Do you think it’s too much of a hassle to try to win a freelance writing contract from a government agency? Many writers never look at this very lucrative niche…which is one of the reasons you should.
It’s a great time to look at this opportunity, too, as many municipalities are downsizing staff and outsourcing more.
I recently landed my first government contract rewriting two large annual reports for a regional transit agency. It paid five figures. I’m here to tell you this is a sector worth checking out.
When most writers think “government contract,” they’re thinking federal government. The process of qualifying to bid on government contracts is a bit onerous, though the Obama administration has recently taken steps to streamline it. And Allena Tapia, the freelance writing expert on About.com, has written a whole guide on how to register as a federal contractor. So really, there’s no excuse anymore.
There’s also a common misconception that if you’re not located in Washington D.C., you won’t find any gigs. In fact, our government has branch offices and military bases just about everywhere you look. Once you’re registered as a contractor, you can set up keyword alerts on websites that track government opportunities, so you know when there is a gig you might be a fit for, and could put in a bid.
Beyond the federal government, there is plenty of opportunity in state, county, city, and other local and regional agencies. As it turned out, my first agency found me through some online searching, and reached out to me.
They then held my hand through the whole bid process, helping me understand what they needed to see and giving me an idea of their budget so my bid wasn’t totally out of the park.
Here are my tips for how writers can break into government contracting, and succeed at these gigs:
By James Patterson
It was February of 2010. I walked in the door and my wife immediately knew something was up.
“I’ve been let go.”
The words rolled off my tongue and didn’t sound real. I had been let go from my corporate writing and public relations job, the first time anything like that had ever happened to me. Looking back, the next few days were a complete blur of trying to get my bearings and figure out what to do next.
Naturally I was worried. The job market is poor now, but back then it was even worse. Compound that by the fact that I live in a town of only about 50,000, meaning communications jobs were even more scarce. I didn’t have the savings or equity built up in my house to just pack up and move to a bigger market (even if I could sell my house, which was a long shot).
For years I had wanted to try my hand at freelance writing, but never had the time to do it with my full-time job — or the gumption to quit and just jump into it with both feet. Getting let go gave me the opportunity I was waiting for.
For the first few months, I wandered aimlessly through the freelancing desert.
I wrote for Demand Studios. A lot.
It was mind-numbing, soul-crushing work, but it paid the bills. But I knew that wasn’t enough to stand on.
In June, I Googled “Idaho freelance writer” on a whim just to see if there were other people like me in my area. I stumbled across the website of Lindsey Woolman, a freelancer in Boise. I emailed her and asked her a few simple questions about how she got started, how she finds clients, etc. She was kind enough to email me back, and recommended the services of a “freelance writing mentor.”
That was my first introduction to Carol Tice, in June of 2010.
“You have to spend money to make money,” was my line of thinking. I hadn’t invested any money into my freelancing “business” up until that point. In fact, I hadn’t treated it like a business at all.
Carol: Well, are you doing X to market yourself?
Me: Uh..well..no.
Carol: Well, what about Y? Are you doing that?
Me: Er, no.
Carol: Okay, well surely you’re doing Z, right?
Me: Not exactly.
Over the next two hours, Carol laid out a plan for how I could land new clients and start having a real freelancing business that didn’t involve selling my soul to Demand Studios.
Here were her suggestions, and what happened as a result of following them:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned through this whole process, it’s that the age-old principle of the law of the harvest really works. You reap what you sow. If you put out negativity, thoughts of doubt and feelings of worthlessness, that’s what you’re going to get.
But when you put in the work, believe in yourself and your abilities and tell yourself you’re really worth $100 an hour or $1 per word, that’s when things start happening. You should be the only one who can tell you what you’re worth.
James Patterson is a freelance health writer and public relations consultant at OnPoint Writing and Communications. Follow him on Twitter at @jamespatterson3. His past clients include the National Institutes of Health, the President’s Cancer Panel and the National Diabetes Education Program.
By Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg
Why have I asked a rabbi to guest on my freelance-writer blog? Well, he’s not just a rabbi — Rabbi Ginzberg is also a noted business-marketing expert. Every time I talk to him, I come away with a great idea that helps me start earning more right away. So I wanted him to share a few tips with you. Here they are:
1) Charge more
So you think this makes no sense? That it is not possible? Here’s a trick that will immediately increase your income: Say you are now charging $300 for a small freelance project. You know you are worth more, and the client might know that as well. However, the client cannot pay you more right now because they don’t have it.
