Has it really been that long? It sure doesn’t feel like it, but it gave me pause to sit back and think about my career so far and what lessons I’ve learned that can be passed on to others.

Like most people fresh out of college, I focused all my energy on finding the 9-5 staff job. Problem was, returning home from a unpaid newspaper internship in another city, I barely had enough money to put postage on resumes, let alone gas to drive to job interviews.

It was a few days after my return that I woke up to my phone ringing. It was my editor from the out-of-town paper. Something related to their coverage area was happening near me and… could I cover it?

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to keep my name in print while looking for the staff job and some money for food was also more than welcome.

The boost in pride I gained from that one-off assignment soon faded, though, as the envelopes I’d been mailing out stuffed with cover letters, resumes and writing samples weren’t generating any interest from HR departments.

So, deciding to take advantage of contacts I’d networked with, I cold-called the editor of a trade magazine I’d met a year earlier. Turned out he was swamped with work and assigned me several articles on the spot.

Keeping in touch with the network proved invaluable since I’d be randomly contacted by these clients over the next few months with more work.

There’s no shame in being a weekend warrior

Even though I’d taken a night job in a call center to help pay the bills, I’d decided the quest for the 9-5 was a waste of time. Freelancing was what I really wanted to do.

But there’s a weird feeling I’d get now and then. I’d be looking in the mirror, usually adjusting my tie before going to interview a source and it would hit: I’m a fraud. I’m not a journalist, I’m some dork who works in a call-center and sometimes plays dress-up.

At least, that was until I started specializing in covering the technology sector and was being sent out to interview a lot of start-up entrepreneurs. Through interviewing these folks I often learned that despite having fancy business cards with CEO after their name, many of them had to take on other jobs while waiting for their businesses to make a profit.

That’s when I realized that I was far from alone. There should be no shame in the entrepreneurial spirit.

Don’t discount the job board

After abandoning the search for a staff position and focusing all my job search energy on freelancing, my college’s job board became significantly less interesting.

Pretty much every posting was for a full-time job, usually requiring the successful candidate to relocate to the middle of nowhere. But, for reasons unknown to me, I read through every single posting (still do!)

Then it happened: a local trade publication focusing on the technology sector was looking for someone to do a one-off article. I immediately fired off an e-mail and received the assignment.

Getting a single piece of work wouldn’t seem like a big deal — except that it led to a monthly column along with writing features now and then. Plus, it helped me find my niche — I now refer to myself as a freelance technology journalist.

Get out and do it

One of my favorite things about freelancing is that I’m allowed to live on what I feel is more natural sleep cycle for me: passing out between 4 or 5 a.m. and waking up at 11 a.m.

Now, the neat thing about staying up late and not sleeping much is that around 3 a.m. or so you get crazy ideas for projects and anything seems possible. It was on one those nights I discovered a really cool new blog called Freelance Switch. In my sleep-deprived state I figured, hey, maybe I can write for them.

I clicked the contact link and wrote an e-mail proposing a column (I think my original suggestion was “slacker productivity”). Not realizing the site is based in Australia and it was 3 p.m. for the editors, within ten minutes I heard back from Collis and Cyan and we bounced ideas for posts back and forth until I fell asleep on my keyboard. A few days later, I was a contributor.

Put fear aside and just do it. Otherwise, nothing is going to happen.

The most important lesson

To end off, I’d like to share the most important lesson I learned in these two years: If the 9-5 club doesn’t want to let you in, forget ‘em!

If you’re truly passionate about a career choice, do not give up just because of a seemingly endless string of job interviews that lead nowhere. Forget the hiring managers and market yourself directly to the clients.

Even if the freelancing lifestyle isn’t for you, it’s still a better way to get your foot in the door than sitting around listening to the phone not ringing.

Vangelis Bibakis of Mainframe.gr offers some great freelancing tips in an unnumbered article dating back to December 2006. However, there’s one point I can’t agree with, from hard experience. It’s in the one titled “Be ready to fail” (numbered with “θ“, theta.) and it says, “If by any chance you see things looking black, don’t despair. You can always switch back to a ‘proper’ job at anytime.”

