Image from sxc.hu user krissyOoO

How do you get most of your business? For me, it’s referrals. For fellow freelance writer Thursday Bram, it’s her address book. This guest post from Thursday shows how to make connections and make them work for your freelancing business. 

As a freelancer, my business wouldn’t bring me a lot of money if I had to sell it — except for my address book. It’s the main asset I have to work with. I have a computer, some on-going client accounts and not much else that an appraiser would even bother to put a price tag on.

That’s perfectly fine with me. Business is booming, because of that address book. I do minimal marketing and yet I’m turning away work almost constantly. That’s because the right connections really are incredibly valuable.

Connections Are the Most Important Asset You Can Build

As a freelancer, word of mouth has to be one of the best marketing methods available to you. There’s no direct cost that you have to budget for, like advertising and the like. Clients prefer to work with freelancers and contractors that come with a referral, rather than someone they find through an online search or the like. All of that adds up to create a situation in which it simply pays off for you to invest time and effort into building up the right connections to bring you word of mouth business.

Think about how many novice freelancers are encouraged to start out by asking their friends and family for connections to people who might need work. Relying on your connections is not something you only do in the first days that you are looking for freelance work, however. It’s easy to let meeting new people and maintaining your relationships by the wayside when you have a full slate of work. It’s the same issue that goes along with marketing for any freelancer — unless you put out special effort, you only go looking for work when you don’t actually have any.

But if you’re willing to invest time in building up your address book, you can smooth out some of those hills and valleys.

Going Out of Your Way to Build More Connections

For some freelancers, networking is the hardest task we can set ourselves. It’s not uncommon for a freelancer to choose to work for herself so that she wouldn’t have to deal so much with the in-office networking necessary to get ahead as an employee. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of us freelancers wind up talking to people more when we’re running our own businesses than we ever did before.

You have to put yourself in the position to make more connections — and they need to be the right connections. Of course, you can make friends with anyone and there will be a chance that they’ll pass your name along to someone who needs a freelancer. But if you have a good idea of who your perfect client is, you can figure out where you can connect with the people who match that profile. That way, you can focus your energy on connecting with people who are actually likely to hire you.

Pick the conferences and events your prospective clients are going to be at, and make sure that you can attend. Even if it isn’t an event that you’d normally be interested in, the people who will be there are more important than the event itself.

New Connections and Old: You Need Both

While you’re going to have to go out and actually meet some people in order to have any business relationships you can build on, a truly valuable address book is a lot more than just some place to put the business cards you collect at networking events.

I make a point of following up with new connections within a month of meeting them. It helps if you make sure that during your conversation you discuss something that makes the follow up easy — like promising to forward an article you read — but even if you’re only sending out an email to touch base, you’re still doing more than most of the people that were at any given event. It’s my experience that even at an event that was specifically intended to help people network and build their businesses, well under 10 percent of people ever follow up after the event.

Every day, I send out at least three emails to people I already know. I make an effort to meet up with people for coffee or lunch as often as possible, even if the person I’m meeting isn’t going to hire me. I put as much effort into maintaining my relationships (or even making them more valuable) as I do into meeting new people.

That’s what makes my address book more than a list of names: it’s a list of people who like and know me, and know that I’m a good choice for their freelance projects.

Thursday Bram has been freelancing for more than eight years — the last four full-time. She’s the co-founder of EnhancedFreelance.com, a membership site for freelancers ready to up their game.

How do you find most of your clients? What other ways do you find clients?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

I live in Texas and haven’t been to a single high school football game since moving back to Texas in 1995. And, my daughter is a senior at a high school … a giant one (2600 in two grades) compared to mine (less than 2000 in four grades). Oh, I love football, y’all. My dad took me all around Dallas/Fort Worth to meet a few of the Dallas Cowboys and get their autographs.

Photo by Cherie A. Thurby

When the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1994, I was nine months pregnant. Although an exciting game, I couldn’t jump — thank goodness. Everyone wondered how I didn’t go into labor that day. (She arrived 10 days later — maybe that explains her disinterest in football.)

