Today, I spoke with Michelle Goodman, who is one of the more well-known freelance writings in the career space. Writing for publications is an extremely important self-promotion, value delivery and a compensation machine for your personal brand. I’ve done it before and there is no reason you can’t. Whether it’s paid or unpaid, freelance writing can help you get your name out there, attract traffic to your website and build your profile, for the next opportunity. Michelle has some great advice for you!
Michelle, how challenging is it to pursue a freelance writing career?
It’s definitely not for slackers or the thin-skinned. If you want to make a full-time living as a freelancer you have to be willing to continuously hustle for work and convince editors and outsourcing managers why you’re the right independent professional for the job. And unless you’re writing a book or doing a lengthy contract for one client, you’ll have to balance multiple deadlines for multiple clients each week. So staying off YouTube during business hours is key. But researching, writing, editing, incessantly marketing yourself, and being a time management ninja is only part of the equation; you also need to educate yourself on things like setting your rates, negotiating contracts, and paying your taxes as a self-employed professional.
How did you build up your writing portfolio to a point where you have a column on mainstream media sites?
I’ve been freelancing for sixteen years, so it was probably inevitable. One journalism gig leads to another, and since I knew I wasn’t going to be content writing for a community newspaper or an obscure newsletter the rest of my life, I kept reaching for bigger, better, and more visible writing gigs. Once you’ve done a couple high-visibility projects (writing for a well-read newspaper, magazine, website, or book anthology), people start to call you. Not always. But you don’t find yourself having to beat down quite so many doors. Like all columnists I know, I was tapped to write my MSM column by an editor who saw my work somewhere else and called to offer me a job.
What 3-5 tips do you have for someone just starting out in the freelance world?
- 1. Set up a website touting your experience, work samples, and so on. Send an email and social media blast to everyone you know announcing that you’ve just opened your doors for business. Media layoffs are pretty much the norm these days, which means there’s more competition than ever before. To ensure you’re as employable as possible, cultivate a couple of specialties and work to diversify your skills and client base. In other words, don’t just write about travel. Write about business or health too. And don’t just look to newspapers and magazines. Write for digital media outlets and the business sector too.
- 2. Look for freelance job leads on sites like Sologig.com, FreelanceSwitch.com, and RatRaceRebellion.com. (Avoid “Earn $$$ working from home!” Google ads; most are scams.) Craigslist and your industry-specific discussion list of choice are also great places to find work. While you may need to do a freebie or two to line an empty portfolio, be careful not to give away the farm.
- 3. Meet and learn from other indie professionals using social networks such as Biznik, LinkedIn, and the industry-specific mediabistro. Don’t skimp on offline elbow rubbing with other indie workers; the local chapter of your professional association of choice can help here. Next to a satisfied client, the best source of referrals is another self-employed pro who has more work than they can handle.
- 4. If you don’t know the first thing about running a business, it’s time you picked up a book on the topic (ahem) or took a class. For example, SCORE offers affordable classes as well as free business counseling to new freelancers and entrepreneurs.
- 5. If you still have a day job, take advantage of all it has to offer: steady income that you can (and should) stockpile so that you don’t have to live month to month when you do flee the cube, training in key software and business practices, extra-credit projects that can yield impressive work samples for your portfolio, and a built-in professional network of coworkers, customers, vendors, and business partners—all of whom might hire or refer you for future freelance work.
What are the personal branding benefits of having such a career?
Every writer goes through the “What name should I use?” dilemma when they first start to publish. People wonder, Should I include my middle name? Use a pseudonym? My married or pre-married name? How about a business name for my website and cards?
Chose your byline (and if relevant, business name) wisely because once you start publishing online and in print using that name, you’ll build some serious Google rankings and you won’t to want to change it. Choose the most unique version of your name for optimum searchability. The beauty of writing articles, books, and blog posts (on high-traffic, well-written sites) is that they’re free ads for your writing business. One well-placed, brilliantly written article with your name on it can lead to a call or email from another publication editor, an agent, or an editor at a book publishing house, asking you to come aboard. This happens to seasoned, exceptional writers all the time.
About the pseudonym thing: Unless you’re writing racy or genre fiction, I don’t recommend it. The more people who associate You, the Person with You, the Published Author, the better your word of mouth will be.
“And if you plan to be a journalist, definitely skip the made-up name; transparency is key for reporters.”
How could someone manage to write, while having a full-time job?
Because it can take weeks, months, or longer to build up a solid, full-time client base, keep your day job for as long as humanly possible. Some part-time freelancers do their writing and research before work, some do on the bus or train they take to work, some do it during their lunch hour, some do it evenings and weekends, and many do a combination of all these.
Last summer, I worked a part-time contract gig for four months because the opportunity and pay were too good to turn down. Fortunately I could do 75 percent of the work from home. But when I had to go in the office, I edited my stories on the commute (if I was bussing), came up with article introductions that I saved via digital recorder (if I was driving), snuck in interviews with sources during my lunch break (from the cafeteria, complete with Bluetooth and laptop), and worked again after dinner when I got home. When you cut back on “Law and Order” and lengthy phone calls with your BFF, you can accomplish a lot. You just have to be disciplined.
I hear single, child-free people lament all the time that they’re stuck in a cube from 9 to 6 and couldn’t possibly meet clients or look for freelance work. These people haven’t tried hard enough. I have yet to meet a majority of my clients, as many of them live 3,000 miles away, and we do the bulk of our business via email, not phone. If you can shop online, IM your friends, and update your Facebook status at work, then surely you research new freelance job leads, hobnob with other self-employed professionals, and email potential clients. Just make sure that you use your own computer or mobile device and that you do your freelance work during your lunch hour or scheduled breaks. If this isn’t possible, then you’ll have to learn to wake with the birds. It’s the only way.
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Michelle Goodman fled the cube in 1992 to become a freelance writer and has yet to look back. In 2006, she decided to cram as much detail as she could about flexible, boss-free, and otherwise nontraditional careers into a book: The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube, which Seal Press published in 2007. In 2008, she wrote the “sequel,” My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire. She writes a weekly career column for ABCNews.com and a blog called Nine to Thrive for NWjobs.com.
