I’ve gotten some double takes when I submit my resume and clips: it seems like I’ve been working longer than my birth certificate might allow. I’ve received the same response since I started writing for money — right out of high school. I got to the point where I simply tried to avoid telling my age — tough when you want to include your graduation dates on your resume.

Youthfulness is not generally seen as an asset to a freelance writer. Clients tend to assume you’ll be less professional and less knowledgeable. The same goes for writers with only a clip or two under their belts.

Don’t let either stop you from pursuing your chosen career, however. Landing freelance writing gigs, luckily, is not about reaching the correct age. Instead, it’s about a great portfolio and a professional demeanor. If you keep writing, pretty soon time will deal with issues of both youth and inexperience, after all.

There is only one part of my writing career that has had some problems because of my relative youth. I write regularly about politics and recently I put together a short article that mentioned an organization. I received some comments about how that organization is often seen in a negative light because of their actions in the early 1990s. I had no knowledge of these events because, well, I spent the early 1990s in elementary school. I wasn’t exactly paying attention to politics back then.

But relative youth can also be an asset. The stereotype of young people is an aptitude for technology — social marketing, research and other skills seem to come naturally to those people who grew up with the internet. If you’ve developed these skills, they can tip the balance in your favor for a client worried about inexperience.

It’s not a crime to be young or just starting out. It’s just a matter of putting in the work to build a good reputation and win over your clients.

I’m not just a freelance writer. I’ve done graphic design projects, sold photographs, built websites and done a half dozen other things. But this site mostly focuses on my freelance writing. I have other sites and other projects that promote my other skills. I’ve made an effort to separate out the different parts of my career.

This week, I met a woman who described herself as an author-illustrator-singer-songwriter-musician-graphic designer-virtual assistant. My immediate reaction was to question if she could really be good at any of those things if she tried to do them all. I know from experience that it’s possible to be skilled in such a wide variety of careers, but I didn’t still expect this woman to be any good.

I’d never suggest limiting yourself to one career, but I do think it’s worthwhile to limit how you present yourself. Consider the example in the title: songwriting and shoemaking. If you do both, that’s great. But don’t market them on the same website — or at least not on the same page. Make up business cards for your songwriting business and make up an entirely different set for your shoemaking business. Don’t introduce yourself as a songwriter at a shoemaker’s convention.

You get the idea. Put a little distance between your various enterprises. At the very least, it will be easier to convince clients that you are a master of your trade, rather than a jack of all trades.

Blogs. Flickr. Half a dozen other websites that are free to join, allow you to post your writing (and photographs and other work) and links back to your website. Are they worth it for those of us who make a living off our creativity?

I happen to like most social networking sites. I run a blog of my own that doesn’t make me any money — you’re reading it right now. So, my surface answer has to be that, yes, I think giving away my work is worth it, or I wouldn’t be posting here. But that answer doesn’t address any sort of subtlety.

I don’t give away anywhere near a majority of my work. While I spend time updating my blog, I usually chalk up the effort to marketing and networking. Same goes for sites like Flickr or Twitter. I’m not updating content because I expect to get paid, but I do expect some recognition for my work — like when a potential client contacts me because of my blogging.

There’s a limit to how much time I spend on not-for-profit projects, though. Considering the fact that I like to eat, paying gigs simply have to come first. That reason means that there’s a clear correlation between the amount of work I have and the time I spend updating profiles or posting about the business of freelancing.

In the end, my answer remains that freelancers should give away content, although not too much. Consider it a sample you’re offering up to tempt clients. Give them an idea of just how amazing your work is, and then let them know that you’re available for hire.

During the summer before my senior year in high school, I held what I think may have been the oddest job in existence: I dressed up as a tomato.

I was handing out flyers throughout downtown Colorado Springs, and clad in a large red vinyl ball stuffed with newspapers I wandered through the park, the courthouse and a whole bunch of big businesses. Oh, and my own high school.

I made some money, got unbelievably embarrassed and got dehydrated (I was insulated too well for the average summer day). I also learned some incredibly valuable lessons that I’ve managed to apply as a freelancer.

