Are You Wasting Money on Your Blog?

By Yolander Prinzel

Almost every freelance writer out there has a blog. Certainly, we can’t all need that much advice, can we?

If you have a blog, every hour you spend on it is unpaid time (I’m assuming Adsense and Clickbank aren’t paying your normal rate) and is time that might better be spent on client work or marketing.

Or not.

Really, it depends on why you are blogging. For some, blogging is an outlet for their frustrations. For others, it is a way to build a community and share their experience. And some lucky folks use it to make money through Adsense, selling their own products and services or using it as a sample for potential clients.

No matter what you do your blogging for, make sure that you have a plan and purpose for your blog and that it is fulfilling that plan and purpose. If it isn’t, decide what you can do to make it worth your while either financially, emotionally or…spiritually.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative with a decade of industry experience. She was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services. None of her posts are meant to be advisory. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice. You can get her new e-book You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What? Tips and Tricks to Finding and Scoring Clients and Making a Living Writing What You Know here for just $7.95.

Get Your Financial House in Order before You Freelance Full Time

By Yolander Prinzel

This week, Joe did a little tongue-in-cheek (okay, that saying doesn’t even make sense. Where else would your tongue be??) post about quitting your job today and going full time into freelancing. I thought I would piggy back on his post and write one that is tongue-out-of-cheek, which may mean I’m sticking my tongue out at you as I write this, I’m not sure.

Here are some financial things to consider and do before you quit your job to freelance full time:

1. Find out how close you are to your next vesting year. For every year that you are with an employer, you are more and more vested in the corporate contributions to your retirement plans. If you are thinking of quitting now and you are just 5 months away from being 20% more vested, you could lose hundreds of dollars by leaving too soon.

2. Save at least two months worth of expenses. Yeah, no, I know, you have a huge client list and your business is going really well, so it’s all good if you have no savings. Except that no, no it’s not. How are you going to deal with it the first time a gig falls through? The first time you lose a regular gig because the company goes bankrupt? The first time a check gets lost in the mail or sent out late? There are so many variables to worry about that you definitely want an emergency slush fund above and beyond your other savings.

3. Do what it is you think you are going to do. You know how much money you need to earn each day in order to live. If you need to make $200 a day and your regular gigs make up $150, then you need to find another $50 in gigs each day. You really do need to go ahead and do that. It’s very easy to just…not…and sit around reading instead. If you do, you’ll find you start depleting your savings pretty quickly.

4. Keep marketing and networking. Even if you have enough work this month and next, you need to be marketing and networking for your future months. You don’t want to be caught off-guard when your workload starts to slow and then try to scramble to find some real quick-like.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative with a decade of industry experience. She was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services. None of her posts are meant to be advisory. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice. You can get her new e-book You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What? Tips and Tricks to Finding and Scoring Clients and Making a Living Writing What You Know here for just $7.95.

Make Money on Your Tax Money

By Yolander Prinzel

You know that big, annoying wad of cash you keep reserved for quarterly estimated taxes? Yeah, you know the one–the wad that obnoxiously sits there for months tempting you to spend it on clothes, books, records, vacations, and fancy alcoholic drinks. Well, anyway, instead of letting it sit in your business checking account, why not move it to a money market account and earn some interest on it? Show that wad who’s boss by making a little interest off of its obnoxious little behind.

If you are lazy (like me) you can just open a Paypal money market account. The rates are not as competitive but if you get paid through Paypal often, you can just leave the money there and let it earn some interest.

Either way, it isn’t going to net you a ton of money and you will have to pay taxes on the interest, but hey, maybe the interest will be enough to offset that fancy alcoholic beverage you desperately need after filling out your 941 every quarter.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative with a decade of industry experience. She was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services. None of her posts are meant to be advisory. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice. You can get her new e-book You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What? Tips and Tricks to Finding and Scoring Clients and Making a Living Writing What You Know here for just $7.95.

E-book Review: You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What?

by Catherine L. Tully

Those of you who follow Freelance-Zone already know that I am a fan of Yolander Prinzel, but what you don’t know is that she is a networking and marketing genius. Frankly, her ability to market is one of her strongest qualities.

