Evergreen Times

Freelance content writing might seem like an easy gig, but your path is littered with stumbling blocks that you’ll need to avoid. In an earlier post, you’ll find tips to help you craft better copy. This post covers things that it doesn’t, so take basics like “don’t write lengthy sentences” and “make it easy to read but don’t dumb down” as given. We might double down a few little issues, but as far as possible, we’re going to try to avoid repeating what has already been said.

Here are some of the top errors I think freelance writers can make. Avoid them by researching carefully, proofreading well, and getting a clear brief from your client.

1. Not Knowing Your Audience

Before you can communicate effectively with people, it helps to know who they are. Some companies profile their ideal customers by creating personas: fictitious people who you can “talk” to when you write. I like this approach because, no matter what kind of writer you are, your work is going to be read by people. It’s easier to engage them if you “know” them.

If you fail to know your audience, you stand a good chance of losing their interest fast. Writing for CEOs? Pitching your information to help small business owners? The same information can be presented in different ways. Context is everything.

2. What is TOV? Failing to Project the Personality

Businesses have “personalities” just as people do. Since you’re representing your clients, understanding what personality they hope to project is a big help. Your writing must be consistent with their brand and the business’s culture. Neutrality, just presenting the facts, is a good default, but some businesses want more than that.

The personality your clients want to convey may not change the nature of the facts you offer up, but it will affect the tone of voice (TOV) you use when doing so. Here’s an example.

“In diabetes, insulin deficiency , or insulin resistance, can cause hyperglycemia.”

“When you have diabetes, your body doesn’t produce enough insulin or doesn’t react to it as it should. The amount of sugar in your blood can reach harmful levels.”

Our first example talks to people who already have a good grasp of the terminology, and the rest of the article would probably go into greater depth so that readers can get information they don’t already have.

Our second example talks to someone who is new to the topic and is easier to process and understand. It’s friendlier, much more informal, and somehow more sympathetic without being patronising. It wouldn’t do if the audience consisted of GPs, but it’s fine for ordinary folks. That brings us to the next point.

3. Being “Clever” When “Clever” Isn’t Called For

It’s fine to throw in a lame joke or two, provided your topic isn’t terribly serious. It can be fun to look for an unusual simile or play on words; and it can be tempting to show people just how much of an expert you are; but never, ever try to be “clever.” It can be a tricky balance, but if you remember why people are reading your article, it can help you to avoid this pitfall.

Keep your purpose in view. You’re there for your reader – not to gratify your ego. You’re not there to show them that you’re amusing or more intelligent than they are. If the brief calls for a little joking around, let your hair down, but never crack a joke at the expense of your reader or leave them wondering what the heck you just meant.

At the other end of the scale, don’t write in a way that Joe Average who is in a hurry and who is skimming your article on the go, won’t understand at a glance. I once did work for a guy who was into cybersecurity, and just trying to figure out what he did from reading his website was a tough call. If people have that level of technical knowledge, they probably don’t need your services.

Once again, purpose matters. If you want people who don’t understand your field well to get help from you, don’t try to blind them with science. If you’re pitching to experts, sure, go bananas and be as “clever” as you like.

4. Not Doing Manual Editing

No matter how well you write, and no matter what editing tools are at your disposal, never miss manual editing. The words may have flowed magnificently as you typed, but that doesn’t mean they’ll read well.

Editing tools have serious imitations. They won’t spot repetition as you hammer home a favourite point, and there are even grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors that they’ll either miss or encourage you to make.

As for style errors, they don’t have a hope, and I don’t think they ever will, no matter how good AI gets. As in love with AI as we may be, AI is dumb. It doesn’t know how to be a person or read like a person. So, “person” up and edit manually.

5. Failing to Fact Check

Freelancer ethics: do they exist? Well, it depends on the freelancer, but if you’re aiming to be one of the good guys, be sure to fact check. There’s so much misinformation out there, that it can be all too easy to include a falsehood or misconception in your articles. Sometimes, it can come as a result of your poor comprehension of a source, and sometimes it’s the fault of the source itself.

I’d like to illustrate this with the way journalists interpret scientific studies. Scientific studies are very careful about what they’ve actually managed to prove, and they’ll usually sate conclusions using language like this: “Based on the data collected in this study, it appears that X may be more prevalent among Y in (set of circumstances).”

How do journalists interpret this? Headline style: “Y Causes X, Study Says” when it actually does nothing of the kind – or at least, only provides evidence that it may be a cause. “May” and “is” are two different things and the “data collected in this study” may not be representitive despite the researchers’ best efforts. But, when you’re doing your research, what do you see first? The headline, of course.

Don’t assume that other writers have done their homework. Do your own. Track it all the way back to your source’s source.

I Can Be a Pain to Work With – But There are Always Reasons

As the header for a section containing my CTA, it’s probably not great, but it’s true. I can be a pain to work with. If you’re a writer, so should you, at times.

Audience and TOV are things you can work around, at least, up to a point; manual editing is your job and shouldn’t bother your clients – unless they’re checking your work with Grammarly and taking its results as gospel. Not trying to sound like a Clever Dickens isn’t usually an issue either. Most clients recognise the importance of comprehensibility.

In my experience, it’s facts that turn out to be the main issue when it comes to conflict in the freelancer-client relationship. Although we freelancers are entering into “you pay me and I write it” agreements, there should be limits. Misinformation is a curse on modern-day society, and we should never consciously propagate it.

It’s not just a matter of allowing people to believe things that are wrong. There could be serious financial and health consequences in some instances. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be sued for that, but you should care anyway – even if that means you lose a client. It’s about being a decent person. And most of us want that.

And if, after all that, you’re looking for a freelance content writer and would like to work with me, you might not find it so painful after all. Drop me a line. Let’s give it a whirl.