Adventures in Freelancing

Here are just a couple of the steps I took to start my full time freelance writing career:

1. Incorporated. I went with an S corp. I decided to incorporate for liability reasons mostly. Also, I have virtual assistant who works as a contractor for me, but I may decide in the future to bring her on as an employee and offer some type of group benefits.

2. I called the IRS. I decided that I wanted to get some more information about taxes. Turns out, the whole withholding and quarterly estimated thing is pretty easy. It’s all outlined in IRS pub 15, and the withholding tables are in publication 15-t.

3. Saved some money. I don’t have as much of a cushion as I’d like, but I’ve got a few months worth of bills saved up. I also have very little debt, cars and student loans are paid off.

4. I got clients. Getting clients is not that hard. You have to do it. I posted some tips on this on my other blog, Freelance Writerville. I have about 20 people clients and several content sites that I can get money from, so I have plenty of work as I start.

5. I talked to experienced freelance writers and bought their e-books. There is nothing like getting information from those in the know. My favorite so far is the Unlimited Freelancer, which I reviewed here.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back as often as I can, but keep in mind- you can find me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Freelance Writerville.

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I wanted to give everyone who still visits this page a little update about my freelancing status. I feel like I abandoned this blog and the audience, and it makes me sad. So I think I’m going to try to pick back up and continue blogging over here.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I turned in my notice at my day job! That means I am almost 1 year ahead of my schedule for becoming a full time freelancer. Yay me!

I’ve got a little cash saved, I’ve got a nice set of clients–and I’m ready. I’m ready like a crack-addicted hooker on a lonely street corner.

So, I’m going to come back here on Tuesday and give you guys a little information about what I did to get ready, how I set myself up to reach this goal, and what you can do to make it happen for you.

I bought an eBook today by another online freelance writer. The book was $37 (yeah, I know, $37???!!). It was pretty good. I think most of the info in the book I knew already, but there were some things that I hadn’t thought of or knew in the book.

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One of the topics covered in the book was deciding whether to be a niche writer or a generalist writer.  This was an important topic for me. So far, I’ve been a generalistfor a lot of reasons.

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1. I didn’t know if (or what) I really wanted to specialize in.

2. I didn’t know what kind of demand there was for different niches.

3. I like to do many different things and learn about different subjects and being a generalist offers the perfect opportunity to do that.

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The problem with being a generalist, though, is that you make less money. You make less money because you have to spend more time researching and because you won’t be paid the premium price of an expert.

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So I’ve decided to specialize. I’m specializing in finance and insurance. I’ve updated my website to show that I’m all specialized out. I’m charging a pretty hefty price for my specialty work and a cheaper price for a general writing that comes through.

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I’m really not sure how this is going to go. I’ll keep you posted.