I joke that I didn’t graduate from a real college because it didn’t have a football team. Growing up in Fort Worth, I caught a few games at TCU where I went for my freshman year of college. Loved that experience especially when TCU played against Texas A&M. No matter how you feel about the Aggies, they have an incredible and precise band that puts most bands to shame. And no, it wasn’t because my husband had played in the Aggie band.  You just have to watch the Aggie band to understand.

My most memorable football memory has to be the 1986 Cotton Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Auburn and Bo Jackson. I have my brother, an A&M graduate, to thank for getting to see the game.

What’s your most memorable football memory? If soccer is your thing — go for it.

Brain food…

• Freelancer’s Guide to SEO – More Visibility, Traffic, and Clients. A well-organized doable guide with simple steps that won’t overwhelm you like others.
• 9 Ways Your Business Needs To Change To Become Social. This is how I try to work with social media. I truly love the interactions. I could spend all day listening and helping people if I could. [Link: Adam Helweh]
• How to Write a Good Freelancer Bio. Suggests various elements to include along with some tips.
• How to understand regret — and 2 ways to avoid it. I don’t think I have any big regrets in my life. Sure, I wish I had done some things differently, but if I had never done them … my path may not have ended up where it has today.
• 10 words worth collecting and how to use them. These aren’t insipid words. Quite the opposite.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Social Media Explained… in very simple terms. Hilarious.
• Duck Tron. What happens when you throw duct tape into a scene from Tron.
• George Washington Autocorrect. HA!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Lori Widmer of Words on the Page tells the story of running into a fellow freelancer and playing catch up. The freelancer reported an empty client pot and that “no one’s calling.” I’d love to know how many businesses thrive by sitting back and expecting everyone to come rushing in to hire the business.

Waiting for Clients

If I waited for people to call, I’d be in her situation, too. Marketing isn’t a passive activity or one that we do when we have more time on our hands. Successful freelancers make marketing part of the job. Picturing cold calls? Cold calls work well for many freelancers while others don’t touch that. Networking without Walls or Boundaries lists a few ways to do marketing and they work for me.

Wondering why I have a picture of my son doing archery? Marketing is like archery. If you don’t do it at all, you have no chance of landing anything. If you shoot 10 arrows without aiming, at least one is bound to hit the target. It may not be the bull’s eye, but it’s something. Don’t just sit there, do marketing.

Finding the Right Marketing Activities

Maybe you feel overwhelmed by the many options we have available to us for networking and marketing. Start with one thing. Ignore the rest. Just pick one. Don’t make yourself crazy. Need some ideas? Here are 40+ Easy Marketing Activities for Freelancers.

After you find two or three activities that work for you, then proceed with the next step on How to Manage Your Time with Social Networks.

I’m busier now than two years ago. I used to do book and game reviews all the time. Now, I hardly do them because I have more writing and other work to do. That’s on top of managing my family of five (and doing all the appointments), exercising daily for at least one hour and getting my seven to eight hours of sleep. In spite of this, marketing remains a consistent part of my job.

In writing for several business newsletters, one message keeps repeating itself. When a business needs to cut back on spending, successful ones never cut the budget or time spent on marketing. Those that do eventually lose momentum that by the time things improve, they’re behind their competitors who kept on marketing.

How do you make marketing part of your work? What activities do you do?

Writers tend to be  an insular lot. Let’s face it, we work on our own, stuck in our own headspace, most of the time. We sit in front of our computer, or if we’re particularly old school, typewriter, and venture nary a toe into the outside world. (Sometimes all day, sometimes all week!) As a result, we also tend to rank pretty high on the pasty scale (oh, sunshine, how we miss your warm embrace and supply of vitamin D).

Most of us choose to work from home because we think it will give us freedom to lunch with friends, go grocery shopping early, hit daytime classes at the gym and so on. But how many of us do these things? If you’re like me,that would be zero. I find that writing from home has only allowed me the freedom to shower (much) later than I used to. I now sit in front of my computer all day long, waiting for the next job to come in. I even got a laptop so I could work outdoors, but I never do. So what’s the problem?