Now, I don’t normally endorse e-books. Many of them do not give writers enough concrete information. That said, I think that “You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What?” is an investment that is worth making–especially if you are a new writer. It can be difficult to network and market yourself strategically, and many new writers spend too much time on forums and social media sites without scoring any real results for their efforts. Prinzel gives pointers that can streamline that process, and does so without being a drag to read… … Continue Reading

I Know You’re Losing $50-$200 a Day

By Yolander Prinzel

How do I know you are? Well, because I am and although this might cause you to break out into the cold sweat of denial, I’m pretty sure you and I aren’t that different.

I waste at least 2 hours every day sitting in front of my computer doing…well…absolutely nothing.

Yeah, no, I know, it’s terrible, right? But–surely–you aren’t that bad. You don’t spend time looking through pictures on Facebook of people you don’t even know. You don’t start conversations with strangers on Twitter. You don’t do housework off and on throughout the day. You don’t do anything but write and market yourself all day…right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. So here is my challenge to you web writers next month. Let’s all try to take on 2 additional hours worth of work each workday and earn 2 more hours worth of pay. Whether 2 hours means 1 article for you or two, do it. Then take that money, which you normally wouldn’t have had because you would have been busy picking your split ends during those two hours, and put it in your savings account.

Let’s say you average (based on your writing speed and prices) $35 an hour. You will have banked an extra $350 in your savings account the first week. Do that for a month and you’ll have about $1,400. A year? $18,200–and that isn’t counting interest.

So put your hair down, log out of Facebook, sign off from Twitter and leave your laundry unfolded–it’s not like you have to leave the house anyway.

Print writers–you aren’t out of the challenge. I’m betting you could send out a couple extra queries during the week. The pay from any of those queries that get accepted should go straight to savings too.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative with a decade of industry experience. She was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services. None of her posts are meant to be advisory. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice. You can get her new e-book You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What? Tips and Tricks to Finding and Scoring Clients and Making a Living Writing What You Know here for just $7.95.

It’s Important to Track Your Income

By Yolander Prinzel

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to track all of my outstanding invoices for a couple of reasons:

1. I like to know when, and if, a client has paid me.

2. I like to know whether, and how well, I’ll be able to eat next month.

I send all of my emailable invoices through Paypal. I do this because I’ve found that it makes people pay me faster. It’s easy, they get an emailed invoice with a button that says something like, “Pay Your Awesome Writer Now!” They click the button and I go get donuts. Oh, wait, is Catherine reading this? Crap…did I say donuts? Um…I meant carrots. Yeah…I buy carrots. Anyway, I like Paypal because the system also lets me know if an invoice is outstanding–but that’s not exactly enough for this OCD chick.

I also keep a simple Excel spreadsheet, which you can download here: Payment Tracker. It’s a simple sheet, nothing fancy. It does help me to see what money I’m making this month and whether or not I need to amp up my game to pay for my addiction to surf and turf as well as whether or not all my outstanding invoices have been paid.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative with a decade of industry experience. She was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services. None of her posts are meant to be advisory. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice. You can get her new e-book You’ve Found Your Specialty–Now What? Tips and Tricks to Finding and Scoring Clients and Making a Living Writing What You Know here for just $7.95.

Expenses Freelancer Writers Can Do Without

by Yolander Prinzel

Freelance writing is not like other businesses. You don’t have to spend the same money on expenses as other business owners do. You should have relatively low overhead–unless you are trying to create some write-offs.

Here is a list of the expenses you can go without and still function:

1. Graphics design. A lot of freelance writers are overly concerned with visual branding in the form of logos and other graphics. Now, I’m not saying there is never a time for this but I know many successful freelancers who are close to six figures in income who have not bothered to spend money on a logo. As a matter of fact, the most successful writers I know haven’t bothered with this expense.

2. The newest Office Suite or other word processing software. While I’m not an advocate of Open Office (personally, I found it difficult and uncomfortable) that doesn’t mean you have to by the latest Word incarnation that hits the stores. You can use Open Office if you want free software or you can buy an old, used version of Word on Amazon.com.

