My freelance commandments
Oh, hi friends!
I’ve been freelancing for over four years and recently hit on a few “rules” that, when I obey them, make my job much easier. Here are my Three Commandments of Freelance Writing:
1. Pay Me Fast and/or Pay Me Lots
The golden rule. Chasing money is a huge time-waster. And “pay me lots” is subjective; a high rate is good, but a lower rate for a job I can complete quickly works, too.
2. Make Me Feel Good
This means I’m learning something about a topic that interests me, and/or I’m working with an experienced and kind* editor who helps make my work better.
3. Impress Me
This means writing for an outlet that is a big name, or one that I want to crack.
So, that's it! Outlets don’t need to fulfill all three commandments. Just one will do. You'd be surprised how many don't fulfill any of these.
If you hit one out of three, I like writing for you. Two out of three means I’ll stick with you for a long while. Three out of three means I’ll probably die for you. (Joke?) And zero out of three means lose my number.
Passively accepting what’s offered to you is easy. But you’ll sleep better—and be happier—when you set standards for the work you're willing to accept.
So what are your unbreakable commandments?
*Kind editors are key. Life's too short to work for jerks.
If you're not following @GaryVee, what are you even doing???
Track Your Time
Yesterday I mentioned logging activities in real time to hold yourself accountable. Of course there's an app! Lynette recommends Toggl, which tells you where you spend your time online. I'm also a fan of RescueTime. The app runs in the background of my computer and emails me a report each Sunday telling me how much of the previous week was spent in "productive" work. Lovely (/scary) wake-up call.
Thank you for reading.
Love, Kara