Tag Archives: freelance writers

How To Hire A Freelancer: What Freelance Writers And Editors Do

CHICAGO freelance writers and editors for hire.

Freelance writers and editors often come with a wide range of skills, but a lot of potential clients aren’t sure if they need a freelancer, and what freelance writers, editors and social media managers can do for them. How do you hire and most effectively use a freelancer?

Hiring A Freelance Writer, Editor, And Social Media Manager

Freelancers offer their clients a cost-effective way to generate or edit content, manage writing teams, edit books and online content for publication, post and maintain social media accounts, and even create digital content in the form of videos and podcasts.

The most effective way to begin a search for a freelancer is to determine what your overall budget is for the project you want. Are you a theatre director looking for someone to promote your upcoming shows via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram?

You’ll need to decide how much labor you want to invest each day of the campaign, how much that labor should cost, and what your benchmarks will be for effectiveness of the campaign.

[Hire a Freelance-Zone.com freelance writer, editor, or social media manager by contacting us via e-mail with some basic details about your project. We will get in touch with you to discuss your needs.]

Bands, Indie Businesses, and Sole Prorpietorships Need Freelancers

Are you a band looking for a freelancer to do the same with social media and posts on your band’s official site? The same rules apply-you need to determine your budget in advance and commit to a certain amount of work for a certain amount of pay.

If you have an independent business to promote, the same exact rules apply but with the added consideration that you are engaging in a longer campaign to generate business and attention to your website.

Promoting an indie business takes time and results are not always available overnight. You will need to discuss your goals with your freelancer to determine the best course of action.

Some types of business are better suited for some types of freelance writing and social media work than others. If you have a product your customers will purchase or use one time only or on a limited basis, the needs of your freelance campaign will be quite different than a company such as a record store that relies on social media and their website to generate repeat business.

Corporate And Local Businesses Need Freelancers

Many big name companies including PetSmart, Lionel, Inc., Motorola, and Banco Popular hire freelancers and temp workers, consult with freelancers for advice on expanding local social media campaigns, and use freelance writers and editors to begin new projects they may choose to take internally later on.

Corporate and local businesses alike can benefit from the flexibility of having a freelance/contract writer and editor working for them because the freelancer is dedicated specifically to that project and won’t have to attend other company meetings or be sidetracked by additional duties or other projects at that company.

That is not to say that freelancers work for one client exclusively-that is an arrangement that is definitely possible but requires some additional negotiation and compensation discussions. But in general the advantage of the freelancer is that she doesn’t get sidetracked by the other issues and projects of the company hiring her. Her job is to focus on the writing, editing, and/or social media project assigned.

[Hire a Freelance-Zone.com freelance writer, editor, or social media manager by contacting us via e-mail with some basic details about your project. We will get in touch with you to discuss your needs.]

What Do Freelance Writers, Editors, And Social Media Managers Do?

Freelancers write web content, articles, press releases, social media posts, and curate relevant posts from other tastemaker websites while writing original content to go along with that curated media.

Freelance editors edit book projects (especially biographies and works that are intended to be self-published), web content, manage teams of writers, and check over any volume of written content for errors, grammatical goofs, auto-correct problems (and there are many of those!) and much more.

Freelance social media managers write, edit, promote, and network on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and more. The best social media managers understand how to strike a balance between self-serving posts that promote the client and content that is shared as a way of generating and maintaining interest in discussions, sharing, and reposting.

Hire A Freelance Writer, Editor, Or Social Media Manager Today

Freelance-Zone.com has many resources to help. If you need to hire a freelance writer, editor, or social media manager for contract work, short or long-term projects, or an ongoing relationship to produce results over a long period of time, get in touch with us today to hire a Freelance-Zone.com writer, editor, or social media manager.

Contact us today and please use Freelance-Zone.com in the subject line to avoid spam filtering. We look forward to hearing from you.

Why you still need a good website

We blog, tweet and keep in touch with friends on Facebook, but is it enough? Not if you want to appear professional and gain more freelance work.

Before you can snag a great assignment, you need a clean, organized way to impress an editor, who most likely is in a big hurry.

webscreensEditors work with dozens of people on a daily basis. When they are ready to hand out an assignment, they often view writers websites to see work samples.  They do not want to view your Facebook page, check your status, look at baby pictures, or read a stream of tweets about what your friends are doing.

