Do you need a witty caption? Really? I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

One of my goals for 2010 is to stop working so much on the weekends. I was fairly good about that during the first few years of my freelance writing career – when I did work on the weekends, it was generally because I either A) took a day off during the week, or B) just wanted to. Over the last year or so, though, life got in the way and I found myself working almost every weekend.

It stops in 2010.

However, before it stops (I’m such a junkie), I’ve decided to spend the first few weekends of 2010 doing some housekeeping – of the writing career variety – and this past weekend, my task was to tackle my freelance writing rates.

I knew I was going to have to do it sooner or later, and the beginning of the year seemed like a much better time than, say, mid-June. Plus, Deb Ng’s recent blog post about making a profit with your freelance writing business provides some solid information about setting and raising rates and proved to be just the kick in the tail I needed.

Setting Your Freelance Writing Rates

I’m not going to pretend I’m qualified enough to advise you on how to set your freelance writing rates. I’m not. When it comes to setting your writing and editing rates, you have to think about things like flat rates and hourly rates; how to use your hourly rates to come up with projects that require flat rates; your rates and how they line up with your expenses, your cost of living, and your profit goal; how your rates compare to the rates of others in your business; and how it all relates to the ever-tricky “How much are you worth?”

However, I’m not saying there aren’t veteran freelancers out there who are in a position to help you do this. There definitely are. If you’re just getting started and haven’t set your rates yet, or if you have but think it’s time to reevaluate them, check out these resources:

• Anne Wayman of About Freelance Writing has an entire blog category dedicated to Dealing With Money. Also be sure to check out her Setting Freelance Rates series and guest post by John Carpenter, How Much Should I Charge?
• The Money Matters section within the Business Tips for Writers part of the FWJ Network includes posts about setting fees, getting paid, and managing your money.
• Allena Tapia’s How Much Should I Charge looks offers several tips for setting your freelance writing rates and includes resources like FreelanceSwitch’s Hourly Rate Calculator and the Editorial Freelancers Association’s rates page.
• Jennifer Mattern’s Guide to Setting Freelance Writing Fees breaks down the difference between writing goals and salaries, working and billable hours, and how to diversify writing income streams. Also take a look at Mattern’s Setting Freelance Writing Rates: Working Hours vs. Billable Hours which, in addition to explaining the difference between working and billable hours, offers a good explanation about setting hourly rates to achieve your desired yearly salaries.

Increasing Your Freelance Writing Rates

How have your skills sharpened since you started freelance writing and editing? How has your cost of living and expenses increased? Do your current rates allow for the profit you want, or are you just making ends meet? Once you’ve brushed up on the rates you’ve been charging, it’s time to think about whether you need to increase those rates.

The thought of increasing rates usually brings about two reactions from freelancers: Excitement about potentially making more money, which is easily handled, and fear of losing clients, which is not-so-easily handled.

Deb Ng’s article I linked to above about making a profit with your freelance writing business is a good resource for those freelancers who wonder if it’s time for a rate increase but afraid of losing clients; so are financial writer Yolander Prinzel’s Associated Content article How to Increase Your Freelance Writing Rates for Existing Clients and Jennifer Mattern’s Raising Freelance Writing Rates: Demand Isn’t Enough.

Sticking To Your Freelance Writing Rates

You might think that sticking to your freelance writing rates is an easy thing to do. Admittedly, for many freelance writers and editors, it is. However, no matter how new or seasoned you are, situations arise when you might be tempted to lower your rates or offer a discount that’s not exactly conducive to your financial goals or representative of the quality and quantity of your services. A nonprofit or charity approaches you, your friend is starting her own business and needs some help, you’re in a bind and really want to land a gig you just read the advertisement for but don’t usually charge what the advertiser wants to pay – you know the situations.

While pro bono work or discounts can be good for your business (and morale), there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Too, although there are times when accepting a figure less than what you normally charge is okay overall, constantly doing it doesn’t help you get to where you want to be financially.