Thou Shalt Be Creative… NOW

As writers, we are, by necessity, creative. In fact, we often need to be creative on command. This grows tough over time. After all, we don’t often inspire ourselves. The things that make us creative usually come from an outside source and if you’re stuck playing the me-and-my-computer game, you are going to hit the limits of your ingenuity. You may counter, as I have, that you can get all the outside help you need on the internet, but it’s not true. Writers need to get out of the house, not only to improve the quality of their work, but to improve the quality of their lives.

For one, you can only focus on a task for so long before you need to reboot your brain with a break. The brain suffers from energy drain just like a battery. Sitting in front of a computer for hours leads to work that is boring, repetitive and sloppy. I know, I’ve done it. And it’s usually followed by a request for a rewrite.  A simple grabbing coffee (or insert beverage of choice) with a friend or reading the paper in the park rejuvenates your mental facilities and ready to work again.

Humanity Demands Social Interactions

Besides that, we are social creatures. Even the most introspective people crave human contact and interaction, so don’t let yourself fall into a funk and neglect your social yearnings. Join a class or make ongoing dates to meet with friends, and do not cancel! Look at the time away as your reward for hard work and make every effort to enjoy it to the fullest. Freedom is the best reason to work from home, so take advantage of it. Do you know how many people would love to set their own schedule instead of feeling caged like a cubicle-monkey?

As a freelance writer, you have the flexibility to develop an active social life, so don’t let yourself become isolated. It not only affects your work, but also it has a negative impact on your mental and physical health (not to mention your relationships). Creativity demands a variety of sensory input, so leave the old ball and chain (and keyboard) at home and take a zumba class at the gym, meet your friends for lunch or go see that awful movie that you can’t get anyone to go see (et tu, MacGruber?).

Your work (and your well-being) depends on it!

About the guest author: Alexis Montgomery is a content writer for Online Colleges who gives advice on the pursuit of higher education and living a healthy life. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.

Photo by stock.xchng user Maja Lampe

I’ve lost clients over the years. Only one was because she didn’t like my work. However, in defense of my work, she wanted web site content that resembled her business plan — a bad idea that will not go over well with the audience. I tried to explain standard practice and support that with data. It was a relief to get out of that one because it probably would’ve turned into a dreaded project and a bad client.

Anyway, freelancers lose jobs because of budget cuts, changes in a company’s direction, the company going out of business and many other reasons not having to do with you. That’s why it’s important to have balance in your clients. If one dominates, losing the client will be dangerous and it CAN happen.

But that’s not what happened to me. I lost one client due to cutbacks. Another client may not be gone, but I haven’t been able to reach them. Then a games affiliate changed up its program. All this happened within a week or two, so it was a bit much.

I reacted like a human. I reeled and did the whole “Woe is me” thing for a few days, but without it affecting my work. I’m sure my husband was sick of me that week. As soon as I stopped reeling, I started dealing.

I sent emails and tweets to contacts to explore possibilities of replacing one client with a similar type of client. I emailed the non-responding client a couple of times (spread out and to both contacts). I will keep trying to reach them without nagging. I don’t think they have a problem with my work because I’ve checked in with them a few times to ensure I’m more than meeting their needs.

The affiliate thing. That’s one I can’t really fix. I need to write more reviews and articles for The Game Zen, but I’ve been too busy to play games.

Point here. You will lose clients and it will hurt even if it’s not personal. That’s OK. The key is to be proactive before and after it happens.

How to deal with losing clients:

• Ensure you have a variety of clients and projects.
• Make marketing a regular part of your job.
• Check in with your clients to see how you can better serve them.
• Stay in touch with current and past clients. Cheaper than finding new clients.

What other tips do you have for preparing for losing clients and dealing with it?

The day before a state-wide math assessment test, my husband humorously asked our oldest who took algebra at the time, “Do you remember how to add, subtract, multiply and divide?”

“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,” she said.

That’s how many adults think. We never believe the obvious and forget that it’s possible for the answer to be a simple one.

