The One Thing You Need To Have Before You Start A Freelance Writing Project
Freelance writing is fun and it’s relatively easy to make money in a short period of time without a lot of effort on your part. However, it’s still a job which requires working with clients and delivering something to a client’s expectations. This means that if you’re not on top of your game, you’ll find that your freelance writing gigs can turn into time consuming, messy affairs.
The one thing you need to have before you start a project for a client is clarity. You need to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Case Study
A freelance writer, let’s call him Jimmy, gets a freelance client who wants him to write a 2,000 word sales letter for a security camera. Jimmy thinks it’s a straightforward job, and plans out the structure and ideas for his sales letter. He has the link to a home security camera set up which his client has given him. That’s all great. He builds this story:
- Your house gets cased by some burglars when you’re at work.
- Your house, if you’re an average person, has thousands of dollars worth of equipment in it
- That’s great, a burglar can strike at any time.
- You’re hoping that your things are all they’ll take; what happens if you’re in when they come?
- Let’s assume they burgle when you’re not there. You’ve lost your stuff, and even your insurance won’t pay out.
- That’s without the psychological damage.
- Oh, and the police, statistically, won’t be able to do anything about it until the burglar strikes again.
- Just having a visible security camera statistically decreases your risk of being targeted.
- It also adds value to your property and helps with your insurance
- In the event that something does happen, you’ll be able to provide evidence
- A good camera will also monitor and email you when something shows up unexpectedly… so you’ll have necessary time with which to act
You get the picture. Jimmy plans this sales letter out carefully, delivers the first draft, and BAM. The client comes back and says it’s not a home security camera.
“But” says Jimmy, “It says in the product description that it’s a home security camera!”
“Yeah, but we’re selling it to businesses.”
What Could Have Saved Jimmy?
Whether Jimmy is a tragic hero or an idiot who should have found out what he was doing before he did it is irrelevant. The fact is that our protagonist decided to do a project without clarifying some simple details that would have taken five minutes to get answers to.
When you’re a freelancer, the last thing you want is to have to write something twice. It doubles your time, it doubles your effort and it accordingly halves the amount of profit you make for your investment in the project.
To fix this is a simple step: It involves having a template questionnaire to send out to every client. You might think it’s an unnecessary step, but if it saves you time and money, it’s probably worth it.
How To Get Clarity Early
When you get a client, usually you’ll have, through the process of getting the job, some idea of what the client is looking for. This leads you to thinking you know what to do. However, there are key things that you should check for any project, and like I said above, it involves a simple text interview. Here are the things I include in the test:
- What you’re writing; length, format, exact topic
- Who it’s for? General audience + any specifics
- Whether you need to include special stuff like keywords (or other similar and unapparent things.)
- Other details and any other research avenues you might need.
It’s pretty straightforward, but like I keep saying, it’s worth doing. You can do it as simply as by writing this, saving it in a text document and then editing it for each project:
“Hi and thanks for hiring me!
Before I get started, I like to ask a few questions so that we’re both clear about what it is I’m doing so that I can be sure about the project details.
Could you send this information:
- How long are you expecting the work to be?
- Can you summarise the work in a couple of sentences?
- Who is the general audience of the article?
- Do you need a specific keyword to be included and at what density?
- Is there any specific information you need me to include, and can you send a link if there is so that I can research it?
Thanks for your help. I know this will take a couple of minutes, but I’d rather that than me write you something that’s incorrect and have to delay the deadline you’ve set for rewriting.
Best Wishes,
Your Name”
Final Thoughts
This is one of those topics that seems immediately obvious to anyone who already does it and inconsequential to anyone who has never experienced having to rewrite an entire project because of a slight miscommunication.
Ultimately though, writing a quick email to clarify the major points of a project is an easy way to ensure you aren’t wasting time and money by doing the wrong thing.