As an online professional, I’ve probably worked with well over a hundred clients in the last few years. The same can be said for other online professionals who work at a certain level of the industry. By referring one companion service to the other, you effectively double the amount of clients you might be getting.

Of course, I’m not going to gain hundreds of clients overnight by making a new friend with a web design company. It just doesn’t work that way. But he might have a new client who asks for content along with a site design. My friend is great with design and development, but might not be so hot when it comes to some killer words for the site. So he outsources the content to me. He takes a cut, naturally, but that’s the way business is done.

On the flip side, I have the opportunity to return the favor when a client asks me for referrals in the web design or development field. This happens more often than you might think. It’s very hard for professionals to find reliable, effective workers who understand how to run a business and how to be the steady professionals companies are seeking.

When the client finds one professional he or she can trust, it’s not at all uncommon to ask that provider for referrals for all of the other online services needed. The more contacts you have within the industry, and the better reputation you have, the more your business can grow through networking.

I do like  bit of variety in my life, so I don’t imagine I’d ever turn down a project that fit into my considerable experience or into a niche I thought was fun, but with the amount of certification, background and experience I have, specialization for the majority of my work is simply the future of my writing career.

Some writers specialize very early on, and I did do a bit of specialization in parenting, education and home topics. I still like those topics as well, and I might change directions again. However, for now, I’m going to start working on some serious books and ideas for a website that specializes in education so that I can someday market it separately and even do consulting and presentations to others. Will I be doing those tomorrow? Nope. I still love teaching and writing. Will I be doing them someday? I’m sure of it.

But like those of us who are successful in business know, you have to move forward with steady, certain steps, and that is what I’ve planned. I’ll build the brand and the blog first while also maintaining this one a bit more steadily. Then, I’ll move into more print work and instruction and training. That ought to take me nicely into a semi-retired state close to age 50. Only 20 more years to plug away at it!

Website visitors don’t want to read content that is packed with unnatural SEO keywords repeated many times over. However, working in keywords properly will naturally help your search engine results and are important for linking your content with interested users. When creating online content, your task is to combine the needs of users and search engines in order to boost the quality and exposure of your content.

Clear Content Message
Confusing content simply doesn’t get through to users. When looking for content online, users are searching for clear messages that are easy to read, easy to understand and are relevant to their needs. To ensure your content meets these requirements, you must always write content with a purpose and get to your points quickly but efficiently. Simplicity is what you should be aiming for, and this is best incorporated into your content by approaching each task as a visiting user. You must always ask yourself, what will the user be looking for when they view my content?

By making your content message as clear as possible and supplementing it with all the necessary details, you will make the user’s task of finding what they need from your content an easier process. However, creating a clear content message also extends to the highly important content titles and descriptive titles. Users won’t be bothered to read through your content if you don’t have clear titles that match your content and your web pages will be ranked lower in search engines because of it.

Thorough and Scannable Information
You’ll likely have plenty of information to cover when creating each individual piece of content. The more thorough your content creation is, the better it can help your users. Users love content where they only need to spend a few seconds to find the information they need. This technique minimizes time wasting, and there is no reason why you should waste your time creating excessive content if it is not necessary.

Improving the quality of your thorough content to boost search engine results and user exposure requires creating content that is easily scannable. Prioritize your content by placing the key details first and structuring the supplemental evidence and information. Users will always love having the ability to find the primary details near the beginning of the content and locating supplemental information further on as necessary. Creating clear subtitles, using lists and pre-planning your paragraph structures are all critical in turning thorough information into scannable content.

Keywords
As you improve your ability to create clear content messages and structure your information into scannable material, you’ll eventually be able to incorporate SEO keywords in a natural manner. Nothing disrupts clear content more than inserting a high percentage of keywords just to appease search engines. Never feel pressured to incorporate search engine keywords to optimize your content. Instead, develop a list of keywords beforehand and practice incorporating them naturally into your creative content ideas, planning and writing. Through practice and analysis, you’ll be able to hit your desired 2 to 3 percent keyword density without forcing it into your content for the sake of search engines and users.

