Articles About "Earning" Better As a Writer

The least stressed-out writers put strategies into place that earn them high recurring incomes. Here's how to navigate the earning potential of your refined freelance writing business.

High Income Business Writing: Client Gifting Recap

August 24, 2018 By FiveFigureSarah

Earlier this month, I got to top my “career highlights” list by talking with Ed Gandia on his High-Income Business Writing podcast! What about? Why, client gifting, of course! (You know that’s my thing right? OK… I might not have mentioned it until now, but it’s definitely my thing.)

You can listen the episode on iTunes here, or navigate to Ed’s site and listen on your app of choice here.

But here’s the thing: I wasn’t joking when I said in the introduction of the interview that I had 10 pages of notes in front of me. And since it’s not quite natural to read 10 pages of notes in an interview where you’re having a conversation with a person, naturally I left a bit of what I’d prepared out of what we recorded. So, here’s a quick recap with a few additional points that didn’t make it into the show but that are still very important to consider when you’re building (or refining) your approach to client gifting:

My Business Story

One thing I didn’t mention on the podcast too much is my reason for wanting to freelance part-time (besides the obvious, of course). First, I have an autoimmune illness that makes an 8-hour workday a thing of the past for me. Now I can get 8-hours of work done in 3 or 4 and take a good rest… and on days when I feel terrible (which are more and more infrequent, thank God!) I can just not work entirely.

Second, I now have a son! (And a second one due at the end of this year). As you can imagine, the process of becoming a mother has completely transformed how I look at my time. Every minute I’m wasting time on the internet or stuck in a meeting I don’t want to be in is a minute away from watching him grow and getting smashed banana in my hair. Being “as autonomous as possible” as a freelancer, being able to scale my hours (and income) up and down over the months and years is invaluable to me.

Being able to scale my hours (and income) up and down over the months and years is invaluable to me.

(The Sweet Spot goes into that a little more — I’ve scaled from $57K to $89K and back down to about $63K, though of course this year isn’t finished yet. In fact, I out-earned last year in just the first 6 months of this year because I knew I had to ramp it up for my end-of-the-year maternity leave. A full-time job won’t let you do that.)

3 Major Reasons Client Gifting Is a Good Idea

In my excitement to talk to Ed, I don’t think I made it clear what the three major reasons are! So, in short list form:

**1. Expressing appreciation makes you stop and feel good and it makes your client stop and feel good**

No matter how little we work or how much money we make, a lot of the time freelancers get into a “busy and broke” mindset. I did that, too! So stopping to thank people became a way for me to step back and look at my P&L and say “No, things are going great, this is a viable business.” And sending new clients a cute little package in the mail is a small way to let them know things are going great for them, too. And think about it: can you really say that you can’t find time or money to send a $30 gift to a client who gave you $20,000 last year? That’s just bad math.

2. “Showing up” in this way makes you stand out

As freelancers, we’re always worried about being replaceable, or being a face in a sea of rising freelancers. Sending a tasteful (read: not brown-nosing) gift can really make clients stop and see you as a professional, not just another pen. Sometimes clients haven’t said anything or acknowledged the package at all, but sometimes they’ve email and I could hear the delight and surprise in their tone — it’s really stuck with me.

3. It’s the right thing to do

The most important reason I send client gifts is because I think it adds humanity to what we do and what our clients do. Especially in the B2B world, it’s easy to forget there’s a human on the other end. Meaningful, infrequent gifting is a way to restore that connection and help people feel recognized.

Especially in the B2B world, it’s easy to forget there’s a human on the other end.

And on a deeper level? While we as freelancers have an incredible amount of freedom in our day and in who we work with, the people we work with often don’t.

Think about this: most freelancers had a full-time job at one point. So, imagine your worst day. Feeling dull and a little trapped. Maybe frustrated with your co-workers, or just kind of like, “Why can’t all of these projects just come together already!” Then imagine how you’d feel about a vendor who went out of their way to be enthusiastic to hear from you, grateful for the work in a professional way, and obviously interested in you and your job, not just getting a paycheck and peace-ing out.

I see tasteful gifting as the freelance community’s opportunity to be the bright part of a client’s cloudy day.

Potential Risks to Avoid

There are a few more risks I wanted to point out about client gifting:

1. Avoid kissing up

There’s a really fine line between “That writer who sent us that thoughtful gift” and “That gift giver who writes for us.” You don’t want to cross it by sending gifts that are too expensive or sending them too frequently.

You need to have your own internal rhythm, but for me that means not going over $75 ish, and the only time I did that was a very specific thank you for a client taking on a big expense for me. Normal for me is around $30-50 because the goal is, “Nice to meet you/know you!” not, “Nice to take your money and give me more please!”

