Author: Christopher Jan Benitez

  • 5 Freelance Laws You Must Observe

    5 Freelance Laws You Must Observe

    In today’s world, keeping the current situation in mind, several startups and small businesses are relying on contract and freelance personnel.

    With a constantly growing number of professionals, this workforce provides many advantages such as variety, opportunity and flexibility. Freelancing also gives you the independence to work towards your interests at your own pace.

    So, for the student that aims to work in a versatile industry, freelancing might be the best way for them to gain the knowledge they need to get their dream job, all while keeping up with a hectic curriculum.

    While being a freelancer has its own benefits, there are certain complications that revolve around this career option.

    So if you are a freelancer, or planning to become one, here are five freelance laws you need to be aware of to protect yourself:

    1. Plagiarism and Property Rights

    Freelancing requires an in-depth understanding of plagiarism and property rights for two major reasons- first is to make sure you aren’t guilty of it, and the second is to safeguard your work.

    If you are not cautious about the content you release, you may find yourself in a legal confrontation over copyright or plagiarism.

    Freelancers can get charged for infringing another individual or company’s property rights or copyright, even if it was done unknowingly.

    Content writers and college students are also inclined to face coincidental plagiarism, and that’s why it is important for them to utilise online plagiarism checking software that is readily available online.

    To prevent any future disputes regarding plagiarism, it is important to understand it’s advantages and working.

    So how exactly does a plagiarism checking software work?

    Plagiarism detectors are accessible online and help to determine whether your content has been duplicated from another source. This software gives us access to several sources and databases that allow individuals to proofread their work effectively and quickly.

    It searches for content similarity by scanning the database and detecting text elements and then compares it with other elements.

    After the process of comparison is completed, the software then highlights the similar elements, if there are any.

    Plagiarism detection software functions similar to the search engines, like Google, which index different content on the web. The main dissimilarity between the two is that the plagiarism software compares and identifies similar elements on the web instead of simply searching for them.

    2. Contract Violations

    contract violations

    A contract is a legal document protected by the law. It defines the duties and rights of the parties that have entered an agreement.

    When the terms and conditions are clearly stated between parties, it prevents future misconceptions and drawbacks. It eliminates ambiguity and enforces smooth professional relationships.

    Freelancing without a contract is a risk simply not worth taking. It could lead to clients refusing to pay for your work, and without a contract set in place, you wouldn’t be able to take action.

    That is undoubtedly not a situation you should look forward to.

    Make sure that all your clients agree to file contracts that include every detail such as the duration, number of iterations, and the pay.

    If your client expects you to work beyond the agreed iterations, ensure that to put down a rate of pay for your extra work.

    3. Trademark Infringement

    A trademark is the Intellectual Property (IP) of a freelancer that safeguards the logos, signs, and symbols which define and differentiate them from others in the industry.

    The trademark registration procedure is similar for both companies and individuals, and it is often best to hire a law firm to steer this process for you.

    As a freelancer, you can protect and establish your brand identity by applying for a trademark that is unique to you.

    However, it is important to ensure that your future trademark is authorized and authenticated since trademark infringement has hefty legal implications.

    4. Conflict of Interest

    It is your responsibility to check if you have any agreements that interdict you from operating as a freelancer while working with your existing employer in order to avoid any possible legal implications.

    Although it is possible to be a freelancer alongside being employed, it is essential to ensure that your freelance work does not affect your working hours and productivity as an employee of the current organisation.

    Violating agreements and disclosing confidential company information could lead to serious repercussions and could also lead to the termination of your duties.

    Make sure you understand the paperwork you sign, such as non-disclosure agreements and non-compete agreements to distinguish between your two professions.

    5. Taxation

    As a freelancer, you are essentially self-employed. While working for oneself has its own advantages, it can also cause occasional complications- especially with filing taxes.

    If you earn your income as a freelancer, you often end up filing taxes as a businessperson. Ensure to collect and transcript the various sources of your income carefully, as freelancing involves having several sources of income.

    The most advisable method to manage your tax payments would be to hire the services of a tax professional to ensure you adhere to the tax regulations of your country.

