A. Thanks for your question, Rose. I have one question to ask you: are you and the editor on the same page as far as using style guides?

That seems to be your problem. Your editor has one set of requirements and you are operating under some other assumption. You haven’t indicated to me who/what you are writing for. If academic, then you may need to heed to the Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian, APA or MLA. If newspaper, magazine or newsletter, you may need to go with the AP Stylebook.

The easiest solution is to contact the editor and find out what she wants and then write according to those requirements. I have had clients who adhere to a certain style but then modify accordingly; this may be what your editor wants.

You should be able to obtain a copy of their style guidelines and work with that. In any case, before you write another article, save yourself time and grief to make certain that everyone is on the same page.

A. There are a number of things you can do to help your StumbleUpon traffic improve, though I cannot say for certain if you will reach the levels of traffic you are accustomed to.

That being said here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Submit only on occasion to SU (once weekly, perhaps twice per domain), preferably having someone discover and stumble the article for you. Follow up with your own stumble if you like.

• Change the people whom you ask to stumble on your behalf. If SU catches you forming a “band” of stumblers, you’ll see diminishing returns.

• I don’t usually get that much traffic with Digg, Reddit and Mixx. SU rules!

• Comment on other blogs — good, relevant comments in order to get the owner’s approval. Place your article’s URL where the URL is featured after your name and email address.

• Spend some time stumbling daily. I like to click on my friends favorites and run through 50 to 100 at a time. When you stumble, people stumble back and the traffic begins to flow. Leave related comments from time to time; add discoveries too.

As always, good solid content will help drive people to your site, whether you plan to rely on social media traffic or not. When writing articles, don’t forget to cite other people’s work and embed a link back to their article.

I’ve been using StumbleUpon for two years now and have seen my traffic numbers fluctuate dramatically. I don’t rely on SU alone, but it does remain an important source for helping bring traffic my way.

A. I haven’t joined a writers guild or association, but I’m not opposed to them. Therefore, I cannot share my personal experience with them and exactly what sort of benefit they could have for you.

I am familiar with the IABC — an association of business communicators whose members somewhat parallel the services that I provide. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a worldwide organization, that seeks to provide a professional network for business communicators. The IABC throws a very wide membership net to include graphic artists, HR folks, and video producers along with all types of people who provide corporate writing.

I can see how a writers group can be beneficial especially if connecting at conferences, taking workshops and attending classes appeals to you. In some cases a writers association offers other tangible benefits, namely group health insurance coverage and other perks. You might also find that members share job or project opportunities not posted elsewhere, therefore by having your face and name “on the roster” could help you cross paths with people who can help you out.

At the very least, make sure that you have both a LinkedIn and Facebook account. I’m much more active with LinkedIn, but lots of business people are on Facebook, making it the preferred business networking site online.

I’m writing at $.03 per word. I’d love to reach $.05, but I’m fearful that my clients will chase cheaper services.

Did you have this problem? Would you be able to give me any insight about how you avoided/resolved it?

A. First of all, let me congratulate you on your choice of profession. Freelance writing is an enjoyable (and rewarding) job choice, not for everyone, but something talented writers should consider.

Secondly, my most noticeable rate increase happened two years ago and it wasn’t without much difficulty. Essentially, I quit writing for all of my lowest-priced clients and began pursuing higher quality, more lucrative projects. One very large, on-going project had recently ended while two others were done, but I knew they’d be interested in using me again in the near future. However, I was no longer interested in writing for them and quit accepting new work when offered.

Of course, if you want to keep your current clients and raise your rates, you can always ask them to pay you at the new, higher rate. However, since your current clients are looking for a bargain (and at .03 per word, that is what you are offering), they’ll probably look at the change to .05 per word as a 60% price increase and resist. In this case you have three choices:

1. Keep working for less money.
2. Drop your current customers.
3. Keep your customers until better paying opportunities come along.

I did lose quite a bit of money until I was able to make the adjustment, but I’ve managed to land several better paying opportunities, including a pair of ongoing magazine gigs which is the direction I planned on going eventually. I’ve been writing about my favorite topics, cars, a lot lately which also helps because I’m excited about my work instead of feeling as if I have to produce work on subjects which aren’t of much interest to me.

Finally, when you do get to the point of having a name for yourself, you’ll be able to cherry-pick projects as they come along. Sure, I work my tail off for my customers, but I also want to produce work that satisfies me. It has taken me three years to get to this point, but I like the direction that I am going.

Best wishes to you in all of your pursuits.

A. If I understand you correctly you are experiencing the same thing that all good writers go through: you wrestle over your words. In my opinion, you may want to focus more on what you want to say rather then how to say it.

Writing styles have changed over the years — particularly everything pertaining to the web — and a much more informal style is acceptable. One of the benefits of the web is that it has gotten people to write again, something that had fallen into disfavor over the past few decades.

Will you always like what you write? No way. Strike a balance and write with style and flair, then move on.

A. Let me first congratulate you for what you’re doing — working for yourself. There aren’t many of us who are braving the freelance world, choosing to go out on our own instead of depending on one employer for our sustenance.

Therein lies the rub. You’ve taken a bold step, have built up your work, and now you’re going through a dry spell.

