6 things I’ve learned in 6 years of freelance writing

"I accidentally started a freelance writing business in 2018."

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By

Alexis Damen

I accidentally started a freelance writing business in 2018. 

I was burned out from building my clothing brand on Shopify and was trying to figure out what to do next. A contact of mine was a freelance writer for Shopify, so I asked her how that works and if I could try it. She kindly introduced me to the content marketing manager for the Shopify Retail blog. 

I explained that I had zero paid writing experience, but I managed the blog for my Shopify store for the last few years. I mentioned that I would be a great fit for the Retail blog based on my previous experience building a Shopify store and working in the fashion industry for almost a decade before that. I received my first paid trial assignment and the rest is history. 

Not really. But it did motivate me to take freelancing seriously. I realized I could make a living doing this and was eager to get more clients and grow my business. Since then, I’ve established a 6-figure freelance writing business.

Here are the top six things I’ve learned in six years of freelance writing. 

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1. Narrow down your service offering (at first)  

At first, I tried to sell myself as an online marketing generalist. I had worked on a holistic digital marketing strategy for my clothing brand and thought I could offer all those services (like social media management, email marketing, blogging, influencer partnerships, etc.) to potential clients. 

I was wrong.

Trying to sell a full range of services made it hard for me to sell myself. I didn’t know where to focus, and it was even harder for prospective clients to understand the value I could add to their business.

I overcame this challenge by narrowing my service offering and specializing in content marketing and writing for SaaS companies with products and solutions for e-commerce and retail merchants. This made the most sense because my previous career was in fashion, before launching my clothing brand and using Shopify for my e-commerce.

I could easily get into the minds of my ideal clients’ target audience, making it easier to create content that resonates with them. My background (plus homing in on my services) made it easier for clients to see why I was right for the job.

With time, I expanded my service offering. Now I offer content strategy and writing mainly for blog articles (SEO, thought leadership, and case studies), landing pages, white papers, newsletters, and email nurture sequences. I don’t offer high-level email marketing or social media strategies. Instead, I focus on blog content strategies and on-page SEO strategies for blogs and landing pages.

It’s tempting to offer something for everyone, but my freelance writing business didn’t take off until I got super specific with my service offering.

Ask yourself these questions to narrow down your offering:

1. How can your background be applied to your writing career — what are you knowledgeable about? Can you consider yourself a subject matter expert?

2. What’s your ideal type of client?

3. Do you prefer long-form or short-form writing?

4. How can you position yourself? What’s your unique selling point?

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2. Setting boundaries is OK

I think most freelancers (writers and other specialists) fall into the trap of not setting boundaries with clients at least once in their freelancing journey. I certainly have. 

When you’re starting, it’s hard to resist making yourself available and pouring yourself into projects. You want to be successful and make sure you can maintain and grow your freelance business.

But there’s a fine line between wowing clients and being treated like a full-time employee even though you’re technically a freelancer (who doesn’t have any full-time benefits). I learned this the hard way.

I had a monthly retainer client early on in my freelancing career and I was so eager to learn and please them that I involved myself more and more (my pay increased too), but I was still a freelancer. I didn’t have any full-time benefits. I took a few days of paid time off, but I didn’t bill the client for longer out-of-office periods.

Before I knew it, I was getting added to weekly meetings without being asked, I was managing two other people, and I was managing loads of projects outside my content marketing and writing responsibilities. When I tried to explain this to the CEO (and ask for more money) or to reduce my responsibilities, he pushed up against this boundary I was trying to create.

In the end, the only way I could escape this situation was to first, take a break from working for the client and then come back in a different capacity. Luckily, the owner was open to this. I could have also taken a break and lost the client entirely. I was willing to let that happen, but it worked out OK.

I replaced them (because they were my primary client) with a new retainer client. But this time, I set the right boundaries from the get-go.