    Taxation - freelance laws

    Conclusion

    Author Bio:

     As an Assignment Expert, Bella delivers online sessions at Expert Assignment Help, helping students with writing essays and assignments. She is the co-founder and education consultant at Top My Grades. Beyond work, you can find her baking a fresh batch of cookies in her kitchen.

    assignment expert
  • 7 Lead Magnet Ideas to Implement Right Now

    7 Lead Magnet Ideas to Implement Right Now

    Converting visitors into prospective sales is where the success of a company lies. Visitors come and go without leaving a lead – quite literally. That is why the marketing departments have come up with the “magnets” to rope in visitors, offer incentives, and convert them into buyers. 

    However, is that as easy as it is said? 

    Not essentially. 

    Strategizing with lead magnet ideas to optimize your visiting traffic into returning ones, and potentially into customers, is not an easy game. This is mainly because lead magnets are popular bait, and you need to come up with relevant and value-adding stuff to gain the favor of your target audience. 

    Buyer’s Journey Stages 

    The buyer’s journey stages, as it clearly indicates, are three progressive steps that every prospective lead follows to become a buyer.  

    buyer's journey stages

    Image Source

    Awareness Stage:

    The prospect is completely unaware of your brand, or of the solution, it offers to a problem. A visitor might have stumbled upon your website via organic search, so at this stage, you have to focus on making the prospects become “aware”.

    Consideration Stage:

    As the prospect makes it to the middle of your customer journey funnel, it “considers” and weighs the options against the problem. Countless businesses are offering similar solutions, if not completely the same. In that case, what makes your brand credible?

    Decision Stage:

    If a lead has made it to the decision stage, all it needs is a slight push to be converted into a consumer. Just a click away, the right or wrong move can influence their buying decision. 

    There’s a different mind map of the prospect at every stage of the funnel. Lead magnets, therefore, vary for each segment of the buyer’s journey. 

    The Awareness Stage 

    Educate with eBooks 

    In-depth, detailed, and comprehensive eBooks are a powerful way to attract qualified sales leads by giving them a free download to an inclusive guide. They act as a strong lure because eBooks are a reserved property and require extensive time and knowledge to compile.

    Make sure your eBook is thoroughly researched, is relevant to the brand’s core values, and has visual appeal. Using original infographics, charts, and images is an effective way to get your message across. 

    Increase Productivity with Checklists

    You can use checklists as a lead magnet considering the target audience of your company. 

    Visitors find these quick lists helpful in optimizing their productivity – for instance, an ultimate to-do-list for backpackers so they do not miss out on anything. You can stash away valuable insight or tips and tricks in these “cheat sheets” in return for their email addresses.

    Businesses customize the checklist lead magnet by turning it into steps of a process, top requirements, or best practices. As they are easy to consume and condenses a lot of information into an easy-to-scan list, it propels the prospect from the first stage to the next. 

    interactive quizzes

    Bring Interactive Quizzes 

    Interactive quizzes are one way to entertain and interact with users while can be tailored to keep them invested in your preposition. Quizzes are custom-made – it is so much you can give and take from only a few interesting questions. They can be creative, whacky, and still remain relevant to the problem at hand. 

    For instance, if your company sells athletic wear, you can create a quiz to get users to find out which sports movie character they would most likely play. Or, if you are an interior designing company, you can host a quiz asking people of their likes and dislikes to offer an end-result telling which design will suit their taste best. 

    The Consideration Stage 

    Exclusive Webinars

    The king of converting leads, Neil Patel, recommends webinars as a strong magnet to attract genuinely interested sales leads. Webinars are classified under the “educational” lead magnets – schooling your visitors about something they didn’t already know. 

    In return for an email address, prospects can watch live or pre-recorded presentations as many times as they want. Offer valuable insights, wisdom speech, and informative content with, perhaps, a host-interactive session or an attractive offer at the end to make it to the prospect’s shortlist. Knowledge is the key, and an exclusive webinar behind a gate is a promising way to catch potential buyers. 

    Make sure you design the webinars in a way that it compels the prospect to “consider” your brand. 

    Whitepapers 

    Whitepapers are compelling reports or guides with exhaustive knowledge on a complex issue. They are a marketing magnet that takes on the form of an authoritative and credible problem-solving stance and has rich, in-depth methodologies presenting solutions. 

    Readability is imperative, always. Keep the text boxes short, to-the-point, and backed by visuals to grab the reader’s attention. Since whitepapers are golden freebies for consumers to read, evaluate, and make a decision; you need to keep them power-packed with original facts and stats. 