Philip Rudy helps run and maintain www.ContentCustoms.com which is an Internet marketing company that provides article writing services.

Work-Life Balance

For most working parents, a work-life balance means staying at work long enough to get the job done and then coming home to be with family and take care of the home. For freelancers who work in the midst of their family, there is a decided overlap that can be difficult to work with at times. In an office you can focus on work while on work time, but at home, unless you arrange an alternative childcare situation, you have to create your own work time – sometimes forcibly carving it out of time you’d rather spend elsewhere.

Life as a Freelancing Parent

The parent of small children is run ragged from the early morning wake-up call until the blessedly early bedtimes these little ones need at the end of the day. It is those early bedtimes that make freelancing possible in many cases. Baby goes to bed, and mom goes to work. If you’re lucky enough to enjoy naptime during the day, you might pick-up another hour or two of work time as well. Freelancing parents are up early, up late, and driven during those few quite daytime hours to make the job fit in an already full lifestyle.

Freelancing and Childcare

Many freelancing parents grow tired of burning the candle from both ends and opt for a part-time childcare arrangement. A mother’s helper might come for a few hours in the morning to give mom (or dad) a break from the childcare routine and time to work interrupted. A part-time daycare provider or babysitter is another popular option to buy some time for work during the day. But for many freelancing purists, sending children out when they could be at home the way the parent originally intentioned is hard to come to grips with.

Freelancing parents should have the best of both worlds. They should be able to work from the comfort of home and have ample time with their children. The trouble for most parents, especially those with young children, is that between working and fulfilling the endless needs and wants of small children, there isn’t time for anything else including housework, hobbies or even “me” time.

Working Arrangements

To make freelancing fit with raising children and trying to keep a semblance of a normal life, you’ll need to make sacrifices of some kind. Your house will likely not be perfectly clean or even in a state resembling clean. Those comfortable sweats might make take on a more permanent place in your wardrobe and the few salvaged hours for television or phone conversations might be performed as double duty – slinging laundry while watching three weeks worth of your favorite shows in a single sitting.

Your spouse will play a huge role in how well you cope with the insane schedule of working from home and successfully raising your children. Let your partner pick up some of the slack and make clear distinctions of household duties to be sure that all of the biggest jobs get covered every week in one way or anther.

Finally, when you earn a rare moment when everything went well, sit back with those warm babies in your lap and be grateful that you have the option to be home, even if you’re working harder than anyone outside of your situation could ever imagine.

This post first appeared on GoingFreelance.com

Fortunately these three types of writers don’t have to exist separately, and there is much to learn from all three – especially if you find yourself dissatisfied at times with your own area of the freelance writing business.

Writers as Artists

There is a great deal of glamour in the image of the writer holed up in the cottage by the sea for months on end banging out a novel on an old fashioned typewriter. Hollywood loves these writers for their sheer romantic imagery. The problem with that image, however, is that very few writers are getting paid to sit in rented cottages writing books on spec. Hence, a bit of practicality is in order.

By all means get a cabin by the sea – why not? Freelance writers can live anywhere there’s an internet connection. And pound away on the typewriter until your fingers bleed, although a laptop might be more practical in the long-run. But live the starving artist lifestyle to protect your artistic integrity? Only if you’re into Ramen noodles. Taking the artistry down a notch, at least a few days a week, and you can ease into better business practices and earn a bit more to sustain yourself until that novel is finished.

Writers as Businesspeople

The writer who recognizes a craft and then markets it can turn a fair profit. The better your business skills, the better your writing business will be. There are many writers today who can bring in business and turn out finished products, but it all gets a bit dry sometimes. When you realized you’re forcing yourself to write about dog food and you’d rather stick pin in your eye than write another word, take a step back.

