How To Make Money as a Writer

I was at the Starbucks on Picadilly in London recently, after having done the tour of the Tower of London again (I just LOVE their gift shop).

Here's a picture I took of that part of the tower where the two little princes were said to have been murdered by their evil uncle.

Anyway, because I still had some time to kill until I could call the car to take me to the airport I was enjoying a glass of iced chi at Starbucks. (I hate waiting at airports these days. It used to be fun - you could watch people coming and going, saying their hellos and goodbyes - but not anymore, you know? Sorry...got sidetracked there...)

I was looking forward to flying home I'd just spent three days consulting with a client - and the flight to Nice is pretty short and if you choose the right airlines, you get taken care of.

My favorite part of the whole trip though is always driving along the old road that follows the coastline of the French Riviera most of the way. (If you've never seen the Mediterranean Sea it's got one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, and the waters vary from azure blue to a crystal clear turquoise green. It restores my soul every time I'm near it.)

But getting back to the present, I had been halfway thinking about pulling Baby (my Macbook) out of his new laptop bag to get a little work done - when I overheard a conversation taking place between two freelance writers.

My ears pricked up when I realized they were talking about the problems involved in finding good good clients who were willing to pay them what they were worth.

I couldn't help eavesdropping - first of all because I was sitting right behind them, and secondly because I understood exactly what they were going through - it seems like only yesterday that I was going through the same problems myself! And thirdly - because they both had those really cool English accents, and I love listening to them talk! (Okay and fourth, I'm basically nosy!)

Anyway, it seems that the first one had this problem...

"So...after agonizing over my new business name, I redid my Website, started a blog and ordered stunning new business cards..."

"And then I sent out a few letters to potential clients, wrote a really vibrant press release and took out an add on Craig's List..."

"And after that I signed up for some of the online sites that list jobs for freelance writers..."

"And now I'm starting to steal the flyers I find on the windshields of parked cars - and I am even contemplating actually calling the business owners, to tell them all the different ways I could make their businesses better..."

"And so now I'm reduced to waiting and waiting and waiting - I've become the freelance writer's equivalent of the energizer bunny of waiting, you know?" sighed the petite brunette before she took a sip of her Doubleshot on Ice and continued.

"I mean, even though I've built a better mousetrap (well, okay I've written about my better mousetrap...a world of new clients IS NOT (so far) beating a path to my door. I just don't understand it. I've done everything that ebook I bought told me to do. And nothing!"

She tossed her long hair and looked over the rims of her Guess sunglasses to observe the long, lanky eye candy who chose that moment to walk through the door and struck a pose until he was sure he was the center of attention before moving to the counter with studied indifference.

"I know exactly what you mean!" countered her companion, a curvy blond wearing the latest in Italian workout chic.

"But it's worse for me! I have the opposite problem!" she said darkly. "I've got clients - if you want to call the cheap ba- um...skates - cheapskates - that I have to deal with every day - clients!"

"What do you mean?" her companion asked, finally turning her attention away from the eighth wonder to look at her friend again.

"Well, I just got beaten down again - I had a client who asked me what I charge for doing Website copy and when I told him, he said it was just too much and he could get it done for..." at this point she leaned forward and said the amount in a tone too low for me to hear - and the fact that I leaned forward and almost fell off my chair was a complete coincidence - I was stretching.

In any case, I have no idea how low the cheap bas - sorry, cheapskate - was willing to pay, but suffice it to say that the amount was apparently so shockingly low that the brunette forgot to watch God's gift when he strutted out the door, even though he paused long enough for all of us to enjoy the way the sun highlighted the streaks in his carefully arranged casual "do."

The women commiserated with each other for a few minutes longer, each trying to outdo the other with their war stories, and then, having finished their drinks, bid each other good-bye with much air kissing in the general direction of each other's cheeks, and promises to "do this again".

After I was sure they were gone, I pulled Baby out from his case, and did some minor editing on one of my projects - work for one of my wonderful clients who is a dream to work with, and who pays my fees without so much as a whimper, every 6 weeks.

