This is a review of How To Make Money on Elance, an information product for freelancers produced by Alexis Rodrigo. Sparkplugging has not been paid to write this review but did receive a free review copy of the product. There are no affiliate links in this review.

In How To Make Money on Elance, freelance writer and internet marketer Alexis Rodrigo shares what she learned from Trish Lambert (an Elance Premier Provider) about making money on Elance. It consists of an interview with Trish (in both audio and PDF format), a worksheet, and a mindmap to give you an overview of the material.

If you’re looking for solid advice to help you make the most of the time you spend on Elance, then you won’t be disappointed with this product.

It’s obvious that Trish (the interviewee) knows what she’s talking about when it comes to getting clients through Elance, and Alexis asks her just the right questions. At $27, it’s a worthwhile investment if you’re planning to spend a lot of your marketing time on Elance. There’s no “fluff” or “filler” – just solid, practical tips that you can apply immediately.

So I definitely recommend this product for those of you currently using (or planning to use) Elance. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you probably shouldn’t start bidding for jobs on Elance without the information contained in How To Make Money on Elance.

But if you’re serious about attracting high-paying clients, I don’t think Elance is the place to do it.

This is just my opinion. A lot of people have apparently made real money on Elance – but not me. I got my first two freelance writing jobs through Elance, so in that sense it was a good way for me to dip my toe in the water (and maybe it’s a good option for you if you’re a freelancing newbie). But I have found that I can attract higher-paying clients in far less time using other marketing methods, so for the most part I’ve given up on Elance.

There are some good jobs posted there, but they’re hidden amongst a slew of crappy jobs posted by people whose primary goal is to pay as little as possible (regardless of quality). It takes a lot of time and energy to sift through the junk, find worthwhile jobs, and then craft customized bids for those jobs, so you have to be sure it’s worth it.

My advice: if you’re using Elance, keep track of all the time you spend trying to get jobs in addition to the time you spend on the jobs. Then keep track of the money you make (net of Elance fees) and determine how much you’re actually making per hour. With that information in hand, you can make an educated decision about whether to continue spending time on Elance.

Traci Feit Love is a freelance writer, editor & communications consultant for businesses that need smart, impressive content. She blogs here and at The Breadwinner Mom. To learn more or to sign up for her free e-course, “How to Get More High-Paying Clients,” visit her website at http://tracifeitlove.com.

But all good things must come to an end, and we’ve made the decision to hand over Freelance Parent to the incredible Sparkplugging team.

It was a difficult decision for us to make. After all, Freelance Parent is kind of our baby (our award-winning and oftentimes self-serving baby), and it’s hard to say goodbye to all our readers. You guys have contributed to our success by being supportive, offering advice, and even slapping us in the face every now and then. We can only hope we’ve contributed to your success in the same way.

The good news is, we aren’t disappearing for good. The Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency is still going strong, and you’ll find us all over the web, spreading our writing net and wreaking word-savvy havoc. In fact, we both have some exciting new projects you’re invited to share.

I’ll let Lorna tell you all about hers, but from here on out, you can find me at www.TamaraMorgan.com. (My apologies: The website isn’t up just yet, but I invite you to pop every now and then to see how things are coming along.)

But what’s that you say? Tamara Morgan isn’t my name?

Oh, but it is. World, meet Tamara Morgan, Tamara Berry’s alter ego and romance novelist extraordinaire.

For those of you that remember, I threw freelancing work to the wind last November and put to paper the romance novel I’ve always wanted to write. I attempted a blog to track my progress, but life got in the way. TamaraMorgan.com will pick up where that blog left off.

It should be an exciting ride – I recently signed with an agent, and will be pursuing that ever-elusive publication deal with her in the next few months. I’m also continuing to work on my freelance writing in addition to my second novel.

So please, please feel free to visit me there or to send an email to berrybreweradmin (at) gmail (dot) com any time you have questions about freelancing (or just to pop in and say hello). We will miss everyone and hope you’ll continue to follow the new writers at Freelance Parent!

Here at Sparkplugging, we’re starting something new with “Spark an Idea Thursday.” Each Thursday you will find that all the blogs on our network are posting articles on a particular topic. We want to encourage our readers to check out what everyone has to say and to maybe even take the conversation up on your own blogs. (Hey, it gives you a guaranteed topic once a week, right?) This week’s topic is “Spark an Idea that Entertains the Kids while You Work.”  Ooh, you can even get our cool graphic to use on your blog.

