Deb Ng no longer works as a freelance writer and has a full-time gig. However, she still works from a home office and doesn’t sit in meetings or watch presentations that bore. The differences between full-time work from home and freelance work from home …

• Hours: Freelancers have more flexibility in the hours, but they also might work in the evenings and on weekends depending on projects and schedules. Full-timers work set hours like most in the corporate world. But then in the corporate world, people rarely work the standard 8am to 5pm anymore (at least in the U.S.). I attend PTA meetings, play tennis, volunteer, and take my kids to their appointments. Would full-time work allow for this? Not so sure.
• Employer: Full-timers only work for one client, don’t have to worry about quoting rates, bookkeeping, and marketing. Freelancers have to make all of this part of their jobs. Freelancers must manage multiple clients. However, if freelancers lose a client — they already (should) have other clients to keep things going. A full-timer losing a job has no other income (this doesn’t count those who might have a couple gigs on the side).
• Benefits: Full-timers usually have benefits and freelancers don’t. Full-timers can go on paid vacation with little guilt. Freelancers can go on vacation, but don’t get paid for it — which can lead to feeling guilty (some are great about it and others like me aren’t).
• Illness: Full-timers get sick days. Company sick days vary widely, but freelancers don’t get money when they don’t work unless they’ve built up passive income. When I don’t feel well, I use my laptop and rest on the sofa or on my comfy bed. How much I work depends on deadlines — just a matter of finding a compromise. But when I feel awful (flu), I’m out and I won’t force anything.

One thing about going freelance is that it has given me a more well-rounded life than before when I worked in the corporate world. Before, it was work and family. Now, it’s volunteer (much more and sitting on the boards, too), tennis, more family involvement, and work (more variety and people).

I just need to add travel (other than Austin!) to the mix. At least, it’s a greater mix than when I worked in the corporate world. I didn’t exactly take real vacations while in the corporate world, but did sneak in a couple (one in 1998 and one in 2002).

Which type of career would you prefer? Why?

The winner of one full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost from the How to Become a Freelance Writer entry is Karen Swim! Congratulations again, Karen. It’s possible to win more than once in the blog entry prizes.

This entry’s prizes are a book by Tara Calishain and AWAI’s Accelerated Six Figure Copywriting program (excellent — I have it… but never had time to finish it). Just leave a 30-word comment on this post by June 21 to get an entry for a drawing.

I was going to call this “Telling the Violent Truths of the Writing Life,” but Freelance Folder already has dibs on “violent.” Just joking — that’s the name of guest blogger Bob Younce’s excellent series over there.

I met Bob through Poewar. Obviously, John Hewitt of Poewar connected me with a lot of new writer friends. Thank you, John. It only took me a second to consider him a friend. His articles on writing and freelancing — whether on his site or elsewhere — provide a lot of value.

Telling the Hard Truths of the Writing Life

It’s easy, if you listen to one element of the Internet writing community, to think that freelance writing consists entirely of days on the beach sipping margaritas and writing for half an hour on your laptop. For anyone who’s been writing for more than a few weeks, though, you know it just isn’t true. Anyone who tells you that it’s possible to make a living in minutes a day is selling something.

Not that selling is bad, mind you; in fact, writers have to do it in order to be successful. But these folks are selling a false idea. In this life, you reap what you sow, plain and simple.

These folks prey on unsuspecting new moms, for example, that want to work from home. They prey on guys tired of their cubicle careers who are looking for a way out. They look for a felt need and offer a fake solution.

At the same time, there are folks on the opposite end of the spectrum. There’s me, for example. If you’ve read much of my writing at all, you know I constantly promote the idea of hard work and, sometimes, long hours. I have probably turned more people away from a writing career than I have recruited, in my time.

I like to think that the realist approach is a good thing, and that it helps folks considering the writing life to count the cost before they get into something they’re not willing to follow through on.

Maybe I’m just trying to keep away the competition. I don’t think that’s it, though.

Here’s the danger that I constantly find myself in, though. I want to be able to encourage writers. I want to cheer them on. I want them to see the same kind of success I’ve had, and the same kind of success Meryl has had right here.