    The Decision Stage 

    Prospects at this stage are waiting for the final push to help them make their decision. Consider the lead magnets under this section as the final straw to your conversion. You need to come up with personalized content that would interact with your final prospects and creatively address their pain points. 

    Provide Discounts 

    Discount coupons are the prime lead magnets to convert visitors into buyers. This magnet came into existence when the internet wasn’t ever found. So, you cannot undermine the effectiveness of discount coupons acting as the most successful incentives. 

    Offer whooping discounts to first-time users, free shipping perks, giveaways, and free gifts on first deliveries. 

    netflix

    Seal the Deal with free demo/trials/consultation

    Did you know that ASOS introduced a “try before you buy” model to gain the blind trust of their customers? And it worked – it worked better than anything else. Using this tactic, they not only conquered the hearts of their loyal customers, but it was another powerful generation of leads and referrals. 

    Seal the deal for your customers at the last stage of the funnel by offering them free trials/demos or consultations of your services. 

    Final Thoughts about Lead Magnet Ideas

    Backed up marketing metrics and data, you can easily monitor the performance of your lead magnets and devise improvisations accordingly. There is nothing more challenging than converting visitors into buyers – and once they have converted, there’s nothing worthier.

    julia burova

    Julia Burova

    Business Growth at Wincher – SEO rank tracker

    Julia is a professional business development manager with proven experience in customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and outbound marketing.

    • How to Start Landing High-Ticket Clients as a Freelancer

      How to Start Landing High-Ticket Clients as a Freelancer

      One of the first questions asked by anyone trying to get into freelancing is: Where do I find clients? Getting work from clients is the lifeblood of a freelancing career—it’s how you make the money to pay your bills.

      And while you could start off on sites like Upwork and Fiverr, you may find that you’re not getting the high-paying gigs you had hoped for.

      So how do you land the high-ticket clients? Whether you’ve been freelancing for a while or you’re just getting started, these tips should help. 

      1. Build a portfolio 

      When you’re freelancing, a resume usually won’t be enough to convince a potential client that you’ll do a great job. You’ll need a portfolio of past projects and work samples to really win them over. So, before you start trying to track down any high paying clients, you should build a professional portfolio that showcases your best work. 

      First, you should create a general portfolio that you make public. You should make this portfolio available on your website, your social media pages, freelance job sites, and any relevant industry sites. Make this portfolio look nice and presentable so that potential clients immediately trust you. For ideas and inspiration, research other professional portfolios or use an online portfolio building tool. 

      In your general portfolio, include the work you’re most proud of and try to make the samples as diverse as possible. Demonstrate that your skills are versatile and can translate to different topics and different industries. 

      If you’re making a pitch to a specific client, however, you’ll want to tailor your portfolio so that it aligns with their needs and goals. Show them that you can work in their industry, write in their voice, design with their style in mind, etc. 

      2. Network 

      Networking is important for any professional, but it’s absolutely essential when you’re a freelancer. 

      33% of freelancers report finding work through referrals, 15% get work through social networks, and 14% get work through networking sites like LinkedIn. Thus, if you want to start landing high-ticket clients, you’ll have to make an effort to build a professional network. 

      how freelancers find work

      There are a variety of effective ways to go about building a network. You could start by asking family members and friends if they know of anyone looking for the services you provide. It takes very little effort on your part and they may be able to connect you with some great clients. 

      You should also try to use social media to generate business for yourself. Create profiles on networking sites like LinkedIn, as well as any networking sites relevant to the industry you work in. Advertise your services on other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using either your personal profile or a profile you create specifically for your freelancing services. 

      Reach out directly to companies you want to work for and people you want to connect with via these social media sites. Try to not only connect with potential clients, but also other people in the same industry as you. It’s important to build relationships with people in your industry, even if they’re not clients, because they may be able to provide you with work opportunities in the future. 

      3. Know your worth 

      Many freelancers undervalue the services they provide for too long, resulting in low pay that they can barely use to make ends meet. In order to get the high paying jobs that you dream about you’ll first have to realize your own value. 

      To start, you’ll need to determine a fair rate for your services. Look around online and do some research into what other freelancers in your industry charge. Alternatively, use Referral Rock’s online rate calculator tool to determine your freelance rate. 

