Time Management Tips for Freelance Writers - How Freelance Writers Can Manage Time for Maximum Productivity

Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under Freelancing, Productivity, Writing | Leave a Comment

One of the most frequent questions asked by freelancers is “How do I save more time and be more productive? How do I get some time to rest?”. Since it doesn’t make sense to be making money without having the time to enjoy it, I’d say managing time is of the essence in the home and freelancing business. Because there is abundant job for freelancers, it is only natural to take and accept so many jobs. But when it gets too much, it becomes hazardous not only to the freelancer but to the freelancer’s family and loved ones.

The novelty of working for ourselves and determining how much time we have to ourselves is an appealing concept. The interesting thing about freelancing is you get to determine how much time you spend by yourself, your working hours, and most importantly, your income. However, the novelty of working for just a few hours wears off after you start getting jobs as a freelancer. If your work and reputation is good, you are bound to get more jobs and consequently, less time to relax.

Unfortunately, so many freelancers just keep working. The time to relax and spend more time with the family is suddenly not just there anymore. So, how do you manage your time to not only afford you enough time to spend with your kids, but also to maximize your productivity

1. Don’t bite more off than you can chew.

Activity does not necessarily mean progress. Accepting every job that comes your way is not only dangerous, it is suicidal. You’ll end up working yourself to death for just a few extra bucks. Choose your jobs wisely as you do not want to be swamped. If you have a specified target, go for jobs that will help you achieve that target. If not, you’ll end up leaving the really important things like family, relationships and love behind while thinking “I’ll soon have time for them”. If you have to say “No” to an offer, say it. It doesn’t matter how juicy the offer is. The single biggest reason people opt for freelancing is to be able to spend more time with their loved ones. Imagine the disappointment your son would feel if you failed in your promise to help him build that tree house he’s been asking for over the weekend all because of a project you had to attend to.

2. Outsource.

If you have a huge workload and cant seem to meet the deadline, outsource your work. There are other freelancers that are willing to take the work off your hands. Develop networks and partnerships with other freelancers that you trust. For example, you can write the article and find someone else to type or proofread it, thus freeing up some of your time.

3. Map out time for every activity.

There’s no need working in your business when you should be growing it. Spending the whole day sending and replying emails, making and taking phone calls can be frustrating when you have a target to meet. Set out time for each of these and do not exceed it. If you have to turn off your phone, avoid checking your mails, lock the door, retreat to the basement, hire a nanny, do it. If on the other hand, you feel the phone calls and emails are important, hire an assistant to help with those. It won’t cost you much and gives your job a touch of professionalism. If you are second-guessing this, think when you get burned out, how long will you be in the hospital for the needed rest? That should help make up your mind.

4. Try Dictation

One important method that has helped me a lot is dictating. It works like magic and it doesn’t cost you anything extra except if you want to buy a Dictaphone. All you need do is connect a microphone to your computer. I have been able to as a result, churn out over 15 articles in a day all within 6 hours, each of which took me about 15 minutes to dictate and an extra five minutes to edit. Not bad eh? This article was produced using that method.

Note: The time you spend depends on how many words you are writing, and your speed of dictation.

The good thing about it is with frequent use, you become adept at it. The above-mentioned example was for 600 word articles. Imagine doing that six days a week. That’s 90 articles. If you sold each for just $10-which is cheap- that’s $900 a week and $3600 a month. If you can’t spare six hours a day, you can choose your time. I spend that much. For the dictating technique, please follow carefully the instructions here. Most PCs are enabled to use a microphone. This can be done using Microsoft word which comes with the Microsoft Office package. To do this effectively, use the following tips:

Requirements:

A high quality close-talk (headset) microphone with gain adjustment (gain adjustment: A microphone feature that allows your input to be amplified so that it is made louder for use by the system.) support. (A universal serial bus (USB) microphone is recommended.)
A 400 megahertz (MHz) or faster computer. If you don’t know how to check this, click Start tab, then Control Panel – this can be seen on the right side of the two divides, then double-click System. When this loads, you should be able to see it towards the lower right corner of the page.
128 MB or more of memory
At least Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 or Windows XP or later
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later

Positioning the speech recognition microphone.

Position the microphone so that:

It is about an inch, or a thumb’s width, to the side of your mouth
It is not directly in front of your mouth, and you are not breathing directly into it.
Note If you inadvertently move the microphone as you speak, remember to bring it back to the correct position.