Is this true? I’m not sure you can always switch back to a “proper job” at anytime, if you decide that freelancing is not for you. It’s not always that easy. Here are some of the things you have stacked up against you:

1. Credibility.
   Will prospective employers believe you want to be salaried again? Just try explaining what you were doing for the last X months, and the interviewer might think you’re seeking the full-time job just to pass time until more contracts come by. There’s sometimes a bias against freelancers in the salaried world. It depends on how long you’ve taken “off”, and might vary by country or even region. (There was a time that people believed that freelancers simply didn’t get along with others.)
2. Jealousy.
   Watch out for some of those people who think they want to be freelancers but were afraid to take the step. They can and will make your return to salaried work miserable if they know what you were doing — even if you’re not doing it anymore.
3. Loss of freedom.
   I recall a short story based on an old tale about a bird and its injured wing. Even after being nursed back to health, the bird’s wing was lame and it could not fly. Being unable to fly, to “touch the sky” again, the bird had no will to live. Flight meant freedom. Now, it’s not that drastic. We’re only talking freelancing, but isn’t “freedom” one of the biggest reasons you wanted to freelance? Can you give up that freedom and go back to salaried work that might not afford you the same freedoms?
4. Niche markets.
   I live in a small city. Its main industries are automotive, university/education and more recently, government labs. Aside from being a teaching assistant at the university and a few odd jobs, I have never been able to find work here for my primary skillsets. I’ve always had to commute to Toronto (which is stressful) or live there (which is expensive). My current skillset is better suited to a global market — best reached online — and seems best utilized in a freelance atmosphere. You, too, might be in a situation where it’s difficult to get offline full-time work suitable to your skills — without having to compromise.

Which, if any, of these issues affects you depends possibly on where you live, and why you became a freelancer in the first place, as well as how good you are at avoiding office politics.

What To Do If You Must Go Back

Sometimes you have to go back — though the move may only be a temporary one. Maybe you leaped into freelancing too early, or before you were adequately prepared. Usually the reasons for the retreat are financial. To make the process easier, and to keep you thinking positive, here are some general tips:

1. Make the best of it.
   Do not be in a mindset that you have failed. You’ve merely tried something different. A “failed” mindset will be projected while you’re in interviews, and more so when you are working. Remember: you can always try again later on. Freelancing will always be there.
2. Have a plan.
   If you have to explain your move to an interviewer who presses for details, you might say that you took some personal/family time off, and that the freelance work kept the bills paid. I don’t condone lying, but if you have to, say that you took a personal vacation, or time off to explore some personal projects. (Unless you’ve been working online and it’s easy for them to track your work and prove your lie.) Obviously, some people are more understanding than others. You’ll have to gauge that while you’re in the interview.
3. Kept it to yourself.
   If you get hired, don’t tell your new colleagues that you were FWI - Freelancing With Intent (to stay that way). This is important to your transition back to happy salaried employee. Some non-freelancers want to believe that freelancers always have it better, and this generates jealousy and resentment. This usually only happens with people who’ve considered freelancing but never took the step forward. These people will often make your life miserable. Listen to what they are saying, but don’t reveal too much of what you did.
4. Know what you really want and why.
   If you start getting the freelance itch again, you’ll need to have a heart-to-heart with yourself about why that is. Otherwise, the desire will distract you, you’ll resent your new job and possibly do sloppy work.(When I was younger, I never made a distinction between freelance and salaried work. I fell into freelancing, but alternated with salaried work, simply because I had some great opportunities. On my resume, though, it looked like I was all over the place. In fact, many interviewers said, “You never seem to stay in one place very long.” That’s when I realized that I was really a freelancer. I’ve gone hungry a lot as a result — once for four straight years, when I couldn’t find work and had to be an overworked, underpaid, untipped cook and dishwasher, too tired and poor to eat properly. Still, ultimately I’m happier as a freelancer. Only a really great opportunity would pull me back, and that does not necessarily have to do with the salary.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re planning to get into freelancing for the first time or returning for the Nth time, be absolutely sure why you are. Otherwise, it might get progressively harder to explain to prospective employers why your resume has so much short-term work (or gaps, if you’re leaving out details). There might not be much in the way of “secure” offline careers anymore, but that doesn’t mean employers have gotten out of the mindset that they want someone who can commit to their job. Clients, on the other hand, will expect you to have that varied experience.

That said, there are companies that welcome people with freelance experience, who have gained multiple perspectives in an industry or niche. Or maybe you just haven’t figured out which type of freelancer you are yet. May fortune smile upon you whatever you decide.

I deliberately hunt for positions that I call “Empty Jobs”. These are the oddball, or even plain boring, non-career focused jobs that most people overlook. The pay isn’t great, and it’s likely to be a dead end as far as career progression. But I love them. To me it’s like a glorified Work For the Dole program. I turn up, I do the pea-sized brain job I was hired for, I take my paycheck. And with all of the spare hours I have, I write, or research or do whatever takes my fancy.

