Are You Spreading Your Freelance Writing Too Thin?

As I demonstrate in  my book, I used several different platforms for my freelance writing, and that ensured that I had a good income each month. However, when I first started out as a freelance writer, I was guilty of spreading myself too thin.

Let me explain.

As you probably know, today there are numerous bidding sites, content mills, and other outlets for selling your writing skills. When I first started out, this was not the case,

Elance was available, but a membership fee was required, and even if you could afford to join there was a great deal of competition. At  that time, I found my clients by using a signature file on my posts and comments on internet marketing forums. I was very successful in finding clients in that way, so I didn't join Elance.

So how was I spreading myself too thin? I was using about ten different forums at that time, writing for too many clients at one time, and churning out content for the mills.While this is a focused method for selling writing services, I should have focused on just two or three of the best forums, I should have charged more money and taken on fewer clients, and I should have avoided the content mills altogether.

The point here is that you should reign things in and get control of your freelance writing business. Are you using numerous bidding sites? Narrow it down to the one or two that bring in the most income for you, and focus on those platforms more. Are you writing for content mills and making money from this endeavor? Chose to write only for the one or two that are bringing in the most money, and ditch the others.

At the same time, compare what you are earning from the mills to what you are earning through the bid sites. Is it comparable? Would you do better to redirect your efforts solely to the bid sites - or solely to the content mills?

Do you have steady clients? Are there some who pay too little, or who are very difficult to deal with? These clients are sucking your time away. You should fire those clients, and focus your attention to the better clients.

Along with all of this, there is your blog, the forums that you participate in, and all of the social networking platforms that you use. All of these things take up yur time. Are you earbing any money from these things? If not, you should cut down on these activities, and focus on the activities that are actually earning money.

The overall lesson here is to determine what online activities are earning you income - the best income - and redirect all of your focus and energy in that direction. Otherwise, you are spreading yourself too thin, and this is greatly reducing the income that you can earn.