I have to admit that I’ll be checking out the suggestions that you all have to offer, as I am terrible at finding good ways to distract Dot long enough to get some work done. I am forever amazed at how Tamara is able to write articles while Baby Berry entertains herself. I suspect that part of my problem is simply Dot’s age. She’s still pretty dependent upon the mama for her amusement.

Still, there are a few things that have worked for me. The best one, of course, was hiring our Mother’s Helper. Virginia is about the right age to be Dot’s grandma, and she treats her as if she really was related. When she first started working for us, I was right in the room with them all the time, but now that their relationship has gotten so strong, I feel quite confident when I want to pack up the computer and head to the office for a few hours of uninterrupted work.

Another thing that has worked is timing her breakfast to coincide with conference calls. The Sparkplugging authors meet once a week on a phone call to catch up and stay in touch. I put Dot in the highchair in the kitchen, put the phone on mute, and listen in to the call while feeding her rice cereal and bananas. Now that she’s older, I can even participate in the calls more while she shovels Cheerios and Goldfish crackers into her own mouth.

Really though, my favorite ever suggestion for entertaining a kid long enough to get some work done comes from Tamara. Her little one loves to take baths, so when Tamara’s on deadline, she’s been known to give Baby Berry upwards of three baths a day. Her daughter plays in the tub while she hunkers on the tile with her laptop. It makes me giggle at the sheer absurd genius of it.

Ooh, for more ideas, you may want to check out Tamara’s earlier post called “Five Cheap and Easy Daycare Alternatives.”

So, Freelance Parent readers…give up the goods. How do you all keep your kids entertained while you bang out those SEO articles or do phone interviews? I’m dying to know!

My husband, Baby Dot, and I were invited to some friends’ Christmas party this year, and we were very excited to go. We hadn’t seen them for some time, and their parties are always fun. Not only that, but they were totally keen on having us bring the baby, which made things a lot easier on us.

During the party, it was nonchalantly mentioned that one of the other guests was the publisher of a local magazine. “Oh my gosh,” I said to my host. “Do you know what I do?” Within moments, I had been introduced to the Editor-in-Chief and had exchanged one of my beautiful business cards for a sample copy of his gorgeous magazine. I was chirping on the inside to have been so fortunate to have gotten a little face time with the fellow.

The very next day I received an email from this Editor-in-Chief thanking me for the card and complimenting me on our company’s website (also done by Rainmaker, thank you very much). He wanted to run a story idea by me to see if I was interested. Boy, was I! By Monday night of the following week, I had done two phone interviews, learned a heap about the topic, and submitted a 1,110 word article. The Editor-in-Chief was so happy with the piece that he has asked me to turn it into a series running in the next three issues.

When I walked into the party, my agenda included reconnecting with some old friends and showing off my sweet baby girl. Thank goodness I had some of those business cards in my wallet.

The moral of the story: You’re always networking.

(By the way, if you want to read the first installment of the series, check out my article for Q View Northwest.)

It’s like a switch went off inside of me, and now I feel compelled to save all the babies. I want to go to Africa to dig wells for villagers and to buy mosquito nets for children in South America. I want to teach little ones to read in Tennessee and give them milk in my own state.

But there are so many of them. There are so many babies who don’t understand how their lives could be different and so many mothers who are heartbreakingly aware that things could be better. And there are those of us who are standing on the sidelines wishing with all our hearts that we could save the babies.

The truth is that the problem seems so huge and overwhelming that sometimes it’s just easier not to think about it. Because paying attention to the suffering of these babies and the women who love them is like sandpaper on your heart. Sure, I make loans to entrepreneurs through Kiva.org, and I make the occasional sandwich for a homeless person, but each gesture seems like such a tiny drop in the bucket that one has to question if they’re really making any difference at all.

As a part of Blog Action Day 2008, all of the participants are blogging about poverty. I’m not really sure what I can say that isn’t being said in tens of thousands of other places right now, but the cause is important enough for each of us to take a few minutes out of our day to reflect on just how much some people have to struggle.

I expect to read a lot about poverty today. I won’t shut my eyes or turn my head. I will think about how much those mothers are suffering because they must watch their children suffer. And I will gather ideas from the blog posts that I read and will find some small way that I can make a difference for at least one of them.

