Whether you’ve set yourself up as an independent contractor or an LLC, you’ll need to track your financial progress throughout the year. If you can’t afford to hire a bookkeeper, a well-designed spreadsheet is a great budgeting tool. Quicken and QuickBooks can help you stay organized as well; PayPal can help you receive income quickly and safely. Regardless of how savvy you are, if you stay organized tax time and budgeting will be painless.
Freelance Writing Tip #8: Think You’re a Writer? Write!
Many, many people claim to be a writer. They say they’ve written a book, hidden in their attic, or they say that they published a poem four years ago that rivals Emily Dickinson’s Poems. No matter how you sugar-coat it, you can’t really call yourself a writer if you don’t write on a consistent basis. Writing isn’t like riding a bike; the only way you get any writing done, and improve your writing, is if you write a little bit every day whether you’re writing-for-hire or writing for yourself. So what are you waiting for? Get writing today!
Freelance Writing Tip #7: Verify Your Online Sources
Check out online entry’s bibliographies; the more accurate the entry, the more detailed the cited sources are. Wikipedia has a full reference guide at the bottom of every entry; make sure you read through the list. Get different points-of-view before you make a judgment call—especially on controversial topics—to help you be more objective before you write. Keep a good list of your sources for an assignment whenever possible; you may be required to list them for your publication.
Freelance Writing Tip #3: Estimate Your Word Count
Many publications will either pay you by the word or by the page; one formatted page is equivalent to about 500 words. Figure out how many words you can realistically write in an hour, a typical week, or a month. There are several free word count meters available for you to use to help you determine what your limits are.