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LinkedInThe freelancer’s short guide to getting paid
Recently, I wrote about freelance contracts, the point being to weed out bad clients at the beginning of a project and improve the odds of getting paid.
But what happens when a client doesn’t pay on time or refuses to pay altogether?
Let’s begin by looking at the right way to invoice for your freelance services.
After you’ve completed your work, make sure the client is happy and has received everything you have promised. This is important because you may think you’re finished when, actually, the client has a few extra changes to make.
Also, if you send documents by email, there’s always the chance they will get caught in a spam filter or may get lost in a client’s in-box.
Once you’ve confirmed the project is truly finished and your client is satisfied, send your invoice within a few days. There’s something irritating about sending a bill too soon, but you don’t want to drag it out either.
I create my invoices in OpenOffice from a template, save them as a PDF, and email them as an attachment. I add the words “Please confirm receipt” at the top of my email message and use the delivery status notification and return receipt features in my Thunderbird email program. Again, you want to be sure the email gets through.
In most cases, your invoice will be paid on time. But if it’s not, here are some tips:
7 elements of a solid freelance copywriting contract
Freelance copywriters can be a bit shy about the business end of freelancing, especially when it comes to contracts.
That’s because most freelancers are writers first and business people second.
But contracts are an essential part of any copywriting business. Why? Three reasons:
1. A contract helps you set a businesslike tone at the beginning of a project.
2. A contract specifies and clarifies your responsibilities and the obligations of your client, primarily the work you will do and what the client will pay.
3. A contract acts as a screening device to weed out bad clients.
For me, that last point is the most important.
An open letter to direct mail designers
When I first published this in Direct Marketing Magazine many years ago, it ignited a firestorm of hate mail from designers and agency creatives all over the country. It must have struck a nerve. That’s what happens when you tell the truth.
Dear Designer,
When clients go to the trouble and expense of doing a direct mailing, they expect results.
Response will be calculated. Orders will be tracked. Dollars will be counted. Profits will be measured a dozen ways. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars are riding on my shoulders and yours.
So I’d like to make a few suggestions:
Read the copy before you start designing. Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Sit back. Read every word. Twice. Make sure you understand what’s being said and why it’s being said.
Be clear on the benefits, the offer, and — most importantly — the action we want the reader to take. Every element of your design should help lead the reader toward that action.
You and I are partners in generating response. I’m the voice and you’re the body language. If we’re not in sync, we’ll blow it for the client.
Tons of productivity tips for professional writers
Did you ever take notes on an important topic, file them away, then forget about them?
Well, that’s what I did a couple years ago with some productivity tips for writers. I googled some nice links, thinking I’d do a quick blog post, then immediately forgot about them. Until now.
Actually, they aren’t all tips for writers. Some are for designers, bloggers, or small business owners. But they’re all good ideas from a variety of perspectives.
So here are a few of those long-lost productivity and time management tips.
- Productivity Tips for Writers
- Time management for graphic designers
- Productivity Tips for Bloggers
- 30 Productivity Tips for Designers
- Five fast email productivity tips
- Twenty Unique Ways to Use the 80/20 Rule Today
- The Productivity Trifecta, Part 1: The Word ‘No’
- Inbox Zero: Processing to zero
- 10 Productivity Tips for Home-Based Businesses
By the way, here’s a little piece of advice about productivity tips: You don’t have follow every bit of advice you read. Pick two or three that work for you and go for it.
If you spend too much time worrying about time, you end up wasting time!
Copywriting Revisions Gone Wild! Why it happens and how to handle it
It’s happened to all of us.
You take on what seems to be a normal copywriting project. You plan to do your research, write the copy, polish it, then submit it for review.
You figure the most you’ll get is a few minor changes. And at first, that seems to be the way things play out.
Then the project takes a nasty turn.
Your copy deck comes back bleeding red ink. You make the revisions, submit it again, and it comes back still bloody.
And it happens again, and again, and again. Sometimes you get a lot of changes. Sometimes it’s just one or two. But you start to feel like you’ll never stop revising.
What’s going on? And what can you do about it?
How to write engaging newsletter articles in 7 easy steps
When I recently asked for guest post submissions, I had no idea what I’d get. Well, what I got was nothing short of amazing.
It appears that I have some incredibly smart readers with plenty of know-how to share.
So I’m delighted to introduce my very first guest blog post, written by Sally Bagshaw, a writer and editor extraordinaire from the land down under (Brisbane, Australia).
***
Corporate newsletters are an important tool to communicate with employees, clients, prospects, or suppliers. But like blogging, newsletters can become a victim of not enough time, not enough material to work from, or not enough inspiration.
What starts out as a regular, engaging and proactive tool slowly degrades into a half-baked email sent out once every blue moon. Subscribers slip away, employees disengage, and an important communication opportunity vanishes.
So what do you do? How do you come up with and write newsletter articles that are interesting?
Would you like to write for Pro Copy Tips?
When I started Pro Copy Tips, I wanted it to be a place where anyone who writes copy could learn how to do it better — whether they’re full-time or part-time, employee or freelancer, entrepreneur or business executive.
It’s also a place where you can learn about starting and running a freelance business from someone who actually makes a living at it.
But as much as I like sharing all these tips with you, I’m just one guy. There are others who do what I do, and they all have a unique set of skills and know-how.
So if you’re an experienced copywriter, I want to share your wisdom here on Pro Copy Tips. Whaddya say?
The hidden motivators that make people buy stuff
If you’re writing an ad to sell a new floor mop, the very first question you should ask yourself is “Why would someone want to buy a new floor mop?”
It seems like an easy question with an obvious answer: to get the floor clean. Right? Well, maybe. But it’s usually not that simple.
Sure, maybe I have a dirty floor. But why do I care if my floor is clean? Why is my old mop not good enough? Could it be that my neighbor’s floor looks nicer than mine and what I really want is to fit in? Keep up with my neighbor? Avoid embarrassment?
There are two levels in every buying decision. The first level is logical: I need a new mop because my old one isn’t doing the job as well. The second level is emotional: I’m embarrassed by the stubborn spots on my floor (or whatever my individual reason might be).
Are you the job type or the freelance type?
If you want to make a career of copywriting, should you look for a full-time job or strike out on your own as a freelancer?
Good question.
With the economy the way it is, there’s a lot of curiosity about freelancing. So much so that I created a copywriter information center on my business site with quite a bit of information about this.
Over my career, I’ve done both the job thing and the freelance thing and have come to the conclusion that freelancing is what I like best.
I earn good money, set my own hours, and don’t have to deal with the stress of traffic, corporate politics, and an office full of idiots and suck-ups.
Oh, and no ties. I hate ties. I work in jeans and Hawaiian shirts (which I love but my wife thinks are ugly). Yes, I know I’m wearing a tie in my publicity photo, but I did it just that once. And with therapy, I’ve recovered fairly well.
But that’s just me. What’s best for you?
How “productive slacking” can make you more creative
Are you a slacker? There are times when you should be.
If you make your living as a copywriter, or if you do any other type of creative work, you probably have moments when you feel burned out and creative ideas elude you.
You may compensate by working even harder, stubbornly pushing your brain to create more and more ideas, but finding that every idea is crap. Your creativity seems to evaporate.
The problem may be that you’re working too hard to be creative and need a lesson in the art of productive slacking. To explain, let me tell you a little story.
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