I very much encourage you to do the same.

I’d long been wondering about Deb’s transition from FWJ over to Blog Talk Radio. She was gracious enough to share with us how that change has affected her. Thanks again, Deb!

Proverbial foot in the door

Estimates say that it costs 2 to 40 times more to find and secure a new client than it does to simply retain your old ones. Most of the time, these figures have more to do with actual customers (as in retail) and clients (as in law firms), since these types of businesses have to rely on advertising as their primary means of new client acquisition.

Freelancers get a bit of an “out” because so many people post jobs looking for certain types of work. Although many of us rely on social media networking, traditional marketing, and word-of-mouth – all in addition to the good old-fashioned query letter – to get new clients, we also have the option of freelance bidding sites or postings on Craig’s List or job boards. In truth, it is a combination of all these types marketing that really make a freelancer successful.

That being said, I am fully aware that most new freelancers rely primarily on the bidding sites and job boards to find work. There’s nothing wrong with that – in fact, it’s how we’ve been able to grow to our current level of success. At the same time, though, many of these job boards look for a single project to be completed. A freelancer finds the job, makes a bid, communicates with the client, makes a contract/project agreement, communicates some more, and may or may not finally land the gig. This is a time-consuming process that isn’t always fun, so if you can keep this client for future work, you’re in a much better position to make money and be successful.

Here’s where I’ve discovered something a little different: of all the project types that I have worked on as a freelancer, press releases are the ones most likely to end in repeat business.

The first few times it happened, I thought maybe it was just a fluke. I would bid on a single job for a press release, land the gig, and do the work. However, as I did this more and more often, I realized that there was something rather magical about the whole thing.

Right now, about 90 percent of my press release clients turn around and immediately ask for additional quotes. And I’m not talking about just doing more press releases – I’ve been asked to work on everything from rewriting the web content on three of a client’s websites to taking on a rather large SEO contract. To this day, these are some of my best – and most recurring – clients.

So what is it about the press release that gets me these incredible results? I have some theories:

• Clients are comfortable hiring new blood for press releases. They are quick, one-time projects with pretty set rules. If a freelancer doesn’t pan out, it’s typically not a catastrophe.

• Clients may not realize how much benefit comes from a good freelancer until they see it first-hand. Some of them are looking for help with press releases because they know that they need to be written professionally. Then, when you turn in quality work with no drama, it boosts their overall image of freelancers. They think, “that was easy, and the writing is great. I wonder what else I should be outsourcing?”

• You are building relationships from ground up. When I write a press release, I always communicate directly with the powers that be in order to find a good angle and get some great quotes for the text. This kind of activity imprints you on the brain of the company, since you are showing an actual interest in what they do.

• Press releases are a great place to shine. As I’ve mentioned before, most press releases are written according to a prescribed format. But if you go the extra mile to incorporate a little research or make it into a story that others will actually want to read (not just another website launch), you end up making yourself look pretty good. Clients respond to that extra effort.

While this is hardly a scientific study, I can’t help but feel that these patterns of repeat business aren’t just a fluke. Considering that press releases are always in need of being written and that you can make some pretty good money on them anyway (in addition to their magical repeat-business properties), they might just be the foot in the door to a successful freelancing career.

Tamara and I didn’t want you to miss out on the experience, either, so head on over to the Sparkplugging Media blog if you want to check out some of the vendors we interviewed.

• 67 Freelance Niche Writing Markets You May Have Never Considered
• Six Most Profitable Writing Niches
• Six Ways to Get Started as a Freelance Writer
• Becoming a Specialized Freelancer
• Define Your Niche: Nine Ideas for Writers
• Finding Your Niche
• Do You Need a Niche?

So, yeah. We’ve had a lot to say on the subject. As it turns out, we’re not quite done yet!

If you want to boost your freelance business by choosing a niche (or two, or three…), then the Niche Ladies are here to help you out. We’re offering a workshop through Sparkplug U called “How to Make More Money Freelancing: Discovering the Right Niche.” While we’ll talk a little about the importance of marketing yourself to a specific niche, the focus of this course is to actually help you uncover the right one for you.

Interested in a little personal interaction with the Freelance Parent authors? If so, sign up for the two-part course that runs Thursday September 18 and Thursday September 25th.

