Possibly the trickiest aspect of my job as a freelance writer is actually managing my time efficiently. I would estimate that around 70% of my work time is spent on my freelance writing work and the remaining 30% is split between dealing with quotes and inquiries and taking care of administrative tasks such as handling payments and chasing up invoices.

When I took up freelance writing as a new career some years back, I never considered that such a large chunk of my work time would be taken up by anything other than freelance writing. I certainly did not envisage so much time being spent dealing with administrative tasks.

So this week I am going to try something new, I am going to set a 50 minute timer each hour, during these 50 minutes I will only write, I won’t check my email, or any other external function that is part of by freelance writing business. The remaining 10 minutes each hour I will give over to admin and customer communication. Just an experiment, to see how it works out.

I have been thinking lately that for freelance writers such as me, who specialise in creating website content and other forms of freelance writing to be used on-line, are extremely lucky to be serving an exponentially growing market.

This huge market has massive amounts of room for other writers to jump in and get a slice of the pie, and I am sure there are many new writers out there who would love to take a crack at supplying the demanding needs of website owners and internet marketers.

SO I have decided to develop a freelance writer mentoring programme, where I will guide new writers through the subtly different aspect of writing for the on-line market. I will spend the next couple of months putting a strategy together, which will be designed to take a new freelance writer from the infant stages of securing their first website content project, through to advanced topics such as writing for an interactive audience.

Following the complete mess that 1and1 recently made of an update to their Microsoft Exchange Server, is it now time to be afraid once again? I received an information email from 1and1 yesterday which explained that the Microsoft Exchange Server which my account is hosted on is going to be upgraded from the 2003 version to the 2007 version.

I am fully expecting several days of lost email, as 1and1 have proven time and time again that they just do not have the ability to administer this service professionally. I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires in a few months time, I will look for a new Microsoft Exchange provider.