Learn from those that love the craft and turn what you do into an art form as well as a business model. Write prose or poetry. Start a blog just for the sake of writing about things you love and enjoy. You can monetize it later. Or don’t monetize it at all and just enjoy journaling online to get some of the demons out. Write something pretty just because it’s, well, pretty!

Writing as a Hobby

Hobbyist writers are the best of the breed. They don’t have to earn a living and they don’t have to craft a tome worthy of the classics. They can just write about cooking shrimp or local politics to make their hearts feel super happy, to borrow a phrase from a rather annoying show my kids watch on occasion. If we were to all focus on writing more about what makes us feel good, the simple pleasure of the hobby can blend with the artistry or words to make us enough money to satisfy the capitalist in us all. It’s a potent mixture, but one spicy enough to make writing fun every day – or almost every day, which is good enough for me.

This post first appeared on GoingFreelance.com

I’ve secretly know it for years, but apparently others are catching on. I’m absolutely amazing! Okay, seriously now, I was mentioned in Allena’s recent post on her About.com blog. It was very nice of her to throw some love this way, and I absolutely appreciate it.

Where is this rock star writing of mine? Don’t worry – it’s not this post. It’s a recent post I made on Jenn’s blog AllFreelanceWriting.com.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself:  Freelance Writing Blogs: Cream of the Crop Posts.

Write a Business Plan

Simply stated, a business plan is a blueprint of what you’re offering and how you’re going to do it. A true business plan is usually presented to others, but yours can be more casual. The purpose here is to organize your thoughts and present yourself properly when it’s time to launch the business. The business plan is just that – planning. When creating your plan, consider:

- What you’re going to sell.

- How you’re going to sell it.

- How your services will be priced.

- How you’re going to find clients and an audience.

- Where you’re going to get funding to develop any necessary initial marketing.

- The name and brand of your service.

In your plan, you should determine specifics and they should be measurable. If you say, “I want to write for the web and make money,” you’re starting without focus. If your plan is more specific, “I will create PLR article packs and sell them for $20 in the education niche,” you can create and then measure that goal accordingly.

Create Your Brand

You might be writing to raise a few hundred a month for extras around the house, but to be taken seriously you’ll need a true brand online. That means a full internet presence – website, blog, personality, avatar and logo. Blogs are simple to start, and registering a domain and getting WordPress installed is simple enough. Remember to use your best skills and put a professional face on your site. It’s telling others how well you know the marketplace and why they should hire you to write for them.

Build a Community and Network

Being successful online is more than a simple thread on a forum or two. If you’re answering advertisements for penny articles, you’re likely selling yourself short. Take charge of your own career by focusing on your network and community rather than individual articles or gigs. By gaining reputation in your field and in the niches you choose to work in, you’ll be gaining traction for the long-term rather than an endless series of cheap articles written for random clients.

Over time, it is your network and professional reputation that lead to additional assignments and referrals. Every thing you do online and ever post you make it part of your professional image. You’re running a business staked on your personal integrity and reputation, and protecting and advancing that career is very easily a full-time job. But it’s hopefully one that you enjoy and find successful.

This post first appeared on GoingFreelance.com

Work’s Not Fun Anymore

There are elements of every job that can drag us down, but freelancing is usually a choice and we opt to freelance because we like it. But when the job isn’t fun anymore and you feel more stressed than productive, it’s time to cut back and take a few days off. Rearrange your schedule, put a vacation auto-reply up and take forty-eight hours (or longer!)  to be with your family, play with the dog, finish projects around the house or get out of town to clear your head. When you sit back down at the computer, you’ll be refreshed, hopefully better rested and ready to go.