Simplicity in Writing

A former client contacted me about a new web content gig for a company that sells products outside of my expertise. However, one of my kids LOVES this category of products. So it was an exciting opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone. She asked me to write a sample. I went to work in writing a story around the product. I studied the other products to see how much technical information to provide in an attempt to get in customers’ minds of what they want to know.

In reality, all I needed to do was capture highlights of the products and the experience of using them. After all, the web site had detailed information elsewhere. The client was delighted with the sample as well as the content that followed.

Simplicity in Quoting Projects

How are you with giving quotes to new clients? Is it a struggle? It has gotten easier for me, but I wish I had John Hewitt‘s formula when I first started freelancing. His World’s Simplest Freelance Rate Formula is a simple yet effective process that works with new and experienced freelancers — no matter what you do.

For those in freelancing careers outside of writing, substitute “per word” with “per page,” “per design,” “per call,” “per marketing project” and so on. Meet John’s amazing and powerful formula:

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.

I won’t begin to quote the many articles I’ve read that recommend avoiding a per hour charge. Some cases may call for it — and I do work per hour for several clients. Why no per hour charge? Let’s look at an example.

A client asks for a quote to blog for him. For an ongoing project, charging per page would be wise. Here’s a very simple example why this works better:

1. Your hourly fee is $50.
2. You write a blog entry in 30 minutes, which is $25 if you charge per hour.
3. Charge $50 per blog entry and you’ll come out ahead.

Of course, not all entries will take 30 minutes depending on the subject and length. But you can see how a per blog entry works better than per hour.

Update: A Twist with the Youngest Child

My six-year-old brings home a math pack every Thursday. It consists of games and puzzles related to math. The latest one required he pick one of the word problems to solve. Then three of us (11-year-old joined us) create a solution using words, numbers and pictures and share it. We had to list how our solutions were the same and how they were different. A great lesson because it shows there is more than one way to solve a problem.

The 11-year-old took the easy way out and simply wrote, “7 – 3 = 4.” So our only option for the “same” was that we all used numbers. My six-year-old didn’t like that. “It’s too obvious. It’s too easy,” he kept saying. Really, the simple answer was the only answer.

I started reading The Little Prince and it makes a references about how children look at things differently from adults. Much like this theme. The narrator drew a picture that looked like a hat. It was a python swallowing an elephant, but adults could not see that. The Little Prince did.

What I learned from my daughter: Sometimes the answer is a simple one.

What problems have you come across where the answer turned out simple?

This entry is part of Middle Zone Musings: What I Learned From… Children groupwrite project.

My back problems started in high school while playing volleyball. I tossed the ball in the air and motioned my left arm to slap it with my hand and send it flying over the net and within the boundaries. As soon as the hand gave a high five to the ball, my lower back on the right side (me lefty) gave out.

Since then, back pain plagued me. I learned all the tricks for dealing with it, preventing it, and coping with it. My back thought it needed to give me a new challenge and add a new chapter to the back saga.

It woke me up two nights in a row and hurt so much that a slight movement forced me to muffle a scream to avoid waking up the whole household. Obviously, this problem won’t go away in one or two days yet I need to keep the work going.

Of course, you must take care of yourself or else the problem drags on and the work piles. So work with the problem rather than against it. First, I made an appointment to get pain relief solutions while attacking the problem head on. After all, medicine only offers temporary relief.

Freelancers should have a laptop in addition to their desktop so they can work anywhere. When illness or pain sneaks in, they can say, “HA! I can just move to the sofa or bed to get more comfortable and get my work done. Nice try!”

This may not work when the pain comes from the flu. That just plain knocks out the biggest and healthiest athlete. At least, with the flu — you know the worst will pass within a couple of days. Just sleep and take care of yourself. Email your clients — one word should be enough if you can barely type: “Flu.” I think we all know that means a person will be out at least a day or two and understand. Speaking of flu, got my flu shot today while at the doctor’s.

Ack. my back took a turn when I tripped. Time to pull out the big guns (my laptop) and get comfy. How do you deal with situations when it makes it harder to get work done?