      Image courtesy of Referral Rock

      When you’re just starting out and trying to build a portfolio, it makes sense to charge a low rate—but don’t do this for too long. You’ll find that charging next to nothing for your services isn’t a sustainable strategy for attracting and retaining clients. When you set a low rate, you attract low-paying companies who are unlikely to be flexible in raising their rates in the future. 

      Besides, most reputable companies are looking to hire a great worker rather than the person who charges the lowest price.

      Companies are often willing to pay well above bottom-tier rates in order to ensure that they receive quality work in return. In fact, many companies will actually be put off by freelancers who charge very low rates, as they assume the work won’t be as good or the freelancer won’t handle the project with much care. 

      So, even if you start off by charging a low rate, quickly raise it. Steadily raise your rate as you accumulate more experience, learn more, and sharpen your skills.

      If you hesitate about setting high rates, keep in mind that, as a freelancer, you’re often much cheaper for a company to hire than a full-time employee since you’re used on an as-needed basis and the company doesn’t need to provide you with the same benefits or bonuses that it would with a full-time worker. 

      Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, when a potential client expresses interest in your services, don’t be afraid to talk about money.

      If a company offers you a project at a price below your usual rate, it isn’t rude or ungrateful to ask for more money.

      Negotiating over pay is a completely normal part of any business relationship and, if you don’t negotiate, you could end up leaving a lot of money on the table.

      So be firm with your rate (of course you might lower it based on the client, project, the promise of continued work, etc.) and don’t be afraid to say no to potential clients whose budget is too low. 

      4. Work in a niche 

      Finding a niche is a great way to build a steady client base and start earning more money as a freelancer. When you pick a specialty and become an expert in that area, you effectively reduce the amount of competition you face and provide a greater value to potential clients within that niche. 

      For example, if you brand yourself as just a general freelance writer, you’ll be competing with tens of thousands of writers with years of experience, and long, impressive portfolios. However, if you were to brand yourself as a freelance writer specializing in interior design, you would face far less competition and have a much more specific client base that you could pitch to. 

      By becoming an expert in one area, you’ll build up a specialized knowledge and skill set that not many people have, and more clearly define who your client base is, making it easier to pitch to the high-paying ones. 

      Conclusion

      Following these tips can help you step away from those low-paying clients and work with ones that pay you what you’re worth.

      Not only can you earn more money by doing this, but you’ll be able to devote more time and energy to projects you care about instead of jumping from one low-paying assignment to the next.

      samantha rupp

      Samantha Rupp

      Managing Editor, 365businesstips.com

      Samantha Rupp holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She lives in San Diego, California, and enjoys spending time on the beach, reading up on current industry trends, and traveling.

      • 7 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

        7 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

        Blogging holds its ground firmly in this new age of social media platforms. There are currently more than 600 million blogs on the internet out of 1.7 billion websites! It has found a way to weasel its way into all kinds of content online, from YouTube videos to Facebook promotional content. How we define a blog now has become increasingly open-ended. 

        Blogs have acquired a stronger position in the wake of COVID-19 because people have to rely on their computer screens for information and entertainment. This means bloggers do the most they can to optimize their content and website.

        Managing blogs and writing content can be challenging and might not yield positive results. But this is a trial and error phase. Every blogger goes to reach a point where they can get enough traffic. To minimize this phase’s duration, I’ve created a list below that will help you increase your blog traffic.  

        Table of Contents
        [Open][Close]

        On-Page SEO

        While you must have a smattering of SEO-based content available throughout your blog, you can also use it in headlines and first-page content.

        Take careful steps to ensure that you’re using optimized keywords for your blog. But how smartly are you doing it? Blog titles are crucial to the success of the article you post. They need to be attractive and engaging but must also be keyword-optimized.

        Use keywords in your meta tags as well as snippets that you have on your first page. It would help if you integrated targeted keywords into your headlines to optimize your blog further. 

        There are different tools that can help with the optimization of your web pages for specific keywords. For example, you can test a free on-page SEO tool by Wincher.

        Revise Your Keywords Strategy

        Every website or blog requires an effective keyword strategy to boost rankings and traffic. One of the easiest ways to understand how you can improve your keyword search is to know your audience.

        Knowing who you are targeting is crucial before you start writing or uploading content on your blog. This helps you streamline your viewers. Conduct small-scale and relatively simple research and make data-driven decisions based on the needs of your audience.