1. People are more likely to notice something that stands out. A new angle or sheer enthusiasm can get you places that covering the same story the same way everyone else does will never lead you.
2. People will remember willingness to go out on a limb. My high school counselor was more than happy to write a few extra recommendations for the girl in the tomato suit (especially because she scored him extra coupons from the restaurant she was advertising).
3. Other people won’t find your tomato suit — or other gimmicks — nearly as embarrassing as you will. This especially goes for marketing. A lot of writers are worried that they’ll make a fool of themselves by putting themselves forward for any sort of personal marketing. Other people will look kindly on all kinds of attempts to engage their interest, down to a girl walking into their office dressed as a tomato.

Of course that’s just what I’ve learned from my odd job. Want more? Two blogs are talking about lessons learned from odd jobs this week — Middle Zone Musings and Good Word Editing. Check ‘em out!

As a freelance writer, what has been your best marketing tool? A website? A podcast? A book? Please tell me in the comments.

For me, the best marketing tool I’ve found is this blog. Its usefulness has not necessarily been its readership — although I really do enjoy writing for fellow freelancers! Instead, the fact that I have recent proof of my writing skills for potential clients has won me jobs that I might not have gotten without easy demonstrations of my writing ability. While clips are fine and dandy, a client doesn’t necessarily have an interest in clicking links. Scrolling down is much easier.

There are plenty of freelance writers out there who have never logged into to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and still do just fine at finding work. I’d never claim otherwise. I would say, however, that those writers probably do their fair share of networking in other ways.

You don’t have to be part of online networks to succeed. I’d argue that there are certain niches that they can help with, but it’s not a must. There are days, in fact that I’d recommend against it — I’ve spent far too much time perfecting a profile here or adding a tag line there. I’ve gotten minimal amounts of work through most of the networks I’m involved in. I find a fair amount of value in these websites because of the sense of community I’ve found. Given that I work from home, I rely on my online friends to make sure that I don’t talk only to my cats in a given day.

More valuable than my online networking, however, is any face-to-face meeting I can finagle. Flat out, I’m just more likely to get work from an in-person meeting, and I’d bet the same is true for you. Any networking that I can do in real life is extremely valuable. I’d say that an hour spent talking with a random person at the local coffee shop is easily worth an entire day spent networking online.

You don’t need online networking, if you don’t want to mess with it. You do need to get out there and network with real people, however. Personally, I like networking online, but give it a try — then you can tell me if I’m wrong about the importance of the real world.

Maybe you’re at a conference, or maybe you’re just waiting on a ride, but you strike up a conversation with the person standing next to you. What do you say when he asks what you do?

Trick question. I hope you didn’t answer with “I’m a writer,” because this guy now thinks that you’re working on the Great American Novel in your basement. Instead, you should have an elevator pitch — something that not only gives some specifics about what you do, but shows how you can help the average business.

There’s a formula for good elevator pitches:

• a 15 to 30 second statement that says
• what you do, and
• why you’re worth hiring

In general, you want to stand out. You don’t want to be a writer. Instead, you want to be a copy writer specializing in small business marketing or a freelance writer covering personal finance topics. Even if you do plenty of other things, you want your elevator pitch to be lean and mean, so pare it down to just one small area. Furthermore, you want to demonstrate why your services are a good investment. Maybe your writing has won awards and gotten attention for magazines, or maybe your copy is responsible for a 25% increase in sales. Think specific and concrete!

You may even need more than one elevator pitch in your repertoire. Maybe you have several niches, or a few sidelines. Keep it simple, though — you don’t need to try to remember fifteen different speeches. Furthermore, you need to be able to adapt your pitch on the fly: maybe that business man you were chatting up needs a copy writer able to deal with a large marketing campaign, but you normally work with smaller businesses. If you’re interested, adapt your elevator pitch to make it clear that you are capable of taking on big projects.

My elevator pitch?

I’m a freelance writer covering small business topics — especially the ones that teach small business how to use new media.

I’ve got my job description, and I’ve mentioned a deep specialization that is somewhat rare, showing a value that not all freelance writers have.

I posted recently about planning ahead for the holidays. The holiday season is just looming closer, and I’m sure it’s at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Right now, I’m trying to get ready to send out my holiday cards. I design them myself, which means I have to add on the extra layer of printing them (or begging someone else to run them off for me, and believe me, I am grateful) to the list of work necessary to get them ready.

