Evergreen Times

Are you considering being a freelance commercial writer? Thinking of hiring a freelance writer? Beware of these myths – and the people who have fallen for them. If you’re hoping to make a living from freelance writing, there are some realities to take on board. And if you’re hiring freelance writers, you need to beware of people who don’t recognize them.

Myth #1: It’s Easy, Unskilled Work

Anyone can be a Freelance writer! All you do is sit back and turn words into money. Um! Let’s rewind that. Not everyone can be a Freelance writer. Communication skills may be seen as “soft skills” but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to acquire.

Think about the way people speak. Some folks are expressive and always seem to know the right way to say things. Others have difficulty in expressing their thoughts.

But it’s easier to speak than to write. The technicalities do matter. A good freelance writer should know how to write a good introduction and how to structure information coherently. They should know how to segue into a conclusion and write a convincing call to action. They need to understand the rudiments of formatting and SEO writing.

That’s quite apart from spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: despite all the things we hear about how wonderful AI is, we don’t even have an infallible spelling and grammar checker yet.

Myth #2: You’ll Set Your Own Hours

I set my own hours: around 12 of them a day. If I take a day off, I don’t earn a cent. If I’m ill or there’s a family emergency, ditto. If you want to make a living from freelancing, you’ll work long hours and you’ll have deadlines. If you’re even remotely professional, you’ll have to manage your time carefully, but you’re working on estimates.

Some projects take longer than expected, and then you’ll end up with a knock-on effect that impacts all your other clients – unless you’re willing to put in a whole lot of extra hours. Your work decides your hours. You don’t – at least, not if you want to keep your customers happy!

Myth #3: You Decide How Much You Earn

As for earnings, there is such a thing as “market value,” and the ways in which that’s determined aren’t really “fair” to freelancers. Live with it. Life isn’t fair. Clients are price sensitive. Content may be king, but don’t expect to live like a king just because you produce it.

If someone in the Third World (like me) can produce content as good as yours for half the price you’d like to charge, that’s going to affect what people are willing to pay for your services, even though the cost of living may be higher in your country.

Even I have to compromise on my pricing, because I’m competing against people in countries like the Philippines, some of whom are really good writers. Sure, not everyone can write well, but don’t think you’re all that unusual just because you’re a native English speaker who can!

To crown it all, you get slow writers and fast writers. Some people take all day to craft what I can do as well, or better, in an hour or two. Time should be money, but in Freelance writing, it’s outputs that matter.

Then there are the projects themselves. You can spend all day working on a piece you thought would would take a few hours, and because most freelance projects are priced in advance, you can’t negotiate. You win some, and you lose some. You can decide what you think you ought to earn in a day, but you aren’t necessarily going to get it. Roll with the punches.

Believing Myths Leads to Unprofessional Work: Buyer Beware

So far, you might think that all of this relates to freelance writers rather than their clients. However, believing myths leads to a lack of professionalism, and if your writer is laboring under misconceptions, you’re going to have a hard time with them. Here’s what you should expect from a professional writer:

• Produces publishable, readable, correct work aligned with your brief
• Researches topics thoroughly – no rewrites based on a single source unless that’s what you asked for 
• Sticks to deadlines and informs you in advance if there are issues
• Is willing to accept input and make changes as needed
• Completes work they’ve committed to even if they underestimated pricing
• Never plagiarizes work
• Doesn’t use AI to do all or part of their work (AI can get things wrong in a spectacularly confident way)
• Never uses “spinning” software to reword existing articles. This is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, but some writers try to get away with it.

If your writer is buying into the bullshit about freelance writing, you won’t get one or more of these things. All the same, you shouldn’t expect less – not from a professional who does this for a living. Knowing how to get the best out of your relationship with a freelancer will help.

Of course, since this is the closing paragraph, I should remind you that if you’re looking for a good freelance content writer, you absolutely can’t go wrong if you choose me. But then again, it all depends on what you want and whether you like my work. Contact me if you enjoyed this article and think my writing might suit your needs.