Simple Tips to Keep Freelance Clients Happy

by Dave Polykoff

October 24, 2019

No two freelance clients are alike. Any freelance writing veteran can tell you keeping clients happy can depend on a number of factors, including a company’s size, the industry, or personalities involved. Still, there are a few tips for keeping freelance clients at peace that seem to apply to most of them.

Deliver on Time

Always meet given deadlines seems simple. Make it a habit by properly planning ahead, and this super-simple tip pays dividends on a broad scale. Remember, time is money in business, so lost time equals lost money.

Know Their Wants

It can seem easy to get a topic and keywords and go off to the races to deliver. Not so fast: first you should truly ascertain what the business does, and what it wants. Knowing the end goal should help in producing the content, whether its more leads, more sales or just more attention. Acquaint yourself with all the client information you can to truly know the audience and purpose of the content.

Provide Quality

It seems a no-brainer, but learn to be consistent in weaving in search engine optimization best practices into colorful and engaging content, and you limit opportunities for complaints. Think how your client’s audience might type phrases into search engines, and lace that into paragraphs.

Compete Well

Along the lines of No. 3, go the extra mile to ensure your content uses top-quality, credible sources, and information from high-traffic websites to solidly back up your writing. Properly research topics, validate your work and compare well with the many other freelance writers out there.

Communicate

Never hesitate to ask clients questions if you have them, and try early on to establish an easy and comfortable line of communication. It doesn’t have to be lengthy conversations, either. Send one-line progress reports, ask a question well before deadline, or just post-submission feedback to keep communication lines robust.

Finally, try to go above and beyond what is asked. Spend extra time to consider what clients may need or want next. Simply suggesting new topics can do wonders toward making freelance clients happy. And nurturing satisfied clients keeps jobs coming and helps bring even more work.

Writer Tip

How To Create A Writing Routine As A Freelance Writer

by Dusten Carlson

September 23, 2019

At first glance, a writing routine as a freelance writer may seem superfluous, or just flat-out unnecessary. But take a closer look and the freelance writer can discover multiple advantages available by establishing simple repetition.

Figure Out When You’re Most Productive

As with many endeavors, it’s probably best to begin with what works best. That said, think about starting by determining your best time to write.

Many writers perform best in the morning, others at night, some in between, even others in bits and pieces. Most established writers will know, and focusing on working during those optimum times is vital.

Write Every Day

Once the best time to write is set, get in the practice of writing every day, no matter what. Besides meeting client obligations, this helps train the mind to best switch gears into writing mode, much like elite athletes get themselves into the “zone.”

Over time this makes it easier to execute writing assignments – and may even allow you to complete more tasks overall.

Think of it the way athletes consider practice: it develops and hones skills, which only can help.

For writers, this could be as simple as an extended Instagram post, a marketing-related email message, blog writing or writing pitches for more content marketing work.

Guard Your Time

Finally, establish times just for writing, and protect it.

That is, set a schedule, stick with it, and don’t let outside influences like text messages or email inboxes distract. Even use a digital calendar (such as those on smartphones) to hold writing time – and even text or email reminders to yourself to get to it.

Key Takeaways For Writers

These four things – determining the best time to write, writing daily, and scheduling and protecting writing time – are the base for creating a solid writing routine for a freelance writer.

Using this foundation should free more time for associated activities like coming up with new content ideas, marketing yourself, or planning ahead with outlines or a looking-ahead calendar.

All together, these things can only lead to success.