But wait, I hear you cry. Isn’t this unethical? Surely I’m stealing from my employers if I’m also pulling in paid freelance work. I’m double dipping. Well, yes. The trick is to find the right Empty Job – with a boss and work culture that allows you the freedom to fill in your spare time in whatever way you see fit. For me this means my basic food and shelter are always covered and I’m protected from the absolute highs and lows of the freelance world. I satisfy my creative urges *and* my desires to afford a nice house and new pyjamas at the same time.
I once took a job as night manager at a backpackers’ hostel. My job was really just to babysit the hostel overnight. Make sure the drunks went to bed and everyone kicked their one-night stands out before 7am when the “real” workers of the hostel arrived. After adjusting to the shift work it turned out to be about seven hours of uninterrupted writing time per shift, with only the occasional drunk demanding late night conversation.

Currently I’m working for a small office with only one other person managing the business. The company has found it hard to keep staff past the six month point due to the utter tediousness of waiting for a handful of phone calls a day. It’s a job that needs someone in the office full time, but only really for “just in case” dramas. For me it’s perfect. It makes me get out of bed at least. Once I’ve done all of my tasks the boss doesn’t mind if I fill some time reading comic books, surfing the web or editing a short story. Always with the proviso that if I’m needed for “real” work then I jump to it when asked. I’ve now been here three years and both of us are happy.

The Golden Rules of Empty Job Freelancing

1. The day job comes first. If you have a big freelance project due AND a crisis in the office you have to deal with the office first. It’s not fair otherwise.

2. Kick butt in your day job. Give them absolutely no excuse not to trust you. Always be on time. Do more than what is asked of you. Pay attention to detail. Answer phones quickly. Fly through your work with glee – more time for the interesting stuff that way.

3. Don’t take advantage. Sure, use the office printer or fax for your own work. Grab a few pens or a notepad. But the day you catch yourself ordering shredders, labellers and hard drives from the office catalogue for your home office is the day you’ve gone too far.

4. Be discrete. If you’ve got a nice working arrangement going with your immediate supervisors then there is no need to blab to everyone that you’re just finished your novel on work time. Other departments and bosses in the same company may have different attitudes. I’ve known people in Empty Jobs forced to sit and stare at the wall to make up the face time of the job. Totally pointless.

5. Don’t undercut your Freelance rates too much. Even though you have a great base salary from which to freelance from, it’s bad karma to underprice yourself too much. Sure, use the safety net to bid a bit lower on a job you know you’d enjoy, but don’t drag down industry rates.

6. You’re still a Freelancer. Clients don’t need to know about your work environment. If they do you’ll find they want you to work cheaper, longer or harder for higher quality because, after all, you’re “already in the office.”

Jody E. is a stand up comedian, freelance writer and gal-about-town.

As editor of AUDIOTUTS, I’ve spent the last month or so hard at work sourcing-out exceptional talent to produce tuts for the site. The work seems to have paid off. Our assembled team of tutorial-wizards have written for industry magazines like Computer Music, Future Music and Music Tech, run hugely successful websites and YouTube channels, owned their own record labels, designed sound effects for Platinum selling video games, remixed Top 10 hits, worked with famous and well-respected artists, and otherwise stamped their name on the industry.

In addition to the work of our staff writers, we embrace contributions from the community. If you’re a Reason ninja, a superstar DJ, a Logic magician or a Cubase champ, you could earn $150 sharing your knowledge and passion with us.

If you like what we do, head over to AUDIOTUTS and help spread the word and the love by commenting, linking, or passing a social media vote our way. As always, your support is much appreciated, and received with thanks.

Sure, pushing papers for the Big Boss mortifies us. But every freelancer knows that calling our own shots isn’t pure bliss either. I don’t know about you, but on at least two occasions, I’ve nervously looked “bankruptcy” in the face and by pure luck or karma, bypassed it by mere centimeters.

In my more cautious years, I’ve learned to develop systems, test them, then expand them. Yes, this even applies to freelancing.

How? Because turning a prospect into a client is a process-based on a system. Identifying deliverables and executing campaigns for a client is a series of tasks based on a system.

Create the right system and you can almost flawlessly guarantee success and satisfaction every time.

It was in the spirit of such experimentation that I stumbled upon the singular system largely responsible for turning my struggling personal consultancy into a multi-million dollar venture that is scheduled to land and manage over 100 projects every month and has won clients like the NFL, BlogTalkRadio, and best selling authors like Christine Comaford-Lynch.

The Challenge, My Nearly Nervous Breakdown, and the Results

Then I’ll spill the beans about my experiment…

About a year and a half ago, I transitioned from being a freelancer to running a marketing firm that managed 25-50 freelance internet marketers and web professionals. In December 2007, I decided I was going to take this one leap further and build a program that would allow me and my team to coach hundreds of freelancers and pair them up with paying clients.

