Freelance Writing Business

Why Freelance Writers Fail

Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures

The online freelance writing industry continues to expand rapidly since all websites require quality content for a high ranking in search engines. Website owners are always outsourcing their articles and blogs to freelance writers. There is fierce competition among freelance writers for the writing projects available. As a result, most writers find it difficult to make a full time living out of writing. What are the common causes of failure among freelance writers?

The following are some reasons why many freelance writers fail.

An inferior product

If you do not write well, you will not succeed. Period! If you have poor syntax, bad grammar and are not concise in your writing, you won't be able to make a good living since there are better writers available. So to make a good impression as an online writer, you should invest much time in learning how to produce great content consistently.

Lack of consistent clients

You may be a good writer but if you don't receive orders from clients regularly, then you won't have work and hence no income. Writers lack consistent clients because of poor sales skills or because they have no idea of where to get high paying freelance writing jobs.

Lack of professionalism

One reason why freelance writers fail in selling themselves is that they have no clue about techniques for converting and retaining a customer as a regular client. Clients easily lose confidence in freelance writers who have poor work ethic, submit work past the deadline, submit plagiarized content, and do not respond to client emails.

Lack of relationship skills

When working in a virtual world, you do not interact with your customers face to face. Therefore, you need to develop skills which can be used in the virtual world. Many freelance writers concentrate on writing and do not give attention to relationship building. Building a relationship creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust where the client is confident and comfortable in your ability. You become someone he can count on.

Ignorance about VAS

Value Added Service (VAS) is vital for retaining customers, as well as bringing in new business. It is important for a freelance writer to understand the business his client is involved in, why he requires content and how the freelance writer can add value to the client's business. A good example is a client adding content to his blog regularly. As a freelance writer, you could offer a value added service of free uploads. This saves the client time and also shows him you are willing to put in more work since you value his business. However, you could charge when the client has many blogs that need to be updated daily. This creates a new stream of income for you.

Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.

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