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One of the biggest moves a freelance writer can make to earn more is to move into better-paying types of writing.
When you go from, say, writing $20 blog posts to writing white papers that can pay $1,500-$10,000, it’s a big leap.
Of course, a lot can also go wrong when you step into a new, more sophisticated kind of writing that you haven’t done before. But if you want to earn more, at some point you have to buck up your courage and go for it.
A few years back, I fell into an opportunity to write my first white paper, when a writer I knew referred me for the project. I’d heard this was a great-paying writing niche, and I was dying to sink my teeth into one of these big, detailed projects.
Even though I hadn’t written white papers before, I was tapped because the topic was a big company’s nonprofit efforts — which I’d covered in the past, as a reporter. So I knew the end client and what we’d be documenting fairly well.
Maybe that made me a little overconfident. I made a boatload of rookie mistakes that made this first $2,500 white paper gig a lot more unpleasant and lengthy than it should have been.
And I never ended up working for this client again. So. Relationship blown.
Where did it all go wrong? Let me count the ways…
1. Not vetting the client
When a writer-friend tells you, “Hey, this is a chance to work with an amazing end client that’s a Fortune 500,” I don’t know about you, but I tend to get stars in my eyes.
It turned out that I’d be working not directly with this client, but with one of their approved marketing agencies. The guy who headed it was a former staff speechwriter and marketing writer at this F500. Once again, I was wowed.
“Man, this guy must know *exactly* what he’s doing,” I thought.
What I didn’t find out? He’d just recently quit the company and set up this agency…and had no experience running an agency. He’d never had writers working under him before. He hadn’t written white papers, either.
That turned out to be something he sucked at. In the course of my project, everyone he had hired as a ‘staffer’ for his little agency quit.
He would have his staff minions give assignments to the writers — and guess what? It was like a big game of telephone.
Almost every single thing I was told, from deadlines to wordcounts, turned out to be wrong. A lot of frantic rewriting ensued.
Takeaway: If I’d asked around about this guy, I might have learned he was a legendary prima donna — and would have trouble delegating writing work.
2. No direct client contact
Everything I did on this white paper came down secondhand. I couldn’t even have told you who at the big company this agency reported to.
I’d receive word trickle-down style, about who to interview about what. Then, after I interviewed them, I’d be told I didn’t ask them the right things, or that I needed a different source. These kinds of miscommunications are an epidemic in agencies that keep their clients close to the vest.
In his efforts to keep us from poaching the client work (not even possible with this company, since they only used a few approved agencies), he would parcel out parts of projects to different people. You never knew who else might be touching different parts of your same elephant. The result: chaos.
Takeaway: I should have gotten clarity off the bat on who I’d be reporting to, who was on my project, and who I’d be able to access.
3. Skipping the research
I basically worked with what I was handed, instead of doing my own research to learn more about the types of charity programs I was documenting. I might have had better backup ideas for interviews, or programs to compare it (favorably) to, if I’d taken the time.
More than once in the course of the project, I was sitting around for days on end, and then having to do a rush job on an interview, where I probably could have more quickly found sources on my own and just asked for approval.
Takeaway: Don’t sit with your hands folded waiting for info from your client — do your own legwork, so that you have more to work with.
4. A key question omitted
One big question I really wish I’d asked is, “What is your writing process like?”
After all, I’d never written a white paper before. So I didn’t realize that I needed a few key things:
- Approval of each of my sources from higher-ups
- A signed release from each of my interview subjects
- To let each interview subject read their copy before turning it in
- To obtain stock photos from my subjects
Long after some of my interviews, toward the end of the project, I was suddenly asked to “turn in my releases.” To which I replied, “What releases????”
I’d never been given a form or told my interviews had to fill it out…but suddenly, I looked like a clueless fool. It had been weeks since some of my interviews, and it was extra work to dig some of them back up and get them to sign off.
Takeaway: Find out what *all* the elements are that are your “deliverables” in the project — and be sure you get them as you go. Don’t leave paperwork to the end.
5. Running in circles
One of the things that was dangled in front of me on this gig was the idea of foreign travel. Their program is global, and they were including some stories from other countries.
When it was strongly hinted that I might snag one of these assignments, I turned my life upside down to run out and get an expedited passport. Which, of course, turned out to be a total waste of time. In fact, I never left my house, even.
Takeaway: Don’t chase phantoms on a gig. If someone’s hinting you might need to do something for the project, get more details and find out if it’s real, before wasting time.
The good news is that the project did eventually get finished…and it came out real nice. I got a great clip out of the deal. It was definitely worth doing, despite all the problems.
But I wish I’d taken a more thorough attitude to scoping this out before I dove in. Then, I might have had a smoother road and ended up getting more white paper writing gigs for this client, instead of having a relationship that went down in flames.
As it worked out, it was a long time before another white paper opportunity came around.
Have you ever blundered taking a new kind of writing assignment? Leave a comment and share your experience.
My STARTUP :
A story with millions of choices in it.
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Try to imagine this. When you're reading a story on the web or blog, you are given two choices. You can choose the next story based on your own choice. After selecting then you can continue reading the story. Shortly afterwards you will be presented back to the 2 other options. The next choice is up to you. Then you continue the story you are reading. After that you will be faced again with 2 choices. So onwards.
If you feel curious then you can re-read the story by changing your selection. Then you will see a different story with the story that you have read previously. The question now is why is this so? Because the storyline will be varying according to your choice.
Based on the above, then you are faced with two choices. Are you interested in reading my story is? Or you are not interested at all. The choice is in your hands.
If you are interested then spread widely disseminated this article to your family, friends, neighbors, and relatives. You can also distribute it on facebook, twitter, goggle +, or other social media that this article be viral in the world. By doing so it is a new entertainment industry has been created.
Its creator named Richard Nata.
The full articles that talks about this:
Are you interested in my offer?
Do you want to be an investor in my startup?
If yes, don't hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.
P.S. The offer letter I gave also to the hedge funds and venture capital and other major companies in the entire world. So who is fast then he will get it.
P.P.S. If you are not interested in my offer, it is a good idea to periodically review my blog to see the development of my blog. http://richardnata.blogspot.com
If I've made a story on my blog and get a multiplication of clicks then you should know that the readers liked my story.
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