Where to Find Freelance Writing Work, Part 5

I offer up these two leads with a couple of caveats: Sologig I've never used and Elance didn't impress me all that much. Nevertheless, they are both spots where companies or individuals in need of work post their freelance/consulting/contract projects. On Elance, professionals bid on the work; on Sologig, it looks like you apply by submitting your resume, skills and other relevant info.

On Elance, most of the writing opportunities seemed mundane and robotic, or geared towards copywriting, which is not my writing type of choice. Projects seemed to go to the lowest bidder nore often than not, making it more about churning out bulk than quality. But again, check out both sites for yourself. Good luck!

Job Lead: Helium.com

I have no experience with this site, but I heard about it today and thought I'd pass it along. Apparently they're similar to Associated Content, but also have higher-paying Marketplace assignments. Good luck!

Lead: No-fee poetry contest

Soundzine: the online journal for the spoken word
No-fee poetry (any form) contest
$300 first prize + publication
Jan. 15, 2009 deadline
http://soundzine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=255&Itemid=1

Job Lead: MSN.com

This one looks good:

MSN Boomers Needs Freelance Writers

MSN Lifestyle: Boomers http://boomers.msn.com/ is looking for journalists who can write in an engaging, inclusive and smart voice.From retirement to book clubs, our audience wants articles that are both entertaining and helpful. Our site also regularly delves into such topics as family, nostalgia, entertaining, dating, what to do in retirement, as well as the occasional personal essay. Got a knack for quizzes? We need quiz writers who can be fun and, even more important, illuminating.

Please spend some time looking at our site and then send us a query letter clearly outlining your idea. We want specific pitches or articles. We won't respond to general offers to cover a topic. Also send us links to your best work. Writers should have published at least three articles in the past year.

Send pitches and clips to: freesub@microsoft.com

Job Lead: Poetry Contest

For all the poets out there:

SPS STUDIOS announces its thirteenth biannual Poetry Card Contest
Deadline: Dec. 31, 2008
1st prize: $300 * 2nd prize: $150 * 3rd prize: $50

http://www.sps.com/poetry/index.html

Where to Find Freelance Writing Work, Part 4

Here is a list of e-mail newsletters/lists with freelance writing jobs:

PayingWriterJobs - This list is SUPPOSED to be limited to posting -- as the title implies -- writing jobs that actually pay. It often degenerates into people posting links to conferences and helpful websites, which, while a nice gesture, is outside of the limits of what the list explicitly covers and frankly annoying. But you can occasionally find a good job lead here. Lurkers are not allowed, so you will be expected to find and post at least one paying writer job per month. To join e-mail payingwriterjobs@yahoogroups.com.

WritersWeekly.com list - Dubbed "Freelance Jobs and Paying Markets for Writers." A lot of stuff you probably don't care about with a little you do, which is generally the theme for most of these lists. E-mail writersweekly@writersweekly.com.

Freelance Writing Jobs's Morning Coffee Newsletter - Job leads delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning. This is probably the best of all the newsletters because it cuts right to the chase and gives you only what you want: job leads. E-mail freelancewritingjobs@yahoogroups.com.

Writing for Dollars - Typical newsletter with articles you may or may not be interested in and then writing markets -- 12 of them to be exact. E-mail writing4dollars@aweber.com.

FundsForWriters - the classic newsletter glutted with articles I usually don't care about and a few job leads, some of which are promising. There is also a Small Markets newsletter. Visit www.fundsforwriters.com/FFWnewsletters.htm to subscribe to any of the newsletters.

Good luck!

Where to Find Freelance Writing Work, Part 3

Constant Content - Visitors in need of content for their website either post requests for content that you can respond to, or buy content that you (or someone else) posted. My experience with this site has been pretty unimpressive. Many of the requests for content are vague or want too much for too little. And although you can set your own price for the content you want to post and sell, Constant Content is strange and seemingly arbitrary about what they will and won't accept. Also, they take a percentage of the money you get for any sold articles, and they don't pay you until you reach a pre-determined threshold ( I believe it's $50) which very well means you could never get paid if you don't sell much on the site. So I'd approach with caution.

MediaBistro.com - This is a good resource for writers looking for advice (and health insurance) as well as job leads.

