Find a group that meets weekly and join it

Pick a group that interests you. It may be related to writing or it may be related to the subjects you like to write about. The goal is to meet other people with similar interests and have discussions about those interests. This can help give you ideas for future writing projects and develop resources you can contact when you need more information.

Write somewhere new

Writing is a very mobile profession. Laptop computers make it easy to move around and even stay connected to the Internet, but paper and a pen are all you need in many cases. Get out and explore the world around you, it will help your writing.

Make online connections

The big plus of services like Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging is that you can stop what you are doing for a couple of minutes and connect with other people. It isn’t the same as a face-to-face conversation, but sometimes all you need is a little contact to remove the feeling of isolation.

Find a writing partner

There are all kinds of writing partners. Some may actually be in business with you, but others may simply be people who work in the same profession and want to have another person around to help them focus. You may meet to write together, or you may just stay in contact over the phone or via email. Having a writing partner increases your accountability. You know someone is going to check on your progress.

Rent an office or a cubicle

One way to both get out among other people and feel more businesslike is to rent an office or a cubicle. Craigslist is a great place to look for workspaces. With the current economy and the number of businesses that are downsizing, it is easy to find cheap space in most metropolitan areas. Many of these places come complete with Internet access, phones and conference rooms. Not only will working in a corporate area give you more human contact, it may also lead to paying opportunities as you get to know the people and businesses around you.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

One of the advantages of a freelance writing career is that you don’t have to answer to some other person’s schedule. You make your own days. There will be times when you have to go all out in order to meet a deadline. Unlike a regular job though, you do have a certain amount of flexibility as a freelance writer and you need to take advantage of that on occasion. Here are a few of the things I do to take advantage of my freelance status.

Go for a walk

My personal goal for 2010 is to walk 1000 miles. That means I need to walk an average of three miles a day. I live in a small community that is surrounded by open desert. A three mile walk takes me about an hour, so I head off into the desert and take a look around me. I never know what I am going to find. I run across animals and plants that I have never seen, and the occasional rusted remains of someone’s car, camp, or desert party. I listen to music or audiobooks and I enjoy the fact that I am free to do this whenever I want to.

Go to lunch

For me, the closest real restaurant is twenty miles away, so when I go out to lunch it isn’t for a quick bite. There is an Asian buffet I like to go to. I take a notebook with me and I write down ideas as they come to me. I don’t take my computer because I don’t want it to feel like work. It is simply time for me to relax and think about what I want to do. I don’t do this every day. There are times when I am so focused on work that I eat a Clif bar and just keep writing. About once a week though, I take my two to three hour lunch and enjoy it.

Take a nap or meditate

Employers frown on people taking naps at a regular job, at least in the USA. That is unfortunate because after about four hours of work, a lot of people get a little sleepy. If I start to feel like that, I generally go sit in my recliner, put my feet up, and listen to one of the many meditation podcasts I get for free from Zen Worlds. I try to meditate, but half the time I just nod off. The advantage of doing this in the recliner though is that I’m bound to get up again in about twenty minutes. By then I am refreshed and ready to work.

Write from somewhere new

There are times when you need to get work done, but you want to escape your usual surroundings. My wife and I have taken several small trips while I have been freelancing, and attended a couple of conferences. Because I freelance, I never had to ask permission to travel. It didn’t matter where I was working from, as long as I completed my assignments. This is the sort of freedom you have as a freelancer, and you should take advantage of it.

Do what works for you

These are examples of how I take advantage of my freelance lifestyle. Freelancing eliminated over three hours a day of commute time for me, which means I have more time to spend with my wife and my friends while still working the same amount of hours as I did before. Find your own ways to take advantage your status as a freelancer. Spend time with your children. Write from the beach. Take an hour for yourself in the middle of the day. Do what feels right, just don’t get carried away. You are still running a business, it just happens to be one you are in control of.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

Analyzing the situation

When I found myself unemployed and looking for options, I had a few things on my side and a few unique problems on the horizon. On the plus side, I had an employed wife and a few thousand dollars in the bank. I also had this blog, which generates enough income to provide some cushion, but not enough to pay all of my bills.

What I did not have was a single freelance client. For a while, I had balanced freelancing with my last job, but when my job grew more demanding I stopped freelancing. Additionally, although my wife was employed at the time, she had already made plans to take the next year off to finish her Master’s Degree. This meant I only had about two months before our income took another major hit.