Speech recognition capability is built into all Office programs by initially using the feature in Microsoft Word or by doing a custom installation. fter speech recognition is installed, you can increase speech recognition accuracy by taking a few minutes to train the computer to recognize how you speak.

If you need more help on this, to learn more about this click the Help tab in Microsoft word and type in the keyword ”using microphone” or “speech recognition. You’ll find quite a number of topics like how to speak to a computer; things you can do or say with speech recognition etc. Take your time to get familiar with this incredible tool. If you have to spend one to two hours learning this so you can hasten your work, do it. That’s it. Use this tip and you are on your way to making lots of money, working effectively, and saving lots of time.

Follow these tips and you’ll have a well-balanced life, enough time for yourself, your loved ones, and time to enjoy the money you’re working so hard for.

Happy Freelancing!

Visit The Freelancer's Store today to find useful reading and more resources for the successful freelancer.

A simple guide to profits from ghostwriting and freelancing

Posted on April 1, 2008
Filed Under Freelancing, Writing | Leave a Comment

There are thousands of people that are combing through online guides about how to start this and that type of online business. While they are taking in all this information, doubts about their potential business being a success begin to creep into their minds. Do not fear as there is a great way to earn money working online and that is offering ghostwriting or other freelancing services.

While you can very easily start your own business offering ghostwriting or other freelancing services it is not necessary to do so in order to make money. In fact there are many people that make a nice part time income (some make a full time income) just by bidding for work on bidding websites like GetaFreelancer, ODesk and Scriptlance.

If you have a talent for writing this is a great avenue for making money online. Quality content for online businesses is a very in demand service so why not make great use of your talents.

If you are just breaking into the world of providing ghostwriting services to online business people it is a smart idea to get your name out there on freelance bidding sites. These types of sites work very similar to online auction websites except instead of the highest bid winning it is more likely that the lowest bid will win the project. You will have a plethora of projects to choose from. You could end up writing a set of articles on organic gardening, a report on how to properly potty train your dog or even an ebook on how to start your own online business. While bidding lower than you would like to might not seem like something you would want to do it is an easy way to win projects. After you have gotten several good ratings from the clients you have worked with then you can work on raising your rates so that you begin to make the kind of income you really want to be making.

So what are you waiting for? Get a portfolio put together and start making money from freelancing online today!

Visit The Freelancer's Store today to find useful reading and more resources for the successful freelancer.

Three HOT Money Making Avenues for Freelance Writers

Posted on March 17, 2008
Filed Under Finding Clients, Freelancing, Writing | Leave a Comment

With the explosive growth of business possibilities on the World Wide Web, freelance writing for the Internet has become a huge money making industry. With so many great opportunities available to those interested in writing for the web there are writers of all skill sets starting online businesses. While it will take some work to become established in the online writing world it is possible to become success even if you have never been paid for anything that you have written.

So let’s dive right in and get to some hot money making avenues for freelance writers on the web.

Writing articles for websites is an extremely profitable niche to get into. Webmasters are always on the search for fresh original content for their websites. If you are able to create quality content within a reasonable amount of time you can base your entire web writing business solely on writing articles for websites.

The topics that you will be writing articles on will depend on the particular niche of the website. If you are writing for a cooking website you will be writing on topics like cooking tips and recipes if you are writing for a poker website you are going to likely be creating content concerning poker strategies.

To gain some experience in writing articles for the Internet sign up for a freelance bidding website such as Scriptlance, Elance, oDesk, etc. and place some bids for writing projects. You are not likely to make a huge profit on these projects but you will gain some much needed experience and exposure.

Blogging is yet another blazing hot field for writers to get into. Blogs are enormously popular because they are short and easy to write and they can become indexed by search engines in as little as twenty-four hours. This fact alone makes blogs an essentially important part of online business and opens up many job opportunities for bloggers.

As with creating articles for websites you can check out freelance bidding websites to find some blogging jobs to add to your portfolio. Additionally you could start your own blog on a topic that you enjoy writing about to get some practice and use as an example for potential clients to view.

This next money making opportunity is more for more experienced writers. Once you have become an established web writer you need to turn your attentions to writing content for and building your own websites to resell. Since experienced web writers know exactly what kind of content is going to make a website great they can develop websites for people that are looking for a fast way to start an online business.

So there you go - three super hot ways to making money on the World Wide Web by writing. So get out there and make use of your talents, as your skills increase so will your profits. And remember, online forums are a great place to find work and clients, and generate ideas.