Here is what you do:
You think to yourself, “What is the absolute minimum I could do this for?” Say the answer is $150. Instead, you switch to charging them via PayPal for $150 now, $150 in 30 days, and the final $150 30 days after that.
You’ve raised your prices, given the client less immediate out-of-pocket expense, and given yourself a cushion of sorts in case you can’t work or want to take off later on and still have an income that month.
It IS possible that the client will stop the payments and you can lose the money you have not yet received that way. That’s why I say to make sure you get the minimum you’d do it for upfront.
2) Upsell
Simply think, “What other services can I offer this customer?” They know me for my writing, but do they know that I can also transcribe music into notes? Do they know that I also can translate between Spanish and English?
3) Raise your perceived value
It’s not at all hard now for you to put out an eBook. Your reservoir of knowledge can be tapped to write an information product that will help your Google results, show that you can “ship” a finished product, and also give you an expanded skill set. By the time you finish putting together your first eBook, you will have gained insight and connections with people that can do the parts you can’t, such as graphic design.
Another benefit to this is that you now have a product which you can give away to others, which includes links back to you and your site. This allows the sharing of the file to help widen your sphere of influence, as more people hear about you and see your plug for your services in your eBook.
4) Stop wasting time looking for the magic pill
Stop wasting so much time on the social networking sites, the “how to” ebooks and the forums looking for the magic wand. YOU ARE NOW HOLDING THE MAGIC WAND. FEEL EMPOWERED.
You know enough. You see articles written that you know everything written in them about that topic, and more. You just need to decide that 2011 has started, I’m fed up, and I’m going to take action right now and move my business forward.
5) Set goals you control
If you decide to call 50 targeted leads a day, then you have set a goal you can control. If you say, “I will make a sale today,” that is a goal you have no control over and is asking for failure.
Remember what they teach life insurance agents: The goal of the call is to get an appointment. If the appointment doesn’t work out, that is NOT a function of the call. This means that no matter what the outcome of the appointment is, whether or not you sell anything, the call has done its job by getting you a meeting.
Start tracking your successes at each step of the process. See which steps you are good at and which ones you aren’t. Once you know this information, you can start focusing on those portions of the call.
If you can set up meetings easily, stop trying so hard to set up meetings and focus on why the meetings aren’t leading to business! There is nothing wrong with calling a declined prospect and asking them not for their business but for their honest candid feedback for why you didn’t get the job.
This will go a long way in helping you and may very well lead to future business for you. People are impressed with that kind of spunk!
6) Seek PWM
I learned this from Harlan Kilstein, who heard it from expert copywriting genius Gary Halbert himself.
If you sell a product, say an organizer for coupons… sure, you’ll make a few sales, but not that many, and not for a high dollar amount. Why?
The people who clip coupons are people who are not looking to spend more money! They are frugal.
This also means they are probably at the lower end of the financial spectrum. When you want clients, you want People With Money…lots of it…so you can deliver quality and get a top price. You don’t want to compete on price, because there is always someone out there that can do it for less.
Cater toward potential clients that have money. Say, transcription — for attorneys, not college students.
Of course you should give to charity…but learn to separate the two. Work for money and give charity to those organizations or individuals that you feel worthwhile in supporting. Does the CEO of the charity work for free? Why should you?
Good luck!
Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg is an award winning business consultant who has built his successful career and reputation on knowing how to create winning strategies that are stunningly simple to implement. Learn more about him at www.issamar.com.
I pay guest bloggers $50 a post. Details here.
Illustration: stock.xchng – raja4u
By Carol Tice
Are you struggling to meet your freelance writing goals?
Maybe you’re having trouble even getting started?
You wish you had better-paying clients?
You want to move your writing in a new direction, but you can’t seem to get going?
Well, there is a proven, powerful way for you to ramp up your freelance-writing business. I’ve used it many times, and it always seems to work.
What is this awesome way to get the freelance work you want? The secret is right here:
Oh, you don’t speak Hebrew?
Let me help you out.
That says, “Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being, blessed is He.”
No, I’m not getting all religious on you. Stay with me here. You don’t even have to believe in a higher power for this method to work for you.
This opening line from a Jewish hymn points the way to how you can start making things happen as a freelance writer.
What that line is really saying is: When God speaks, creation occurs. His word is deed, His thought is action.
And we are created in God’s image, yes?