So, those of us honest folk in the Internet writing community wind up saying something like this:

“Freelance writing is hard work. You can make an honest living doing it, and there’s no better life. But you’ve got to work hard and you’ve got to have your wits about you.”

On occasion, I think it’s worth talking about all of the good things in the writing life. I think it’s worth celebrating a success or two, both our own and others’ successes.

Like Meryl, here. She’s been plugging away at this site for the better part of a decade. My goofy little blog has been on the map since February; Meryl’s been here for 8 Februarys.

That says something, folks. It says something about character. It says something about tenacity. It says something about dedication. It’s these characteristics that you’ve got to have to make it as a writer.

So, I celebrate with Meryl. I thank her for her inspiring example. I take a moment away from telling the hard truths of the writing life to tell a pleasant one:

Writing success is possible. Look at Meryl, and at others who have done it. Dream your dream, and dream it big. You can get there, no matter what challenges you face. Stick with it. Be dedicated. And remember: you’re standing on the shoulders of giants.

Thanks, Meryl. Enjoy your vacation, and come back soon.

About the author: Bob Younce is a full-time Internet writer and writing mentor living in Linwood, Michigan. He is dedicated to helping Internet writers to achieve their dreams. Visit Bob at The Writing Journey or follow him on Twitter.

• Add Spark to Your Writing with These 3 Simple Tweaks: I shy away from sentences where I use repeating words even though a comma separates them. This convinced me otherwise.
• So You Want to Become a Freelance Writer? Four part article with advice from the pros.
• Best Pro-Blogging Sentence in 2008: Wonderful quote from a CEO on why blogging matters in business.
• Disposable Email Addresses: Want something? Not sure if you can trust a source asking for your email?
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks: Love this. I’ve got friends who do this in email plus add unnecessary apostrophes. Nice to laugh instead of cringe for a change.
• Idea Seeds for Successful Articles and Posts: Creative approach to finding ideas.
• Searching for Mr. (Pardon, Mrs. and Ms., too) Good Host: A guest post of mine over at my guest blogger’s site

And for fun… because we’re allowed…

• Speak LOL Cat [Link: Peter Shankman]
• Bored at work, but don’t want to get caught reading fiction or poetry? How about reading this stuff in PowerPoint? This takes work to figure out — but you log in as a user and click the folders. Start Here.

Karen Putz asks how I do it — balance full-time writing and being a parent to three kids. I should be asking her how she does it — she interviews Marlee Matlin!

As I mentioned in my how I became a writer story, the whole thing started as a part-time venture while managing a part-time corporate job (for most of it) and three kids. I believe writing on the side while holding down a corporate job is a better route than chucking it all for the freelance life.

Yes, life is about risks, but you’re more likely to succeed by building up instead of starting with zip. Had I chucked it all back in 2000, I would’ve had less than a part-time amount of work and no health benefits. My spouse got laid off in 2003, right before #3 came along. We would’ve been in deep trouble had I chucked, which would’ve been more of an upchuck (holds back from the woodchuck routine).

I also volunteer and sit on several PTA boards. My mom was a full-time volunteer for the second half of my childhood. I wanted to be like her. Living a balanced life is important to me. My kids will grow up, so I need to enjoy them NOW.

Prefer to be all about your career? You might want to read Wake Up, Damn It! If your career makes you happy, then go for it and ignore everything here.

So how do I manage all of this? Not without a little insanity and stress at times, but these tips help make it easier:

