Top 6 Mistakes Beginning Freelance Writers Make

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Starting a freelance writing business can be overwhelming. As you start to look for those all-important first clients, you may second guess your every move.

Making some freelance mistakes are inevitable and even beneficial. Remember the old adage that you learn from your mistakes? However many mistakes are avoidable if you know what to look out for.

In this post I'll explain the top six mistakes that new freelancer writers make and give you tips on how to dodge them.

1. Being Lazy

If you focus all of your time writing for content mills and bidding for jobs on freelance sites, you're not honing your marketing skills. Learning how to market your business effectively is a big job and some new freelancers want to avoid it by taking the "easy" route.

It took weeks for my first paid article to be accepted by the magazine after pitching the story and months for it to be published.

The harder road (and ultimately more rewarding) is to consistently market your business by sending out queries, pitches, and sales letters. Other great marketing strategies include blogging, cold calling, networking, and seeking referrals. All of these activities take time and don't offer instant gratification.

It took weeks for my first paid article to be accepted by the magazine after pitching the story and months for it to be published. It takes a lot of hours to research well-paying markets, find contact information, build a list, write great query/pitch letters, and cultivate relationships with potential clients. One copywriting client that I've worked for took a year after my first introduction email to offer me an assignment.

If you choose the lazy route to avoid marketing, your business will never reach the top. Great clients don't just find you "" you must aggressively look for them. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there. My advice is to reach higher.

2. Not Being Focused

If you're taking my advice from mistake one and actively marketing your business, it's easy to get scattered and overwhelmed. The number of potential clients is staggering. Where do you start?

When organizing a marketing campaign, I stick with one target market at a time. For example, if I'm looking for new trade magazines to write for, I'll research only trade publications and keep a log of the publication's title, editor's name, and email address in an Excel spreadsheet or notebook. Then I'll tailor each email introduction letter to fit the specific publication (e.g. for a health trade I'll plug my health-related writing experience).

You may want to narrow your targets down even further. For instance, I have also focused on targeting only university nursing schools in a particular state. If you're sending out a direct mail campaign, you could build lists based on industries, company size, or location.

Another benefit of focusing is that you'll be able to measure your progress and success rates a lot better. For example, if you send out 50 email introductions to businesses in a particular industry and you get 10 responses, you'll know the exact response rate of that particular campaign and can build on that success.

3. Sending Queries to Generic Email Addresses

If you read most writer's guidelines you'll often find a generic email submission address such as [email protected] or [email protected]. In my early days I sent a few pitches to the generic email address of a women's glossy magazine and never heard anything back. So I decided to do a little sleuthing to find the real email address of the assigning editor and viola "" I got an immediate response (results not typical).

Do everything you can to find out the actual email address of the editor or company contact to send your pitch to "" even if it means picking up the phone to ask. Publications and companies don't put real emails on their websites because they don't want to be bombarded with messages. If you find a real email your chances of receiving a response greatly increase. Plus, you'll instantly decrease your competition from other writers because all of their pitches will be lost in cyberspace.

4. Not Pitching

Some writers are writing for the content mills until they feel confident or "ready" to pitch larger markets. I wanted to be a freelance writer for years before I actually became one. Until you start sending out pitches and actively marketing to potential clients, you'll remain a wannabe and not have a real shot at success. You need to start pitching to get on the path to professional freelance writing.

5. Not Following-up

It's a common mistake that many new freelancers make "" interpreting no response as a NO.

It's a common mistake that many new freelancers make "" interpreting no response as a NO. Don't do all of that marketing work and then leave assignments and money on the table by failing to follow up.

Editors and business people are busy. They may have received your letter and intended to reply, but other priorities got in the way.

It's up to you to remind them. Sure, I've sent many letters that I've never received a reply on. But I've also landed many new assignments by following-up, and I'm convinced that had I not followed up, I wouldn't have gotten those jobs.

How long should you wait? Put a reminder on your calendar for two weeks out. I know that a lot of advice books and writer's guidelines say 6-8 weeks. I don't follow that advice. If your idea is time sensitive, follow up sooner.

6. Writing for "Exposure"

Head over to Craigslist and read a sampling of the ads for writing "gigs" and it won't take long to find offers to gain exposure for your writing. I just popped over there and here's what I found:

Very easy work for the right person. (No pay)

Opportunity would be on quid pro quo basis. I can provide free marketing of your site. (No pay)

No compensation at this time"This is a great opportunity for new contributors trying to get established in the entertainment industry.

Are these the kinds of jobs you want to bank your business on? Trust me, no real editors or clients will be impressed with these clips. Just say no to writing for exposure.

Beginning Freelance Writers – Don’t Give Up

Again, marketing takes time. The good news is that good marketing has a snowball effect. Over time you'll begin to find your marketing groove and work with repeat clients (especially if you submit outstanding work on deadline).

While you're waiting it's tempting to just go for easy to get, low-paying gigs or quit altogether. Stay in there and keep pitching. My philosophy is that if I get enough pitch letters out there or make enough calls, eventually I'll hit a homerun. You will too. But you have to be patient, consistent, and not give up.

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