• “I’m new-ish to the game. How do I charge: per word, per hour, per job?”
• “Do you charge different rates for different sectors – like a higher rate for corporates and a lower rate for community newspapers?”
• “My friends and family always need work, and I tense up when it comes to quoting/invoicing.”
• “I’m a creative. That’s why I went into freelancing. This admin stuff kills me: quoting, invoicing, chasing money, keeping books. Can you help?”
• “Clients often ask me to quote and then say, ‘Well, we’ve only got [R2000 less than I quoted]. Can you do it for that?’ What do I say?”
• “I’m not sure what other freelancers’ payment terms are, but I find 30 days challenging on my cash flow! Do you have any guidelines?”
• “I’m skaam when it comes to chasing money. Help!”
• “Sometimes there’s such a long wait to get paid that I think client never will. But I don’t want to make waves and have them use someone else next time.”
• “When do you, eventually, write off a bad debt?”

My latest Bizcommunity article, entitled ‘Get the most out of your freelance copywriter or editor‘ went live today. It deals with teaching clients how we work and what we need from them, in order to deliver the best job possible. It also provides a short list of questions for the client, to be used by clients in briefing their writers/editors or by freelancers in trying to locate the Holy Grail that is a clear brief. This is what Jo Duxbury of Freelancentral had to say about it:

“Tiffany, you’ve got this spot on… Many clients don’t see the value of getting their copy professionally written or edited, but it truly is a skill and can add so much to your communications. There’s no point spending thousands on beautiful design or a great web site, only to undermine your credibility with text that’s peppered with spelling and grammar mistakes, or copy that’s clunky and difficult to digest. Getting an outsider – a professional writer/editor – to review your copy may also help you spot the little gems in your offering that you perhaps can’t see as you’re too close to your business. At the very least, clients should hire a professional copy editor to ‘sanity check’ and proofread their copy. The Facebook group ‘I judge you when you use poor grammar’ is nearly half a million members strong… that’s pretty telling.”

So, everyone hates writing proposals. It’s a hard job, a scary job, sometimes even a thankless job, but someone’s gotta do it. If you’re that someone, and you’ve searched the web for a standard proposal template to make your life easier, but never found one, here‘s a bit o’ Christmas-time help for you. Enjoy.

THE ONE ABOUT SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION, KIND OF

Then it occurred to me that all anyone talks about on the web is getting more traffic, and doing so via articles - lovely, keyword-rich, sensical, user-friendly articles on whatever the prevailing area of expertise might be. But do we all want to outsource that function to Pakistan, Bangladesh, or wherever they’re doing it at the moment? Not me. I wanna write my own pieces. I AM MY OWN EXPERT. And if you feel the same way, here’s a piece on how to write marketing articles for your own business.

THE ONE ABOUT SAYING SORRY

So after I ran my ‘Sorry Workshop’ for the awesome folks at &BEYOND, I was so amazed by the responses I had, and how useful everyone seemed to find the customer service info, especially the parts about handling complaints, that I was inspired to make an article out of it. Here it is, on my blog.

THE ONE WITH THE SMELLY, HAIRY BEASTIE

Clients seem to be asking for discounts a lot more often at the moment and, more so, expressing genuine surprise that hacking 40% off your quotation isn’t your idea of good business. So I wrote a piece entitled ’The Recession Discount & Other Fairytales’, in which I detailed how to handle the situation, the clients and your own self-esteem. I also used the piece as the basis for my Flying Solo UnConference presentation at Sputnik Studios on 25 July. It’s here and on my blog.

THE ONE THAT INSPIRED 10 MILLION E-MAILS

Oy vey. What was I thinking the day I wrote a piece entitled, ’Re-Entering the Job Market: Self-Marketing & Resume Writing’, and invited readers to drop me a line for a free copy of the CV template I use and recommend? Perhaps I wasn’t thinking. The good news is that, to date, about 287 people probably have better, cleaner, more professional, more accurate CVs; the bad news is that a lot of those people e-mailed me post-retrenchment. Sad time, this. No wonder the genii in The West Wing (S5) called it a ‘bagel’; the R-Word is just ugly. Anyway, here and here is the article. Enjoy.Â

Larry: “If the economy is heading into a recession–”
Josh: “No, no, no. We don’t ever use that word around here.”
Ed: “What word? Recession? …What should we call it then?”
Josh: “I don’t care. Call it a boat show or a beer garden or a bagel.”
Larry: “So if it is a… bagel, the Fed thinks it’s gonna be a mild bagel.”

THE ONE THAT INSPIRED A MILLION E-MAILS

Then, in a fit of hubris, I wrote a piece on how to tell, in 5 easy ways, if your website copy’s not working for you. Off it went, the first in a two-part series, entitled (creatively), ‘Does your website copy work?’. And the mails came rolling in, from everyone in the world with a website, wanting a (free or paid for) review of their site. G-d help me.