1. Enroll younger kids in pre-school. Keeping them at home isn’t doable (unless you have a nanny). My youngest has learned amazing stuff he would never have learned had he stayed home. He enters kindergarten in the fall (sob).
2. Rely on a personal information manager complete with contacts, calendar, and to do lists. The Palm desktop has been my trusty sidekick since 1995. Use Outlook. Use any of the many online web-based applications.
3. Balance your schedule for the week. Non-work appointments take too many of my slots this week. I’ve rescheduled two. I try to spread out appointments, but that doesn’t always work and find a week becomes overloaded. So when I realize it, I start moving things around where I can. I review the week ahead sometime between Friday and Monday to ensure balance or to do something about it.
4. Accept working off hours. While I work a standard work week, appointments and kid events can cut into my work time. So I make it up in the evening or on weekends, but never at the sacrifice of sleep bring us to the next point…
5. Get sleep. Everyone requires a different amount of sleep to function well. If I stay up late working on something, I’m hurting more than helping my clients and business. While I might get something done late at night, I’m useless the next day and lose an entire day. So better to sleep and finish in the morning.
6. Avoid waiting until last minute to do work to make deadline. To avoid late nights, I make sure I have room to meet the deadline. This prevents racing the clock or sacrificing quality to make a deadline.
7. Make “No” part of your vocabulary. Or else, get stuck with deadlines close to each other, overload your schedule, and turn yourself into a stress machine (which affects your health). I believe, “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” So parents, it may feel selfish to say, “No,” but your family benefits.
8. Drop stressful clients. I’ve dropped a client or two because I didn’t enjoy the work and dreaded working on their projects. Add these together spells energy drain. Worried about replacing them? Writers should always include marketing a part of their job.
9. Balance your kids’ activities. Who says they need to take music lessons, play sports, dance, and do scouts all at once? Kids need a break, too. Try to limit younger ones’ — who are trying things to find what they like — current activities to one or two. When one ends, you can try something else. After all, fewer activities means fewer chauffeuring jobs for parents.
10. Use your “I can’t write now” time wisely. When we find ourselves unable to write or work, we can easily fall into the trap of needlessly surfing the Web or doing other wasteful activities. When I’m in a stupor, I fold laundry, exercise, play games (that I need to review) — Things that benefit me.

How do you balance your writing life with your personal life?

• 10 Clever Ways to Wow Your Clients
• Are You Approaching Freelancing All Wrong?
• The Only 12 1/2 Writing Rules You’ll Ever Need poster. Should get this for my office. Actually have wall space. [Link: Deb Ng]
• Four Ways to Target Online Buyers with the Right Words
• Write for Food
• Grammar Lessons from the English Chick.
• 9 Niche Carving Techniques: Even if you want to be a Jack or Jackie of all trades, you can still have a niche as this entry shows.
• 50 open source resources for writers.

Interesting:

• Is the Palm OS Dying? Should you care? I do! I have owned a Palm device since 1995 and am still hoping the company will surprise us and SOON.
• Student twitters his way out of Egyptian jail. WOW. Talk about major twitter impact. If I had done the same thing, I’d still be in jail.
• 20 things to do with nail polish. Well, color won’t work well for some of these, but good tips. Men — it’s OK to use nail polish! [Link: Deb Ng]

And because we always look for ways to save money:

• AAA gas price finder

And because I had my first job out of college at DOT:

• Secretary of DOT blog: My first job out of college was as a DOT trainee. We rotated to three different areas in one year and then permanently settled with one of the areas. I still stay in touch with many folks there — they are good people. Don’t let the FAA’s problems deter you from thinking otherwise.

I generally don’t talk about myself as I accept that people don’t come here for my personality. Instead, people like you come for the information I provide that I hope helps you in your life.

From reading other blogs, it looks like many love to hear how writers and freelancers went full-time. So here’s the full story.

In the beginning…

After kid #2 arrived, I started New York University’s online program in Internet Technology while on maternity leave. Initially, I wanted to do web design. After few Web design projects, I discovered web design was more frustrating than enjoyable.

Around this time, an e-mail newsletter for web designers had a contest where readers could submit an article related to web design. The winners received high quality software like Photoshop, so I gave it a shot. Readers loved the article, so I wrote a few more in the series for the newsletter.

The series started my writing portfolio and helped my land my first paid professional writing gig with a web design magazine. Slowly, I picked up more paid writing assignments discovering I loved working as a writer.

However, I was apprehensive about pursuing a career as a writer. I heard from many people how they wanted to be a writer. I honestly didn’t think I offered anything special as a writer. It also didn’t help with many talented bloggers and web site writers hitting the writing circuit. Regardless, I kept my eyes open for gigs and considered writing a sideline since I still had my corporate job.