This presented an enormous challenge that, for three months I could not solve (and it almost cost me my business, my financial wellbeing and my sanity). How could I design a system that would:

1. Train and coach hundreds of people in the skills of marketing and web development?

2. Guarantee hundreds of new projects coming in each month?

I tested one system with a test group of 30 freelancers. It failed. I revamped the system based on results and feedback and we improved considerably. This second system was highly scalable and accounted for Challenge A. My business was now able to easily and successfully train hundreds of people — or even thousands, if the situation called for it.

But Challenge B remained a stopgap. I could not risk scaling to 100 freelancers or more for fear that I’d have no work for them.

Now this is where you’ll want to pay attention…

I had to create a system that would allow anyone, with or without knowledge of the marketing skills we were offering, with or without sales ability, to land as many clients as humanly possible.

The resultant system I’m about to share with you (and don’t worry, it’s dirt simple) worked so well, it has a 100% success rate so far (meaning every single person who has accepted the offer I’m going to share with you has turned into a client). I’m sure we’ll lose the occasional prospect, but this system will work for:

• Referrals
• Warm Leads
• Cold Leads (cold calling)
• Professionals you work with (your dentist, doctor, gardener, etc.)
• Anyone else you can dream up

The worth of the clients this system lands is mind-boggling. My original prospecting method had a nearly 100% success rate as well, but that was because I was dealing with referrals. And that system couldn’t be duplicated. It was based on me, my exact experience and accomplishments, and my sales capabilities.

But this new system now easily guarantees my company over 100 new projects per month and, best of all, these projects are in the range of $10,000 - $50,000 monthly recurring income per project. And I don’t have to do the selling myself.

Bottom Line: This system will allow you to land the big boys, compete with the top vendors in your industry, and anyone can do it. It’s dirt simple.

How to Land Your Client, Every Time

Here’s the magical phrase: “Competitive Analysis”

I found that when calling on companies that didn’t ask for my advice or help, they didn’t care to receive a proposal, or hear about how I could revolutionize their website or make them tons of money…

The only thing even cold prospects responded to, nearly every time, was this single sentence:

“I have reverse engineered your top competitors’ sites, [COMPETITOR ONE] and [COMPETITOR TWO], and can tell you exactly how they’re able to beat you in the amount of traffic and sales they get online, PLUS where their weaknesses are and how you can exploit them to pull ahead.”

Then I offered to conduct a free Competitive Analysis on their website and their top competitor’s website.

That’s it. Dirt simple.

You won’t even have to ask for the sale when you’re done. They’ll be begging you to help them.

It just happens to be an infallible truth that people are more motivated by what they stand to lose (and who they stand to conquer) than by what they can gain. By leveraging the success of their competitor against their fear of losing business to someone else, you’ll easily persuade them to want to work with you and they’ll think it was their idea to ask you!

How to Create a Competitive Analysis

Because my industry is online marketing and web development, I’m going to explain how to create an analysis for a website’s presence and traffic.

You can modify this process to address anything though. If you build websites, create a Website Requirements Assessment for your prospects to fill out so you can discuss the results. If you’re a copywriter, create a document asking key questions that gets your prospect thinking about what they need and excited about what you can do.

So, for this analysis, you need only three free websites to gain dizzying amounts of information on your prospect and their competitor. When you share this information with them, you’ll hear time and again, “This is the most in-depth, informative consultation we’ve ever had!”

Add these websites to your Favorites List:

1. Quantcast
2. Spyfu
3. Alexa

Between these three sites, you can discover just about anything, including:

• # of monthly unique visitors
• Budget spent on sponsored listings (Adwords)
• Clicks per day from sponsored listings
• Cost per click
• # of organic listings
• Demographics, including age, income and ethnicity range of visitors
• And tons more

Imagine telling your prospect that you know their top competitor spends $18,000 on sponsored listings per day and that they receive 5000 unique visitors per day…

But you know you can help your prospect beat them and eclipse a lot of their traffic, because you can also see that the competitor website’s incoming links are old and no new site optimization has been done. These stats justify you asking for $5000 to $10,000 per month to get them ahead of their competitor who is spending even more and has weaknesses you can clearly see and exploit.

Do you see how this completely alters the nature of the consultation and the sale? You never have to ask if they want to do business with you. Instead, you’re dangling a very attractive carrot in front of them backed by hard evidence, fact, and quantifiable numbers.