2. Get a mailing address without being too creepy

I’ve found getting the address can be a little awkward because I often don’t need a formal mailing address to get work started when I receive deposits digitally. So the trick is to ask for a mailing address in a way that makes it clear it’s business related and not that you’re going to send spam or show up outside their door.

Something like, “Can I confirm X is the best mailing address for your office,” is better than “What’s your address?” with no details. Otherwise you might have a client worrying they’re about to get spammed, put on a catalog list, or that you’ll show up outside their door one day.

3. Deduct wisely Only deduct $25 per client per person year, so not all of this is deductible.

Only $25 per client per person per year is deductible, so you may find you’re spending more than you can claim as a business expense (I know I do). But like I said, if someone is sending you thousands of dollars, is it that crazy to send them a small gift even if you can’t expense all of it?

Here are some rules I use to make sure it’s “worth it” for me:When I’m looking at onboarding gifts, I’m looking for projects that are at least $800-1K with a strong likelihood of a long term relationship. When I’m doing year-end gifts, I’m looking at clients who spent more than $3-5K with me and will likely have recurring projects in the coming year. I also look for key people who have referred those clients to me to make sure I am saying “Thank you!” in a tangible way.

That’s all, folks!

Thank you for stopping by, thank you for listening, and thank you for thinking about thanking your clients!

Like I said in the promotional section of the podcast, my biggest project in development is a baby! This will be my second maternity leave in two years happening this October, and I hope to write about that soon.

And before that happens, I’m working with Andrea Emerson on a webinar where we’re going to take a energetic look at how to sell when you’re a regular person, not a business person, and share our experience going from selling nothing (in my case getting sweaty and doing an awkward dance after sales calls) to comfortably landing new clients several times a year. The best place to get updated about that is on the Five Figure Writer mailing list, which you can sign up for here.

Until then… waste some time on the site with my most popular three posts, and let me know in the comments if they help you!

4 Strategies I Used to Invoice $10,000+ Two Months In A Row

June 1, 2018 By FiveFigureSarah

The idea for this site was born when I surpassed my first five figures as a freelance writer in 2013. My taxable income from that year was $59,000 and I was overjoyed to replace my full-time income writing from my home office.

In May and June of this year, I broke through my next Big-Hairy-Audacious-Goal (BHAG) by invoicing five figures two months in a row. ($13,900 in May, $11,525 in June).

I am beyond excited to have broken through this goal without working absolutely insane hours or doing work outside of my usual day-to-day. That is, I didn’t take on a side job or get thrown into something crazy; I simply worked my butt off and did my best for everyone who hired me.

No matter what your personal BHAG is — it might be your own five figure month, or it might be breaking $1,000 in a month — these two high-income months were the result of four very important lessons I’d like to share with you today:

1. You Can’t Charge Bottom-of-the-Barrel

Here’s the honest truth: I simply couldn’t have done this if I were working at a low or reasonable hourly rate or at a project rate like $50 or $25 per post.

I simply couldn’t have done this if I were working at a low or reasonable hourly rate or at a project rate like $50 or $25 per post.

Do the math. To make $10,000 at $50 per hour, you would have to work 200 hours per month or 50 hours per week. To make $10,000 at $25 per post, you would have to write 400 posts per month or 100 per week. (Both of these examples are in a four-week month). That’s simply not reasonable or maintainable in the long term. (At least, it’s not maintainable for me… talk about burnout!)

Instead, I have tweaked and developed rates that work for my clients and value my time (and the results of what I do) fairly. I charge by project, so they have reasonable recurring expenses, and I make more when I work faster (instead of making less when I work faster, which is the case with hourly work).

2. Write for People With Real Budgets

Once you decide to charge what you’re worth, you may find your clients don’t think you’re worth that. It’s up to you to decide to move on and find and write for people with real budgets.

I started my writing journey writing $10 and $20 personal finance posts. No matter what I said, did, or how trained or experienced I was, these blogs would simply never have the budget to pay more per post. So I moved on, and now I focus my services on companies and niches that pay well.

Linda Formichelli explains this concept in her post, “It’s Just as Easy to Fall in Love with a Rich Mag as a Poor Mag.” Certain topics and industries don’t pay well and never will because the nature of the topic won’t make the publisher money. There are always exceptions, but these industries often include “fun” topics like food, lifestyle, personal finance, faith, anything personal, and relationships.

If you really want to make money as a professional writer, find clients with the budget to pay you for what you bring to the table.

If you love to write about these topics, do so on your own blog to build an audience and later launch your book or brand. But if you really want to make money as a professional writer, you’re far better off learning a new niche and finding clients with the budget to pay you for what you bring to the table.