This month, the amount of energy was crazy.  We worked at a somewhat frantic pace and did occasionally find ourselves a tad overwhelmed.  Heck, Lorna took a “vacation” and ended up working every day that she  was gone!  I averaged around 25 hours of work per week (as opposed to my regular 15 to 20), and I found that those additional hours really put an extra strain on my day.

In the long run, though, the numbers reflect everything we put in this month.  Although the money is good, we’ve already set our September goal to be a bit lower than what we did in August, just to be sure that we keep ourselves focused and don’t get too carried away.

Total Income for August: $4650.83

Percentage of This to PayPal/Guru Fees: 4.63 %

Total Number of Clients Served this Month: 15

Number of These Clients Who are New: 4

Original Client Contact Point

Guru.com: 7

Subcontracted work: 1

Referrals: 7

Total Number of Projects Completed: 21

Project Types

SEO and web-based article writing: 7

Website content: 2

Blogs and blog-related work: 4

Nonprofit: 2

E-books/E-courses: 2

Copywriting: 3

Consulting: 1

As you can tell, we still rely heavily on Guru as a contact point for many of our clients. Elance isn’t figured into our totals; after three months of making bids and getting no bites, we decided to concentrate our efforts elsewhere. Overall, we’re pleased with the outcome and look forward to seeing what the next month brings!

At the time the list was published, my husband was still wrapping his mind around this whole freelancing thing.  He was doing his best to be . . . let’s say “cautiously supportive.”  When Michael was gracious enough to include Freelance Parent on the same page as Copyblogger, my husband was so proud that he printed it out and took it to work because he and his coworkers were fans of Brian Clark.  It really validated for my husband the fact that this was for real. 

Today Michael announced that nominations are now open for the 2008/2009 list.  We would be honored if you felt that Freelance Parent deserved a spot on that list again this year.  It’s been a long-held goal of ours to be included for a second time, and you can help us reach that goal!

Here are the rules:

1. Reply to this message with your nomination
2. You have one vote (only your first will be counted)
3. Please include the URL of the blog (http://www.sparkplugging.com/freelance-parent/)
4. Explain why you think the blog is worthy of winning this year’s award?

Speaking of exciting things, check back Monday for our second-ever freelance income report.  We think you’re going to find this one VERY interesting!

1. Don’t rely on a single revenue source (or even two or three). Not only can a big-time client dry up and leave you without your primary means of supporting yourself, but having a single client is akin to having a desk job. The sense of freedom that comes with being able to pick and choose your work is one of the biggest benefits of being a freelancer. Don’t give that away.

2. Don’t rely on one method of finding work. Whether you work primarily by bidding on sites like Guru.com or Elance.com (can be hard to find good paying work); searching job posting sources like Freelance Writing Jobs (competition can be fierce, and many jobs are so inundated with applicants they close early on); or focusing on word-of-mouth referrals (great, but not always guaranteed), your best bet is to diversify. Put a few eggs in each of these baskets, and you’re more likely to get the work you want the most.

3. Don’t rely on a steady income. Making big bucks one month may help you in your desire to buy that new pair of shoes you’ve had your eye on, but you’re much better off setting that income aside for a leaner month. If you can, figure out your annual income average and try to “pay” yourself an equal monthly paycheck no matter how the feast or famine may rise.

4. Don’t rely on your spouse or family to always support the work time you set aside. One of the biggest difficulties in working from home is being hit up by relatives looking for favors or a little fun. Although the little devil on your shoulder may beg you to go out and play, it’s not always a good idea to give in.

5. Don’t rely on your computer as a way to save all your files. Back up, back up, back up. Losing a big project due to computer problems sucks, of course, but so does losing all of your portfolio. You may have years of your hard work stored on your computer – unless it’s stored somewhere else, as well, you could be asking for trouble.

6. Don’t rely on the same amount of effort for every project. Depending on where your skills lie, it may take you half an hour to write a 500-word SEO article. However, it may take three times that much for you to write 500 words of sales copy. Know where your strengths are, know where your weaknesses are, and price accordingly. Never rely on word counts to provide all your guidelines.

7. Don’t rely on Wikipedia as a valid research source. Okay, okay, you can use it to look up the answer to a quick question you had or to verify something you already believed. But Wikipedia is not the end all and be all of academic subjects.

8. Don’t rely on clients to come through with the money in the end. Most clients will come through with payments even if you fail to take precautions like an escrow account, pre-payments, or a contract. However, getting stiffed for any project sucks. Take the steps now to protect yourself against bum clients.