As long as you’re confident you can deliver the goods you promise, it’s a done deal. I’ve even landed clients with this method without them ever asking to see past results, client references, a portfolio, or anything else. They were so shocked and jazzed by the analysis that they said, “Name your price. We’ll take it. We want to beat the pants of such-and-such competitor!”

“What If The Client Wants Something I Can’t Do?”

Perhaps you want to use this exact analysis example and land clients for web development and traffic generation. What if you don’t know how to deliver these services?

OUTSOURCE.

You have a wonderful resource right here at Freelance Switch. Here’s what you do:

Once you deliver the competitive analysis and go over it with the prospect, the next step will be to develop a detailed proposal outlining what you’ll do and the price you’ll charge. Tell them that you’ll want to put your best expert on the project and you need to check availability. You’ll get back to them in a couple days.

Then post the project here on the Freelance Switch job boards and find an appropriate expert. Work with them to develop the proposal and agree on the fees they want to charge.

Increase those fees by an appropriate amount to pay yourself for landing the deal and perhaps project managing and then bid that to the prospect.

Client landed. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

In June 2004, Jaime Mintun was homeless and broke and out of options. She flipped her luck around by moving her focus from starting her own business to helping other people’s businesses grow. In less than 30 days, she had a $10k/mo income. Now she coaches over 100 freelancers to provide their marketing and web development skills to offline businesses. You can read her blog at www.WarWagonBlog.com.

Melody, A 42-year-old resident of San Diego, California, got the idea for the organization after working as a freelance attorney for other law firms for years to supplement her own solo practice.

“I started to realize that there were many attorneys, paralegals and other professionals who could use support in doing their jobs. Legal freelancing can be a means to creating a meaningful work-life balance, something seemingly unattainable for workaholic attorneys,” says Melody. “We are changing the entire landscape of how law firms work by raising the profile of freelancers’ role in a successful law firm business model.”

Workaholics? That pretty much includes us all, so even if you’re not in the legal arena, read on to learn about how she carved out her own career.

Tell us about your typical day. What exactly do you do?

I usually get up early and enjoy a cup of coffee before our five-year-old daughter gets up (my husband is already gone to work). We have breakfast and get ready for preschool and work, then drive the seven-minute drive to school. My office is less than a mile away, and I work from around 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. I have a mix of work, some freelance work for other attorneys, some working directly for clients, and some time building my two businesses that help legal freelancers. I get home in time for dinner with the family and rarely do any work in the evenings.

How’d you get into freelancing?

I got into legal freelancing by accident. Early in my legal career I started my own law firm and needed an office. I was invited to office share with a law firm and did work for them in exchange for office space. The attorneys were also great mentors for me as I learned how to be lawyer. Occasionally other lawyers would ask me to write legal briefs or appear in court for them because of scheduling conflicts. I never looked at freelancing as a career choice until several years later when I got a “real” lawyer job and realized that I didn’t enjoy it at all. The job seemed prestigious to family and friends, but it was too inflexible for my taste.

Tell us about the National Association of Freelance Legal Professionals.

NAFLP is a national association of freelance lawyers, paralegals, interpreters, court reporters, and other legal professionals who work for law firms on an independent contractor, non-employee basis. It includes both active freelancers and others who are interested in learning more about a freelancing career. We promote freelancing as one way to achieve work-life balance. NAFLP is committed to educating, encouraging, and supporting legal freelancers and have begun offering seminars ranging from how to be a freelancer to more practical business topics such as how freelancers can obtain health insurance, plan for retirement, and how to increase their business profitability.

What led you to found the National Association of Freelance Legal Professionals?

Amanda Mineer and I founded the National Association of Freelance Legal Professionals after having personally experienced the benefits and pitfalls of freelancing. We wanted to raise awareness, promote the benefits of freelancing to both freelancers and law firms, and create national standards for conduct and proficiency. No one was out there doing it, so we decided we should. As we suspected, there were many freelancers throughout the country who were interested in learning more, and were thrilled to not feel alone in their profession any more.

How is the organization changing the face of legal professionals? How do you get the word out that legal professionals can freelance?

NAFLP has started discussions about legal freelancing and raised awareness through our blog and also by word of mouth. Others in the legal profession, the California State Bar president among others, have again started talking about how long work hours and the billable hour law firm income structure are creating huge problems in the legal profession. There is a huge attrition rate for young lawyers based upon working conditions. Although some people are simply dropping out and seeking an entirely new profession, we are advocating a change within the profession. However, we are not calling on large law firms to change, we are encouraging lawyers themselves to make a change in their own lives and how they work. I believe that the legal profession is more likely to change one lawyer at a time than trying to convince the hierarchy of law firms to change.