THE MY FAIR LADY ONE

Click here to view the video of my favourite Grammar Nerd song in the whole, wide world, ‘Why Can’t the English?’, from the musical My Fair Lady. And click here to read the article inspired by it, ‘Try English’. It’s on Bizcommunityand on my blog.

THE ONE ABOUT SELF-EDITING

In this piece, I took the standpoint that writers (particularly business writers) shouldn’t do their own editing. I explained my theory of ‘Neuro Autocorrect’ – where your brain fixes your mistakes so you don’t see them – and I went on to explain how it happens, why it happens and what to do about it. Have a look on Bizcommunity or onmy blog.

THE ONE WITH THE CRYSTAL BALL

Bizcom is running ‘Trends pieces’ – thought leadership articles by industry pros on different aspects of what to expect in marketing, advertising, media and thereabouts in 2009. LOVE the idea of being a pro. Of course, I had my say.

THE ONE USING THE ‘R’ WORD

Everyone in this business seems to be in a bit of a panic. And those who aren’t panicking are snowed under with all of the work not being done by the panickers. Yup, it’s a vacuum. So I wrote a piece for www.bizcommunity.com, to help out those in Safrea, Freelancecentral and Flying Solo who’d like a little more work this scary un-festive season. Here it is, on Biz and on my blog.

THE ONE IN THREE FULL PARTS

I recently wrote a three-part series for www.bizcommunity.com, on how to become a killer freelancer. The crowd went wild, so to speak, the feedback was great and the additional tips and guidelines that came from my fellow copywriters, editors, designers, web experts, illustrators, photographers and strategists have been superb.

Click here to read Part I, Part II or Part III of the three-part (and growing!) series on Bizcommunity or visit my blog:tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE FL ONE THAT CAME FIRST

I realised recently on the back of the enormous volumes of calls I get weekly, that there are a lot of freelancers out there who’d like a couple of tips, tools and techniques for getting started, getting good and getting rich, especially the newbies. So I decided to create a series of three pieces on freelancing, as an exclusive for Bizcommunity, and the responses have been fantastic.

Click here for the full Bizcom version of the first article or read it on my blog: tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE ONE THAT CAME NEXT
(aka ‘DAMAGE CONTROL: Web copywriting – setting the record straight’)

As it turns out, web copywriting is a contentious issue – peppered with strongly differing views and hotly defended opinions. At this kitchen of contention, it can be hard to distinguish between myth and truth. Also, Google regularly changes the rules. So I busted a couple of the latest prevailing myths about web or online copywriting… Clickhere for the Bizcom version and here for my blog.

THE ONE THAT SHOOK UP BIZCOM

My recent article, titled ‘Web copywriting and print copywriting are two different beasts’, clearly awakened the sleeping dragons out there, because it attracted a combination of rave responses and blistering rage. Rarely have I and my opinions on copywriting been the object of such love and such venom. In short, most readers agreed with my three basic points: keep it objective, keep it reader-focused and get to the point quickly, but there was a whole lot of disagreement both with things I said and things I didn’t say. Check it out on Bizcommunity or visit my blog:tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE ONE FOR THE PURITANS

Number 5 and counting! I really enjoy this article submission thing. I get to waffle on about language, give grammar advice, offer free writing tips, talk about copy editing, pontificate the ins and outs of writing training, courses, seminars and workshops, and propagate my fundamentalist philosophies about e-mails and web copy. Heaven!

The full version of this new piece also appears here, on my blog.

THE ONE WITH THE STICK

Here’s another one. This piece, inspired by a talk by Bill Quirke of the UK-based internal comms consultancy, Synopsis, appeared on Bizcommunity recently. It’s called ‘Poking internal comms with a stick’ and it’s had some interesting feedback from all corners.

Click here for the full version of the article on Bizcommunity. Or read it on my blog: tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE ONE THAT MADE THREE

Yup, I’ve done it again. Must be addicted. Or maybe I just love the fact that they use my picture? Either way, I’ve written a third piece for Bizcommunity. This one’s called â€˜Do you know who you’re talking to?’ and it focuses on the importance of knowing who you’re writing to, before you start crafting your message. I’d love you to take a look.

Or you can read the full version of this article on my blog: tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE ONE NO-ONE READ

I don’t seem to learn my lesson. In fact, it’s possible that I have the learning curve, as my husband diplomatically puts it, of a Thalidomide gerbil. I’ve done it again. Here’s an article I wrote for Marketingweb, entitled ‘Six easy ways to write with power’. Have a read and hopefully, learn something new. Or you can read the full version of this article on my blog: tiffanymarkman.blogspot.com.

THE ONE THAT HOOKED ME

I recently wrote a second article for Bizcommunity, entitled ‘How to reach more people, more of the time’. This one earned less contentious vitriole than the last, which is perhaps more worrying than anything else. Maybe the industry is asleep? Either way, give it a read.

THE VERY, VERY, VERY FIRST ONE

I recently wrote an article entitled, ‘Seven steps to superb online writing’, which was published by Africa’s leading daily advertising, marketing and media news resource, Bizcommunity. The article was superbly received by those in and outside the industry – why not give it a read?