How to Sell Your Blogging Services While You Sleep

When a potential client lands on your freelance writer website, what’s the one thing you want them to do?

Contact you, right? Get in touch and let you know what they’re looking for. After all, you need to negotiate the project scope, the timescales… there’s a lot to do before you can finalise that sale, and you need the client to give you a ton of information before you can even guesstimate your fee.

Or, you could make the sale faster and simpler. Let your clients buy your services there and then, if you want.

All you have to do is package them appropriately and set up an automated sales process to handle the transactions for you. Once that’s done, a visitor can land on your website and buy your blogging services even while you’re asleep. 🙂

If that sounds like it’s easier said than done, well, it takes a little time —mostly thinking time— but it isn’t difficult to set up.

I’ll walk you through the whole process in this post, so you can get going with this idea immediately.

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By Sophie Lizard

Thank You for Reading: It’s Be a Freelance Blogger’s Birthday!

One year ago, on January 15th 2013, I published this blog post — the first post on Be a Freelance Blogger.

Most of the universe paid no attention. But my life changed completely.

That blog post’s received 222 comments. Some of those were from me and Lauren replying to your comments, but that’s still about 200 comments more than I was used to getting anywhere else.

People were talking to me. I mean really talking — not “Great post!” but long, thoughtful comments. People emailed to thank me. And I felt kinda stupid, because Jon Morrow and Dann y Iny told me this would happen, and I secretly didn’t believe them. I couldn’t imagine a life where more than 10,000 readers visit this blog in a month, and 5,700 people subscribe to read my emails.

Now I can’t imagine it without you.

I spent 2013 meeting so many new people with brilliant minds, heartfelt passions and genuine ethics. I’ve chatted with freelance bloggers and entrepreneurs around the world. I’ve taken beach holidays while I created online training programs, just like those spammy ads on the internet keep saying everyone can do… except that this isn’t an infomercial. It’s my life. It’s really happened.

It’s happened because you read, and think, and talk to me. Because you tell me when I’ve helped (and when I’ve screwed up).

It’s my blogiversary, and I’m happy you found me.

As a writer, it pains me to admit I haven’t got the right words — there aren’t enough words in existence — to tell you how much I appreciate you.

Well, either there aren’t enough, or there are only two that will do it.

Thank you.

Now go sit over there and read some birthday messages from the blogosphere while I pretend I’m not crying, dammit. There’s a big fancy prize to win at the end.

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By Sophie Lizard

You’re an Expert (And Don’t You Forget It)

There’s this thing that keeps happening.

Not to you. To me. For once, I’m starting a blog post by talking about myself… but only so I can talk about you.

Yeah, you. The one who says you don’t know what you have to offer a client, or what your specialist expertise might be.

It keeps happening. I have conversations that go something like this:

BAFB READER: I recently started freelance writing and I don’t really feel confident asking for money because I don’t know much about anything. I’m not an expert, I’m just a writer. And I’m scared to send any queries in case I get rejected. Or in case I don’t get rejected. Or in case I get writer’s block after I’ve been hired. Or in case I just can’t handle the pressure of a writer’s life and go crazy like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

ME: Oh. OK. So, um, what did you do before you started freelance writing?

BAFB READER: Oh, I was a professor in advanced examples at the University of Examples. Then I spent a couple of years as an examples artist at the Example Institute for Impressive Examples.

ME [With restraint.]: So… did you ever think that maybe you could get started by writing about… you know… examples?

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By Sophie Lizard

How to Self-Publish Your Way to Better Freelance Writing Gigs

One question Be a Freelance Blogger readers ask a lot is: how can I convince a potential client that I’m the right writer for them?

The answer: you don’t have to convince. You just show them, and they convince themselves.

The convention of proof in freelance blogging is that you give the potential client links to 2 or 3 of your most relevant published posts, or to your online portfolio. But what if you had bigger, more powerful proof to offer?

What if you gave them a copy of your book on their niche topic?

Let me give away your potential client’s big secret right here: they’re human, and they’re impressed by the same stuff as anybody else. That means they view you as an expert in any topic you’ve published a book about. Magazine articles and academic publications count for a lot, too, but a book tops the list.

Yeah, yeah, publish a book. Riiiight, Sophie.

I’m not kidding. Self-publishing isn’t difficult; there’s a learning curve, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. And I’ve brought in an expert to give us a few pointers.

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By Sophie Lizard

UK Freelance Tax and Self-Assessment: A Quick Start Guide

Ugh. Taxes.

No matter what you do in your freelance writing career, you’ll have to face the tax ~~monster~~ man, right? And it looks pretty complicated, especially if you’re not a big fan of mathematics.

Chris Peden (a CPA and freelance writer) wrote a very helpful post last year about how to keep your financial records for U.S. taxation as a freelance blogger. But I know there are plenty of bloggers in the UK who need to know what’s required of them, too. So I’ve interviewed a UK taxation expert to give us the info we need. 🙂

Rosie Slosek founded the Money Haven to provide tax return help for solopreneurs who want to do their own tax return, and support and coaching for one man band limited companies who want to understand what their legal obligations are.

She talks plain English, explains the jargon you need to know (tax-deductible, anyone?), and she’s always on your side. She also has a great sense of humour, and promotes the use of cake and other incentives to meet your tax and accounting obligations.

Here are Rosie’s top tips for UK freelancers to handle your taxes with confidence and grace (and cake).

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