Category Archives: freelance money

freelance money, gear

Freelance Income Diversification – Now Easier With Square

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Square Payments by iPhoneby Joe Wallace

For a couple of years now, I’ve been supplementing my freelance income–diversifying my income portfolio, you might say–by selling vinyl records, custom silkscreened tees and other fun things. I sell hard-to-find records on Discogs.com, eBay and at conventions like Flashback Weekend, Cinema Wasteland and elsewhere.

Basically, I wake up, work all my freelance clients by day, and transition into the selling after the day’s work is done.

Lots of my fellow freelancer friends do this on Etsy, eBay, etc. But now the income diversification game just got a whole lot easier–especially for people doing book tours, conventions, in-person speaking engagements, anything a freelancer might do to train, teach or sell.

Square is a credit/debit card reader which plugs into the audio port of an iPhone or Android. There is no monthly fee to sign up, the reader is free, and Square takes a small percentage of each sale as the fee for using the service. In short, you can accept credit cards or debit cards (as credit cards) anywhere you have a cell phone signal.

I just received mine and will be using it at my vinyl record booth at an upcoming convention. But Square has much more potential than just selling crafts, t-shirts, vinyl or other merchandise. Imagine what would happen if you showed up for your next teaching gig “Freelance Writing 101” with the ability to collect your teaching fee right then and there? Or sell your latest set of teaching materials for that class? Or sell a promotional tee for your blog?

You could take Square with you to the workplace–imagine being able to offer a client the option to pay you on-site with a company credit card the next time you are asked to do a consultancy, training, or team building. Fiction writers can benefit, too–try taking a book tour to a local convention and selling your book with Square. No need to go cash-only.

There are too many creative things you could do with this portable credit card reader–which even accepts Amex and Discover at no additional fees–to boost your freelance income. The possibilities? Endless.

advice, editorial, freelance money

Freelancer Fee Convergence

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book and script editor for hire Joe Wallaceby Joe Wallace

One day, science will explain that curious phenomenon I like to call “freelancer fee convergence,” which is where you go ages and ages without getting paid and then suddenly all of your checks show up at once.

This seems to happen not only to me, but to nearly every freelancer I know. Checks are late being paid, getting later all the time, the rent is due, your laundry is piling up for want of a stack of quarters, and you just sent off a new round of invoices to clients you don’t expect to pay up for at least 60 days.

Then suddenly, the late clients pay up, the new clients pay early, and you’re sitting on a small fortune.

I love feeling like a wanna-be Donald Trump (a Trump-a-be?) when I go to the bank on days like that…depositing that little pot of gold that showed up in your mailbox is a great feeling. But there’s got to be a better feeling than the one you had just the day BEFORE the mail carrier flooded your mailbox with Benjamins. That sinking feeling that you’ll be painting houses for your landlord soon, or perhaps doing a first draft on your cardboard sign.

What I want to know is, how do all the clients know to stick the check in the mail on THAT DAY so they all wind up coming at once? Is it some kind of spider-sense tingly feeling they all get? Or is there some supernatural wispy thing muttering into their ears? “Sssssennd it noooowwwwwwwwww”

Whatever the case, the mood swings from financial terror to cash flow ecstasy are a little wearying, no?

Joe Wallace is a freelance editor and writer. He’s currently editing two book projects for confidential clients and accepting new projects on a limited basis. Contact him at jwallace (at) freelance-zone (dotcom).

freelance money

Determing Your Worth

By Amanda Smyth Connor1269975_coins_in_hand

More than once I have undercharged for a project. It can be incredibly difficult to create the perfect quote for a job, particularly if you are working with a new client. Obvious concerns include the danger of overcharging and never hearing from said client again versus undercharging and hating your life for the next two months.

Determining your worth as a writer is the first step in negotiating with clients.

Important Questions that Need to be Answered

  1. How long have I been in the professional writing field? Am I new to this or is this old hat?
  2. What is my level of experience with projects similar to the one being discussed?
  3. Have I worked with this client before and am I comfortable with their standard pay rates or should I push for more?
  4. How comfortable am I with the subject matter/how much time will be devoted to research?
  5. Will I be dealing directly with the client or will I have an editorial liaison as a go-between?
  6. How many writers are working on this project? Am I worked as a team or am I working on this project solo?
  7. What is the turnaround time? Is it appropriate or “pedal to the metal?”

