#client issues

Wow, I can't wait to have fun in League of Legends... oh, never mind, the client is a broken piece of shit.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska I was reading through some old social media posts recently and came across discussion of a job posting that just plain sucked. In fact, I blogged about it not long ago right here. The issue was that the job poster, a household-name publication, was presenting a full-time employee position as a freelance job. Why? Because in doing so, they felt they could dictate your…

Photo courtesy of Pexels/Pixabay We’ve all had our share of flaky clients. By flaky, I mean clients who: Disappear at payment time Reappear three months later to complain about quality (oddly about the same time you’ve threatened litigation/collection) Change the project parameters after you’ve done the work Revise more than twice (my record is 12 revisions) and get farther from the original…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Looking for writers with a background in digital news reporting to write for us on a freelance basis. We would need 40 hours per week and the hours would be 9-to-5. See anything wrong with that? You should. And your obvious follow-up question to the job poster would be this (and our own Paula Hendrickson, who alerted me to this, posed the same…

Show of (virtual) hands — how many of you have had conversations with prospective clients that go something like this: Client: Tell me a little about yourself. You: I’ve been writing in the XYZ industry/writing ABC projects for the last eight years. My clients include 1, 2, and 3 plus a few clients whose work is protected under an NDA. Client: Uh huh. Have you written any (fill in the…

Freelance Ethical Boundaries (and how to spot attempts to cross them)

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a potential client at a trade show. The prospect was indicating a strong need for my services, and he promised to call me the following week. When that call came, I was prepared. Since the prospect had told me his needs — thought leadership articles — I had a contract outlined and had my pricing in place. But what happened next was so unexpected, I was left…

Ending the Freelance Rate Dance

I’m betting you’ve had a conversation just like this at one point in your freelance career: Client:  …. so that’s what we’re needing. Any questions? Writer: Yes, what is your budget for this? Client: Well, we’re hoping to find a writer who fits with our needs first, then we will go down that route. At the moment, we’re looking to accomplish X, Y, and Z, and we’re looking for a writer who can…