Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Spread the Word

Tomorrow will mark our "official" launch, but we did a good job of getting Freelance Daily out to you every day last week. Remind your freelance friends that, if they haven't already, they can subscribe to our free, daily newsletter by sending an email to freelancedaily-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

People are still signing up, and I've already gotten some nice feedback. Thanks! I got a message on Friday from someone who wants to dip his toe into freelancing -- I figured I'd share the email and my response here:

I was poking around your weblog and was interested to find that you were starting out as a freelancer. I've been exploring the idea myself, and I'd like to get a sense of your experiences.

I'm a Ph.D. dropout (rhetoric...emphasis in religion, ethics, organizational theory) currently working in public relations. I would really like to get out there in the freelance world, but I don't know how the game works. When I ask people, the typical response is to tell me that it's incredibly difficult, something out of an Ayn Rand novel. So, how are you making it work? How do you eat?


My response:

Short answer: It is very hard, but not nearly as hard as I imagined. I half suspect most of those warnings are put out there by other freelancers who want to keep an already crowded market from getting even more crowded. I also suspect I'd be a miserable failure if I insisted only only pitching the New Yorker and other big print magazines.

Long answer: The fact of the matter is that I am now a writing whore. Need a press release done? I'm your man. I write ebooks in a day or two for people looking to make a quick buck selling them, I'm writing Web copy for a bath and body product store in Brooklyn and I'm writing so-called articles for people who want to get high paying google ads on their Web site.

And, in a sense, I have taken a slight pay cut. But here's the cool part: in just two months of doing this full time, I've lined up enough steady clients that I'm beginning to replace my lost income. I'm no longer dreading the "What if I don't make enough money scenario?" but starting to realize that it won't be too long before I'm making more money than I could working for the man, always worried if I'm going to get laid off or have time to pick up my dry cleaning before I go to the office pit.

Some advice:

1) I did this part time for 5+ years with varying degrees of enthusiasm before making the leap. Having worked for newspapers as well as Dow Jones is also a helpful thing to drop when introducing yourself to clients. In any case, make sure you have solid writing samples. The more experience you can get in different fields, the more opportunities you'll have.

2) This would be much easier if I were married, or at least cohabitating with someone. As it stands, I was able to get some halfway affordable health insurance, and I'm keeping my spending in check while still not entirely depriving myself of fun.

3) I had three months of savings to fall back on. I'd recommend six, although I'm going to be okay because I did this for a month, as if it were a second full time job, before giving my notice.

4) I'd love if everything I did was published in a nationally distributed magazine, but the reality is I'm not a trust fund kid and I don't want to go into debt over this. As long as I'm fairly compensated, and it doesn't brush my ethics the wrong way, I take the job.

5) Working at home, on my schedule is exactly what my personality is suited for. It's not for everyone, although any fears of a lack of motivation that I had are quickly pushed aside by the realities of what I need to do each month to get by.

6) It sounds stupid, but the hardest thing for me so far has been the lack of human contact. There are days where I don't see anyone, so I'm making more of an effort to get out than I would if I were still working in an office and interacting with people all day, every day.

Hope this helped.