VirtualVocations.com - I haven't used this site so I can't vouch for it, but apparently they send work-at-home job listings to paid subscribers.

About Freelance Writing - This site has a lengthy and regularly updated list of freelance writing jobs.

Freelance Writers and Pricing: How Much Should You Charge?

This is a question every freelance writer must answer at some point in their career. Because you're not a 9-to-5 employee with a guaranteed salary and hourly wage, you'll either set your own prices, or at the very least decide how much (or how little) you will accept for payment.

Many publications pay a fixed amount per article or per word. This makes the pricing issue that much easier; you simply decide whether or not you want to accept the publication's fixed rates.

Then again, how do you know what to accept and what to refuse? Although I can provide some helpful tips, I can't give you a set figure. It's a question of how much your time, abilities and expertise are worth. And only you can decide that.

One of the most practical ways to determine whether to accept or reject a job is to estimate how long the writing assignment will take you. Then decide if the total amount you'll be getting for the piece, divided by the number of hours you will likely spend on it, is an amount you can live with, and preferably live off of.

Of course, this is not a foolproof formula. No matter what your minimum rate per hour, you may have good reason to undercut this; a particular assignment may not pay much up front, but will lead to higher-paying work from that publication, or will serve as a great addition to your portfolio -- hence it will pay in other ways. So as with any endeavor, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Now, if you're so desperate for work that you'll accept anything, including those $1, $2, or $3 writing jokes -- excuse me, jobs -- then you'll probably have to burn the midnight oil to make ends meet. And that's a quick route to nowhere fast. On the other hand, if you spent more time looking for work and/or marketing yourself properly, you could probably find a much higher-paying job that won't require you to write 50 articles to make a decent day's wage.

Hourly Rates for Corporate Clients

When it comes to setting hourly rates for corporate clients, there is more leeway. So much, in fact, that it may be difficult to decide what the "right" rate is. I recently set my own rate, and while it was a difficult process, I decided on $75 per hour. I believed this was a number that reflected the quality and expertise I can deliver without being unreasonable.

I must have done something right, because I have never had a potential client turn me down because of the rate I charge. I once had a client tell me their budget was about $150 less than what I quoted them. I told them that I could deliver something within their budget, but because less time would be spent, the quality would suffer. Ultimately they went with the original, out-of-budget price I quoted them because they valued quality.

Ultimately, your rate represents your estimation of your own worth. Set a rate that proves you're valuable, and you'll attract clients who are willing to pay for value. Set a low rate simply to get work and you're indirectly screaming that your quality is equally lacking. Thus, you will attract clients who simply want the lowest price.

So in determining your rates for corporate clients or deciding how much you will accept per article, strike a balance between getting the work and getting ahead. If you continually accept low-level assignments that exploit desperate writers, you'll waste your time doing robotic work that doesn't reflect your talents and isn't a worthwhile addition to your portfolio (which means that with weak writing samples, it will be harder to get other work, which means you'll be stuck slaving away for pennies).

Set a price that takes into account your experience and talent and allows you to make a comfortable living. Do not fall into the trap of desperation/fear and accept anything that comes your way.

Instead, take the time you would have spent working on an underpaying job and find something that will pay you the rate you deserve -- the jobs are out there, and with some persistence and creative job hunting, you will find them.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Work, Part 2

Freelancewritinggigs.com - With daily job updates and helpful freelance writing tips, this is a good site to check on a regular basis. I haven't gotten any work from it, but I've only applied to one lead.

Freelancewriting.com - This site has a full complement of writing jobs pulled from various sources - so many in fact, that there can seem to be TOO many writing jobs to sift though. My go-to site among the list offered is www.online-writing-jobs.com, which I mentioned in a previous post. Also on this list is a link to Freelance Portfolios; I recommend placing your portfolio there.

JournalismJobs.com - If you're a journalist, this is a good site to check out. You can search by type of media, type of job (freelance vs. full-time, editor vs. writer) and target location.

AssociatedContent.com - You've probably heard about this site and chances are you've signed up to become a "content producer." If not, it might want to. As a content producer, you can respond to calls for content made by AC staff. You can also write about anything you so desire and (potentially) get paid for it. You determine whether your work gets submitted for payment (likely less than $5) plus performance payment (starting at $1.50 per 1,000 page views) or for performance payment alone. You get paid through PayPal.