Setting these expectations upfront has helped me avoid getting pulled into projects or tasks unrelated to what I was hired for. I have also avoided filling my week with meetings. One of the benefits of freelancing is that you can focus on your craft versus spending multiple hours a week tied up in meetings that usually could be discussed async.

Ask yourself these questions to determine your boundaries:

1. How many weekly or monthly meetings are you willing to have with each client?

2. Do you want to be available via Slack or do you prefer email communication?

3. Depending on the client relationship, are you occasionally willing to step outside of scope? (I’m more flexible with monthly retainer clients, but it has to be within reason.)

4. How can you make these boundaries clear in your freelancing agreement?
   

💡Pro Tip: Tell clients you expect them to respond within a certain timeframe to keep projects moving forward. I usually propose a 24-hour response time (during business days) from both sides, but decide what works best for you. 

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3. Don’t “jump on a call” with every prospective client

Guard your time. It’s valuable.

As a freelancing newbie, I was so excited when potential new clients contacted me. I would reply immediately and schedule a call. 98% of the time it was a waste of my time. It was either companies that didn’t have a budget or people trying to “pick my brain” and gain insight into how to build a content strategy or some other advice.

After experiencing this a few times, I created a “new client” intake form. I send this to everyone who contacts me, no matter the perceived size of the client (unless I have been referred by someone I previously worked with). 

I review the responses to gauge whether it’s worthwhile to schedule a call. I ask questions about their content goals, who’s currently working on content, their budget, and what types of projects they need help with. Usually, prospective clients will not reveal their budget. I think it’s a combination of them not knowing what content strategy and writing services usually cost and not wanting to go too high.

Even with this screening process, I’m still sometimes confronted with the challenge of trying to explain how I can help without giving away too much strategic advice. After filling in the form, some people still ask questions that I’d usually only discuss once we’re working together. I  avoid giving out strategic advice by saying something along the lines of, “If we decide to work together, we can discuss your strategy in more detail.”

Over to you:

1. Use my Typeform questionnaire as a starting point to create your new client intake form (Google Forms also works). 

2. Include all the questions you need answered to decide whether chatting with the prospective client is worth your time.

3. Don’t make the form too long as that could result in a lot of drop-offs, defeating the purpose of it in the first place.

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4. Keep learning and uplevel your skills 

When I started freelancing, I wasn’t even calling myself a writer yet. I had never been paid to write before. My previous experience involved developing a content strategy for the blog on my e-commerce website and writing the articles. But I didn’t even know at the time that it was called content marketing and I knew nothing about SEO. 

As I mentioned, my first gig was SEO content writing for the Shopify Retail blog. I was hired (I think) because of my subject matter expertise.

Anyway, owning my new-found career as a freelance writer specializing in SEO content meant I had to improve my writing skills, gain a deeper understanding of SEO, and absorb all the feedback I could get from the content marketer and editor at Shopify.

I read these books about writing:

• How to Write Short by Roy Peter Clark

• On Writing Well by William Zinnser

• BONUS: I recently finished On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King — I highly recommend it! 

I used these websites as resources to learn more about on-page SEO and SEO writing:

• Yoast

• Neil Patel

• Moz

• Semrush

I also studied how the outlines for Shopify articles assigned to me were developed to see if I could crack the code on SEO writing.

Long story short, my curiosity and eagerness to develop my writing and complementary skills (like on-page SEO) helped me grow as a freelancer. Not that I don’t think being a writer is enough, but I think positioning myself as a writer who also understands SEO and can develop an SEO content strategy helped me land some of my first few clients looking to increase organic search traffic. 

As I mentioned before, I only offered SEO content strategy and writing services initially, but once I gained more confidence and experience, I expanded my services by accepting new challenges and continuing to self-learn.

Take a moment to think about how you can set yourself apart or improve:

1. Have you noticed the same type of feedback from multiple clients or on multiple assignments? This might be something to explore and learn more about outside of your work. 

