The Negative Side of Writing

A freelancer of any specialty understands just how difficult that it can be to find reliable clients. Many individuals spend hours, days, weeks, and even months searching for clients that they can trust. What do I mean by "clients they can trust"?

Simply put, being a freelancer means relying on people that you don't know (99.9% of the time) to pay for the work that you put so much time and effort in for. Unfortunately there are people in the world who are perfectly fine with cheating people out of hard-earned money. I've had a lot of trouble with this lately, even from people who were supposedly my "friends" in real life, and one of my main clients who is essentially my boss, and friend, told me some effective ways to protect yourself.


So, for all of the freelance writers, or even freelancers in general, follow these guidelines and you may save yourself a lot of time and heartache.

1. Request upfront! If you request 50% of what the total will cost will be for a particular project, you will be able to get some insurance for your work. Many potential clients will be perfectly fine with paying you for half of your work before beginning their projects, and those who disagree with it are generally an individual who was never planning on paying to begin with.

2. Do your research. If you are like me, you get some of your clients from writing forums, and there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, many people are using forums and Craigslist these days to advertise, but in order to protect yourself be sure to read up. Doing a simple Google search of the individual's name followed by the word "scam" can prove to be extremely effective.

3. Use Facebook to your advantage. It sounds a bit odd, but these days I have been adding all of my clients on Facebook. This helps me, personally, feel more at ease about who I am dealing with and reassures me that they are who they say they are. Remember though, not everyone has a Facebook.

Being a Freelancer can be a stressful job, and sometimes you'll just want to give up because of the discouraging individuals that most every self-employed person comes across. As long as you remember to protect yourself and take all of the necessary efforts to ensure your happiness and your salary.