What You Can Expect On a Daily Basis

 

 

Since a lot of you are new to freelance writing, you may not have a 100% clear idea of what really goes on in a typical day.

 

I’ll break it down.

 

Just remember, one of the best things about being a freelance writer is the FREEdom  that comes along with it. You can make your day look much different than mine and still be successful.

 

I wake up around 5:30 with my husband and get him off to work. I eat breakfast, workout and shower while the house is quiet. I get the kids up and fed, chores done (we have a ton of animals to feed) and started on their homeschool day.

 

Around 9:00 I go through my emails and send replies or pay bills. Right after this, when I’m really feeling like a responsible adult (that part about the bills) I look around for work.

 

This means I look for companies to cold email and I make a list, I send warm emails to contacts I already have and I scan a few sites to see if anything interests me.

 

(I’ll detail all of these things further down the page)

 

I find contacts and email addresses for all of the companies I put on the cold email list, check out their websites to find interesting points to add to their personalized emails and send them out. I also respond to interesting gigs I come across.

 

By this point I usually take a break to help the kids with school and we all eat lunch.

 

The afternoon is work time. I research, write and get things done. This could mean researching and making notes for a blog post that I’m going to write for a business. Sometimes it means I’m looking at products, searching at least 4-6 different websites to find out more about them so I can write unique product descriptions for my client. I might be creating a plan for a series of sales emails and start writing the copy for them.

 

It’s a lot like homework.

 

You research and then do the work. If you’re writing a blog post for a business, look to see what kind of posts they’ve put up in the past. Check out their competitor’s posts to see what they’re doing. Look at some keywords and phrases that’ll help your client and then write the post. In most cases, you can get a post written or at least outlined in one afternoon. Let it rest and then go back to it the next day or a few hours later to read it again and make edits.

 

If you’re writing sales copy, you’ll need to do a little more research on your client’s target market so you can write directly to them. You have to write like you’re talking to the one person that’s going to buy the product/service.

 

Make it conversational, easy to read and persuasive.

 

It’s really not that hard once you get into the swing of things. The most confusing part is when you first get started. You don’t know what is expected of you, you aren’t sure if you’re good enough, you don’t know if you’re doing the right type of work for the client, etc. The list goes on. But after a little while, you’ll get the hang of it and get into a groove for yourself, I promise.

 

Most of my time is spent marketing myself or looking for work. The other part of the time is spent researching a business, their target audience, their products and their current sales situation and then writing what they are paying me to write.

 

Any remaining time is spent writing post for this blog and helping new writers figure out their path in all of this.

 

I usually end the day between 3:00/5:00, depending on what’s going on that day. After that it’s family time (horses, baseball, watching a movie, etc), dinner, a glass of wine and off to bed.

 

Now when the kids were younger, my day looked a lot different than it does now. I did most of my working at night, after they went to bed. I’d look for work and make lists of companies and contacts during the day, but when I needed to concentrate on writing, it was after 8pm.

 

Like I said, make it work for you and your season in life at the moment.

 

Now, if you’re wondering about what I meant when I said I look around for work, I’ll explain it here: How To Find Freelance Writing Work Every Day.