A good portfolio means business

Editors look for a freelancer with a professional portfolio, giving them the confidence to hire you to write for them. They want to know you’re serious about work, not about spending time the beach. They want to see samples of recent work, so they know they can count on you.

At a minimum a writer’s or artist’s portfolio should include:

  1. Credentials
  2. Expertise
  3. Recent work
  4. References
  5. How to get in touch

What about a blog?

A blog is a great tool for a free website equivalent. Most people blog at blogger.com or worpress.com, both of which are free. You can choose a style that replicates a website with pages and tabs. However most blogs intentionally list new content in chronological order with the newest posts at the top. That can be disorienting to a visitor expecting to easily find your credentials, work samples, etc. A blog, separate from the one you use socially, can be styled to remain static, rather that showing posts and updates. Search a few templates at blogger or wordpress and you’ll find some are suitable to replace a website.

Here is a brief masthead sample, using the ‘mimbo pro’ design at wordpress.com. Looks just like a website, doesn’t it?

If a blog template won’t do, then expect to pay $200-300 if you can’t do a site on your own. Most web designers will take on a small client for a five-page site in that price range.

Some freelance organizations offer free or low-cost member sites as part of their benefits. If you belong to a national author/writer group, such as authorsguild.org, check their member benefit list.

Free web  templates from sites like 1&1.com, webs.com, and wix.com.

Social media is fine for keeping in touch with colleagues and friends, but your website is the best chance you have to make a good impression.

Give yourself a cohesive predictable place to display your credentials, show clips of recent work, state your preference for types of media you work in, and make it easy for an editor to hire you for your next assignment.

I maintain one site for my tech business, one for assistance with self-publishing, and one specifically for my freelance work. It shows editors exactly why they might want to hire me for a specific assignment, and includes a brief tagline that assures them I’m reliable. Curious, visit gallagherink.com and then comment here to share your own writer’s website.

A clean, informative website makes it easy for editors to turn to you again and again. It showcases your work to get your more business, and invites referrals when an editor wants to pass your information on to a colleague.

The Day Job

boatIn late 2011, Abraham Verghese, author of “Cutting for Stone” described his writing life for the Washington Post.

For dedicated writers and those in the publishing business who freelance “part time,” simply because no one will pay us to write full time, there is the need for the dreaded…. “Day Job.”

This quote may help you lose some of the resentment of the day job, as you read how it benefits Verghese’s writing.

“Indeed, when I am asked for writing advice, which is rare, I offer this: Get a good day job, one that you love, preferably one that consumes you and that puts your boat out in the river of life. Then be passionate about it, give it your all, get good at what you do.”

Even though his work and family life left insufficient time to devote to writing, he persisted writing in the time he had available. Perhaps it is his lack of resentment over work as the thief of his writing hours that let him settle down and make the most of his limited time to write.

“Joyce Carol Oates produced two books while I was working on a long chapter. But I am not in a hurry to get the book out, just to get it right — my day job allows that luxury.”

Full Verghese essay here.

BIO: Helen Gallagher joined Freelance-Zone.com to share her thoughts on small business and technology. Her blogs and books are accessible through www.releaseyourwriting.com. She is a member of ASJA, Small Publishers Artists & Writers Network, and several great Chicago-area writing groups.

Words and Reason: Getting Back to our Roots

by Cynthia Clampitt

Cynthia Clampitt
Cynthia Clampitt

Because a lot of freelancers work in educational publishing, I thought I’d offer a little help with something that is increasingly demanded by publishers—because it’s demanded by state and national standards. I’m offering this because I worked for years as an in-house editor at a major publisher, and I saw over and over again that this is an issue.

It has been my experience that few freelance writers understand how to teach Greek and Latin roots as a skill to aid students in comprehension and language acquisition. I’ve already mentioned, in a previous column, the most frequent (almost universal, in fact) error I saw: teaching that export and import mean coming out of or going into a port. Even in situations where we’d had meetings with development houses where I stated explicitly, “Do NOT send me a lesson that teaches that export and import are things moving out of or into a port,” I’d still, often as early as a week later, get the dreaded lesson. (Of course, if you were following my earlier suggestion to look everything up, you probably wouldn’t be turning this in.)

