Five Common Mistakes of a Freelance Writer

No matter how perfect we think we are, freelance writers (and freelancers for that matter) make mistakes. Some of these can be simply missing a grammar error or spelling error in a piece (I know for me that writing and proofreading my own work do not always go together, no matter how many times I read something) but other mistakes are more serious. Here are what I consider to be the top five mistakes as a freelance writer.

Number One: Taking On Too Much Work

When I was starting out with writing, I would take on as many projects as possible so that I could make as much money as possible. While in theory this was a good idea, in practise it was the worst thing that I could do! The issue with taking on a lot is that it often leads to overworking. In my case, I had three deadlines that were all due within 18 hours. This led to constant writing, very little to eat, no breaks and a lot of coffee. Since doing that, I’ve never done it again! I’ve spaced out my deadlines and said no if I cannot get something done.

Number Two: Putting All Eggs into One Basket

As a freelancer, you can’t put all of your eggs into one basket; meaning that you can’t rely on just one gig. You never know what will happen in the future. One website may work out extremely well for a couple of months but then it can suddenly dry up with titles or change the payment system that works better for the company than you – after all, each website is a business and needs to make themselves money!

Have many different places to write, whether this is through private clients, blogs or websites. It is often worth having a couple of sites that you can post articles on every now and then to earn residual income while also working for upfront payments; this will give you the best of both worlds.

Number Three: Not Promoting Yourself

A lot of writers are guilty of this. They spend all of their time writing and not enough time promoting. Using different marketing methods is extremely important if you want to be noticed by those looking for content or you want to gain the residual income from rev share websites. There are plenty of options out there, including social media, video marketing and even good use of search engine optimisation and backlinks.

Number Four: Not Asking for Payments Upfront

This is a mistake that most writers will make at some point in their life, especially when taking on private clients. For some reason, writers seem happy enough to trust their clients and will do the work before being paid. This leads to the client having the work and they can run off without paying. While there are options in getting anything they use taken down, it is a hassle and generally not worth it.

While you may find that clients don’t want to pay the full amount upfront, you could ask for half of it. This will mean that you are at least paid some of the money to do the work. You could also talk to the clients about putting the money in an escrow account so that it can be released when the work is completed.

Number Five: Missing Deadlines

When you work as a freelance writer, you have to stick to deadlines! If you miss a deadline, you will ruin your reputation. Of course, there are times that something will come up and it will lead to problems – a couple of months ago, I had a power cut for two days due to high winds in my area and ended up missing a deadline. Luckily, I was able to get to my emails through my phone and sent a quick message to all those that were waiting for work from me and they understood.

You usually have the freedom of setting the deadlines to make sure that you have enough time to complete everything; sometimes, the client will request a deadline instead. Whichever way you work, make sure that you leave enough time to complete the work. It is fine saying “it’s not for another week, I have plenty of time” but that week will come around very quickly. I tend to give my clients a deadline that is a couple of days after when I know I can get the work done; this gives me a couple of days leeway, just in case something does happen.

So, that is my top five common mistakes that freelance writers make. You may have something different. Why not leave a comment and tell me your common mistakes or those that you have heard of others doing?