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?

I know I can't have been the ONLY writer having trouble with them.

We’re eight days into 2010, and a major trend I’ve noticed this year is that more job advertisers than ever before (at least, in my experience) are requesting writing resumes. Fortunately, producing a copy of my writing resume doesn’t aggravate me as much as it used to.

Since I started freelance writing, I’ve spent the first few weeks of every new year following exactly the same routine: Telling myself this is the year I will consistently apply for new writing jobs (no need to put all my eggs in one basket again, right?), sticking to that goal with fevered excitement, and then finally realizing I have to take a break to update my writing resume.

Here’s the deal: I used to hate updating my writing resume. I mean, I really loathed it. (Sure, I never ran into a ton of job advertisers who required them, but all it takes is one, right?) I’ve had tons of clients – big companies, small companies, individuals – I can’t include them all! What makes the cut? What goes unmentioned? How do I organize it all?

Then, last year, I sat down with a pen and a pad of paper and made an outline – a very old school, to-the-point outline of headers, subheaders, and even squiggly doodles when my mind started wandering. What I ended up with was an outline that looked very much like what the resume for a traditional, 9-5 job would look like – with a few tweaks, of course.

Well, that was easy. Maybe I’d been overthinking it the whole time? Maybe I just needed a visual? Probably both.

Whatever the case, below is the cleaned up version of the outline. It’s nothing new for seasoned freelancers, but it might help those of you just getting started.

No-Brainer Information To Include

There are certain bits of information every resume must include – no matter what job you’re applying for – and this information generally appears at the top or bottom of your resume depending on the template you use.

Make sure your writing resume includes:

• Your name. (Regardless of the template, this usually is always at the top.)
• Your website name and address if you have one – and really, you should.
• Your contact information such as your email address, your physical or mailing address, and your home, office, and/or cell phone number. Some freelancers also include information such as their Skype or Yahoo Messenger names. (Note that if you’re applying for jobs via the Internet, feel free to omit any information you’re not comfortable handing out to strangers.)

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the thing.

Start With An Objective

Depending on the job advertiser, this objective might be as specific as “To obtain employment as the Senior Editor at Rock Out Company” or as generic as “To provide search engine friendly web content and copy that will help improve the look, usability, and visibility of small businesses websites.”

Actually, don’t copy that last one. I might use it myself in the future.

List Your Specialties

Press releases? Newsletters? Sales copy? Here’s where you’ll include a brief list of all the kinds of writing in which you specialize.

If you’ve noticed, many job advertisements call for writers who are “proficient in Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Express” or “know how to create PDF documents,” so you might also want to include any programs or software with which you’re experienced.

Move On To Your Work Experience

Really, this is the only difficult part of the whole resume-writing process you’ll have to deal with (and who knows – it might not be difficult for you). This is where you decide what stays, what goes, and how to organize it all.

Making it no easier is the fact that freelance writers have such wide variety of experiences under their belts. Long-term contracts with companies, brief liaisons with individuals,

I handle this section by breaking it up into subsections. For example, one copy of my resume includes a subsection about the companies I’ve contracted with, a subsection about the various kinds of web content I’ve provided, and a subsection about my blogging experience.

It’s also important to make sure that you include subsections, and jobs under those subsections, that are related to the job you’re applying for.

NOTE: Remember when you listed your specialties? Now’s a good time to elaborate on those, if you can. For example, if you write spectacular sales copy, this is the section to mention the sales letter you wrote for Whatever Company more than doubled said company’s sales that month.

Link To A Few Writing Samples

One of the best things about resumes you can email or post on your website is the ability to link. Clips of articles archived in online versions of magazines, copy you wrote for the front page of a website, a client’s About or Bio section – you can link to all these.

Be careful to uphold any privacy policies you have with your clients, of course; you might have an agreement with some clients about not disclosing the nature or results of your work with them.

Tell About Your Education And Training

Some job advertisers specifically call for people with “at least [this degree] in [this or a related area]“; some don’t care.

If you have a degree or some sort of special training (if it’s related to the job), go ahead and include it.

Show Off Your Awards, Achievements, Etc.

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Just be sure to keep your list succinct and stick to awards and achievements that are related to your writing career. I’m willing to bet the job advertiser looking for a copywriter doesn’t care if you won the neighborhood award for Most Original Use of Red Christmas Lights back during the winter of 1997.

Tips to Consider:

• Create a “master copy” of your writing resume – one that includes everything but goes out to no one. Having this copy will help you keep up with all your jobs, skills, etc. and act as a quick reference for when you’re creating the resumes that do go out.
• Don’t shy away from having multiple writing resumes. Different jobs call for different experiences, and pretty soon you’ll have a nice stock of resumes you can make simple tweaks to and use over and over.
• Regularly update your writing resume. Whether it’s your master copy or the more targeted versions, make a point to update your resume(s) as you gain new experiences in order to prevent scrambling and trying to remember what happened six months ago for a job you’re applying for today.

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?