Whether you believe that or not, you’ll have to admit we walk this world like gods, in many ways. We, among all the creatures, are one of the few with the power of speech.
Whatever your spiritual beliefs, we can agree on this:
We know that kind words can heal and hurtful ones kill.
Of course, simply saying, “I want some $1-a-word clients to call me up right now” is not going to make them call.
But here’s the funny thing: If you start talking to people about what you plan to do to earn more, I find it’s highly likely to happen.
If you say, “I’m going to write 10 query letters this month,” your odds of getting those queries written and mailed just skyrocketed.
I recently started saying, “I’m going to start a free podcast where I answer freelance writers’ questions,” and what do you know, recently the first Freelance Writer’s Free-for-All took place. I had no idea how I was going to make time for that in my schedule, but now, there it is.
It’s because there is one emotion that can surmount our fears of putting ourselves out there as freelance writers — and that is our fear of disappointing (or looking stupid in front of) the people we care about.
Once you’ve told your parents, or your three best friends, “I’m going to cold-call 20 businesses this month,” you’re going to do it. Because you just know those loved ones are going to ask you later — “Hey, did you make those calls?”
And you’d rather die than say, “Oh, um, yeah…I didn’t really get to that.” Ugh! The shame of it.
Talking about it also changes something inside you.
There’s power in hearing your goal spoken out loud, instead of having it just lurking inside your brain. It makes it so much more real when you hear it aloud, doesn’t it?
To start changing your freelance income, start talking to those close to you about what you plan to do. Yes, feel free to leave a comment and tell us all what you plan to do here on the blog, but I don’t find putting it in print is as powerful as saying it out loud to someone close to you.
Break it down into concrete, achievable things you can do this month. Then, talk it up. See what happens. If this works for you, write and let me know.
By Carol Tice
I want to share something I’ve learned about what freelance writers need to ramp up their income.
Here’s the curious thing: Some writers take my tips and go out and use the information to find awesome, great-paying clients.
A year later, they email me and their income has skyrocketed. In my mentoring program, one writer is earning more than twice what she was before she joined. Another went from worried he would starve to earning six figures.
Often, though, writers get advice and not much happens. They don’t seem able to take that leap and start earning.
What makes the difference?
My observation is there are two big problems that keep freelance writers from growing their income:
The thing about freelance writing is there’s no one standing over your shoulder making you send query letters or call clients or write that article that’s due tomorrow. You’re only accountable to yourself, and for many writers that means there’s no follow-through.
If you’ve noticed the private forum on here for participants in my mentoring program, you may have seen that one subforum is called “weigh-ins.” We all set ongoing monthly goals and check in at the end of each month to hear how everybody did with last month’s to-do list, and what their goals are for the coming month.
I find successful writers create some kind of accountability system for themselves, even if it’s just checking in with one writer friend to report on their progress.
Belonging to a group of writers who offer encouragement helps many writers build their self-confidence and put themselves out there. The best success stories I’ve heard, the writer usually had ongoing help and a group where writers shared their journey.
A one-time hit of learning often isn’t enough for writers to start executing on what they’ve learned — to get out there and start earning more. As one new freelancer wrote to me, “Without cheerleaders, this isn’t going to fly.”
If this sounds like you, I can tell you, you’re not alone.
Some writers find a buddy or peer they can call regularly for support. Others find online support groups like this one.
Each writer has to find a way to create accountability and build a support network to help their career thrive. But think about how you will remove these two obstacles from your freelance writing life, so that you can keep your progress on track.
By Carol Tice
If you answer many online writing job ads off Craigslist or any of the big writer job boards, you’ve probably noticed something:
The pay ain’t so great.
$5 a blog post.
$100 to write a whole website.
$15 an article.
Day after day, it’s a steady stream of insulting wage offers.
Every once in a while you might find a company willing to pay a decent wage, but they’re rarer than hen’s teeth.
To discover why nearly all posters on the mass job boards are low payers, you need to put yourself into the shoes of a prospective employer. Someone who needs to hire a writer.
Great markets for writers don’t need to put out mass job ads. Their jobs are so desirable, they know they can find the right writer without having to wade through hundreds of resumes. Having to scan that many resumes would be a huge waste of their time, so they hunt for a writer in more effective ways.
How do I know this? I’ve gotten great-paying clients in each of the above ways in the past year.
Now, consider why an employer might place a job ad on an online site where they know the ad will be widely recirculated and they will get an avalanche of responses.
