Freelance writing advice needed

I have a lady on staff who works as a social media manager and content provider.

1. Of course. Using a pseudonym is fine and it won't affect PayPal payments.

2. Your site will be your writing portfolio. The norm is also to submit 2 writing samples on request. Use the same 2 samples on each request. If they're taken, that's the price of doing business, but it won't affect you in the least.

3. Your best option is to secure regular clients. In fact, you should really aim to go after them. You're looking for the type who need daily or weekly content updates. In this case, the lady I mention uses 2 approaches: a WooCommerce setup to handle memberships for monthly clients, and an Escrow service on demand.

Tom

You may want to register on a site like Elance or Upwork and create a profile there.

Yes, it won't be the same as having your own website, but you get the advantage of all the traffic that those websites have and obviously all the potential clients who are browsing those sites, looking for writers.

As Tom said, it's ok to use a pen name, as you won't have any Paypal issues and with regards to providing samples, you simply do it on request or when you apply to do a job.

If you work through those sites, they handle the payments for you, so nothing to worry about there. Of course, they take a commission, but it's a small price to pay for a peace of mind.

WritingPenguin,

You decide. Many established writers have pen names. Some writers who sell their services use their real names to give their clients a quicker and easier time in verifying the veracity of their claims in terms of specialized expertise and the real world results that their previous clients got from their work; and

If you intend to use a pen name and sell your writing services in a diverse set of industries and niches, then you could use a pen name for each specialized industry or niche that you want to write about, in order for each of your pen names to be associated with a particular industry or niche when it comes to specialized writing expertise. Also:

I don't think there'd be any problem with PayPal payments when you use pen names while selling your writing services ...

You can publish a few samples of your original work on your website, specifically a set of samples for each industry or niche that you intend to write about. You can direct prospects to these samples, and also offer them paid trial batches (small writing sets) with or without discounts (it's up to you), so they can gauge the overall value of your output before they sign you up for a longer term arrangement ...

Ask for a 50% upfront payment. If a few clients are hesitant, then tell them you can use oDesk's escrow service for a small paid trial order, so you can both be protected; and

Tell them you'll gladly shoulder half of the 10% fee that oDesk charges for fixed projects (while they shoulder the other half on top of your mutually agreed trial order price), and you can agree afterwards if you want to continue using oDesk's escrow service, or direct 50% deposit invoices and 50% delivery invoices via PayPal ...

Point is -- Don't start working without any 50% deposit, be it via direct PayPal invoices, via your chosen payment processor, or via an escrow service like what oDesk offers ...

P.S. oDesk is now UpWork ...

1. Pen names are fine.

2. Nothing wrong with posting samples on your site, though in my experience, offering them via email is a great way to make contacts and start conversations.

3. 50% deposit is a great idea with new clients. After that, go with what works.

Awesome idea, do it definitely.

Another awesome idea, do it definitely.

It is what it is. You should know though that most people who do steal your content have no idea of how to make alot of money with them anyway. These are people who are too lazy to write a high quality article/blog post themselves.

Do you think they will be upbeat and excited about promoting 1 piece of article content to a particular niche? Especially if they don't know how to market on the internet in the first place? I doubt it.

A true writer doesn't fear theft. Thieves have no value. The hidden light bulb in your head will glow forever...whenever.

Welcome Penguin! I've been a freelance writer for about 12 years now so I'm very familiar with your journey. And you're right, the #1 thing you need by far is an online profile site to show off what you do well.

Here's the catch though; you mainly want to focus on great writing on that site and selling yourself as someone that's honest, dependable and a real talent. So posting samples is not necessarily the way to go; you'd be better off posting testimonials from past clients that link to their sites. That way you have a photo element, a strong recommendation and an outgoing link to your previous work.

If you want to use a pen name or a business name, that completely works...just make it memorable.

When it comes to billing, you'll really have to plan that on a case by case basis. I've learned to screen clients pretty hard to make sure they seem legit. Then just work out your own payment system and be prepared to be flexible. But know this- the bigger the client, the longer you'll usually wait to get paid since it has to go through company channels.

One other thing- you really want to pick one industry to start and position yourself as an expert within that niche. For me, it was technology and then later automobiles, so I do a lot of writing for tech sites and car dealerships because that's where my profile is strongest. Starting out though, I had to go to the big industry niches and get published there so I had solid samples to show off...so that probably needs to be your first step (even before the website). Get your name published out there so you have samples to link with a byline.

I hope that helps.

All my clients pay 100% upfront. I have been writing for 5.5 years and have developed good credibility. At the start I think I used to do 50% but can't remember for sure.

As for work, run an ad in this forum and also in others that are relevant.

Email friends and family and ask if they know anybody needing your services.
The more avenues of advertising you do, the greater the chance of getting work.

Hello

Before you actually go out to get any writing clients, you need to understand the essentials of what you will be doing. When someone hires you to write an article, they will want you to focus on three things.

A keyword or topic, keyword density and length.

And the best advice that I may be giving you about how to charge your costumers is to sign up at Fiverr where they will handle all these kind of stuff automatically without any work on your behalf.

Best Regards.

Having a personal is not a bad idea, where you would post your portfolio, experience, share any interesting news, etc. Go for it, if you think you'll have the time to update it once in a while.

With regards to pricing, the best way to find out what's "accepted" in the industry is by looking up your direct competition.

Find people who do work for high-profile clients and then approach them as a customer looking for work. Get a couple of quotes and that'll give you an idea of how much to charge, assuming your work is up to the same standard.

Hey WritingPenguin

Do well to create your own website, so you can publish testimonies of those who have worked with you and be credible and reliable; the nick name can 'fit and you should have no problems paypal.

The past jobs I do not wear them in public and not for fear that someone will steal you, but because you can send it via email in private with customers and start doing email marketing education, you will acquire more confidence and professionalism in the eyes of new customers.

As for payments, never trust to undertake work if you have not paid off, you're reliable and will not be a problem to pay you before, you'll see.

A good idea would be registering on a job platform like Odesk, Elance or Genuine Jobs. When customers are looking for a freelancer they will potentially stumble upon your portfolio and you can showcase them your website. It's much easier to drive traffic to your website this way.

In answer to your question about writing samples, there's really no such thing as "too many writing samples." I have a massive file I email out =D

Hello everyone,

Sorry it took me a few days to get back here. I had a tight deadline on a big project I had to finish.

Thanks again for all the wonderful suggestions I've received here. I had some trouble picking the right theme and almost settled for the Enfold theme that I found on Themeforest, but after creating a site with it, I realized that a fancy, flashy theme is not the way. It can create so many complications. I finally settled for the Genesis framework -- no child theme though. I'm going to keep it very simple and clean with the focus on the text and not making it flashy.

Somehow my feeling is that it's better to keep the site as simple as possible -- making sure it works on all devices and loads fast.

Does anyone agree with my opinion on that?