I thought all lawyers worked 80 hours a week in the same office. They can freelance?

Many lawyers do work ridiculously long hours in the same office. There is no good reason for them to do it, however. No one’s brain is working at optimal conditions without adequate rest. By freelancing, lawyers can work on a variety of projects or for a single law firm if they choose, but they can structure their hours to fit their own needs. Freelancers also have low overheads to maintain and don’t have to share their billable income with partners. In short, an experienced freelancer can make more money in less time than their overworked counterparts.

Do many lawyers have issues adjusting from a workaholic lifestyle to a freelance one? How can any new freelancer get used to what is sometimes a slower pace?

Absolutely. I know that first-hand. Being a workaholic is often what causes someone to gravitate to the law in the first place. You can still be a workaholic and a freelancer if you want, but by the time your body has worn out from the frantic 80-hr-week pace, you’ll be wanting the choice to work fewer and more flexible hours.

What is your most helpful tip for getting and retaining clients?

Tell people what you do for a living. Don’t be embarrassed about being a freelancer. Network extensively at business networking events, tell people what you do, and tell them how you can help them (i.e. “If you are ever up against a tight deadline, I write killer legal briefs; feel free to give me a call.”) Then when you do get clients, do quality work and always respectfully and meaningfully deal with any complaints. You will get far more referrals this way, and keep the clients, than any other type of advertising.

How do you market and promote your services?

I haven’t done any formal marketing of my services for years because I’ve had more than enough work from word-of-mouth referrals. People know I freelance and know they can make a profit out of using me. Also, having a mix of freelance work and direct client work and a simplified office structure, my billing rates are lower than large law firms and I get referrals of clients who cannot afford $400-per-hour rates, but can pay my reduced rates. Between the two, I am more than busy.

Kristen Fischer is the author of Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs and Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes: An After-College Guide to Life. Visit www.kristenfischer.com for more information.

No, I was going to launch a wildly successful weblog, make a fortune from Google AdSense, and sign a six-figure book deal…

…I’m not quite there yet.

But I have managed to arrive somewhere wholly unexpected. I’m earning money from staff-writing on two blogs, both major players in their niches (Diet Blog and Daily Writing Tips) and my own blog has a small but regular readership. I’ve made about $800 so far; not “quit the day job” money, yet, but enough to make me realize that freelance blogging could be a viable way to earn a living.

You might well have a blog, though perhaps it’s a personal one based around a hobby or passion, rather than a professional one. And since you’re reading this on Freelance Switch, I’m guessing you have some interest in freelancing. If you’ve read through the “Getting started” articles, if you spend hours staring at your cubicle walls and dreaming up your next blog post (or typing away on the sly), and if you’re waiting, waiting, waiting for that first job, first client, first check, you might be closer than you think. Here’s how to fall into freelance blogging by accident…

1. Get started with your own blog

If you don’t already have a blog, or if your blog is of the “me and my cat” variety and only read by your mum, start one! I’d strongly recommend Darren Rowse’s blogging for beginners series, even if you think you know what you’re doing. (You have to be willing to rethink preconceptions, though. I read the whole thing before launching The Office Diet, and still believed that going live on 01/01/2008 would be a good idea because surely all those millions of people googling for “diet” and “weight-loss” in January would find my site…)

2. Throw a guest post out there

I wrote a guest post for Diet Blog, because I wanted to advertise my own blog in the byline. I made it the best post I could, following Skellie’s guest posting advice on ProBlogger – and was both impressed and a little scared when it received 22 comments.

Start with any blog you enjoy that publishes guest posts, and, ideally, that has multiple regular writers. Drop the editor a short, succinct email with a couple of lines on who you are and your proposed guest post. You might want to write the post first: if you do get a positive response, this means you can send it promptly, and some blogs I’ve written guest posts for (such as The Change Blog) invite readers to send in their post when they initially make contact. (I’d suggest a detailed pitch is best. Few posts are rejected once your pitch is OKed, while it can be quite disappointing when you’ve poured effort into a complete post only to have it refused. It happens to the best of us. — Ed.)

3. Jump in after your work (without looking back)

Diet Blog’s editor, Jim, wrote to me a couple of weeks later to ask if I’d be interested in becoming a staff writer. I e-mailed straight back “Would definitely be interested. :-)” and the moment I hit Send was the moment I stepped into a brave, and slightly strange, new world: that of the freelance blogger.

