Business Cards

I decided to make some new business cards. They're handy to have, and the old ones needed some updates.

Here's the front.

And the back.

Let me know what you think! I'm thinking of offering some small-scale desktop publishing services. If this is something you're interested in, drop me a line. You've got my card!

Tips for Successful Freelancing #12: Tax Season

Many people will tell you to wait until the last possible moment to file your taxes so that you can hold onto your money as long as possible. Me? I like to get them done and out of the way as soon as possible so I don't have to worry about them and I don't have to shit bricks come April.

I have received requests for tax software recommendations. I personally use H&R Block: TaxCut, on recommendation from a friend. I have used it for two years without incident, and find it to be relatively painless to use. The version I use, Basic+State (I need the State because I live in California,) costs me around $37, but considering I only need it once a year, this suits me just fine. It is user-friendly, can be used from year to year (provided you remember your password or have the foresight to write it down) and makes e-filing a snap.

Remember that as a freelancer, you are considered self-employed. As such, you can write off a bunch more on your taxes in the form of business expenses. Take a look here for a good list of Deductions and Credits you may be able to claim this year. The TaxCut software I use is also able to determine the appropriate deductions and credits; doesn't get much easier.

http://taxes.about.com/od/deductionscredits/Deductions_Credits.htm

CACPs and You

While I was on my way to work today, I hit a little traffic and had a Douglas Adams moment. Allow me to explain.

There are times when, in moderate to heavy traffic, the jam will, for no discernable explanation, clear as suddenly as it started. I have dubbed these points where traffic seems to return to normal, "CACPs" or "Completely Arbitrary Choke Points." They are points where, for no visible reason at all, traffic goes from very slow to normal. They only occur in random places, and never near on-ramps, off-ramps, landmarks, accidents or indeed anything notable at all. The reason for their existence is unknown, but is possibly linked to a prominent SEP (Somebody Else's Problem) source in the local area.

Tips for Successful Freelancing #11: Picking and Choosing

Depending on where you work, there may come a time when you find the need to seek some different clients. A lot of new media (most notably websites) offer a good work package for part-timers and people who are just looking for supplemental income. They offer flexibility in assignments (most let you choose your own topics), quick turnaround time and a monthly paycheck. The downside is that their rate per word is, in a word, terrible. While you might consider the work decent for the time involved and the other benefits (the aforementioned flexibility in assignments, quick turnaround time and the guaranteed monthly paycheck), these types of clients are usually unviable as a source of primary income.

Consider this: you write 500-word articles for a website. Your payment is $10 each (fairly standard), you can write about 50 of them in a month (some people can write more, but this is a good ballpark) and it takes you a grand total of around 60 hours/month. Per hour, that's around $8.33; a pretty bad wage. Considering the low rate per article and the number of articles you can crank out in a month (and many of these clients will either have a limited number of articles you can write or dole out topics based on a calendar system, which does not guarantee you any articles in a given month), you're pretty much better off with your day job, even if you work retail (minimum wage in California is $8/hour. Less per hour, but consider that even if you work part-time, you will still make more money per month.) Consider that $10 for a 500-word article equals 2 cents/word. That SUCKS unless you're getting paid by the word an are writing a document longer than 200,000 words. And if you write >500 words/article, the rate gets even worse!

Should you find yourself relying on quick-content clients for a primary source of income, it's time to seek other employment. Now, I'm not telling you to avoid these clients; far from it. They are an excellent source of quick income and in the world of freelance writing, a monthly paycheck is a wonderful thing indeed. I'm just saying that they are not the best source of income for the full-time freelancer. If you can afford to freelance full-time, you can afford to find a better gig that pays a lot more per word.

Tips for Successful Freelancing #10: Balance

Working as a freelance writer does not mean that you must be pounding a keyboard all day. There are other essential tasks which being a freelancer necessitates, not all of which require a keyboard. Of particular import to writing, is editing. Many writers believe that their status as writer absolves them of the responsibility of editing their material. They are sorely mistaken.

For starters, not all freelancing gigs come with an editor. If you've got one, count yourself lucky. Editors perform the vital service of informing you that your writing is not perfect and how you can go about improving it. Without an editor, you'd better get damn good at editing your own work. Handing in an unedited work brands you as unreliable, and can adversly affect your reputation as a freelancer.

You needn't go all out and rewrite a document 12 times before handing it in. Just give it a good once-over with spell-check and your own eyes. I say "and your own eyes" because if you don't already know, spell-check is not infallible. Print the document out if you need to. I strongly recommend doing this, particularly if it is a long document and you have no editor. Reading something on paper is very different from reading something on a screen. Most of us will catch things on the hard copy that will be missed on the screen copy. I know I always catch more when I'm reading a hard copy.

Think of writing and editing as Yin and Yang. One is light, the other dark; you cannot have one without the other; both are necessary to maintain harmony and balance. Even if you have an editor, you should still give your work a good look-over before handing it in. Make their life easier. If you find that yourself consistently handing work in unedited because of time constraints, either take a time management class, cut down on your workload, or both.

Lastly, remember that there are other things besides writing you must do to remain a successful freelancer. Doing your taxes, keeping your area clean and looking for new clients are all jobs that can be counted as "work" but do not require writing. Being a writer requires you to be more than just a writer.

Look Before you Leap

Despite the glib and hopeful tone of the last post, the jubiltion inherent in finding new work has been marred by recent events. I'm glad I thought twice about my day job, as it turns out that the new contracts I picked up have proven to be less than I hoped for. Don't get me wrong; they're still useful for some supplemental income, and I intend to do my work there to my fullest. It's just not all the pay I had hoped for.

It's not the client's fault: the pay is as-indicated in the postings to which i responded. It's just that one of the gigs pays over time and is a great long-term investment, and the other is currently unable to provide me with enough articles to make any decent money. So, what has become a previously hopeful outlook has faded to "ok honey, how quickly can we scramble out of this hole we've just fallen into?"

I'm trying not to assign blame, but it's hard. There are a lot of people who are indirectly responsible not only for our plight but for millions of people in California and the rest of the nation who are suffering similar budget woes. I won't name names, but those responsible: I hope you got coal in your stockings. No wait, strike that: coal is useful for generating power and making steel. I hope you got a bunch of past-due bills and bogus credit card offers in your stockings. HA!

Bottom line: Give it a little time before you take the plunge and ditch your day job. In today's next-worse-thing-to-the Great Depression economy, you can never be too sure of your financial fotting unless you're rich. And if you're rich, give me a grant.