Freelance Writer

Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

Well, I am now into my fourth year as a full time freelance writer. It has been quite a battle to build a reputation and establish a good spread of clients, but I think I can now safely say I am there.

One thing I have noticed lately is the increased demand for freelance writers. OK I specialise in writing website content and other forms of writing designed to be used on-line, so we can expect a growth in this industry as the internet is still booming. However, the increase in demand seems to be significant.

I can only attribute this to the growing awareness of the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), and the fact that many SEO practices revolve around a requirement for quality website content.

This of course is good news for those people like me, who make their living as a freelance writing, focused upon producing high quality website content.

Let us hope the boom continues into the future.

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.

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.