        An important blogging tip to add to your list is finding a niche that will help you organize your keyword research. A niche is a specialized but profitable corner of the market. Narrow your blog’s focus, so it does not feel chaotic or difficult for the audience to follow.

        Promote Your Content

        Promoting can be done in either of two ways: finding mediums you can use to promote, or self-promote your content. The latter should be done tastefully so it does not feel like you’re bragging or needlessly spamming. But tooting your own horn isn’t bad! Finding a balance between self-promotion and humility takes some time and practice.

        You can also use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and everything else to do paid promotions for your blog. Facebook has a well-integrated ad system that all influencers, bloggers, or businesses should use.

        A few more tips to spread the word about your content:

        • Submit the article to relevant online communities, for example, Growth Hacker.
        • Be active on Quora. Find relevant questions, answer them, and add your link
        • Reach out to the sources that you’ve mentioned, and ask for a share.
        • Repurpose your content in different formats. For instance, you can set up a YouTube channel and convert all your blog posts into videos, essentially making you a YouTube blogger. You can link back to the original posts in the video description so viewers can read the post.

        Related: 19+ Best Places to Share Your Blog Post for Maximum Traffic

        Use Bright, Interesting Images and Illustrations

        When someone reads a blog, their eye automatically veers towards the one with the right balance of pictures, gifs, and videos. Notice that we said balance because sometimes an overload of images with less text to provide any quality content will put off the reader.  

        They might have clicked on the blog, thinking they’ll find useful information coupled with pictures, but when both aren’t what they end up getting, it becomes useless.

        Use high-quality, royalty-free images to not only increase your blog traffic but also make the traffic stay. Websites like Pexels or Pixabay are great resources for your blogs!

        There are many helpful and affordable creation tools to improve traffic to your blog. Just try them out.

        Write More Regularly

        Write More Regularly

        Consistency matters in everything you do. When you’re asking for ways to boost your blog after every strategy has been discussed, the one thing that sustains all your success is the consistent effort you put in your work.

        Writing blogs every once in a while will not cut it. The more you write, the more you’re going to find ways to make that piece of writing more effective. Your traffic will also become consistent, and you’re bound to have frequent visitors. This is extremely important to increase your blog traffic.

        Create your winning content marketing plan and just succeed step-by-step.

        Check your Results and Revise the Strategy

        As I previously mentioned, writing and experimenting with your strategy will help you improve your blog in general. This trial and error phase is significant for learning new strategies or revising the old ones.

        Keep an eye on your traffic jumps and keyword rankings. You can gain lots of insights by tracking your positions and spying on your competitors. It’s obvious that higher positions you have – more traffic you get. That’s why don’t forget to track your keywords and see which content brings the most traffic for your website.

        wincher

        Add Clear Call-to-Action

        Call-to-actions are essential for both blog writing and general content on your website. When you’re writing a blog, end it each time with a CTA but do so in a tasteful manner but still calling to the customers.

        First of all, think about what you want to empower your audience for. Sign up for a newsletter, leave the feedback or probably follow your social media. Don’t hesitate to highlight CTA to let the audience easily find the relevant next step.

        Useful Call-to-actions are easily distinguishable and stand out. In the case of blogs, CTAs will usually ask readers to share their content if they liked what they read or promote their website to read similar blogs or promote a specific business.

        Remember, asking is okay! 

        Conclusion

        Creating and maintaining a blog is time-consuming and challenging, but something doable. We hope the strategies listed above help you increase your blog traffic. But most importantly, your passion enables you to add depth to it, and your drive for it makes the blog more consistent. Having both is important as you delve into this world!

        Author’s bio: Julia is a professional business development manager with proven experience in customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and outbound marketing. Now she takes care of customer success and business growth at Wincher rank tracker.

      • How To Manage Your Content Writing Team The Right Way

        How To Manage Your Content Writing Team The Right Way

        As the manager of a content writer team, there’s a chance things might get a bit out of hand. 

        For instance, even if you have editorial guidelines in place, some writers might not be able to follow them for some reason.

        On top of that, you’re managing different personalities that require differentot approaches in helping them get the job done.

        Other things will keep your hands full with your content writing team. However, getting them in order is doable as long as you have a system in place.

        In this post, you will learn how to manage your content writing team so they get to submit quality work on time without any problems.

        Refine the onboarding process

        All your writers must uniformly produce articles and blog posts. That means they have the same format, tone, and voice according to your or your client’s specifications.