I looked at online job ads daily for about 18 months at one point. I took quite a few gigs off these ads.
This is what I learned:
There’s something about their gig that smells like yesterday’s milk.
Maybe it’ll be something you can tolerate. But all too often, it won’t be worth the trouble.
That’s why it’s important to develop a set of proactive marketing strategies you plan to use to grow your business, rather than passively reviewing ad postings.
Every writer will have a different approach, but the important thing is to realize that you need to actively prospect in some way to find good clients.
Most of the good work available isn’t advertised. How will you find it?
By Carol Tice
I’ve written a lot about how I market my writing business.
But I’ll let you in on something: Since summer 2010, I haven’t had to actively market my freelance writing business.
Today, most of my new clients come to me through referrals, Google searches for a freelance writer, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
I’m usually fully booked several weeks ahead, and able to pick and choose the gigs that pay the best and that I like most. My family would tell you I’m overbooked, and I should drop a few clients!
But it wasn’t always that way.
Flashback to early 2009. I had just lost a large Web copywriting client, the economy was in the tank, and all of a sudden I need to find a lot of work.
The short version of how I fixed this problem:
I marketed my ass off.
I kept marketing like mad, until I was fully booked.
Then, I kept marketing to find better clients. I started dropping lower-paying clients and substituting higher paying ones. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Result: Instead of seeing my earnings drop after I lost that big client, I kept earning more money each year, straight through the downturn. Last year was my biggest earning year as a freelancer, and this year I am on track to beat it.
OK, here’s the full story.
It took about 18 months to rebuild my business to where I wanted it, where all my gigs paid great rates and I had all the work I wanted. I created a multi-pronged, aggressive marketing plan and kept at it relentlessly. I probably spent at least 8 hours of each week marketing.
Here is how I spent my marketing time:
What a long list of stuff, huh? The more ways you market, the more lines you have in the water, and the more fish you’re likely to catch. Pretty simple.
You may use a different array of marketing strategies. Everybody has their own marketing groove. I know one writer who gets all his assignments pitching editors on the phone. That’s cool.
But don’t buy into the attitude of hopelessness you hear on many writer chat boards. All gigs don’t pay $5 or $20. Just not true. Good pay is out there, if you commit to getting out and finding it.
By Carol Tice
I’ve spent a lot of time improving the look and feel of the Make a Living Writing blog. Just take a look at that ripping new subscription box over in the sidebar, for instance.
But meanwhile, my own writer website was kind of thrown on the back burner. Yeah, that’s a screen shot of it there on the right. Lovely, eh?
Over time, it started to look dated. Stuff got broken and I couldn’t update some of the pages anymore.
I limped along for a while, because the site was still getting me some nice gigs, and it ranked great for my key search term, as you can see.
But finally…I couldn’t take it anymore.
So I called on my awesome, hardworking yet affordable webmaster, David Robert Hogg. He helped me create a much better look for my writer site — and when I say “helped,” I mean he did like 95% of everything, and I checked the links to make sure they worked.
Even better, now it’s in WordPress, so I can easily update it myself in future.
Wanna see? You can take a tour below. In this short video, I show you chapter and verse on why my old site sucked, and then show you how the new site does it better.
Hopefully some good ideas in there for writers to use on their own sites.
If you can’t see the video display, you can view it here.
By Carol Tice
Writers often ask me what freelance writers typically make. Unfortunately, industry averages don’t tell you anything about how you will do as a freelancer.
But I mentioned that in my experience mentoring freelance writers, I’ve discovered there are some basic factors that are strong predictors of freelance-writing success.
What are your odds of earning big? Take this quiz and find out:
My 10-point Freelance Writer’s Success Forecasting Quiz
Rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 for each of these points.
- Motivation. Successful freelance writers are internally motivated to work on their business. How driven are you to make a success of your freelance writing career? For instance, do you find yourself blowing off TV because you want to work on your freelance goals, and that it’s easy to psych up for marketing your writing?
1=I’m not driven
2=I kinda maybe want it a little
3=Yeah, I want it
4=I really want to make this to happen. Not kidding.
5=I’m all fired up- Available time. How much time do you have to devote to launching your freelance writing career?
1=Only an hour or two a week
2=I could stop watching TV and gain 8 hours right there
3=I’ve got 10-15 hours I could free up
4=I could do it at least half-time
5=I can go at it full time- Self-confidence. How confident are you in your abilities as a writer? How do you feel about putting yourself out there and marketing your writing?