That is an example of a lesson that understands the concept but gets the information wrong. The other problem I’d see is a complete lack of understanding of the concept. I received many lessons that ran along the lines of, “The word “volunteer” comes from the Latin voluntarius, which means, “voluntary.” Umm, yeah. But what have you just taught?

The point of teaching Greek and Latin roots is to help students understand English, not to teach Greek and Latin.

So what is the concept? Taking the export/import example, a lesson might go something like this: The Latin portare means “to carry.” We can see this root in export and import, which mean to carry out and carry in. It is also in transport, which is to carry across—if you transport something, you’re carrying it across some distance. A porter is someone who carries things. The word portable also shares this root. Using what you know about the suffix “able” and the root “portare,” what do you think portable means?

You might, if there is space (though there rarely is) add a note that student should not confuse this with the port in seaport or airport. That comes from the Latin portus, which means entrance, passage, or harbor.

Always remember that you have to have more than one word derived from a root. If, as in the “voluntaris” example above, there is only one word in English related to the root, you have not given students a useful tool for understanding new words—and that’s the objective—handing out tools.

Here are some examples of roots with multiple derivatives—though there are many others. Continue reading Words and Reason: Getting Back to our Roots

Resilience

It looks like 2012 may be the year of the resilient freelancer. Turmoil in the economy and around the world didn’t stop us. We’re still here, still reinventing ourselves, and still successful.

time-moneyWe survived the cash crunch when magazine markets cut their budgets. Whether you freelance in writing, graphic design, or photography, you likely felt the squeeze.

For many authors, the ebook flurry dropped the value of our writing, while some got rich on 99-cent books. Distracting gadgets shifted the reader’s attention span toward video integration, drawing us away from the serenity of the written word.

But, we adapt and we keep working. We publish essays, write memoirs, articles, build new networks and plan new projects. Paying markets are still there, especially online.

Yet, we occasionally run into a dry spell, and have to make the choice to do more work for less pay. If that happens to you, consider a few strategies to keep you at peak efficiency.

1. Stay organized – whether on paper or electronically, keep track of your time, make lists so you can group calls and errands to save time and money. Make notes of follow-up dates and remind yourself of upcoming deadlines. And chase client for payment if  they are slow to pay you for your work .

2. Blog – Work your writing muscle every day. Keep visibility, stay connected, and create some buzz for yourself every week. Need help finding a source, or need an editor? That’s what social media is for: Use it to reach out to your online networks to find what you need.

3. Publish –  Nothing revs you up like a few quiet hours to look back at your previous work and find a way to freshen it up. Repurpose an article into a ten-point list, or create an ebook with a fresh spin on an old idea. Because you blog, you’ve got an audience ready to buy your ebook.

4. Spend less –  When clients are slow to pay, try to spend less money. Cancel a membership you’re not using. Resist the trip to the office supply store, where you’ll convince yourself life will be better with new color-coded file folders.  Instead, shop online . Shop where you can take advantage of rebates, use online coupons, and deal sites. Always use vendors who offer free shipping. If you need new tech equipment, shop online for refurbished items. There are great deals on yesterday’s tablets and laptops. Even if you prefer to shop locally, look online for the best deals before you buy.

cloud

Before you invest in a software upgrade, consider a move to the cloud – next week’s post will explore the growing trend to work on the web with cloud-based programs. In fact, you’re using many of them already. Check back next week for the details on living in the cloud.

BIO: Helen Gallagher joined Freelance-Zone.com to share her thoughts on small business and technology. Her blogs and books are accessible through www.releaseyourwriting.com. Address questions to Helen@cclarity.com.

What Writing Blogs Do You Read?

freelance-zone com business cards side one (10)

by Catherine L. Tully

Here’s the chance to promote a writing blog that you love, one that you write–or one that you have just recently discovered. I’m putting a call out here for people to check in and list some of the writing blogs that they keep up with. What are your faves?

Blogs about freelance writing, fiction, non-fiction and any others that deal with writing are welcome. From time-to-time I like to go out there and try and find something new on the web. Some writer’s blog that I haven’t seen yet. And I’m hoping you can help direct me to some of them…

So with that in mind, let’s start a big list here in the comments section, shall we? Who are you reading these days? What sites do you find offer the most helpful advice about writing as a career? There are so many out there–I know I haven’t come across them all! Here are a few that I check in with on a regular basis: Continue reading What Writing Blogs Do You Read?