        However, this is impossible unless you have shared with your team the guidelines on how to do these.

        If you don’t have a process for this yet, then you need to set up one ASAP. This helps you onboard all your writers, whether old or new, to how you want things done. If done correctly, all your writers will produce consistent articles across all boards.

        First, you need to lay out all the steps in a clearly defined format. 

        Tools like Process Street or Trello with its built-in checklist feature for cards allow you to list down the steps writers need to do when writing the content. 

        It would even be better to share a screen recording of you running down the steps of writing content. One such screen recording software program, CloudApp, let’s you annotate images as well. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  And nowhere is that more clear than trying to captain a team of content writers. Show, don’t tell to make sure your writers get all the information they need to be successful. 

        Once done, you can set up a Trello board that your writers can review and access every time you start writing an article for you.

        Oversee each task like a hawk

        One of the most important factors managers like yourself need to instill among its team members is accountability.

        You must provide them all the information to write the article, but the rest of the work must come from them. If they can’t submit the work on time despite having agreed upon a deadline, then they are responsible for not getting the job done.

        Using Trello, you can set up the card containing the job description with a deadline on each. You can also take screenshots on different records and upload them using CloudApp when snipping an image is faster than restyling.

          Writers must either comply with the details of the work or ask for a longer period to finish it. Either way, this part should allow you to lay down the groundwork for the project for you and the writer to discuss and agree upon its terms.

        trello

        Do this for all your writers and for their respective tasks so they commit in writing to a deadline for a job to be completed by. And if they fail on holding up their end of the bargain, it’s clear that timelines aren’t being met. 

        Communicate visually

        There are times, however, when writers can’t finish the job on time due to reasons such as faulty internet connection, health-related issues, family-related problems, and others. While deadlines are important, you should also give writers a benefit of a doubt in these cases.

        This goes both ways as well. If the client wanted some changes with the project while you’re in the middle of getting the job done, it’s best to inform them ASAP.

        That’s where a messaging app like Slack is beneficial to your team. You can update each other regarding work-related issues so each one is in the loop.

        The goal here is to create an open line of communication among writers without the usual distractions and multiple emails.

        slack

        The good thing about these apps is you can set up different channels for your team as needed be. For example, you can create a channel for a client with multiple writers. 

        Also, Slack allows you to focus on your project only unlike on different messaging apps where non-work-related discussion pop off. And just like with Trello, CloudApp’s screen recorder integrates seamlessly with Slack. You can tie CloudApp to Slack by installing the integration from the Slack app marketplace. 

        Set up a writing workflow

        The most important part of managing a content writing team is to get people to follow the guidelines to a tee. We’re not just talking about the format and tone of the articles – we’re also dealing here with quality, grammar, and the actual content.

        Therefore, developing a writing workflow is in order. This allows your team to pass off work to you that is proofread and contains actionable items and insights points in the content about the topic.

        First, providing an outline for the content is important so writers can just focus on churning out great content based on the specs of the project.

        I have written the importance of creating an outline before writing the article to help writers finish it faster and better. You can read it here.

        You can also serve as the team’s editor if you don’t have one yet. For this job, getting help from writing tools like Grammarly or ProWritingAid would prove beneficial to you. Manually editing work is ideal, but some things in the content would fall down the cracks. 

        Using either tool, at the very least, consistently checks for the grammatical errors and sentence structures. You can then focus your attention on the level of detail in one’s work.

        prowritingaid - how to manage a content writing team

        Better yet, what I do is sign up for a ProWritingAid account and install the GDocs extension on your domain (if you have a GSuite). This way, all your writers with access to your GSuite can edit their work on GDocs using ProWritingAid. This takes out a step from your process and simplifies the workflow as a result.

        Hire more qualified writers for the job

        Part of your work includes hiring and screening new writers for your projects. Maybe some of your current writers are worn out from the other clients you’re working with. Or others don’t have the experience yet to take upon this demanding client.

        In this case, it’s best to get the right writer for the job instead of overpromising and underdelivering with your current staff.

        I have detailed things you must do to find the best writer for the job in this post. It details what to look for in their freelance writing portfolio, how to screen each one, and more.

        Conclusion

        As mentioned, running a tight ship with your content writing team is possible. But realize that everything starts with you as their captain.