Unless you're writing 20 good articles a day (which you could potentially do) you likely won't make a living from Associated Content, but the freedom to write about whatever you please is refreshing, and the extra cash you can earn (say $30 a month in performance payments alone) doesn't hurt.

Stepping Stones

As freelance writers we're usually looking for that next story, that next publication, that next opportunity that's going to propel us into the big-time. As a result, we can often overlook the opportunities we have sitting in our laps.

I knew a budding writer who had earned his degree in communications but had little professional writing experience. Knowing that he was a hard worker with potential, I hooked him up with one of the newspapers I wrote for and got him a gig as a correspondent. That led to him covering a town for the paper, which guaranteed him steady work -- and steady income. But watching his experience compared to mine taught me a few lessons...

I had also gotten my start at the same newspaper. I was also given a town to cover as one of my first duties, but I quickly branched out into other areas -- writing columns and doing lots of features stories and music reviews.

I looked at every story I wrote as the most important thing at that moment, no matter how "minor" the event was. I simply put my complete attention on it and did the best job I could. One of the first stories I wrote was about a high school graduation, which apparently is considered "unimportant" by many in the industry. But I never looked at it that way. I considered that for the graduating students it was one of the most important moments of their lives and that for the time I was there, I would capture it to the best of my ability.

As a result, the newspaper got several calls from people praising the article -- which apparently never happens with graduation stories -- and my editor said it was one of the best graduation stories he'd ever read. I'm sure that the quality of "inconsequential" stories like that one directly led to me getting "bigger" ones, and eventually being offered a full-time position.

While a full-timer, I often did concert reviews on my own time, without technically getting paid for them: One, because I love attending concerts, and two, because I wanted to amass a healthy stack of concert review clips. Those clips directly helped me land many of the other writing gigs at bigger papers and publications that I now have.

The young writer, on the other hand, stayed limited to his town and did not put the effort into it that he could have; he did the stories that immediately presented themselves but never dug deeper for more and never branched out into other types of writing.

He seemed to consider what he was doing minor and unimportant. On his MySpace page, he described himself as a correspondent for a small paper on his way to bigger things.

The irony is that now, he is completely out of the newspaper industry and working full-time at a job unrelated to his major. Meanwhile, I've kept writing for that small paper and have expanded into several others as I make my way as a freelance writer.

The lesson here is that if you look at what you are currently doing as a stepping stone to something bigger and better, you will undoubtedly fail. You will not give your current assignment the attention and effort it deserves, the quality of your work will suffer, and as a result you will never move onto those bigger and better things you desperately desire. You will be like my young writer friend, who was so quick to move on the writing fast track that he moved right off of it.

Instead, you have to look at whatever you are working on as the most important thing you could be doing at that moment. Give it your full attention and focus. If you don't see why it's important, look harder. Never minimize anything you write with "oh, it's only xxxx" or "no one's going to read this besides xxxx." Frankly, you don't know who might read it your work, and what their reaction could mean for your career.

Sometimes, payment doesn't always come in monetary forms, and the prestige you're looking for may not come until you prove you can cover the "less prestigious" assignments with the same professionalism and quality you might on something the whole world would read.

Succeeding as a freelance writer is about steadily forming connections and becoming a reliable source of writing for an ever-widening, well-paying sphere of clients. You must slowly but surely work your way up the ladder of whatever fields of writing you've chosen to specialize in before you reach the top, if you ever do. But don't get so caught up in looking ahead to where you want to be that you fail to see the importance of what's in front of you now.

Lessons from the Dealership, et al.

I'm going to discuss two separate but related events that have a few important business lessons to impart.

The first occurred over the weekend, when I brought my car in to the dealership for regular maintenance. The service associate informed me it was time for my scheduled alignment. I said that my car already drove straight, but she said that didn't necessarily mean my wheels were aligned properly, because they could be leaning in or out. A lot of technical verbiage, but the gist is that I went along with the alignment and various other maintenance items.

After my car was done being worked on, I drove it away only to discover that my steering wheel now sat to the left, and when I straightened it, my car pulled to the right. "Great," I thought to myself. "I just paid over $100 for an 'alignment' that actually threw my alignment out of wack."