In fact, I don't have a problem with clients who don't want to pay my fees, or who treat the services of a copywriter like a commodity - a box of cereal or a package of light bulbs that you buy only when they're on sale.

And I don't have a problem finding clients - in fact, my new clients understand that often they have to be put on a waiting list - and that it's often four to six weeks in the future.

So what's the difference? And more importantly - if you've been having problems - what can you do about it?

The answer is really simple - although it's not always easy to do.

It's all about positioning your writing business.

Yep, that's it. You just have to know who you are and why your client should work with your rather than anyone else.

If you want to get technical about it, you have to know who your SICs are in your ITM. And you need to have a very clear understandig of what their CSFs are. Because once you're armed with that information, it becomes incredibly easy to be able to explain the results they'll get from working with you.

Now don't worry if you don't understand what I'm talking about! You will. Not only will I be writing more about it in upcoming articles, but...

Do You Want to Find Out Right Now How to Build a Wildly Successful and Profitable Lifestyle Writing Business?

I invite you to check out a free report I've written that gives you the real 'meat and potatoes' about how you can position your writing business.

You'll learn how to attract the kind of clients who understand that you're worth your weight in gold and are willing to pay your fees in order to have you work on their projects.

You'll learn how to raise your fees - and have your clients be happy to pay you.

You'll even learn how to attract your first clients.

You can find it at http://www.imbizschoolforwriters.com/reports

Oh - and would you do me a favor? I'd really like your opinion about it. Do you like it? Hate it? Have suggestions? Have questions? Let me know at the bottom of the page in our guestbook!

Thanks! Talk to you soon.

I'm a member of several forums, and I read a few blogs of copywriters and freelance writers. One of the questions that comes up the most has got to be from new writers who want to know if they should work for free in order to build their portfolio.

And if you check around you'll find that different writers have different opinions on this subject - in fact, people can get very passionate about this one.

But at the risk of getting lots of comments here - I'm going to weigh in too.

Because I don't think you should write for free. Ever.

Here's why:

1. People don't respect people who work for free.

2. If you work for free once, they're either going to expect it again, or they'll look for someone else who will do it - and you've just worked your tail off - for nothing. (You could have written your own sales letter, Website Copy or Special Report for free - the difference being that you'd get something out of it as you could use it to get new paying customers.)

3. People perceive your work as valuable as you do. If you think you're worth nothing - so will they.

4. Writing is hard work - you deserve to get paid for the work you're doing.

5. You'll build your client list faster - as well as your portfolio - if you're getting paid.

Still, the Number One Reason that new freelance writers give for working for free is to build their portfolios.

So you might be wondering why I say that even if you're a new freelance writer you don't need a portfolio and you don't have to work for free.

Here's How You Can Get Around Ever Needing a Portfolio 99% of the Time In Your First 12 Months:

Offer to write something just for them. Even if it's for the project they want you to write. You don't have to write the entire sales letter, Website copy marketing materials, ebook or whatever the project is.

For example, if you're doing a sales letter, write two or three headlines and a lead in.

If you're writing Website copy, you could do the same thing - or choose the offer, the guarantee or a set of bullets.

If you're writing a special report, try doing an executive summary and the chapter titles.

Get the idea?

This gets your potential client super-focused on what you can do for him - and basically makes a portfolio unnecessary.

And if you do get an "offer that you can't refuse" - and someone asks you to write something for them for free, only take the deal if you can make it work for you. For example, you could:

1. Offer to write the sales letter if you get a percentage of all sales made. (Just make sure that you put it into the contract that you get to see all the actual proof of sales.)

2. Own the back-end. If you're working with someone who has something to sell and you've got something either complementary or that could be used as an upsell - write for the first and sell your stuff as well.

3. Work as a partner in the venture and work a deal where you get a percentage of the business.

If you stop and think about it, you'll probably come up with lots of ideas of your own. In fact, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Feel free to sound off below!