        By setting up the necessary processes and workflows to make sure everybody is on the same page, everything else will follow. Writers can then focus on producing better work for you so you don’t have to worry about reviewing and rewriting their content.

      • Taking a Break From Writing: How To Do It Right

        Taking a Break From Writing: How To Do It Right

        Freelance writing can be a stressful job. Not only are you responsible for creating great content for your clients, but you also have to find said clients.

        You always have to keep marketing your services hoping to get clients that will provide you with consistent work and the job security you need.

        Worst of all, you’re lucky if you don’t encounter clients who don’t pay on time, if at all. So you have to chase them with emails and private messages to get the payment in full.

        Combine all these things over a period and it’s no wonder why you eventually feel burnt out.

        That’s why you need to learn the art of taking a break from writing, which is what I’ll be discussing in this post.

        I’ll be discussing how you can take breaks in between writing and how to spend your time wisely while away from work. This way, you can always approach writing for clients with vigor.

        Plan your week ahead of time

        Before ending the week, I usually schedule the things I need to do for next week. Even if you do not understand what you’ll do for the coming week, at least block the times when you think you’ll be working in your calendar.

        Setting a schedule also determines the times when you’ll be having your breaks. Therefore, it’s good to space out the breaks in between writing so you don’t overexert yourself.  

        For planning the week ahead, I use Clickup to help me organize my projects and set the tasks for each.

        taking a break from writing - clickup

        You can even enter the start and end time for each task. The tool will then remind you via email if there’s something you need to finish for the day and what time.

        If you’re not into project management tools, you can use Google Calendar to do this. In fact, even writing it on a planner should suffice.

        Ultimately, where you write or type your schedule doesn’t matter. The point is for you to set expectations on what you must finish for next week so you can take breaks appropriately.

        Use productivity techniques

        One of the major causes why people need taking a break from writing is burnout. And to avoid burnout, you need to make the most of your time working.

        That doesn’t mean you should squeeze in as much work as possible when writing.

        Instead, you must maintain consistent levels of productivity over time. And you can only achieve this if you can practice productivity techniques when writing.

        Much has been said about the Pomodoro Technique so I won’t have to discuss that here. Also, there are other tactics you can implement to help you keep up with the writing demand of clients without feeling burned out.

        Jerry Seinfield’s monthly streak is a simple but effective way to keep your productivity going. You must set up a one-page calendar on your wall and mark the days when you’ve finished your writing tasks for that day.

        The goal is to keep finishing your tasks consecutively, forming a chain of marked dates on your calendar. It encourages you to build a habit of completing your task in the calendar. As a result, you can deliver your work for your clients on time.

        Reserve a “no writing day”

        As a freelance writer, it’s common for us to write even during the weekends when we don’t have to work. It’s an occupational hazard for sure, and it’s not exclusive to just writers.

        Since you don’t work a 9-5 job like the general workforce does, your freelance work spills over time when you’re supposed to be taking a break.

        That said, you should be able to block at least a day without writing. Taking this when planning your week into consideration.

        Use your breaks wisely

        There is no right or wrong way to spend your time away from writing. Any activity that allows you to disengage from your work is time well-spent.

        However, there are optimum ways for taking a break from writing.

        A great example is taking a walk in the park or by going outside. This helps clear your mind and gives you a fresh perspective when you write again.

        Even watching shows and movies from streaming services can be a good idea. If you want to watch the latest episode of Killing Eve or What We Watch in the Shadows, for example, you can watch BBC iPlayer outside the UK.

        Take writing prompt challenges

        When taking a long time away from writing because of vacations with family and friends, getting back to work can be quite difficult.

        When not using a particular skill, you become rusty with it. The same thing goes with writing – you can’t expect to write epic content after weeks or months away from work.

        My approach to this issue is to draft creative writing prompts.

        Most of these prompts will recommend you to join the content by submitting your written work. Here, I treat writing prompts as greasing the nuts and bolts of my writing engine.

        Take as many prompts as you need and just write away. You don’t have to edit yourself when writing – let the ideas and words flow. Once you get in the groove of writing, then you know you’re ready to get back in the saddle of work.

        Taking a Break from Writing: Conclusion

        By following the unique ways of taking a break from writing correctly, you can boost your productivity and accomplish your goals without feeling tired.

        Just practice the tips above consistently until you turn them into habits that are hard to break.

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