Establishing an income with easy sources

As you know, there are some low-paying but easy-to-land opportunities on the web. I’m not going to discuss which service I used, but I found an online content provider and started churning our quick, moneymaking content for them. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable work, but I was able to start earning again within days of losing my job. I made about $2500 over the course of two months. It allowed me to feel productive while I looked for more lucrative opportunities. It was also a steady freelance gig that I could quit at any time without repercussions.

Cutting expenses

Like most people faced with a major cut in pay, my wife and I started to cut expenses. We dropped our premium cable package. We minimized our mobile phone plan. We deferred my student loans. We went out less and shopped much more carefully. Some expenses just naturally faded away. I was no longer commuting 130 miles round trip to work and eating out with my co-workers. My wife and I also went down to one car. That last expense cut wasn’t entirely voluntary; our minivan caught on fire.

Using my social network

Once I had some money coming in, I concentrated on improving my presence on the web. I upgraded my online portfolio site. I updated my resume on sites such as Monster, Dice and LinkedIn. I let my friends on FaceBook know I was looking for work. I also had lunch with friends and former colleagues, some of whom were also out of work.

Because I did this, I got a few leads. One of these was at a company I had interviewed with before. The interviews had gone well, but they had been unable to offer me a full-time position due to budget cuts. I contacted them and let them know I was available as a freelancer.  They had a project for me and we started working together. One project led to another and I maintained them as a steady source of income for almost six months.

Expanding my base

I have yet to find another client that provides me with the steady work of the first big client, but nine months after losing my regular job, I have a number of smaller clients that are keeping me afloat. In many ways I prefer these smaller clients, because they provide more variety and stability than focusing on one big client for all of my income. Concentrating on one big client is almost the same as having a regular job. You become reliant, and that is dangerous. My one big client knows I’m there if they need me again, and I stay in contact.

Moving on

My goal now is steady expansion. Because I also have my blog, I am not entirely reliant on freelancing for my income, but I am entirely self-employed. My wife and I are able to pay our bills, but I want to do more than just get by and stay afloat. We’re a two car family again, but we are still shopping carefully and avoiding major purchases that we would love to make. My wife will graduate in another two months and probably return to her old employer. This will ease some burdens, but it also means that student loans will once again be in the picture. I have my own number in mind for how much I need to make, and I will keep pushing until I reach that number.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

Print media is in trouble

Now, as we enter a new decade, print media is in genuine trouble. Newspapers have long been in decline and magazines are following, sunk not only by the speed of online information, but by the rising costs of mail delivery. Book publishing is also making rapid changes. Bestsellers are still bestsellers, but for the first time, online books are starting to make real headway. The iPad and the Kindle are now solid sources for books. This has made self-publishing and small press publishing more viable than they have been in years. When you can search for what you want online, the press to get on shelves at stores is lessened somewhat. It becomes more important to be the book that people search for, rather than the book that publishers promote.

You are not as ready as you think

If you are on the cusp of the technological wave, don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. Sure, blogs are more popular, but a livable income as a blogger is still a challenge. The same goes for podcasting and social media. You hear about the people who make money at it, but you hear about them because they are the exception rather than the rule. People are more immune to advertising than ever before, and if they aren’t buying something, you aren’t going to make much money.

There is no roadmap

Change is in motion, and accelerating. The financial landscape of publishing and media in general is in the midst of a major transition, and there is no definitive idea of where it will end up. This makes picking a career, especially in the writing field, a tricky matter. We currently live in a crowded publishing world. Anyone who wants to publish can. That brings great freedom, but it pushes the level of competition through the roof. When media was controlled by a few gatekeepers, the goal was to get past the gate. Now, the big gatekeepers are still there, and can still offer a measure of success, but your true competition is the crowd. When everyone can be heard, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out. When someone else is offering what you have for free, it is very hard to charge.

Fortune favors the adaptable

My point is that if you want to have a career as a writer, be prepared for change. Be prepared for an entire world of competition, but also a world of possible readers. Understand that the way you make money writing today may soon change and that you will have to adapt to that change. We see this most in the freelance world, but don’t be surprised if corporate writing world follows. No one is immune to change.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

Despite the situation, freelancing was still my choice. I could have devoted all of my time to finding another regular job. I could have taken a lesser job, or at least tried to find one. I could have just sat on the couch and watched TV, waiting for circumstances to change. That last one may not seem like much of an option, but I have seen plenty of people give it a try.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself before jumping into full-time freelancing:

Are you dissatisfied with what you are doing now?