I truly like the thought of sending holiday cards to at least some of my clients. At the very least, it can be a reminder of my solid work and encourage a client to hire me again. It takes some effort, though, to make sure that a card really works as a piece of marketing.

Is the message appropriate?

You can purchase (or make)  holiday cards that range of tepid to smoking, and not all those temperatures should be sent out to anyone except your best friend. There are types of appropriate, too — do you know what holiday the recipient celebrates? Christmas? Hanukkah? Agnostica? If you can’t be sure, stick with those nice, non-religious cards that wish ‘best tidings of the season’ or some other inoffensive line.

Does your card look professional?

I know I talk a lot about maintaining a professional appearance, but I’m going to do it again. Your card should be nice and neat. If you can’t handwrite a message nicely, print it. Address your cards precisely, as well. Don’t mail off a card to ‘Editor’ — if you’ve worked with the person, you should know his or her name.

Does your card showcase your work?

If you’re a freelance writer, and you’re sending out holiday cards, at least write the internal message yourself. Maybe you’ll find an untapped ability to write greeting cards, but, at the very least, you’ll be able to demonstrate those hot-shot writing skills that landed a gig in the first place.

Who should you send cards to?

I don’t advocate sending holiday cards to everyone you’ve worked with — if it was just a quick job you found on Craigslist, it’s probably not worth looking for the client again. But if you’ve spent a significant chunk of time working with a client, send them the message that you appreciate their business.

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It’s hard to get work if no one knows you exist. It’s a fact of the freelancer’s life that you are responsible for your own marketing. Now, for those writers focusing on writing articles, or even the great American* novel, your marketing materials could be as simple as perfectly crafted query letters. 

For those of us looking for work in technical writing, copy writing, grant writing, etc., however, a query letter is just not going to cut it. Instead, we’re going to need to create some marketing materials of our own. All of you folks who write this sort of copy for a living should be able to figure the basics out.

And we’re writers, right? We should be able to craft some fine marketing materials without too much stress. Here are a few tips for the specifics of writing your own marketing copy:

• Write about why you’re such a catch, rather than depending on your personal brand. While a brand is important, your marketing materials should explain why your brand is so strong.
• Define what you’re able to offer. You don’t need to limit yourself too far, but it should be clear whether you are offering technical writing or grant writing. (And if you offer both, consider separating them in your marketing materials. Set up sub-domains on your website, create individual brochures, etc.)
• Emphasize differences from your competitors. Think outside the box: awards for customer service can be leveraged just as easily as successful marketing campaigns.

Beyond the writing part of your marketing materials, though, you may need to consider some personal limitations. If you’re not up to designing a brochure beyond pasting text into a Microsoft Word template, it’s okay. It’s just a matter of finding a designer to work with — and there’s just as many graphic designers out there as writers. It’s worth spending a little money on creating excellent marketing materials, but there are options if money is tight. Offer to write copy for both your materials and the designer’s, if he or she will design both sets, or check if there are other barter options.

*You can substitute your own locality if you wish. Personally, I think there’s something to be said for the great Martian novel.

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Is it, though? Is a blog just an extra paragraph here and there? It can depend on where you want to take your blog and how much effort you want to commit. For instance, if your plan to establish yourself as an expert writer on the topic of baseball, you may want to put in up to two or three hours a day, at least at first and if you need to do preliminary research. That sounds like a huge time sink, though. Think of it this way: marketing experts say that, for a professional on their own, it’s reasonable to commit 40% of their work day towards marketing.

But if your blog is just a place for you to comment on the day’s activities, and maybe earn enough for a cup of coffee through ads and donations, you can commit a minimal amount of time, especially if you write quickly and competently. How long does it take you to write 200 words and proofread them? Always proofread, by the way, especially if you talk about writing on your blog. You wouldn’t want an editor or other potential client to see any work full of typos, so why take the chance of posting it in the first place?

I know people who use their blogs purely as marketing, and others who use theirs as money making tools. And then there are people who simply use their blogs as a place to vent or to track progress. What do you use yours for, and why are you willing to commit time to it?

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