I quickly made a U-turn, brought my car back to the dealership and told them what had happened. They gave me various pseudo-legitimate reasons why this was the case and promised me that after they did a few fixes my car should drive straight again. Not exactly. After I drove my car away for a second time with the assurance from the service associate that my car was now driving straight again, I found that it was, in fact, NOT driving straight again. Instead, it was exactly as it had been before -- wheel turned to the left, or car pulling to the right.

Definitely annoyed by this point, I made another U-turn, drove back to the dealership again, and told them it wasn't in fact fixed, and asked them to fix it. That time they did. My car drove straight again and all was right with the world.

My second experience came last night at McDonald's. I do believe it was partly a sign from God that I need to stop eating at McDonald's, which I've known for some time. Nonetheless, I swung by for a late-night cheeseburger, small fry and small soda. I got my food and was about to drive away when I tasted the fries. They were dark, oil-soaked and obviously quite old. Fairly sure that I did not pay to receive inedible fries, I told the drive-thru lady that my fries were old and asked for new ones.

Thirty seconds later she returned with my "new fries." Except, upon looking at them and tasting them, I realized these were the same fries, which she had simply dunked in the fryalator for 10 seconds to make them seem "fresh." Clearly she thought she was slick, but it's hard to pull a fast food "fast one" on someone whose first job was at Burger King.

So I told her I was onto her scheme and asked for fries that were actually fresh. At that point, the manager came to the window and told me it would be a few minutes for my fresh fries. "No problem," I said. "I can wait."

Eventually I got my fresh fries (with no apology or thank you from drive-thru lady in the process!) and realized that if ever I had a reason to boycott Mickey D's, this was it. But both experiences have a few valuable lessons to teach us:

The first lesson is that you MUST uphold the quality of your product. In essence, the quality of your product is all you have as a business person. All of the promotion, marketing, networking and excellent customer service you provide can't make up for a poor product that doesn't meet quality standards and is, in fact, an unfair exchange where instead of giving the customer something they want or need, you're giving them something that is undesirable.

As a writer this means that you must establish quality standards for yourself and adhere to them strictly. This doesn't just apply to spelling and grammar in your pieces, but to meeting deadlines, delivering the exact content your client expects, and using the highest level of style and quality you are capable of.

Have you ever passed off a piece of writing that you knew wasn't up to your standards simply because you "had to get it done" or "just wanted it off your plate"? Has a client or publication ever called you on substandard work and instead of acknowledging the truth of what they were saying, you tried to defend your own mediocrity?

When you accept mediocre writing pieces from yourself and pass these onto your client, you directly decrease the success of your operation. You MUST except a high level of cquality from yourself and immediately correct it when you find lapses in this quality -- do not try to pull a fast one like the drive-thru lady or make a correction that actually corrects nothing like the dealership.

And the related lesson is that you must always use your own judgment and integrity in your business dealings (and in life). Just because someone says a car is "aligned" does not mean it is aligned. Just because someone says fries are "fresh" does not mean they actually are. As a professional, it is up to you to observe situations for yourself and make accurate judgements based on your own observation, not because someone else said it's a certain way, no matter how much "prestige" that person may have or how "in the know" they're supposed to be. Have the confidence in yourself to observe a situation accurately and act on your own observation.

As a freelance writer you're basically a one-man operation. You rely on yourself in a multitude of ways, not just to do the actual writing, but to do the planning, promotion, financial management, quality control and community outreach. You MUST trust your own judgment and maintain your own integrity. The second you start second-guessing yourself, you thereby weaken the operation that is essentially you.

Essentials for the Freelance Writer

I covered the importance of having a website (on your own domain!) in the last post, but that's only where the story begins. To make a successful living at freelance writing, you'll need some other basics in your arsenal:

• A laptop with a wireless internet card: As a freelance writer this enables you to write and send stories to and from anywhere. Whether you want to work out of your home, the local coffee shop, on assignment or on vacation, as long as you have a means to write and send your work, you'll never be out of business. Wireless internet cards are available from most cell phone service providers. Mine is from Verizon and bundled with my cell phone service on one bill. The card plugs into my computer and acts like a cell phone, picking up wireless service anywhere a cell phone would and ensuring that no matter where I am, I have access to the internet.
  
  
• A cell phone: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Communication is fundamental to any business, and a cell phone allows for communication anywhere, anytime.
  