Most people contemplate freelance writing because they are dissatisfied with their current situation. They don’t like their job or they don’t like how little time their job leaves for them to write. They think they are meant for better things and freelance writing comes to mind.

Dissatisfaction is a reason to try freelance writing, but it is not a good indicator of success. Dissatisfaction with a regular job is common and freelance writing is no picnic, especially for a poorly motivated worker. Often times, when a person thinks time is the reason they aren’t writing, it turns out that they weren’t really going to write no matter how much time they had. There is a difference between a pleasant sounding alternative and reality. Dissatisfaction is a start though.

Have you tried freelance writing part-time?

Jumping from a 40-hour-a-week job to full-time freelance writing is not one smooth step. If you aren’t actively freelancing while employed, you are going to have a hard time transitioning to full-time freelancing. There is a learning curve to any job, and starting freelancing from square one without an income is difficult. You will want some ongoing clients or at minimum some experience with freelance writing before you try to make the jump to full-time. Prove to yourself that the career is important enough for you to sacrifice some time in the present before you decide to make it a profession in the future.

Have you saved up money?

It is important to have money set aside when you start freelancing full-time. Starting with enough money in savings to pay all of your bills for six months is a good start. Having a year or two years worth of money is an even better start. A good way to start saving for a full-time freelance career is to put all of your part-time freelancing money into a savings account, living only off your regular income until you are ready to make the leap.

Have you done your research?

There are several things you need to know when you strike out to be a full-time freelancer. The first is what your income requirements are. What will it take to pay your bills? Figure out just how many clients you are going to have to land and what you will have to charge if you want to be self-sufficient. Remember as well that you will have to find a way to take care of things such as medical and dental expenses, as well as other bills that only crop up sporadically but are bound to show up eventually. Office equipment needs replacing and upgrading. Cars need fixing. Houses need repairs. Christmas comes along once a year. Be realistic about what you are going to spend.

Once you know what you need, you have to figure out how you are going to meet that number. This means that you decide what areas you want to focus on (writing type, client type, locale) and have a marketing plan in place for reaching the people you want as clients. In fact, you will want to do more than research those markets, you will want to already be approaching your potential clients before you quit your job. Don’t leave it all until the day you finally stop working your regular job.

Do you have self discipline?

The final piece in the puzzle is to think long and hard about whether or not you have the discipline for self employment. Life without a boss sounds great, but it means that you have to be the one to push yourself to achieve. You not only have to be able to complete the assignments that come your way, you have to work hard when you don’t have any assignments. You have to market yourself and land new jobs. You have to make yourself sit in the office and work when it is a beautiful day and no one would complain if you put everything off until tomorrow.

A full-time freelance writing career is not for everyone, but for the people who can handle it, freelancing can be a great way to make a living. If you feel confident about your answers to these questions, they you are probably ready to make the leap to full-time freelancing.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

How do you want to spend your energy?

There is only so much time in the day, and that means you have to be careful about the jobs you take. You don’t want a job that is going to make it impossible for you to write outside of work. That is why some people take jobs far from the writing field. Some jobs only require presence and a little attention. Working as a security guard, for example, allows you to spend most of your time standing around watching people. For some writers, this is a great opportunity to observe, and get paid to do it. It isn’t difficult work, and it won’t leave you intellectually drained at the end of the day.

Working as a technical writer or as an editor gives you a chance to improve your writing skills as you earn a paycheck (and a bigger paycheck than a security guard). The downside is that you may use up all of your intellectual energy reading documents and attending meetings. A construction job is an example of a third option, one that works your body more than your mind, and gets you out into the daylight instead of stranding you in an office building. It is up to you to decide what works best for you, but if at the end of the day you don’t feel like writing, that’s a clue that you made the wrong choice.

Part-time solutions

Part-time work is yet another option. You draw a somewhat smaller paycheck, but you get back more of your time. Working two days a week at a store in the mall probably won’t pay all of your bills, but it may be enough to get you by in the weeks between freelance payments. It will also remind you of why you want to work hard as a freelancer, so that you don’t have to hold a job like that anymore.