1=I’m very insecure
2=Not exactly bursting with self-confidence here
3=I’m not totally down on myself
4=I think I’m OK
5=Damn, I’m good- Flexibility. Are you willing to explore any and all types of writing that might pay the bills, or are you only willing to pursue a specific type such as writing for national consumer magazines?
1=I just want to do one kind of writing — and it’s on my own blog
2=I could maybe blog for other people, too
3=I could probably write blogs and articles
4=I could see mixing in some copywriting or tech writing if it paid better
5=I’m totally open to exploring whatever writing opportunities might pay the bills- Other options. Do you have other means of putting food on the table — a career you could resume, or a spouse earning a decent income?
1=independently wealthy
2=spouse makes enough to cover our bills
3=I have a day job now so I could just keep it
4=I could maybe work part-time on the side
5=no other way to feed the family — I totally have to make this happen!- Fianancial resources. Do you have the money to invest a little in the tools and learning you might need to succeed in freelance writing?
1=I am basically out of cash
2=If Demand Studios paid a day late I’d be out on the street
3=I’m just scraping by
4=I’ve got a little extra cash to put into this
5=Money is no object- Positive feedback. Are you someone who always got A’s in creative writing or English? Have you won writing contests, or had others praise your work?
1=No strokes yet
2=I got good grades in writing
3=There was that one writing contest I won
4=I’ve had more than one person tell me I should write professionally
5=I’ve won me some awards- Education. Have you ever studied English, journalism, creative writing, copywriting, or marketing?
1=no education in this area
2=I took a writing class once in college
3=I got a university extension certificate
4=I earned an A.A. degree
5=I have a B.A. degree or higher- Pro writing experience. Have you ever written for pay before, either as a freelancer or staffer?
1=I have no previous clips
2=I’ve written for mills only
3=I’ve got a couple of clips
4=I have a small portfolio of clips from a few different markets
5=I’m an experienced, paid writer- Business experience. Have you ever had your own home-based business before, or helped manage a business for someone else?
1=No previous business experience
2=I’ve sold Girl Scout Cookies
3=I’ve helped manage a company before
4=I had another successful home-based business in the past
5=Serial entrepreneur
Key:
1-20 points — There are some serious obstacles to your getting a good-paying freelance writing career going, especially in the short term.
21-34 points — You have some assets as a freelancer, but there are some potential roadblocks here, too. You will probably need some time to gradually build your income.
35-50 points — You’ve got a lot going for you as a freelance writer. You ought to be able to ramp up your earnings fairly quickly.
I began blogging just as a way to keep a journal. But after one of my first blog posts received a comment from Chris Brogan, one of my long time idols, I knew I was on to something.
I then started a small business marketing blog, which got me many business consulting gigs. And lately, I’ve been helping startups launch and manage their own blogs.
All in all, my blogging has grown into quite a business.
If you want all this, you need to set yourself up for success. Here are the five lessons I’ve learned as I built my successful blogging business:
While your blog’s design is important, it’s not nearly as important as your writing. Think about it: A horribly designed yet well written blog will always have more readers than a gorgeously designed yet poorly written blog.
So in the initial stages of beginning your blog, concentrate on writing articles. Once you have a healthy inventory of articles, you can begin concentrating on the design.
Whenever you’re not writing, you should be reading. Read magazines, books, blogs, newspapers, newspaper ads, the backs of cereal boxes.
Not only will reading expand your knowledge, but it will improve your writing skills.
I get many questions along these lines:
“How long should my posts be?”
“How many images should I include?”
“Should I write in first or third person?”
There really is no answer. Some experts will say that a 500-word article is optimal, while others say it’s 750 words. To be honest, I’ve seen great posts as short as only three words and others as long as 5,000 words.
In blogging, there are no solid rules.
Perfection is a myth. You could spend your entire life writing one blog post and it still won’t be perfect.
So don’t try and make every one of your posts perfect. Set a limit to the number of drafts you do. For me, I limit myself to three drafts. After that, I publish.
Keep your reader in mind as you write. Most writers will create an imaginary person they envision reading their work. As they write, they think, “How will she react to this?” Doing so helps writers write much better.
Do the same with your blog. Create your own imaginary reader.
Learn more about blogging with Brandon Yanofsky’s FREE blogging course, available through B-List Marketing.