Furthermore, I never dreamed of having my own business. I feared the sales aspect — getting more clients — because I couldn’t make normal phone calls. Cold calling was always awkward no matter how comfortable I was with making phone calls. Then there was finances, bookkeeping, the usual business stuff.

Returning to the Dilbertesque world

I returned to work a couple of weeks early from maternity leave on a part-time basis in hopes to convince management that I could do the job part-time. Management wasn’t receptive to the idea.

I wrote a memo with various options supported by data. Eventually, the company let me work part-time because there was another part-time employee who joined the team. We didn’t job share, however. Together, we made up one employee.

Eventually, she went with the wireless part of the business and I stayed with long distance retaining my part-time status. This let me build the writing business.

Dot com blah

I lost several clients when dot com went boom. This was a turning point because I could either scramble to get more clients or resign myself to a corporate career.

While feeling a pit in my stomach stomach I hit send and emailed people in my network including those I had interviewed for articles. I landed two new clients, one of which I met in person for the first time after working with him for six years.

I worked part-time until March 2005 when my company required me to return to a full-time schedule. By this time, I had plenty of business writing experience and a healthy portfolio.

The benefits… the benefits…

I couldn’t quit my job yet because my husband didn’t have health benefits. We had three kids, so it was important. My husband landed a job with decent benefits in June 2005. A month later, I retired from corporate America for full-time freelancing.

Just found this article on health insurance for freelancers for those who don’t have the luxury of relying on someone else for benefits.

Other becoming a writer stories…

Mary E. Lyons

Bob Younce

Many at how we became writers

Delaune Michel

Philip McCord

Catherine Shaffer

Catherine Leigh

Geoffrey Zimmerman (video)

Earl Pomerantz, TV writer

Jared Head (video)

Yours?

How often do you get an e-mail from a prospect who asks, “I need help with my web site’s content” or “I need five articles on such ‘n such topic”… “How much do you charge?”

Web content — one page takes less time than five pages. Even on page can vary depending on the page’s content. Will you provide information, content, etc.? Or do you want me to come up with it from scratch?

Five articles. 500 words vs. 1000? About social networking or some obscure medical topic targeted to those in the medical profession? Big difference. Writing doesn’t have a standard process like other jobs.

New writers have emailed me asking how much should they charge for a project. As if I can give them a magic number. Like Deb says, our experiences vary so what I charge won’t work for most people. Not only does our writing experience differ, but also our topic knowledge.

This formula should help most writers get started in the scary world of coming up with rates. Yes, it’s scary. After lots of practice, I’m more comfortable providing quotes — but my stomach still stirs whenever I press, “Send” with my quotes.

1. Start by figuring out how much you want per hour.
2. Estimate how long it will take you to get the job done.
3. Add 10% to that time because there is almost always something to make the assignment take longer.

After gaining experience, you won’t need to focus on how long it takes to do an assignment. You’ll get faster in some assignments. So if you charge $20 per hour and an assignment originally takes five hours, that’s $100.

With experience, the assignment takes you only one hour. $20 isn’t fair anymore. Instead, charge a flat fee such as $100. You factor in experience.

However, for some clients — I charge by the hour because they’re open engagements. I adjusted the hourly rate based on experience.

Doing enough assignments and quoting will help you come up with rates to use as the baseline. Experience will help you get a handle on rates and feel good about giving quotes.

So when a writer asks me how much to charge, don’t be offended when I don’t offer numbers and point to resources instead.

What works for you?

I admit it. For a long time, figuring out rates and providing quotes was a weak area for me. It took time, practice, and hard lessons to arrive at the point where I can confidently and calmly provide a quote. Before, I’d be figuratively biting my nails as I submitted my quotes and second guessing myself.

John Hewitt has the answer I wish I had when I started freelancing as a writer. It works for every freelancing career. Well, except the per word part. Just remove that or substitute with “per page,” “per design,” etc.

1. Start at $20 an hour or $.20 a word. This is a fairly low level. Feel free to start higher.
2. Increase your fee by 5 ($25 an hour $.25 a word) with each successful gig.
3. When your prospects start telling you that you charge too much, don’t raise your rates for six months.
4. Try raising it again.