3. Adobe Creative Suite. As a writer, you probably don’t have to do much photo manipulation. If you’re doing newsletters or brochures for clients, you may need InDesign, but chances are Publisher will work just find–and it’s a lot easier.

4. A CRM (customer relationship manager) program like ACT! Let me get this off my chest–I love ACT! and will probably buy myself a used copy. That’s because I’ve use it for years and know how to edit the database to create and edit fields. I can customize it to my needs in a way that Excel and Access won’t let me. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to buy it–or any other CRM program. If you want to organize and keep records on your clients you can use Excel, Access or any number of free online CRM systems.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. With a decade of financial industry experience, she was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services and a life insurance underwriter. No matter what you may think, none of her posts are advisory, they are simply informational. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice.

Freelancers, If I had My Hands in Your Pockets, These are the Things I’d Do

by Yolander Prinzel

Sorry to get your hopes up, but this is not a dirty post. Oh that it were. Unless, of course, you consider money dirty. The purpose of this post is to tell you exactly how I would set up your finances if I could.

To some of you, my methods will look extreme. “Oh Yolander,” you’ll cry, “can’t we just use one account for spending, saving and bills?” No, no you can not. Okay, maybe some of you are up for that responsibility, but a lot of you probably aren’t. For many of you, I would even venture a guess that when you see a large balance in your checking account, you feel safer spending money–even though most of that balance is money you need to send to the IRS in 2 weeks. To change your relationship with money, spending and saving, I suggest the following.

Savings Accounts

I believe in multi-tiered savings. I think that you should have:

1. An intermediary savings to bridge the gap between bills that are due and invoices that are late or to help out in slow months.

2. A business savings for taxes and other potential business expenses.

3. A long-term savings account with funds in CD or bond ladders (a ladder means that there are multiple CDs or bonds in your account with different maturities so that you aren’t putting all your money in a 10 year bond. You’ll have some that mature in 1 year, some in 3-5 and some in 10. That reduces your interest rate and penalty risks.)

4.  A brokerage account with a mildly aggressive portfolio for you young uns and a more conservative blend for people in their 40’s and up. The brokerage account can be funded with extra money or some of your long-term savings.

5. A SEP IRA.

Checking Accounts

I also like different checking accounts for different uses.

1. A bill paying account. This account should be linked to your intermediary savings account and should be used for bill paying only.

2. A spending account. This is where your grocery money, gas money, and entertainment money goes. This is the only account you use for spending and should not be connected with any saving’s accounts.

3. A business checking account for business expenses and to deposit payments.

Now What?

Remember this post about where to put your money? Here I’m going to give you a road map to follow [click for a larger image (I'm aware of the spelling mistake(s) in the chart but it was too hard to put it up--I'm not fixing it)]:

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. With a decade of financial industry experience, she was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services and a life insurance underwriter. No matter what you may think, none of her posts are advisory, they are simply informational. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice.

Freelance Writer Savings Plan

by Yolander Prinzel

I have a super simple plan for you that will help you get disciplined about retirement, tax and emergency savings. It’s so easy, even a nano-armored baboon could do it.

Of course, being easy in execution does not mean it’s doable without discipline. You have to want to save in order for this to work.

1. Set up a personal savings account.

2. Set up a business savings account.

3. Set up a SEP IRA through Scottrade, Ameritrade, Schwaab, whatever.*

4. Whenever you receive a Paypal payment from a client, transfer 5% from Paypal directly into your personal savings, 15-20% (depends on your tax bracket and deductions) from Paypal directly into your business savings to cover taxes, and up to 25% (not to exceed $49K total or 20% of profits for Sole Proprietors and LLCs) into your SEP (you may need to transfer to a bank account first, but don’t let that distract you from your ultimate goal).

5. When you get a check for payment from a client, deposit it into your business account and then make the same allocations as above.

6. Live on the remaining 50-75% of your income.

Now, how hard it that? And if you balk at saving 25-50% of your income, then you have some serious thinking to do.