Consider these tips to help you stick to your freelance writing rates as well as make adjustments when you see fit:

• Put it in writing. Some freelance writers post their rates on their websites; some don’t. Regardless of where you write (or, type) them, make sure you have them somewhere so you can quickly refer to them when you’re replying to job advertisements or clients requesting rates. (Having your current rates in black and white right in front of you will also help you determine your rates for a project that might be new to you.)
• Predetermine your discounts. While you’re “putting it in writing” is a good time to go ahead and figure out – and also put in writing – any discounts special to nonprofits and charities.
• Consider offering packages. Some services lend themselves to being fit into packages. Blog posts and marketing articles, for example, are services you can group into packages and offer at prices slightly less than if the client ordered that many separately.

Do you have any other tips or resources to share for setting, increasing, and sticking to freelance writing rates?

Look at all my pretty eggs! This basket will hold them forever! Muahahaha!!!

One of the best pieces of advice I received when I first started freelancing was: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Really, it’s pretty common sense advice for any freelancer or self-employed person. If you put all your eggs in one basket – in other words, if you devote all your time and attention to one particular client and job and come to financially depend solely on that job – you’re left with nothing when something happens to that basket.

Notice how I’ve used “when” instead of “if”; it’s been my experience that, eventually, something always happens to the basket.

Yes, this was one of those lessons I had to learn for myself, unfortunately.

Within my first few months as a freelance writer, I landed a cushy writing gig with a stable company (of the reliable, and not equine, variety). Work was plentiful (nearly 24 hours a day if I chose – and, as a newbie, sometimes I chose), the company paid well, and life was grand. I continued writing for this company for about two years, very rarely taking on additional writing gigs. Why should I? That weekly check certainly didn’t require additional jobs.

Then one day, the well dried up. Or, someone stole my basket. The company had no more work for its freelance writers because the project was complete. I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment – after all, I’d been working on the project for a long time – but that wasn’t enough to squash the feelings of fear and being lost.

Obviously, the story has a happy ending – I’m still here and freelancing, aren’t I? – but it didn’t come without some serious scrambling and the vow that I would never, ever, put all my eggs in one basket again.

Oh, the pain we can avoid if we would just listen to the advice of those who are experienced.

If you’re just starting out as a freelance writer, or if you’ve been freelancing for a while and just looked around to see that yes, all your eggs are indeed in one basket, here are a few ways you can ward off disaster before it strikes:

Regularly Apply for Writing Jobs

Applying for writing jobs when you already have a writing job might not make sense now, but the benefits will definitely be crystal clear when your big basket disappears. Set some time aside in your daily (or weekly) schedule to do nothing but search and apply for new jobs. You won’t get hired for every single job you apply for, so as long as you’re careful to only apply for those you can juggle with your current workload, you should be fine.

Of course, there are other good reasons to frequent the writing job boards. Deb Nj of Freelance Writing Jobs published an excellent post yesterday explaining why. Check it out.

Spread Yourself Out

This goes right along with regularly applying for new writing jobs. Having a big basket full of many eggs is a little safer if you also have a few small baskets full of a couple of eggs. Not only do having these jobs on the side help you in case your big basket disappears, but they also help build your portfolio, skill set, and contacts.

Just be careful to avoid spreading yourself too far out. It’s possible to have too many jobs that take up too much of your time and the finished products of which don’t accurately reflect your skills (i.e., you end up producing crap and having no life outside of writing).

Keep a Money Cushion

Many freelancers are familiar with the phrase “feast or famine,” and this should go without saying, no matter how many baskets you have, how long you’ve been freelancing, or really even what your job is: You need a savings account. Not just a savings account, but a savings account specifically for paying your bills and feeding yourself in the event you lose your big basket.

So, how about you? Have you ever made the mistake of putting all your eggs in one basket? What’d you do to survive it? What do you do now to avoid it?

Because I'm so creative with my images.

On Friday, I sort of joked about writing a post titled “The Top 7 Ways to Screw Yourself Out of a Writing Gig,” but over the weekend I thought, “You know what? I really could write that post. I really could list seven ways for a writer to shoot herself in the foot. Whether I’ve witnessed fellow writers make these mistakes, or I’ve made them myself.”

Of course, that last part doesn’t really sound like something to be proud of, I know…

…but, it means my writing career has survived some growing pains, right?

Right.

So, on to the top seven ways to screw yourself out of a writing gig, in no particular order.

