Have you ever tried writing about something you really don’t know much about?
 
It’s ridiculously hard.
 
Even the best writer will spend 3-4x longer putting together a piece about a subject they’re unfamiliar with because, well, they have to learn about it first. Duh.

Every now and then, I get stuck. I have days where my brain goes into full-on meltdown mode, and throws a tantrum like a tiny child in the toy store—flailing and crying and completely refusing to do anything but what it’s supposed to.
 
I guess you could call it writer’s block, but I just call it an off day.

As a writer, your time is money.
 
Thus, waste less time = make more money.
 
One of the biggest time wasters is going back and forth with a new client over all of the minutia of your new gig. There are questions that need asked and answered, documents that need signed, and details that need ironing out.

I don’t know about you, but most of my new writing gigs come by way of the people I currently work with. I have them write testimonials for my work any time we wrap up a project, and then I use those in my marketing efforts moving forward.

You already have your brand’s voice defined, but when it comes to writing, can you speak your customers’ language, too? Finding a way to do both isn’t always easy.

For example: When I sit down to write a blog post for my personal website, I know that it’s not going to be in the right tone for every person who might read it. Some of my clients want a funny, conversational tone, while others want a more serious and formal writing voice.

Content managers and freelance writers work together all the time, but do they always see eye to eye?

Nope.

Sometimes freelance writers expect better guidelines from content managers. Other times, content managers expect freelance writers to have a stronger grasp on their brand.

This year marked my second in self-employment, and it was a good one.

Wearing the many different hats of bookkeeper, marketer, financial planner (on top of delivering a service) makes it easy to lose sight of all that’s going on and everything you’ve accomplished—so this activity is a first in hopefully what will be an annual recap.

When I first started freelance copywriting, getting started with new clients required a lot of time and energy. I didn’t have a good process in place, so there’d be lots of back and forth emailing and calling between clients and I—just so that we were both on the same page before jumping into the project.

As time went on, I realized I was throwing away hours and hours of unnecessary time, and sometimes for no reason. Clients would go another direction or get tied up with something else, and then all that precious time went POOF! Gone.