3. Don’t Just Search for Clients, Search for Partners

Much of the significant boost in these two months was the direct result of letting my network know I was looking to take on more client projects. I was incredibly blessed to partner with a high-end business coach to entrepreneurs. This person had clients running successful businesses who needed reliable, talented writers. I connected with these clients for one-off projects and delivered on what I promised, which resulted in an invoicing boost for both of these months and will hopefully result in even more work in the future.

Expand your search from clients to like-minded, tangential service providers like website designers, graphic designers, business coaches, and other bloggers.

You can take this idea to heart by expanding your search from clients to like-minded, tangential service providers like website designers, graphic designers, business coaches, and other bloggers. Then you can focus on developing real relationships with these people (by referring them business, too) and getting warm referrals built on mutual trust.

4. Embrace Recurring Work and One-Off Work Equally

The writing community has a lot to say about the benefits of the recurring retainer, and I am inclined to agree. However, don’t let that stop you from creating relationships as an ad hoc (as needed), infrequent writer.

About 25 percent of these five figure months came from retainer work. The rest was a mix of regular one-off work (that is, it’s regular work but we don’t have an established retainer) and large one-off projects that happen two or three times per year.

High-paying one-off work isn’t something you can walk into overnight and get a fat check (at least, I haven’t figured out how to do that!). It’s something that develops over time, which means you need to get on it before you want the income. Nurturing these kinds of relationships year-round (when there’s no work to be had) will allow you to capitalize on the big projects that come up every once in a while, unexpectedly (and pleasantly) pushing your income over the edge.

Are You Aiming for a Five Figure Month?

I’d love to hear from you about your income goals. Are you aiming for a five figure month? Or setting your sites on a lower but recurring monthly income? Let me know how you plan to adjust these tips to meet your goals, however high or low they might be.

How Do I Pick a Freelance Writing Niche?

February 21, 2018 By FiveFigureSarah

A writer writes:

Hi Sarah,

So Part 4 of The Booster Shot, the portfolio & pitching section (which I’d been waiting for) finally arrived today!

Yes, it is indeed useful, and I’m glad I got it now instead of waiting til I had clients, because I do think your suggestions might help me land that very first client. But: I realize now that I’ve never really identified a niche, and I’m feeling like this reflects my general cluelessness about how the business world works.

I don’t think I’d even figured out that writing about “business” “technology” or “stuff that my friends’ friends do for a living” wasn’t quite specific enough.

But: how *do* you pick a freelance writing niche? How’d you come up with HR (and you started writing in the personal finance niche, right?). And how should I pick?

I’ve edited content on tons of different content— it’s been all over the map. And I think I could —- with research and access to an SME or two — write on any of these topics, or on any of a plethora of others that I’d find interesting. But choosing something specific feels like throwing darts at a target in total darkness—I have no way of telling if I’m even getting close.

With gratitude,
D.

Hey D.,

I’m so glad to hear it’s getting practical up in here!

My journey on the way to pick a freelance writing niche went a little something like this:

Start blog for fun (I forget why! Isn’t that crazy?)
Write about personal finance because we’re in debt, write about job seeking because I’m in the process of leaving teaching and learning about career stuff
Realize some blogs pay for that, so accept $15 and $20 post assignments and feel shocked someone will pay for writing
Find a finance app or product or something that paid $50 a blog as well as sites like Brazen Careerist…. felt rich
Start reading about writing online and pitching to everything I see on ProBlogger Job Board. Start using FreshBooks to actually track my income and send invoices that aren’t just emails saying, “Hi, Pay me!”
Get a marketing job with my blog experience [This is the part I think others can replicate with online courses]
Go freelance and write about marketing for other marketing agencies (so meta!)
Write an absolute nonsense amount of stuff for different kinds of companies at a wide range of rates, usually around $75-125
Realize I’m good at/love HR stuff, particularly because the people in that space are personable and energetic. I get and love them.
Start to niche and specifically find companies that educate in that space or sell HR products. Raise my rates. Keep an agency in play so I still get new work in marketing and education to keep things spicy, but otherwise focus on HR

Of course, I could put a little * at each step and say God sprinkled blessings in there, but I think it goes without saying that you have to get out there and try some things (and then take a break) so God can bless it.

Here are some of the ways my niche found me:

Activity One

What business topic do you read about for fun? What site could you click through for hours and have a good old time just reading about it?

For me, it’s Ask A Manager, and that helped me see that I really love the people dynamics going on in the workplace. But if for you it’s nano AI or cryptocurrency…. that’s a good way to start to pick a freelance writing niche!