2. Are you curious about what it takes to be an editor? 

3. Do you want to learn about SEO writing like me? 

4. Do you want to try a different type of writing like thought leadership or ghostwriting, for example?  

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5. Charge per project instead of per hour or word

I never charge for writing services per hour or word. Depending on the client’s needs, I either set up a monthly retainer or charge them per assignment. Let’s say a client needs help with SEO content strategy and writing for their blog. In this case, I would propose a monthly retainer for a set number of deliverables. For example:

• Monthly SEO content strategy

• 1 check-in meeting per month

• 4 SEO blog articles per month delivered via Google Docs

If the client only needs writing support for SEO blog articles based on a strategy they’ve already developed, I charge a flat fee per article based on the word count. I don’t have a set price that I pitch to every client. I have a minimum and then depending on the type of client (and whether they’re willing to reveal their budget), I propose a rate. I generally break down the per-article fees based on these word counts:

• Up to 1500 words - €X

• 1500 to 2000 words - €X

• 2000 to 2500 words - €X

• 2500 to 3000 words - €X

• 3000 - 3500 words - €X

• 3500 - 4000 words - €X

• 4000+ words - TBD based on project scope

My rates for other services like white papers/gated guides, newsletters, and email sequences differ and depend on the project scope. I charge 20% more for ghostwriting services if it’s per assignment. Why? Because bylines help me get new clients. So, if I’m not going to get public credit for my work (and potentially reach new clients), I charge more. If it’s part of a retainer agreement, I bake it into the price.

💡Not sure how to calculate your freelance writing rates? You’re in luck! I created a handy dandy rate calculator that you can use! 💸It’s part of my Freelance Writer’s Playbook. 

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How To Fall Back in Love With Your Own Writing

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6. Know when to outsource and when to take time off

Sometimes it’s hard to say no to new clients. Especially when you’re a freelancer because the work can be inconsistent. But I’ve learned this the hard way. I’ve overloaded myself to the point that I was working weekends and constantly feeling stressed — it also affects the quality of my work. So nowadays, I remember to take breaks, avoid taking on too many clients, and outsource when it makes sense (slash if it won’t be too much extra work for me). 

I’ve also learned to guard my time off. I’ve been in situations where I planned time off and then a new assignment popped up so I worked during my vacation. I don’t do this anymore. Sometimes I even take a whole month off and tell my retainer clients I won’t bill them that month. They’ve all been fine with it. Freelancers are humans too. We need time off. 

Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. Crazy, right? The study I linked is from 2016, so it’s probably even worse nowadays with our decreased attention spans. 

I keep this in mind when I feel like I should be working (in deep focus mode) for eight hours or more a day. It’s just not possible. At the most, I can write for around four hours a day and then spend one to two hours on admin and project management. 

As freelancers, we don’t (or shouldn’t) have meetings that fill up our calendars. I used to feel like I should be working all those hours, but that’s the beauty of freelance writing. You have the space to create and you can avoid all the meetings. When you’re done creating, you’re done. 

Take a break! 

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Here’s to the next six years 

My freelance writing journey has been filled with lessons that have shaped both my career and personal growth. From learning the importance of narrowing down my service offerings to setting firm boundaries with clients, each experience has contributed to building a successful and sustainable freelance business. Guarding my time, continuously improving my skills, and knowing when to step back or outsource have been crucial in maintaining a healthy work-life balance and ensuring consistent, high-quality output for my clients.

Freelance writing isn’t just about crafting words; it’s about strategically positioning yourself, managing your business effectively, and taking care of your well-being. Whether you’re just starting or are a seasoned freelancer, I hope these insights help you navigate the complexities of freelancing. 

Before you go, I’d love to keep in touch. My Substack isn’t solely about being a freelance writer. It’s a mix of personal essays about life, creativity, career, and everything in between, with a splash of humor. Feel free to Subscribe! 

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