This is merely a basic list to jump from but what other questions would you ask yourself before putting together a project quote?

Amanda Smyth Connor is a community manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business, and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

advice, blogging, editorial, freelance money, social networking

Four Important Ways To Get Ahead As A Freelancer

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Joe Wallace Freelance Social Mediaby Joe Wallace

Looking over some of my favorite freelance blogs, I’ve been noticing a trend. A lot of stress relief posts, “beat the freelance blahs”, and posts about what to do when you don’t get paid for your freelance work.

Notice anything in common there? A great deal of unhappiness is implied in all three subjects. But we became (or are becoming) freelancers to be FREE, right? What’s the deal with all this misery?

Here are four things you can do to reduce misery, get paid more, and enjoy your freelance life. I use each and every one of these in my daily freelance work and trust me, it pays off over time.

DIVERSIFY YOUR INCOME

I started selling vinyl records on eBay and doing record collector shows. It’s something I have a real passion for, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. The extra income REALLY helps.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing to shore up your income as long as you truly enjoy it and can make it work for you–I strongly encourage all freelancers to find an extra way to earn money that has nothing to do with their current gig and is directly tied in to something they love.

FIRE YOUR CLIENTS

Not ALL your clients, mind you–that would be silly. The good ones are worth their weight in gold. But the Idea-Of-The-Week people, the Let’s Take A Meeting Every Day people, the I Treat You Like My Servant and I Demand Your Attention Right This Instant people, they have to go.

The reason? The time suck alone is costing you money. Do a serious, top-down evaluation of your freelance clients and see who is prunable and who is not. I bet you already have at least one in mind right this second as you read this.

YOU MAKE THE RULES

I once had a client–who I fired in short order–who tried to drive the schedule in unreasonable ways when it came to standard deliverables. We’re not talking about special projects or time-sensitive material, this was standard stuff with standard completion routines.

I made the mistake of asking him when he wanted the material instead of telling him “This is how long it will take”. Bad move. But I won in the end because I don’t like being treated like a robot. Sure, it cost me some money. But the time I saved let me chase down better clients.

STOP WORKING

Avoiding burnout is one of the single most important things you do as a freelancer. Burned out writers, editors, etc. are useless–they don’t earn money, they don’t finish projects on time, they get out of shape, restless and lazy. Do not be like them. Take frequent breaks, stretch, exercise, and treat yourself well. The happier you are, the better work you will do in the end, make no mistake.

Social commentators say that we are living in the most selfish era in recent memory. So be it–BE SELFISH and look after yourself. That’s all!

Joe Wallace writes about finance, veterans issues, and manages social media accounts for a variety of clients. Contact him about new opportunities at jwallace@freelance (dash) zone (dot) com. Wallace is a freelancer by day, Chicago electronic musician and record seller by night. He’s the one behind all the snarky commentary and strange travel writing about the joys of vinyl collecting at Turntabling.net.

advice, editorial, freelance money

Are You Ready For AppsBar?

Turntabling Vinyl For Sale Bargain Bin five bucksby Joe Wallace

I’ve been experimenting with a new service called AppsBar, which lets you create mobile apps for iPhone and Android, which can be published to iTunes, Android Market and Windows Marketplace (once the apps pass an approval process which takes approximately 10-14 days.) AppsBar is 100% free and has no pay wall, credit card sign-up requirements or other nonsense–kudos for that.

The image to the right is what I was working on–an application for my vinyl record site Turntabling.net. I wanted to see if AppsBar could support an app to let me sell records online using PayPal and images already online at Turntabling.

The idea was to let people impulse buy bargain-bin vinyl records using a mobile phone. Could AppsBar let me do this quickly and keep the same basic user experience as my (admittedly no-frills) website Turntabling.net?

So far, so good!

For that purpose, AppsBar seems fairly simple and fun to use. The site features a wizard that lets even the most technically disadvantaged among us create apps for content, images, videos, and yes, sale items. I set up a Turntabling page with six albums for sale complete with PayPal payment buttons in about ten minues, using HTML I already had from the blog post.