Activity Two

Make three columns:

CAN’T DO
(For me: Construction, AI, Legal)

CAN DO
(For me: intermediate technology/security, accounting, mobile marketing, higher education, logistics)

LOVE TO DO
(For me: HR, business and business products, content marketing)

As you take on new assignments, one list may grow as the others shrink and vice versa… This is what will temper the fact that as a smart, competent writer you can “with research and access to an SME or two—write on any of these topics, or on any of a plethora of others.” It’s a curse (and a gift :)).

Activity Three:

With editing (and sometimes content), it’s (surprisingly) not as much about editing/writing the text as making sure the text is the most effective version of itself it can be *for its purpose*. So, you could also niche by purpose/audience, such as “I edit texts that speak to X buyers” –> Because specializing in a type of buyer would be just as powerful as specializing in a type of writing.

For example, if someone wants to write a book specifically to appeal to CEOs in non-profits, they would know to come to YOU because you get that audience and you know what they’re looking for/what the market has to offer in that space (no matter what industry the non-profit happened to be in). Or when someone who just wrote a book about productized marketing gets my name from someone they spoke at a conference with, I can accept and edit their book because I’ve read a bunch of other eBooks in the space and I know a) what her book needs to have to be on par with other books and 2) what we can add to set it apart. (True story!)

The life motto for freelancing is, “Leap and the net will appear!” There is no track to “get on” and then be set for life. But that’s only a bad thing if you keep your eyes down at the pit you might fall into. It’s also a good think because your work and your potential for success is limitless!

So keep “pick a freelance writing niche” in the back of your mind as an important goal, but don’t stress about trying EVERYTHING for a year in the mean time.

Another writer writes:

Hey Sarah,

It’s really kind off you to reach out to help beginners like me. I have been writing since close to a year now, of which 6 months have been dedicated to copywriting.

Three days back I stumbled upon your B2B webinar and was highly inclined towards it. I have been working and getting assignments on Upwork (yeah, I think I saw you cringe) and a content agency. Both have been good in terms of getting exposure and practice but don’t pay well. And it specially burns me to throw B2B copy in for pennies (literally).

Anyway, so for the past two days I have been fumbling online to find ANY content on how to get started and strategies to up my B2B copy game. Through the PDF attached to your webinar, I gathered pivotal tips on how to get started which included to pick a freelance writing niche. Now I have written for various industries and the ones I’m interested in are:

-Natural Health. Although no direct experience in it but it comes naturally (pun intended)

-Education. Have been an early years educator for two years, one of which was in Remediation.

-Renewable Energy. I read online that this is the next-gen niche to get into, hence I’m curious and willing to learn if it’s worth it.

So what do you think? Any of these or if you have a general niche in mind suitable for beginner B2B Copywriters?

Thanks for reading and sorry for the length of the message.

Hello H.,

Thank you so much for your note!

Have you come across Copy Hackers and Copyblogger yet? I think those are indispensable resources for copywriting!

And there’s no shame in UpWork as long as you go into it with eyes wide open — I started on terrible sites like BlogMutt and Demand Studios myself for like $15 a post. We all start somewhere, the point is just that we don’t stay there :).

Right off the bat, Education and Renewable Energy are going to be your money makers. Natural health is fascinating (I’m a big believer in it, myself) but I’ve found those companies rarely have the overhead for marketing themselves. Education and Renewable Energy, on the other hand, have whole departments dedicated to marketing and likely have already started to blog and put content out there, so that’s your in!

So, I’d say start looking for clients in both those fields: read about them endlessly (Education Dive and Utility Dive are great places to start) and start sharing the links (and your thoughts) on LinkedIn as you build your network. Read and share the white papers companies are writing, as well as the blogs and social media updates. They might notice you doing that, and if they don’t everyone who interacts with you will notice what an active and informed presence you have online.

(Pro tip: Find the companies mentioned in these articles and look them up on LinkedIn. See if you can connect with any marketing managers from those companies [with a friendly note, NOT a pitch… a pitch will get you deleted] just to grow your network.)

And keep in mind — once you start approaching companies directly with a pitch, they’re going to expect to see market rates. So if you pitch something too inexpensive or for pennies that will be a red flag for them! (AKA if they’re used to paying writers $100 an article and you offer $25, they’ll wonder if you know what your doing. Same for if they’re used to paying $500 and you offer $50!).

Another writer writes:

Do you think hospitality industry would be a good niche?

It depends. On the one hand, travel writers writing about their own experience seems to be a saturated market. You’d need to build a blog and a following and be consistent about that for a few years to make a good income as a B2C travel blogger, per se.

But! If you are open to a more corporate take on travel writing, like B2B writing on behalf of a company, I don’t see any reason why that shouldn’t be a very lucrative niche! Travel companies (hotels, destinations, resorts, tourist attractions) are getting into the online content marketing game and it would be very attractive to them to find a seasoned travel writer who knows about digital marketing and how it applies to the travel niche.