Your Work Is Suffering

Being overdrawn and taxed isn’t good for you or your work (or your bank account.) What’s worse is you often don’t realize how poor your quality has become while you’re overdoing it. Pulling an all-nighter to get a project in before the deadline or because you’re “in the zone” can be productive to a degree, but the materials you’re creating are likely not up to your usual standards no matter how wonderful you thought they were at the time. When you start finding typos, wrong information and sloppy work, it’s time to slow down. Most mistakes happen when you’re tired or you’re rushed. If you’re both, you’re looking at trouble. For a freelancer, being sloppy can mean time-intensive revisions or a lost client,

You’re Too Busy

Only you know what’s too busy, but if you’re starting to see clues that you’re pushed past the limits of what’s reasonable, scale back. There is a steeper curve at the beginning of every new business as you get things started up and market your initial services, but once you’re in a groove, you probably don’t need to be working twelve hour days and neglecting your health, hobbies or family. If you’re too busy to do the things you like to do outside of the office, you need a break. At the minimum try a modified schedule to give yourself more work-life balance.

You’re Frustrated with Your Future

There comes a time for many freelancers when they realize they want a change. You might be happy churning out articles or sales letters every day, but we all need variety in our life. If you’re stuck in a rut and frustrated by your lack of available time to try anything new or even think about what sort of new avenues you’d like to pursue, consider taking a day out of the week to build up a new product line or service offering while keeping your current business going. Take a break for a day or an hour a day if that’s all you can spare to investigate where you want to go and what you want to do next. It keeps momentum in your career which is essential for moving forward in any business.

This post first appeared on GoingFreelance.com

What’s Your Business Plan?

Too often, online freelancers take the leap into full-time work before they fully realize what they are doing. They realize they’ve made enough to live on for a few months and decide they can make even more staying home and writing or designing full-time. So they quit. In a simple world, this plan has merit. But this is not a simple world.

Working online is dynamic and ever changing. You must have a plan for the next few months, the next few years and the next few decades. How are you going to proceed from here and where do you want to end up? What’s your retirement plan? Fill in the blanks in between here and then until you can see where you’re headed and what it will take to get there.

Do You Have the Right Contacts?

What sort of freelance work are you doing? Are you writing haphazard articles for clients as they appear in various webmaster forums? Unfortunately these clients come and go for the most part. If you don’t have a well developed collection of clients in all walks of life, your basis is not covered for future and steady work. Likewise, you need to know others in the industry to network professionally if you plan to make freelancing your new career. Who you know in a freelance sense is almost more important than what you do.

How Much Do You Have in Savings?

The current economy has made it abundantly clear just how dangerous it can be to live from one paycheck to the next. Stashing a bit in savings is fine for the occasional emergency repair while you still have a steady paycheck. However, you should have a minimum of three months income in savings to cover your bills should you lose your salaried job. As a freelancer, you need even more.

The internet marketplace goes up and down dramatically. While this can take a hit on your earnings, the real risk is from life itself. Should you break your hand while an employee the company will be all but required to make accommodations. If you break your hand as a freelancer, you’ll be out the higher insurance costs for medical care and be limited in your productivity if you happen to need that hand to type or design. There are no safety nets in freelancing – you create your own.

Have You Considered Tax Implications?

Many freelance writers don’t initially realize the full tax implications of their new part-time career. The money you make as a freelancer is part of your income and must be declared on your tax return. Unless you’ve been putting 20 percent of those funds aside for the tax man, you’ll wind up with a bit of a surprise come April 15.

As a freelancer, you’ll need to be even more prepared. Learn about the benefits of different tax structures and how to file quarterly and set up withholding on your own freelance income to be sure you can pay your taxes on time. Your freelance earnings will be taxed at a higher rate because you’re self employed and must pay your own social security. Include all of those variables in your current freelance income and you might realize your earnings aren’t as comfortable as you thought they were.

What’s Plan B?

The corporate world isn’t always kind to freelancers seeking to return to the corporate world, especially if you aren’t freelancing in a field that translates directly back to the office job. If freelancing becomes problematic or you simply can’t handle the stress of the variable income, you need to have a Plan B.

Will you beg for your old job back? Look for one in the field you’ve been freelancing? Go back to school so that your resume is a bit fresher? Leaving the corporate world with connections will give you some lifelines should you need them down the road. Be sure to continue cultivating those relationships and develop marketable skills.

This post first appeared on GoingFreelance.com