Freelance writing is a profession that many aspire too, but relatively few attain. And, almost all can be traced to 11 reasons. If you’re struggling to make a living as a freelance writer, the answer could be listed right here. 3 of the 11 Reasons You May Not Be Successful as a Freelance Writer 1. You Don’t Keep Up with Technology: Many companies are allocating more of the advertising budgets on line. This means, that to garner work from these clients, freelance writers have to understand things like search engine optimization, how to write for the web, PPC (pay per click) advertising, etc. Why? Because freelance writers are the ones to write the copy for these types of campaigns. Whether it’s simple articles for article marketing, or writing call-to-action statements to increase signups to the client’s e-newsletter, keeping up with technology is important to landing lucrative freelance writing gigs. 2. Lack of Marketing Ability: This is perhaps the number one skill that many freelance writers lack - and they are surprised at how important it is. Marketing is 60-80 percent of what you will be doing, especially in the beginning of your career. Learning how to marketing, especially for lucrative freelance writing work, is a skill that will pay dividends for years to come. Freelance Writing Marketing Tip: Stay away from freelance writing job boards, in particular those who serve up mostly slave-wage type assignments (eg, $3 for a 500-word article). Market to companies directly. Not only will you have less competition, you can make more money as well. Why? Because you pitch them as on a B2B (business to business) basis, ie, here are my services, here are my rates, when can we start. 3. Laziness: The fact is, many wannabe freelance writers are lazy. They don’t want to take the time to find work. And, as mentioned above, marketing is what you’ll be doing in the beginning. But, it’s what’s necessary to get th work flowing in. This means not surfing the web for hours, responding to other (out of work) freelance writers in chat rooms, working on your MySpace page, and spending time on other social networking activities. If you’re too lazy and/or unmotivated to find assignments on your own, you’ll never make it as a freelance writer. You’ll always be wondering why freelance writing is so hard and be more apt to give up before you can feel what it’s like to really make a living as a freelance writer. Another Freelance Writing Marketing Tip: Before you do anything, send out a least 3 marketing queries a day. It can be via email, a cold call, a postcard, etc. The key is to get in the habit of marketing consistently. If you do this, over time, just because of the power of marketing by numbers, you will get assignments. Read 11 Reasons You’ll Never Succeed as a Freelance Writer for the other 8 reasons, and a more in-depth discussion on how to succeed as a freelance writer. About the Author: Yuwanda Black is a freelance SEO writer and the author of How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple, 500-Word Articles. Ms. Black says, “You can work from home as a freelance writer in your PJs, getting assignments via the internet. I do it every day.” Learn more about how to start a successful freelance writing business.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Free Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.