Too simple and sometimes the best answer is the simplest one. The day before a state-wide math assessment test, my husband asked our oldest who takes algebra, “Do you remember how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide?”

She responded, “I don’t know. When I do a math problem now… if the answer is simple, I think it’s wrong because it has to be more complicated than that.”

Uh oh. Her mind is starting to work like an adult’s. We forget the answer can still be simple. It reminded me of a riddle I read years ago where kindergarteners (five and six-year-olds) easily answered the riddle while educated adults struggled or didn’t get it. I thought it was this one:

Question: What is greater than God? What is more evil than the devil? The poor has it. The rich need it, if you eat it you will die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing

But research says it was this one where the kids outscored the adults.

I turn polar bears white.
And I will make you cry.
I make guys have to pee
And girls comb their hair.
I make celebrities look stupid.
And normal people look like celebrities.
I turn pancakes brown
And make your champane bubble.
If you sqeeze me, I’ll pop.
If you look at me, you’ll pop.
Can you guess the riddle?

Answer: No.

True or not — the point is clear… we sometimes overlook the obvious.

Simple Doesn’t Come to the Rescue

I’m working on a quote for a client. The problem is I can’t determine how many articles I can write per week. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. Charge by article? Well, that wouldn’t work either as it could be 300 one time, 700 another.

Charge by the hour? I try to avoid that. What would you do?

Frustration builds while reviewing this week’s calendar. Every day this week has something not routine and not work-related scheduled (and most of last week, too). I can only reschedule one appointment, but it’s not enough to lighten the load.

So what does a lone freelancer do? To prevent myself from going crazy and sacrificing sleep (if I do this, then I might as well mark myself as unavailable for the entire day after a short night’s sleep), I work through my fewer hours than usual:

• Cancel or reschedule appointments, if possible.
• Prioritize (Duh!)
• Contact regular clients notifying them of my reduced availability.
• Cut time spent on self-assigned work like blogging, Twittering, and social network sites. While these sound like time wasters — they aren’t. It’s part of the freelancer’s marketing toolbox.
• Be strict about fooling around on the Internet (This is the time waster.).

Even with deadlines, the freelancer should be able to plan the week to meet them while saving less urgent work for later. Most of the time, the freelancer meets the deadlines and then has time left over to work on the lower prioritized stuff.

I feel better knowing I will accomplish a few things this week, though less than usual. It’s better than panicking and getting nothing done.

37signals asks eight questions before, during, and sometimes after working on a project or task. These questions work well for writers and other freelancers. Those of us who work solo rarely have anyone to check with us to make sure we’re on the right track.

So we need to help ourselves figure out if we’re on the right track with a task, project, client. Questioning also helps us gain credibility with clients because we might recommend a faster or better way of doing something or provide insight.

37signals asks the following questions. I’ve added notes to show how it affects writers. I’ll use a Help project I’m working on for a client’s web site as the example.

• Why are we doing this? To help users understand what the site is about and how to use it.
• What problem are we solving? Providing answers to user questions in how to modify their accounts and use the various features. Without the Help, they might spend too much time figuring out something or abandon the web site.
• Is this actually useful? While the web site’s design tries to make things obvious to users, it’s not always possible for them to figure out things without a little direction.
• Are we adding value? The current Help also has special sections for advertisers, product managers, and contributors. I’m breaking out the advertisers and product managers sections and moving them elsewhere. These have little value to the consumers.
• Will this change behavior? Not all writing will change behavior like interface design. In this case, the Help will guide the users to take the right steps to complete their tasks instead of taking the longer route.
• Is there an easier way? Yes and no. The Help uses a wiki. Though I’m not crazy about using a wiki, it has advantages over going another route. One, it would take longer to incorporate it into design based on the current goings-on. Two, the site wants to build a strong community and enabling them to update the Help will support the community concept.
• What’s the opportunity cost? This is why a wiki is a better way to go. the cost of integrating the Help with the design would be higher and take longer. Maybe after finishing the Help, we can integrate it into the design better.
• Is it really worth it? If done right, yes. Some sites have terrible Helps and they make more work for the user.