I love Terri Libenson’s The Pajama Diaries. My mom saves them for me since my local newspaper doesn’t carry the comic strip (I submitted a request for it). The strip revolves around freelancer Jill Kaplan, a mother and Jewish woman. That’s me. AND my maiden name is Kaplan. The following strip captures a day in the life of a freelancer except add PTA and volunteer work in there.

Click to view larger

Jill is an graphic designer, but most of the time the strip focuses on the fact she’s a freelancer working in an home office. Here you can see more examples. I would love to see the series come out in book form like Baby Blues, which I also love. I relate to the Pajama Diaries more from a career and balance work and home-life perspective. Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott do a lovely job capturing parenthood and children in Baby Blues.

Writers don’t just write. They also must market unless they’re John Grisham or Mary Higgins Clark. However, Grisham had to market early in his career. So how do writers market themselves? Try any of these activities that would benefit writers, book authors, freelancers, and small businesses.

1. Grow your portfolio. If you’re just getting started, many popular blogs and non-profit organizations might be willing to publish your article. Contact them first.
2. Contribute articles to blogs and Web sites. I helped a client get published in CIO by proposing an article that would benefit its audience without any sales speak.
3. Participate in blogs covering your topic. Most blogs let you enter your URL and some offer CommentLuv (see comments here as this one uses CommentLuv).
4. Start a blog. It must provide valuable information not sales spiel.
5. Have a Web site. Include an About page, testimonials, description of your services, and most important — make it obvious what you do.
6. Contribute to an email newsletter. Start one or write a column for another’s newsletter.
7. Collect email addresses. Of course, make sure you have permission. This comes in handy should you not have a newsletter yet. When you launch a newsletter or a column in one, let your mailing list know — but do NOT subscribe them. Let them subscribe themselves — point the way.
8. Participate in Twitter (don’t just join, you must put into it to get something out of it).
9. Subscribe to Help a Reporter (HARO). Post to it when you work on a story.
10. Set up social network pages (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).
11. Connect with people you *know* on social networks rather than accepting every invitation. It’s not about the number of connections, but the quality.
12. Read high quality marketing blogs. Good places to start: Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. They provide valuable tips that writers can use.
13. Give a fiction story a non-fiction spin. This helps your marketing efforts.
14. Ask your publisher about the marketing they provide, so you don’t overlap activities.
15. Read books on marketing and publicity. Good ones include Plug Your Book!, Free Publicity, and Putting It on Paper.
16. Contact bloggers to request a review of your book. It’s better to contact them before sending the book. I always review books when I request a copy of a book, but if a book comes to me — it has lowered chances of my reviewing it because (1) I have too many on my list already, and (2) it may have nothing to do with a topic I cover or have interest in. Try Blogcritics.
17. Create a signature. Use it in your email and in forums. Mine mentions www.meryl.net, that I’m a writer and editor, links to my newsletter and book.
18. Offer to speak at relevant meetings, programs, schools, and conferences. If you write a book about cats and dogs, speaking at a computer conference won’t do you much good. Remember PTAs, non-profit organizations, and professional organizations look for speakers, too. My kids’ schools invite authors to read or speak to the kids. If you have a children’s book, contact your local elementary school PTAs about visiting the school. Often, the school will sell your books for signing and parents eat them up. A great time to get schools — Book Fairs and Reading Ambassadors Week.
19. Post old articles into article libraries. EzineArticles is my fave.
20. Search “marketing writers” for more tips.
21. Create a bookplate. Offer signing and sending a book plate whenever readers send you a self-addressed stamped envelope. Print the bookplate on printed labels so readers can stick ‘em right on. Cheaper than mailing the book to you and back. It provides a personal connection between reader and author.
22. Hold an event. A friend of mine created a neat book where kids get to be the author. The Stapler Caper has colorful pages with characters explained in the beginning of the book and kids write their own words on the bottom of each page. The paper the book uses makes it easy to erase and re-use. Anyway, she had a back-to-school breakfast at a popular breakfast restaurant. Every person that bought a book got a free breakfast plus she signed books.