  
• Writing samples: Unless you have great connections that can get you writing work based on their word alone, you will need samples of what you've done in the past to get you work in the future. Ideally these should be centrally-located and easily accessible on your website. And they should be high-quality pieces that convince potential clients to work with you.
  
  
• Business cards: A requisite for any professional, business cards are especially important for freelance writers, who rely more heavily on networking and promotion than a 9 to 5er whose stream of work is virtually guaranteed. Business cards should be simple and attractive with all of the necessary info: your e-mail address, phone number and website address. You can not only give these to friends, family and potential clients you meet at networking events and business groups, but you can post them at coffee shops and other spots around town. Who knows who might pass a bulletin board, see your card and use your services? I use Vista Print for my business cards -- their prices are very reasonable and the cards come out great. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not take advantage of their free cards that have the Vista Print logo on the back. Considering how inexpensive a batch of 250 cards is (usually around $10, including shipping) it looks incredibly unprofessional NOT to make that small of an investment in your own career.
  

Do Freelance Writers Need a Website?

The long and short answer is YES! This shouldn't even be an actual question. In the process of building a freelance writing career, your website acts as your foundation:

• It houses all of your writing samples in one central place.
• It inspires confidence in potential clients that you are in fact an actual, legitimate writer, as evidenced by your bio, resume, portfolio and the picture on your site.
• It serves as an always-on promotional tool attracting new business your way.

I've had a website for the majority of my freelance writing career, but recently I did an overhaul. I purchased a new domain name (www.lauren-carter.com instead of my previous address, www.lc-creative.net) included a picture on my homepage, reworked the homepage content to be a brief but compelling intro to my qualifications as a freelance writer and re-worked my portfolio page so that each entry included not just a link to the piece as before, but also where the piece was published, when, and an excerpt of the piece.

Just by implementing these changes I've gotten more inquiries from my website in the past couple of months than in the previous two years combined. One has turned into an actual client.

So my suggestions for building a website are as follows:

Dos:

• Include a picture of yourself, preferably a professional, attractive one.
• On your homepage, make a strong case for why a potential client should work with you. Summarize your experience, indicate who you write for, provide a link to some of your work, invite potential clients to contact you and give them a way to do so.
  
• Include a bio or "About Me" page that provides info about your background.
• Include an online resume
• Include details about your pricing
• Include a portfolio that provides links to your work and includes where your work was published and when. Ideally you should provide an excerpt of your work on your portfolio page so visitors can get a feel for your writing without having to leave your site.
  
• Give visitors multiple ways to contact you on your site; include a link to your email address, your phone number, and a contact form.
• Use a domain that is as close to your actual writing name as possible. For example, my name is Lauren Carter, so my domain is www.lauren-carter.com. (www.laurencarter.com is taken by a jazz singer named Lauren Carter. Drats!)
• Include your website in your e-mail signature and business cards. (You do have business cards, don't you? OK, more on that later.)
  

Don'ts:

• Don't use your blog as your website. A blog is a blog -- a more informal place for you to share your thoughts about whatever you so choose. Your website is the online representative for your professional endeavors that should include the above info.
  
• Don't settle for a free website with a domain name like: www.yourname.freehosting.com. Frankly, I find this completely unprofessional and it instantly erodes someone's credibility in my mind, no matter how many impressive publications they're written for. It's hard for me to believe that you're serious about your career when you can't even invest $7 a month for your own domain name and website.

The service that I use for my website is FreeWebs. Don't let the name fool you, their services aren't necessarily free.

I love FreeWebs because their prices for a custom domain and hosting are very reasonable and you can update and maintain your website yourself. You simply purchase your domain name through them and set up hosting, choose from their templates or create your own, and update your site with an easy-to-understand "What You See Is What You Get" editor. Trust me, if I can do it, so can you!

A freelance writer's site doesn't need to have a Flash intro with dancing frogs and talking monkeys. It just needs to be a professional web presence that proves to any visitor that you're serious about your profession and have the credentials to prove it!

Where to Find Freelance Writing Work

Craigslist - The obvious source for freelance writing work, and just about anything else you can think of. Remember that when searching for writing/editing jobs in the city of your choice, also check out "Writing" under the "gigs" section for more writing work.