What does this mean for freelancers?

AppsBar could be an excellent tool for you put your freelance services, portfolio, resume, e-books, blogs, etc. into a mobile format you can direct potential clients to. The “look how cool I am!” factor can’t be underestimated here–especially if you’re dealing with clients who aren’t themselves very tech-savvy. The app creation wizard is simple and fun to use–if you are able to use WordPress to create/publish a blog post, AppsBar won’t be a challenge for you to learn.

AppsBar apps are offered for free once they are approved and published–you can’t sell your app. That’s not a deal-breaker in my mind; the service is free, so the app is free. No problem for those of us who are shameless self-promoters and see this as a way to reach into the mobile marketplace.

I think the most important thing for freelancers to remember about creating a mobile app of any kind is to consider the crowded marketplace and think how to best use a tool like AppsBar to solve a particular problem or give a good reason for the person downloading the app to take the time–remember, there are probably more apps now than there are cell phones. What does YOURS offer that the others don’t? An important question to ask before hitting “Publish”.

The AppsBar Terms of Use is a document freelancers should definitely pay close attention to; there are many issues that can affect how you publish content here. AppsBar reserves the right to insert advertising into the content and other areas of your app. It also forbids you from placing your own ads (unless I’m misreading that section) so it’s critical to remember that your app is not a platform to use for generating ad revenue for a blog, as I read the TOU.

AppsBar also reserves the right to modify or repurpose your content for other use as defined in the Terms Of Use. Personally, I’m not inclined to publish unique content on a mobile app–I’d rather use an AppsBar app to promote a service or product, so this isn’t an issue with me. But for many freelancers, it could be depending on what you want to use it for–read the Terms of Use carefully before you decide to publish unique content there.

All in all, AppsBar seems to be a very solid platform for freelancers who have a specific idea in mind on what they’d like to do with a mobile app. Those who look at AppsBar, take time to think, and start creating with some concrete notions of how to best use the product will do very well with this free service.

advice, client relationships, freelance money

You Can Do It for Love, You Can Do It for Money

I’ll be the first person to admit that I’m quick with the ax when it comes time to get rid of a challenging freelance client. Life’s too short to deal with people who make it more difficult.

But I recently ignored my rule and stuck with a high-paying client simply because, well, he was high-paying—and in retrospect, I’m very glad I did. For the first time, I was able to turn a challenging client into a loyal, lucrative one who’s manageable, if still somewhat high maintenance.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the tale. Challenge number one is that he’s overseas, so there’s a time-zone issue. Challenge number two is that his English isn’t very good, so we’ve had a variety of miscommunications. Challenge number three is that he’s very demanding, and needs stuff done RIGHT NOW or he freaks out. Challenge number four is that I often have to get to double-digit drafts before he’s satisfied.

Not the ideal, eh? But the fact was he pays great, so I stuck with it. Over the course of a few months, I was able to preemptively deal with every single one of those challenges:

  • Challenge 1: I make sure I check in with him at 7 a.m., and ask if he’ll be needing my attention that day, and if so, when. I check in on weekends if I know something important is on the line.
  • Challenge 2: I’ve learned to repeat back to him what he’s said for clarification, so there are fewer miscues. Like, “So, if I am understanding you correctly, you want me to revise Project B before writing Advertisement C. Is that right?”
  • Challenge 3: I know that I need to turn stuff around more quickly for him than for most clients, which is fine because he pays a premium. More important, I ask specifically what day/time he wants things—I don’t wait for the “WHERE’S THE PROJECT A OUTLINE????” email.
  • Challenge 4: I don’t care about how many revisions there are, and I don’t take it personally if he doesn’t like something. In fact, I’ll usually assume he’s going to hate it, and then be pleasantly surprised when he’s all hearts and flowers.

Would I want an entire roster of clients like this? Heck no! But the fact is that I’ve learned to tilt the love and money equation in my favor. And it’s going to make for a nicer summer vacation than I would have otherwise had.

Question: Have you ever stuck with a client from hell purely for monetary reasons? Were you able to make any progress in turning them into a better client? If so, how?

Jake Poinier answers freelancer questions at Dr. Freelance.