23. Ask clients for testimonials. I always ask for a quote at the end of a project or after working with a client for several months on a non-ending project. I publish testimonials here. Sometimes you might have to help the client by asking specific questions to get a valuable testimonial. “You’re great” says nothing. It could be short for “You’re great at being late,” a way for an unhappy client to not tell the complete truth.
24. Ask clients for referrals. Your clients are your best marketing tool. They know your services and may know of others who can benefit from your services.
25. Buy ads. I bought an ad from the sports booster club at my daughter’s high school. It’ll be posted in the three programs that will go out at games. The ad serves two purposes: supports my daughter’s school’s sports (she plays on the volleyball team) and advertise my business. I’ve also posted ads in directories for non-profit organizations of which I’m a member. These don’t cost much compared to standard ads.
26. Hand out promo goodies. Swags, bribes, whatever you call ‘em. Buy mugs, calendars, pens, whathaveyou to hand out to folks with your URL, phone number, or whatever contact information. I don’t do this with client gifts. However, if you’re willing — you could send a gift that doesn’t have your company logo on it AND add a little side goodie that has your company logo on it.
27. Do an exchange. You could submit an article in exchange for an ad on a Web site. Offer to edit a non-profit’s newsletter in exchange for an ad in the newsletter.
28. Hold a contest. Contests with cool prizes bring in folks!
29. Sponsor a prize. Donate a prize for contests. I donated an Amazon gift certificate to Lifehack and they did an unexpected write up about all of their sponsors including me.
30. Carry business cards at all times. Make sure the back of them remain blank or else you or the recipient can’t write notes as I learned the hard way one year when I had the dumb idea of printing the calendar on the back. I rarely hand out all my business cards within a year, so imagine how useless they were when the year ended. I use business cards in my personal life when I meet people at meetings or tennis. It’s a way to give them my contact information and it just happens to promote my business, too. I carry them in my tennis bag and in my purse, so I always have them with me.
31. Leave business cards with complementary businesses. Let’s say you sell organic shampoo. You might leave business cards or a little postcard with beauticians and barbers.
32. Take advantage of upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Offer a free ebook or ereport for when people sign up for your newsletter. Use the ebook download page to upsell or the email with the link to the report for downloading. Take care to start small. Would you buy $500 worth of stuff from someone you just met? For example, the ebook could be a chapter from a larger book that costs $20. Give them the opportunity to buy the book for $15 if they purchase it within X number of days (gives them time to read the free chapter).
33. Focus on keeping your current clients happy. Much cheaper than doing low quality work in a hurry so you can find new customers. Take the time to do a great job so they keep coming back. No taking clients for granted.
34. Always part with clients on a good note. Sometimes things don’t work out. Face it… not everyone will like you no matter how wonderful you are. Your personality will clash with someone. These clients might talk, so extend goodwill by leaving on a good note.
35. Join an organization or association. It doesn’t have to be a writer’s related one. PTA counts. I try to find out what other parents do so I can refer business their way. After all, happy parents means a happy PTA.
36. Advertise on your car. I ordered cheap, but good quality magnets with my business on them. But I felt silly and took them down. Not everyone feels that way as I see MANY cars carrying ads these days.
37. Volunteer. You’d be surprise how your business can come up when you’re doing good. Heck, wear a t-shirt advertising your business. Get one made through Cafe Press or Vistaprint.
38. Write thank you notes. Yes, write with your hand. Write thank you notes for all occasions. Someone treat you to a meal? Someone make a referral that has yet to pan out or didn’t work out? Every little bit helps. You can easily keep stamped postcards with you so that you can drop down and give ten… I mean stop and write a thank you note any time.
39. Write reviews. I’ve gotten paid writing jobs because I wrote honest reviews of the clients’ products before we connected.
40. Do something! Marketing won’t work unless you take action. Sorry… no other way to do it without lifting a finger. Even if you have an assistant do it, you still need to let the assistant know to do it!
41. Be consistent. Spend five to ten minutes a day doing any of these. The important thing is to do something on a regular basis. Sure, you might have days when you can barely find your head much less have time to do these activities. So spend more time the next day.

What other marketing activities do 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.