• If your roof leaks, pet, self or spouse gets sick, car breaks down, air conditioner breaks, etc. you will need some savings to fall back on.
• If you plan to ever retire, you’ll need some retirement savings to support you.
• If you would like to keep the IRS happy, you need some tax money set aside.

*Please remember that an IRA is not an investment in itself–it is just an account that allows investments to grow on a tax-deferred or tax-free (ROTH) basis. After you deposit money into your IRA, you will need to use the money to buy equities, bonds, annuities, mutual funds or CD’s.

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. With a decade of financial industry experience, she was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services and a life insurance underwriter. No matter what you may think, none of her posts are advisory, they are simply informational. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice.

How Currency Exchange Rates Should Determine Your Marketing

by Yolander Prinzel

When the value of the dollar plummets compared to the Yen, Euro, Rupee, or any other foreign currency, it is generally a bad thing.

As a nation, the goods we import from other countries become more expensive because we have to use more of our dollars in exchange for the currency used by the exporting company in order to pay for them.

Travelers and currency traders find their dollars making less impact as well.

But for freelance writers, the declining value of a dollar is a great time to target your marketing to other countries.

As an example, in the beginning of March, the value of one dollar in Euros was .7896. That means an article you charge $100 U.S. dollars for would cost your British, German, Irish, etc. client $78.96 Euros. Today, that same article would only cost your overseas, Euro-using client $69.58 because the value of the dollar has dropped to .6958 Euros. It’s almost like offering a sale without changing your bottom line at all.

In order to capitalize on this, you should know both the historical value of the U.S. dollar as well as the current value. Now, go have fun with that marketing spin!

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. With a decade of financial industry experience, she was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services and a life insurance underwriter. No matter what you may think, none of her posts are advisory, they are simply informational. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice.

Should Freelance Writers Choose Cash or Accrual Accounting?

by Yolander Prinzel

If you haven’t already, you have a very important choice to make about your business. Eventually, you’ll need to choose whether your business uses the cash or accrual method of accounting. “But wait” you’re thinking, “isn’t accounting, accounting, accounting? What is this cash or accrual method you speaketh of?”

Well my Elizabethan friend, it is basically the timeline in which you choose to report your income. No, that doesn’t mean you can pay taxes on today’s income in five years (wouldn’t that be nice) but it is an extremely important decisions for all businesses, but especially freelancer writers.

When you choose the accrual method, you must pay taxes on money you haven’t collected yet. As soon as you invoice someone, you’ve accrued an income that hasn’t been collected and you must pay tax on that income even if the client stiffs you for 6 months. Anyone who has ever worked for a print publication has probably just broken out into a cold sweat—get your hanky and wipe off that wet, salty fear because I’ve got a solution for you. … Continue Reading

How the Time Value of Money Applies to Your Freelance Writing Career

Yolander Prinzel is a finance and insurance writer/ ghostwriter. Her clients include The Savings Bank Life Insurance Company, Foresight Publishing, LifeTips and her own politically incorrect finance blog, The BIG Little Finance Blog. She also has a snarky community blog for freelance writers called Freelance Writerville

Did you know that the value of your money isn’t fixed? Your money has both a present value and a future value. The present value of your money is pretty easy to determine—just take that fiver out of your wallet and go buy $5.00 worth of something.

I’m sure you’ll have no problem. But what if you took that five spot and tried to buy something worth $6, we’ll wait…oh, you’re back—hey, why do you still have that five? Oh, they wouldn’t let you buy $6 worth of merchandise with $5? Well if you invest that $5 for 2 years in an account or investment earning 5% a year, that $5 will turn in to $6—let’s see them turn you down then.

This concept of the time value of money may not seem important to you right now, but … Continue Reading

What Is Your Favorite Blog For Writers?

by Catherine L. Tully

So today I ask Freelance-Zone readers: What is your favorite blog for writers? And why? I have a picture here of Yolander Prinzel from FreelanceWriterville, one of my favorites. Why do I read this blog? Yo’s voice is slightly irreverent and always easy to read. Plus, she is right on target with a lot of good advice. So today, I’d love FZ readers to share their faves. Go ahead…you know you want to. I’m in the mood to expand my horizons…surprise me!