Temporary solutions

Another option beyond part-time work is temporary work. You work full-time or even overtime hours for several months, banking your paychecks so that you can then have money in reserve to support your time freelancing for the next few months. The benefit of this, beyond the money, is the additional motivation to do well. You won’t have to get a regular job again until you run out of money. That gives you extra incentive to work hard and get paid as a freelance writer so that you don’t have to go back to a regular job. The danger is that you won’t know when to quit. Months can quickly turn into years, especially if you don’t save your money well.

The important thing to remember is that you do have choices as a freelance writer. When the freelance market gets slow, a job will provide you with another source of income and security. Just remember that your primary goal is to make a living from your freelance writing.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

You sell a product

If you are a writer, then your writing is your product. You have to sell that product if you want to make a living. This means that you need to learn about sales. Take a class in marketing or at least get yourself a basic book on sales. Whatever your end product is, from articles to poems to short stories, you can only make a living if you make sales.

You are a product

Beyond your writing, you have to sell another product. That product is you. Whether you are trying to land an assignment, a contract, or a job, you need to sell people on the concept of you. They have to believe that you are the right person for the job. They have to believe that you will not let them down. They even need to like you. You have to make people want to do business with you.

You have to do things you don’t love

With any luck, you got into writing because you love to write. If you didn’t, you should seriously find another profession, because there are plenty of better paying and less stressful careers out there. If you do love to write though, you also need to learn how to do things such as desktop publishing, bookkeeping, taxes, promotion, research, attending meetings, networking, project planning and customer service. They are all part of the business and you ignore them at your own peril.

You need to manage yourself

You have faults, I know I do, and some of these are going to get in your way as a writer. You may be shy, awkward, lazy, scatterbrained, argumentative, easily distracted, bad at math, prone to depression, a perfectionist, etc. You need to be honest about whatever your deficits are and find ways to keep them from damaging your writing career. Whether you need to get a friend or hire an assistant to keep you on task, or hire an accounting service to keep track of your money, you need to be sure that the important things are being taken care of, either by you or by someone you trust. You need to keep yourself working.

You need money

You can’t make a living without an income. That means you may need to write about subjects because they will make you money, or take on additional non-writing work to keep you afloat. This is the reality of having a writing career. You don’t always get to do exactly what you want. You need to think in terms of how much money you need, and how you are going to get it. Sometimes that means taking on assignments you don’t love. Sometimes it means simplifying your life and giving up luxuries or even some basics so that you need less money. Whatever the case, your income matters and you have to find a way to live on the money you make or make more money.

Think like a businessperson

You are free to write like an artist, but you have to think like a businessperson at times. It is a good idea to take business classes, organization classes, and marketing classes. Once you know something about business, it will be easier for you to think of new projects in terms of how you can make them work for your career so that you can keep writing.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

Your life and your career start to meld

As a freelance writer, there is no moment when you are suddenly at work or off work, especially if you work out of your home. There is nobody to tell you when you are done working for the day, and if you sleep in and miss a couple of hours in the morning, there is no one standing over you telling you to get to work or to keep working into the evening to make up for it. This leads to a perpetual feeling that you really should be doing something other than what you are actually doing, whether you are working or relaxing.

Your are responsible for your own goals

In a job you may have been able to blame your boss or the company for your lack of career advancement or your low pay. As a freelance writer, your career is entirely your responsibility. You make the decisions and you live with the consequences. Instead of negotiating with one boss, you have to negotiate with multiple clients and each one may have their quirks or issues. Some may even be hoping to rip you off. That is the reality of the business. It isn’t as safe as a regular paycheck and it isn’t for people who are afraid to make decisions.

You create your own network

As a freelance writer, you don’t get to meet coworkers in the lunch room or gossip over cubicle walls. If you want allies and friends, you have to forge the connections and keep them active. It can be lonely sitting in a home office all day with only the cat for company. A feeling of isolation is common. Social tools such as Facebook and Twitter can help you feel connected, but there is no replacement for face-to-face contact.

Life becomes deductible

As a writer, you have to manage your own taxes. That means paying the government out of your own account once a quarter to cover both income tax and social security (in the USA). It also means that anything in your life that legitimately helps you write becomes a deductible expense. Some of the typical deductible expenses are books, classes, Internet access, phone, office supplies, business cards, and computer equipment. Depending on what you write about though, other things become deductible. Someone who writes about exercise might deduct their shoes and gym membership. Someone who writes about travel might deduct their vacation expenses. This is why it is important to track all of your expenses and make sure you can justify any deduction you take. It may be smart to consult a tax accountant.