My experience: I've scored lots of paid writing gigs on Craiglist, from magazine work to writing press releases. My secret to success lies in following the following tips.

Tips: Keep in mind that ads on Craiglist generally get tons of responses, so make your response brief but informative. Do not inundate the reader, who likely has 50 other responses to his ad, with a two-page dissertation on your qualifications. Make a short, fast pitch as to your interest in finding out more about the project, your qualifications as a freelance writer and a place where the reader can discover those qualifications for his or herself, such as your website.

Extras: Keep in mind that you can also post your own ads (usually free) promoting your writing services on Craigslist. I've done this a couple of times with no responses, but I imagine this is more of a long-term strategy than one that yields immediate results.
________________

Online Writing Jobs - Another great resource for writers in search of work. The offerings are sorted by type of work, which is ideal if you're focusing on one particular writing service and have no interest in others.

My experience: I've also scored writing work from this source since I started checking it regularly about a month ago. As on Craigslist, ads on this site typically get tons of responses, so apply the tips above when responding. The site tells you how many hits each ad has gotten, which should give you an idea of how many freelance writers you'll be competing with.
_________________

Local newspapers - An excellent but often overlooked source of writing work. Small, local papers typically need freelance writers and can become a regular source of work for you.

My experience: I've built my career around writing for newspapers. I got my start at a relatively small, daily local paper and worked my way up from there, eventually writing for a major city paper and national publications but still maintaining ties and doing work for the paper I started out at.

Tips: Contact the small daily or weekly papers in your area, let them know you're an experienced freelance writer (which hopefully you are) and find out if they need freelance writers to cover occasional stories. Tell them you can send along writing samples if they are interested. Ideally you should decide which section(s) of the paper you'd like to write for and contact the appropriate editor(s). Editors are typically inundated with e-mail, so don't take a non-response as a sign that they're not interested. They're probably just busy, and it may take some persistence on your part to get an answer.

Lessons from the Golden Arches

You've probably seen and heard the McCafe ads promoting McDonald's new high-end coffee offerings as a more down-to-earth, less expensive alternative to Starbucks. As part of their promotional campaign, McDonald's offered free samples of all of their lattes, cappucinos and mochas for a limited period of time. The reasoning isn't complex: Introduce a new product by giving it away and thereby (they hope) getting customers hooked.

Well, it worked on me. Though a bit skeptical at first (which I'm sure McDonald's anticipated, hence the reason for the free samples), I nonetheless took advantage of the freebies and treated myself to two samples -- in one day.

And both of them, while not necessarily spectacular, were good enough to convince me to return in the future and actually pay for some espresso-based drinks, especially considering I can save a couple of dollars by not visiting a coffee shop that ends in "Bucks."

The lesson here is that under the right circumstances, giving away your products or services for free can be a wise marketing move. I'm not suggesting you work for free -- or anything close to it -- on a regular basis. Far from it. And when you don't have the annual income of a gigantic fast food chain, it's harder to make free services cost-effective. But there are times when rolling out a new or under-used offering by giving it away for a set time period or to certain clients can ultimately score you more business in the long run.

Of course, your free offerings have to be positioned in such a way that you can still do enough paid work to pay the bills AND deliver the kind of quality that will make clients actually want to pay for the service they are now getting for free. But if you are introducing a new writing service or seeking out a new market, consider offering a "free sample" to clients you'd like more (or any) business from.

Give something away and you just might give clients a reason to come back for more.

Lessons from a Sub Shop

So the other night I had a craving for a steak and cheese sub. When I called the local sub shop to find out what time they closed, the first thing they did was put me on hold. Maybe not the best way to earn my business, but if it has to be done, so be it.

But when the associate returned from whatever he was doing, he didn't say "Thank you for calling, how can I help you?" or some other appropriate greeting, but rather "What's your phone number?" I didn't exactly think he was hitting on me, but it did seem a little odd for a first question.

So I asked him why he needed my phone number. "To enter your order into the system," he said. Misstep #2. I told him I wasn't calling to place an order, but to find out what time the restaurant closed. He said "Oh," told me, then we hung up. And I went to Boston Market for dinner.

Because by that point, my appetite for a steak and cheese sandwich had dwindled, and it had nothing to do with the actual food.

