avoid them to a certain extent.
In our freelancing career, we all have one thing in common, the client runs away with our work without paying us a dime for our work. Our hearts are filled with anger and we curse the client until our mouth bleed. But, the truth is that cursing only helps you to calm your nerves and not the other way around. That’s why I am going to discuss 7 mistakes new freelancers writers makes and how to solve them.
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7 Mistakes New Freelancer Writers Make and How to Avoid Them
The client can still use your work and make you feel miserable as you constantly keep googling your article to have a glimpse of who is using it. This mistakes new freelancer writers make on a regular basis and there is no workaround.
The mediators are the most clever of all; they crawl all over the internet and other working platform and pick up work with no intention to pay the writer they will hire in the intermediate future.
With so much fraud going on, there are few things that you should keep in mind, before starting to work for them. Following are some of the ways, I frequently use to make sure that I stay in the safe zone(most of the time).
1. Search for the Clients Online Profile
Web is a big place and almost every one of us leave valuable information on the web without completely knowing it. The businessman reputation is at stake online, whereas the frauds really don’t care about their online portfolio and goodwill. This can be used to your advantage.
This is the number one mistakes new freelancer writer make as they do not have any idea about the market and the risk they are taking to work for an unknown client.
Google, the person’s name, or search his online social networking profiles. Also, see his networking profile/previous work experience with many workers on the platform. By going through all the information, anyone can easily make up their mind on whether the client is safe to work with.
Sometimes, you just have to trust your intuition. Online profiles showcase a lot of information, which can easily be combined to get an idea of the client’s personality, his/her background and more.
2. Do not work for free
The online world is ready to suck you in. You start your writing career and no one is interested to give you any job, the reason is your inexperience. But, there is a way out. You can work for free for some clients. But, the risk in believing that working for free for a prolonged time is fine and is a normal practice, harms your online profile and your confidence.
Working for free is not actually a mistake, but working for free for longer periods can hurt you really bad.
There is another way to start your freelancing career. Start writing for your blog. Choose any of the free platform, blogger or WordPress to get started. Once, you populate your blog with 5-10 articles, use it as a sample for getting new work.
3. Do not work for Peebles
As a newbie freelancer, you might that working for 100 rupees per 500 words is good and the payment is actually above average. Nope, the payment is bad and you are being exploited in the longer run.
I, also started working for such low payments, heck, I still work for low payments of 150-180 rupees per article. But, the truth is that your work is valued more than this. A minimum payment of 300 INR/500 words should be imposed on the client.
Not many clients will like what you are asking for. But, stay adamant and they will eventually have to pay you according to the current industry standards.
For newbies, this strategies might not work and they might have to work for less payment. Working on low payments initially can help as it makes your work visible to the web. The trade-off works on the basis of building an online profile by getting paid less.
4. Find a niche and stick to it
There are chances that newbie writers get stuck on choosing their niche. They end up working on multiple niches without understanding the adverse effects that got reflected in their writing.
Writing on a different type of niche is great, but the growth should be slow without a correct time of transition from one niche to another.
Also providing information that you truly understand should be the motive of every writer. For example, I prefer writing technology related articles, but if the situation demands I can write on entertainment, sports, news and more.
I have seen this type of mistake new freelancer writers make and they don’t have any grip on one niche.
5. Waiting for clients to come to you
That a huge mistake, no one worry about how much talented you are. You have to keep sending emails, bidding on projects on different online platforms and publish regular content on your blog to grab the attention of the client.
I still remember how many times I failed before I grabbed my first project. Also, keeping an eye on the market for longer times will give you a sense of market demand for writers.
There are tons of writers who are as capable as you, so the race starts when you decide to enter the market. Never wait for clients to contact you, even experienced writers bid or send proposals to editors, which are not entertained most of the time.
6. GhostWriting or Not
I started my freelancing writing career as a ghostwriter, but sooner I realized that I am not getting the exposure, I always wanted. So, I made sure that I will try to convince any client I work with, to put my name on the article. At the same time, I also didn’t want to push the requirement of the client.
Some assignments are meant to be ghostwritten and you should respect client requirements. Also, try to convey a clear message on how putting your name can prove worthy for both of you.
The evils of ghostwriting doesn’t end here. There are many popular articles online that is done by ghostwriters and you may not want to regret later that your work is used by someone else.
Decide early, because once you start, there is no point in asking for change of working status.
7. Work in short spans and ask for payment regularly
Online World is risky and you don’t want to risk you work to an unknown client, who just decides to run like a coward with all of your work.
There are many tricks to minimize the risks, you can either set weekly payment until you finally trust the client or set a money limit that will help you to get payments regularly.
Conclusion
The initial six months period is tough for the freelancers as the learning curve is steep during this time. Also, micromanaging and being your own manager can be tricky.
Do you think I missed some of the vital mistakes a new freelancer writer makes? Let us know by commenting below.