My next job came about in a similar manner. I contacted Daniel, who runs Daily Writing Tips, saying that I’d noticed the site didn’t have much in the “Fiction” category – would he be interested in a guest post? Within a week, Daniel asked me if I wanted to join Daily Writing Tips as a paid staff writer…

If your guest post is published and goes down well with readers, don’t be afraid to drop a friendly follow-up email to the blog’s editor. Mention that you enjoyed writing for the blog, and that you’d be interested in a regular staff position.

4. Stay on the right track – don’t crash at the start

As an accidental freelance blogger, I needed to further my knowledge in several areas:

1. My blogging subjects: health and fitness, and the English language.
2. How to blog – constructing great headlines and reader-friendly articles.
3. The business of being a freelancer.

For the first, your prior knowledge, books, and reputable websites all help. For Daily Writing Tips, I use dictionaries and style guides to research articles on the finer points of word usage. (Differences between “awhile” and “a while”, anyone? “Insure” and “ensure”?) For the second and third, look for great blogs about blogging, writing, and freelancing. Yes, you can learn a lot just by getting stuck in, but why not capitalize on other peoples’ years of experience rather than your own?

If you’ve ended up an Accidental Freelance Blogger, these are very useful blogs for people like us, all of which I subscribe to:

• Problogger – great insider advice on all aspects of professional blogging, from writing content to using Google Adsense.
• Daily Blog Tips – similar advice to Problogger, though more suitable for beginners and hobbyists.
• Skelliewag – insightful and thoughtful articles on writing content for blogs. Fewer posts than Problogger and Daily Blog Tips, but every one’s a gem.
• Daily Writing Tips – your grasp of grammar and spelling needs to be solid to get that first staff blogger post, and adding some flair to your writing will help you win further jobs.
• Copyblogger – learn about writing great web copy and the business of writing for a living.

And, of course, you could do far worse than hang around at Freelance Switch …

5. Keep speeding up …

Don’t be afraid to spend money on quality resources, too: earmark a percentage of your freelance income to invest on improving your skills and your business. That might mean buying a book (I snapped up How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer with my first week’s freelancing pay, and I pre-ordered Darren and Chris’s ProBlogger the day it was announced.)

Once you’re beginning to make a name for yourself, you may want to pay for a professional design for your own blog to showcase your work, or spend some of your earnings on a course to further your skills and to make new contacts.

6. Have some idea where you’re heading next (even if you’re not sure where you’ll end up)

If you haven’t yet banked your first dollar from blogging, make that your goal for this month.

If you’re biting your nails every time you think of trying to make contact with the people who are waaaaay above you in the blogosphere – write that e-mail today. Keep it short and friendly (bloggers are busy people), and make it clear what you’re asking. I found the advice at the bottom of “5 Habits Of Highly Ineffective Networkers” very helpful.

If you need to polish up your skills, buy that book you’ve been thinking of, or register for that course. Don’t feel guilty investing money into your business.

Whatever action you need to take in order to fall further into freelance blogging, do it today. If you really need a motivational boost, post in the comments telling us what you’re doing to take that next leap.

Me? I’m sending this post into Freelance Switch…

Ali started freelancing by accident and is now almost as obsessed with it as she is with chocolate. She invariably takes on too many projects at once, and spends the 9-5 hours regretting the need for a day job. She writes at The Office Diet.

Recognizing Your Work Demons

With all the web technologies out there, it’s tough for web workers in particular to keep up, and sometimes bad online habits can become very addictive. These could be some of the things that are holding you back from freelance success.

Here are some of my work-demons, often the result of poor work habits:

1. IM. Satisfying friends’ “need it now” social voting requests via AIM.
2. Twitter. Getting distracted by incoming Twitter tweets (via the Twhirl client) and an even more addictive Twitter-like service, Plurk. (My addiction used to be Google’s MyMaps, or any kind of mapping mashup.)
3. Email. Being signed into GMail all day (tsk tsk), and obsessively checking for new messages, only to waste time mostly filtering spam.
4. Comments. Visiting sites where I write, to see if I need to respond to any comments. (I don’t always get an email alert, despite “subscribing” to the comments of a post.)
5. TV. Turning on the TV capture card on my computer, and telling myself I “need” to watch something in particular, to get ideas for blog posts.
6. Being indecisive. Fooling myself into believing I can start several projects for one client and not deciding which to finish for the week. This is anti-productivity (but is not the same as multi-tasking). It doesn’t work, and nothing done means no dinero.
7. Over-booking work. Taking on too much work because I don’t like to tell people “no.” As my online brand grew, the number of offers grew — though not being selective results in damaging to my reputation.
8. Attempting too much. Trying to cover way too much in a project. For example, trying to do a “31 and a half reasons” list instead of five, seven or maybe eleven good, well-thought out reasons that you can elaborate on. This over-reaching comes from an abject need to give that cliched “110%” on a project. The net result is performance anxiety and incomplete projects.
9. Working at home. This environment has its benefits, though there are many home-related distractions.