Your income relies on your output

If you get nothing done all day at a regular job, you still get a paycheck. Some people manage to survive in corporate America for years without accomplishing anything. As a freelance writer you don’t have that luxury. If you don’t do the work to land new clients and produce new writing, you don’t make money. Everyone has an off day once in a while, but if your off days start to stack up it can seriously endanger your financial stability. This is especially hard for freelance writers because people respect your time less than they do if you work a regular job. The friend or relative who would never call you at work won’t hesitate to call you at home. If you give in to these distractions, you have no one to blame but yourself. You are your boss.

Think about these realities before you jump into a freelance writing career. Full-time freelance writing is not for everyone.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

Generalists rarely get rich. Specialists do. General physicians make a good living, and they should. After all, they spend many years getting educated and trained. Specialists such as dermatologists and heart surgeons make a much better living though, and they should. They spend even more time and effort to develop specialties that people pay a lot of money for.

Specialties matter. A copywriter who specials in writing for direct mail or white papers develops, over time, a superior reputation to that of a general copywriter. If a copywriter takes the time to become an expert in a specific and complex industry such as aviation or finance, he or she will attract higher-paying clients whose needs cannot be met by someone who doesn’t understand the field.

Difficulty and obsession

The key to a good specialty is difficulty and obsession. As a specialist, you will want to find an area that cannot be satisfied by someone with only cursory knowledge. It must be an area that is difficult to master for most people, but obtainable for you. The key to it being obtainable for you is an obsessive interest in the field. You have to choose an area that you want to write and learn about for years on end. Picking a specialty is a task that you should consider very carefully. Your future depends on it.

Finding the right combination

One method of specialization is to combine two or three things you are interested in and have an aptitude for. By doing this, you may be able to carve out a niche that has very little competition. Scott Adams, as a common example, combined his knowledge of office politics, technology, humor and drawing to create the Dilbert comic strip. The key was that he didn’t try to make a living in four different areas. He found a way to combine them into a single specialty.

It is never too late

Finding a specialty is something you can do at any point in your career. If you are a college student, it can be as simple as picking a major and a minor that you want to combine into a single career. It may also be a matter of sticking around for the master’s degree or the doctoral degree. If you are already working in a field, and have been for some time, take the time to look around and figure out what the highest earners in your field are doing. Chances are, they have figured out a way to specialize. You may or may not want to follow in their footsteps, but it could give you ideas for how you can specialize.

It is a good idea to sit down and make a list of what you consider to be your greatest skills and interests. After you have them down, look for ways that you can combine them to move forward. Also, take the time to consider some extra education. It is never too late to move a step forward.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting

How can I learn about a subject quickly?

Educating yourself about a particular topic is easier now than it ever was before. The Internet is a vast library filled with information. Sometimes that information isn’t great, but for the most part it can get you up to speed. Wikipedia is generally a good place to start research, as are college library sites, which often contain scholarly reviews and articles about advanced topics.

What can I do to research the topic?

There are generally subject and industry specific magazines that you can subscribe to (and consider writing for). You should review these magazines carefully. Read the articles. Look at the advertisements as well. In most cases, the advertisers can get you up to speed on the necessary (and optional) equipment as well as the types of services being offered. Note the websites of the advertisers and visit them to learn more.

Once you decide to write for a particular specialty, however, you need to do some catching up. It is doubtful you will know more about the field than most of the people you interview or write for, but a good general knowledge, and an up-to-date knowledge of where the industry is going, will get you a long way. After that, you will have to gain knowledge the way they did, through experience.

Should I buy specialty books?

As you move forward, you will want to invest in some books on the subject. There are generally introductory guidebooks that can get you up to speed on the basics. You can also look at classes in your area or online. For software topics, for example, lynda.com offers tutorials on dozens of application packages as well as many programming languages.

Where can I meet experts?

Once you have good basic knowledge, you should consider going to industry conferences and meeting the people in the area, Not only will you get the opportunity to learn, but many of those contacts can become sources for future articles. Beyond conferences, you can use tools such as linkedin.com and facebook.com to find professionals in the field and contact them via email. It is a good idea to find a mentor who can answer questions for you as you move forward.

Sooner or later, of course, you are going to have to start writing about the topic. Publishing freelance articles in trade magazines or blogs will help establish your reputation as a writer who is knowledgeable in the field. Keep writing, and keep studying. Son you will develop a reputation and be on your way to a new writing specialty.

Hire John Hewitt - Writing Content and Web Consulting