The first lesson here is that every interaction is a potential chance to gain, or LOSE, a client. You never know who is on the other end of a phone call, or an e-mail exchange, or a face-to-face conversation. The way that you deal with potential clients, completely independent of the actual quality of your product or service, has a lot to do with whether they will purchase from you or simply stroll elsewhere in search of more palatable treatment.

The second lesson here is that classic rule about assumptions: Don't make them. Because the sub associate assumed I was calling to place an order after putting me on hold, he made a simple interaction more complicated and ultimately made the prospect of visiting his restaurant decidedly less inviting. So I brought my appetite and my pocketbook elsewhere. Those kinds of losses add up over time, and can leave companies wondering why their expensive marketing campaigns and high-quality products aren't reeling in more customers. Don't lose business by making assumptions and thereby creating a conflict, however slight; simply get all the necessary information before you act.

Lessons from the Suit Salesman

Recently I went shopping with my boyfriend for a new suit. He had an important function at work and he wanted to look sharp, so we went to a popular men's clothing store and met up with a salesperson who taught me a couple of very important lessons about how not to treat customers.

Upon arriving, my boyfriend explained what kind of function he would be attending and gave a general idea of what he was looking for. The salesperson began showing us suits that he believed fit that description. The only problem was, my boyfriend is 25 years old and relatively hip; while he wasn't trying to appear at his work function in a zoot suit, he did want to stay true to his style.

The salesperson, however, showed us attire that would have been more fit for a 50-year-old man bound for a yacht. When we tried telling said salesperson the clothing really wasn't within in line with my BF's style, Sales Man insisted that this was "the look" and gave us random other faulty reasons to wear this dated-looking garb.

Of course, we didn't pay attention to them. My boyfriend politely declined the middle-aged attire and with enough trips to the clothing rack, the salesperson found us a suit that was appropriate. We then quickly discarded the shirt and tie combinations Sales Man had set up for us in search of our own shirt and tie combos. When Sales Man presumptuously threw in a set of socks that were more expensive than socks should be, we declined his offer to make our decisions for us and surmised that we could save $20 and just get some socks at Target.

Even worse, supposedly-in-the-know Sales Man was dressed like a cross between The Penguin and a low-level mob boss. Even his shoes were strange, and I wondered how he could so authoritatively tell us about fashion when he clearly couldn't apply his so-called knowledge to himself.

So I learned two important lessons from this outing. Well, three if you count the fact that I learned never to return to this store.

The first lesson is that you MUST, MUST, MUST find out what the customer needs and wants. Do not try to push your own ideas of what's "hot" "cool" "hip" "stylish" "necessary" etc. if you hope to gain repeat customers, or customers at all. Instead, you must uncover EXACTLY what your customer needs and wants, down to the smallest detail. Then you must deliver that.

It seems self-explanatory, yet so few in the business of providing products and services actually do this. If Sales Man had done his job, he would have found out not only where my boyfriend would be wearing the suit, but how he dresses on a normal basis and what his personal sense of style is. Then he wouldn't have brought us clothing fit for someone approaching retirement.

If you think back to any professional failures you've had, they've almost certainly stemmed from the fact that you: a) did not find out what your client needed and wanted in detail or b) did not deliver it.

And if you want to land more freelance writing jobs, instead of inundating potential clients with your credentials, countless writing samples and repeated chants of how much you want to work for them, simply step back for a minute and find out what it is they're looking for. Ask questions. Be interested. Get all the information before you promise that you can deliver the world.

And the second lesson courtesy of Sales Man: Look the part. Your credibility will be shot in a millisecond if you're the equivalent of a poorly dressed suit salesman.

If you have a free, unattractive website, or worse, none at all, send e-mails loaded with spelling or grammatical errors or appear in person looking disheveled, you're indirectly telling that potential client that your writing services are just as low in quality. If you want to be seen as a knowledgable professional, present yourself as one in all of your dealings. This will go much further in gaining respect, and hopefully business, than any inflated claims you could make.

Welcome!

Inklounge isn't new, but its focus is. Instead of randomly talking about whatever I feel like as I have for the past few years, I'll be sticking mostly to freelance writing-related topics. While I don't claim to have all the answers, I will be sharing what's worked for me through tips, anecdotes, how-tos and pretty much anything else I can think of.

Your input is valuable, so feel free to comment on any and everything here!