#1: Lack Confidence.

This probably sounds like a no-brainer – and applies mostly to new writers – but if you lack the confidence in yourself, your work, and your abilities it takes to apply for a writing job, you’re most likely not going to apply for the job. If you don’t apply for the job, you’re not even giving the advertiser a chance to say no; you’re already telling yourself no.

While this might make sense if you’re looking at a job advertisement for a new Content Director at some high-powered, well-established blogging network and you yourself have only been blogging for a couple of weeks, it’s just not good business if the advertisement you’re looking at calls for press release writer and you have indeed written a handful of press releases in your career.

Of course, you can’t stop at having just enough confidence to apply for the job; you also have to make sure that confidence shines through during your application process. For example, if you receive a followup phone call from the potential client looking for a press release writer and said potential client says, “Tell me a bit more about your experiences with press releases,” replying with “The last press release I wrote was for a South Texas company ready to announce the launch of its new website” sounds far better than “Um, well…I’ve really only written a few.”

#2: Be a Know-It-All.

And by “know-it-all,” I don’t mean a person who knows it all; rather, I mean a person who knows it all (or, knows a hell of a lot about it) and is obnoxious about it.

Look, chances are the potential client already knows he needs help – that’s why he wants to hire someone. The last thing he wants is for someone to point out everything he did wrong until you came along, and everything he’s going to keep doing wrong unless he listens to you.

Which brings us too…

#3: Insult Your Client.

Maybe you think his company logo is tacky, or perhaps you’ve noticed several flaws with the layout of his website. Unless he specifically asks you for your opinion on these things, stick to the job you were hired for. For all you know, his wife designed the logo and his son built the website and his cousin is going to be writing the content if you can’t deal with it.

#4: Refuse to Budge.

At some point in your writing career, there will come a time when a client asks you to write something you’re not entirely comfortable writing. Maybe he manages an online store and has decided to add leather jackets to the inventory and you, as a vegan, aren’t comfortable writing the product descriptions. Or, perhaps he owns a political blog and wants you to cover a few weeks worth of posts about policies you don’t agree with.

Here’s the deal: Sometimes, refusing to budge is okay – as long as you handle it professionally. If writing about these things would bother you, then by all means, bow out. Politely declining a job because of your own beliefs, values, and morals doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve screwed yourself out of a job; however, becoming defensive and trying to change your client’s outlook, picking a fight and potentially burning your bridges (nice transition, there), can mean just that.

#5: Burn Your Bridges.

As described above, situations (unrelated to the completion of a project) might pop up when you and a client part ways. And, also as described above, sometimes these situations are unavoidable.

Regardless of why you need to part ways, the best way to handle it is politely and professionally. Just because the two of you came to a point where you don’t see eye-to-eye and shouldn’t work together anymore doesn’t mean you should end your last call by screaming insults and slamming down the phone.

After all, just because you couldn’t continue working together one one project doesn’t mean another one won’t come along in the future the client would think you were perfect for.

#6: Lack an Online Presence.

These days, many writers and editors turn to the Web for work. Why shouldn’t we? The Internet allows us to easily connect with potential clients and other writers from all over the world and we can, after all, do this from just about anywhere.

It only makes sense then to have an online presence – a “home base,” if you will, that introduces people to who you are and what you do. Some of us go all out with a website, blog, or both, and some of us keep things simple with just a Facebook account.

Whatever you choose to do, do something. Give your potential clients a way to get to know you and your work, and give yourself a chance to connect with your co-workers.

#7: Ignore Social Media.

It’s 2010, and if you’re not involved in some kind of social website – whether it’s a networking site like Twitter, Facebook, or yes, even MySpace, or simply a news-oriented site like Digg, Reddit, or Stumble – you’re pretty much asking the world to overlook you.

Social media sites are powerful tools for connecting with potential clients and fellow writers, as well as checking out the work of others and promoting your own.

Plus, freelancing can get lonely at times and these kinds of sites are nice “water coolers” you can swing by whenever you want and chat up your friends!

Do any of these sound familiar to you? I know I can raise my hand for numbers one and five, and in the past, six and seven, too. Or, have you done something else that’s voided your shot at a writing job?

Alicia