Ways to Fool the Anti-Muse

For years, when I was not writing creatively for a living, I had a writing muse, even a coding muse. However, sometime before I started freelance blogging full-time, that muse started going AWOL, showing up less and less often, occasionally replaced with an anti-muse. Here are some of the strategies I have to employ to fool that anti-muse:

1. Use two computers/ laptops.
   Run email and chat clients on one computer, A, and do work on the other, B. If you have a few people that need to communicate with you daily, set up a secret IM username and make sure they don’t give it out. This has worked very well for me. (I still do social voting for other online friends who either ask via email or use a social site’s “shout” feature.) You can still turn on IM accounts on computer A less frequently in the day. It’s easier to adhere to an “I’m only available on IM at such and such times of the day” rule. (Using two computers is not an option for everyone, but if you freelance at a home, and web-work is how you earn your living, you should think about having a backup computer anyway.)
2. Tune out.
   If computer A is getting too distracting with all the incoming message/tweet sounds, turn off the audio. The Twitter client Twhirl, for example, is configurable so that only incoming direct messages will cause a “beep”. That’s far less distracting than beeps on every tweet, and will alert you to when you might need to respond. In extreme cases, turn things off.
3. Turn off.
   If tuning out doesn’t help, turn off computer A’s screen and only check back once every few hours, or when you complete an important task. If you’re only working on one computer, just shut down all communications applications for a few hours. I have successfully tried answering emails only at lunch and supper times. It’s not easy for the perpetually distracted, but it’s possible. Just ask yourself, will any truly urgent message ever come in via email, IM, or Twitter? Probably not. So turn them off for now.
4. Seek virtual company.
   TV is a terrible distraction, and even if I’m “researching” ideas for pop culture articles, the TV eventually needs to be turned off. This is difficult for a TV addict, and if you’re at home and feeling lonely, it’s even worse. Listening to music sometimes helps, though everyone has their own idea of what type of music is productive or not - I prefer Baroque music, some types of opera, and occasionally rock - unless I feel compelled to sing along to Pavarotti or Rage Against the Machine. Spoken-word podcasts, on the other hand, nearly always work for me.

   On the other hand, I find that the spoken voice is at least soothing and rarely counter-productive. (This does not work for TV by leaving on audio and turning off the video simply because there’s too much content transition.) Another option is to simply set aside a bit of TV watching time, or take a short break at the local cafe - though I haven’t the discipline to pull the latter off. (I think this is something that varies a lot between different people. For example, I can’t listen to music with lyrics or have the TV on when I’m writing because I can’t tune it out. — Ed.)

5. Choose your battles.
   If too many projects for one client inhabit my mind and I can’t decide which to work on, I’ll try to suss out which requires the least time to complete and pick that one. If that’s no help, maybe it’s time to work on another client’s project. Still not productive? Maybe it’s time for a break.
6. Consider outsourcing.
   If you’re taking on too much work, there are only a few possible outcomes:
   1. Say “yes” and lose more of your personal time to get the work done, possibly having to outsource some of your personal tasks. Downside: more work, less play time.
   2. Say “yes” and don’t finish the work. Downside: damage your reputation (even if your intentions were good).
   3. Say “no”. Downside: losing a potential client.
   4. Say “yes” and delegate some of the work to a colleague or other freelancer. Downside: you’re on the hook for the quality of the work.
7. Respect yourself.
   For those of us who had to be competitive in our early years, and lived with that stupid “put in 110% effort” motto, it’s time for some self-respect. You’re more valuable to your clients when you complete 100% of a project on time rather than trying to offer 110+% and not getting anything done. Striving for perfection is fine if you don’t get obsessed — especially on flat-rate projects. Respect yourself and your clients, and streamline your “100%” effort so that 110% isn’t necessary.
8. Resolve your distractions.
   Every home-based freelancer will have different distractions, but do what you must to resolve them. Where I work, there are birds, cats, dogs and occasionally young men driving by in their loud cars. I have a very small window for my podcast recording work each week, and I try to schedule everything around this, if I have the luxury.

Final Thoughts

If the anti-muse has been visiting you far too often, some of the above might help. A few might seem anti-social, though when you’re a freelancer, it’s hard to justify being social if you’re not putting food on the table.

What distracts you when you’re working, whether at home, in a cafe, library or office? How do you cope with your work demons?