It is easy to lose confidence in your abilities when the work flow ebbs. I’ve gone through extended times of little or no income and these experiences aren’t particularly fun. However, they do serve one purpose: to help you gauge if freelancing is right for you.

Personally, I have decided to keep on keepin’ on in part because I believe that this where my long term career search will be, not with some company who may or may not keep me around for the long haul. Once you determine what you want, then go for it and don’t look back.

I’ve also discovered that there are a few things that help me when things are slow including:

Marketing: If you’ve been so busy with projects that you haven’t been spending time marketing yourself, look at the slow times as an opportunity to contact past clients, connect with people through business-oriented social media sites such as LinkedIn, and make a point in searching for new customers through job boards, cold calling, etc.

Diversify: The backbone of my business is writing, but I also own several blogs and sites which generate income for me, particularly through advertising. It isn’t a lot of money, but a different source of income certainly helps.

As your business picks up, look for a variety of customers who can provide work for you. If one drops off, it won’t be so devastating in the future. I learned this the hard way when my chief customer in 2005 didn’t need me all that much in 2006 – more than three-quarters of my business dried up almost overnight!

Temp: If your drought is prolonged and you absolutely must work, consider taking a temp position. You aren’t retreating from freelancing, rather you’re finding whatever work you can to help pay bills and to keep yourself busy. Temp jobs can lead to other work, opening up additional windows of opportunity.

I don’t believe that the feast/famine cycle of freelancing has to rule our lives. Through careful planning, we can seek customers who provide steady work and supplement those with customers who have special projects we’re interested in doing. I’ve learned to turn down small jobs in the short run in order to hold off for larger, extended projects even when things are bleak — my patience has been paying off as my current client base is a stable source of income even as small projects come and go.

A. Welcome to the real world of freelancing! Working in your pajamas, sipping lattes at the coffee shop, or turning down all gigs in favor of plum assignments isn’t the way that we work. Okay, we can do all of this and more, but not on a daily basis.

Since launching out by myself in November 2002, I have had to relearn the whole employer-employee relationship. It has taken time, but my employers are now clients while I am not an employee, but a contractor. The difference may only seem trivial, but it is much deeper than that — I don’t feel beholden to anyone, nor is anyone beholden to me other than what the contract stipulates.

This means that I am free to negotiate the terms of the contract, set working parameters, and have a lot more leeway in the way that I do my work and complete projects. I still work very hard, but the master-servant role has given way to a partnership of sorts — we need each other.

Stress is a part of life, but it doesn’t have to control the way that you work. Deadlines must be met, but perhaps you should re-examine how they are set up in the first place. I can’t make writing easier for you, but I can encourage you to rethink your business relationships which can help reduce at least some of your stress.

Once you overhaul your business model, then you will find that self-employment beats working for someone else hands down.

A. Keep it simple! Well, as simple as you can. If you invoice through Paypal, they have an invoicing tool to help you along. Otherwise, I am a bit more detailed as I provide a little more information:

======================

Today’s Date

Salutation:

A brief explanation of the services rendered. For example: 3 articles at $40 each.

Total: $120.00

Terms: Net payable upon request.

Please remit payment for $120.00 to:

Your Name

Your Address

City, State, Zip

Phone number

Tax ID or Social Security Number

Best Regards,

Me

======================
Adjust accordingly to your own payment policies. Come up with something that works best for you and that your clients will accept.

A. That “line” is called a pipe bar. You can find it on your keyboard as the upper key [shift + that key] located just above your ENTER key. The lower key is for the back slash bar.

I use the pipe bar as a separator and because it looks, in my opinion, much nicer than using a greater than symbol (>) or a semi-colon (;) to separate words.

By the way, using the pipe bar doesn’t mess up your SERPs. Search engines simply treat a pipe bar for what it is — a separator.

A. You are in a tough position and I can certainly empathize with you.

Back in 2005, I had a similar experience with a customer who was very difficult, even obnoxious. From the get go, I realized that we weren’t on the same page and my attempts to bring us to a mutually agreed upon place where we could proceed failed.

The issue at hand with us was the level of research involved with each article and the project price. Admittedly, I priced my service too low thinking that the articles he wanted written involved little or no research. Turns out his expectations were much higher than that and I realized I would lose my shirt over the deal.

I countered with a new proposal which tripled my price. He objected even though the research involved was at least three times greater than what was originally conveyed to me. We were at an impasse so I simply stopped working for him. End of story.

In your case, things could be a bit different especially if you signed a contract. If a contract is involved, examine it closely to see if everyone is adhering to what was agreed upon. If not, you can cite paragraph and section to make your point. Otherwise, give the required notice and end the project as soon as you can.

It sounds as if this person isn’t the type to agree with you anyway, given the questioning of your skills. I am personally familiar with your writing and professionalism and I know that you take great pains to complete your work on time. It sounds as if this person could use some help organizing his life, but you aren’t the person to do that!

By the way, Kathy Kehrli (The Irreverent Freelancer) recently alerted her readers to an informative and witty article written by the Inside CRM Editors that can give you suggestions on how to free yourself from a project. Check it out — its a real hoot!