While we were driving the other day, I came across this little gem. Of course, I had not yet heard the delights in store, so after seeing his look of disgust, I put it in and cranked up the volume. My daughter heard the music and pretty much fell in love. (Even my husband can’t deny that there’s something about that cheesy pop sound that appeals to kids.)

However, none of the music delights her quite as much as the songs by everyone’s favorite teen performer, Hannah Montana. She now demands her music by name and sings along in a disturbingly accurate manner. My daughter has never seen the show, and, if I have my way, she never will. Yet she’s hooked.

Now for a change of topics.

Lorna and I recently stumbled across a writer’s blog and website that made our jaws drop and looks of bewilderment settle permanently on our brows. They were, to say the least, unprofessional. The writer uses cheesy sentimentality, gushing (and often grammatically inaccurate) text, and a nauseatingly bubbly approach to writing. We could not, for the life of us, fathom who was hiring this writer. Yet, there the links were, to blogs and articles all over the web.

What do these two scenarios have in common? There is no accounting for taste.

There are many things in this world that I don’t understand – Hannah Montana and overbearing writing among them. However, these types of things pop up all over the place. More to the point, people pay good money for these things to pop up all over the place.

Although I may deplore the existence of such enigmas, they do represent good news for freelancers.

• When you get passed over for a job you are obviously qualified for, there is a good likelihood that the person’s tastes simply run a different course (i.e., there’s nothing wrong with you; there’s something wrong with them).

• Personality counts. What you lack in technical skill can be made up for with creativity and appeal (i.e, grammatical errors might be overlooked if your clients really like you).

• Marketing to your audience is equivalent to success (i.e., even if what you’re selling is pretty much awful, you can make quite a bit of money if you appeal to the right type of consumer).

• There is a niche out there just waiting for you to tap into (i.e., if Miley Cyrus can reach such ridiculous heights of sccess, there is hope for the rest of us).

But there you go. I’ve just said it.  After reinvesting in the business and taking taxes into consideration, my pay rates allow me to take home about $1,200 a month working a bit less than half time.

Money is one of those things few people talk about, and I get the reservations. You don’t want to seem boastful when you talk about your six figures. You don’t want to be ridiculed for what you charge. You don’t want someone to come right out and say, “Dude. You are making way too little. I’m making three times that in my first two hours of the week.” However, I can’t help but feel that it’s the elephant in our giant freelancing room.

Here at Freelance Parent, we actually get quite a few questions about money and freelance pay rates in general. Oftentimes, these aren’t asked through the blog itself, but come through in our personal email.

• Readers want to know if my pay rates for spec work are the same amount of money I would normally charge for a job. (Yes.)
• Readers want to know how much money we are actually making through Guru.com. (We expect to hit the $10,000 mark by our one-year anniversary in August.)
• Readers want to know how we came up with the pay rates listed on our website. (It starts at $0.10/word or $30/hour. Believe us, this number took some agonizing over, and we don’t always get this much.)
• Readers want to know what portion of our freelance income comes from a single client. (Most of mine comes from two regular, well-paying jobs that I’ve had for six months or so.)
• Readers really, really want to know how to make more money freelancing. (This isn’t a one sentence answer. It’s a complicated tangle of marketing, writing skills, perseverance, and luck.)
• Readers want to know why we undervalue ourselves by charging lower pay rates than many others in the field. (We don’t. We are learning to traverse the fine line between charging what we feel we’re worth and having enough work to keep us busy.)

Money, income, and pay rates are also very much dependent on the freelancer. I like working only a few hours a day, but I know that I make less because of it. I live in a pretty cheap city and have super-low overhead (as well as a husband), so I can get away with making less without stressing about it. Although my income is small compared to someone working full-time, it, along with my average pay rates, has been increasingly growing since I started. I’ve also reached a point where I can turn away work I don’t want without worrying about it, which is one of my financial goals.

Money makes people nervous. I get it. But I’m hereby inviting everyone to ask questions and share their opinions on this oh-so-touchy subject. Let’s talk about freelance pay rates.  Let’s talk about how much money we’re really taking home.  I’m happy to have this conversation with you.

However, somehow, I still manage to meet my deadlines, week after week. Some days are more frustrating than others, but at the end of the month, I can usually look back and feel good about all that I’ve accomplished.

But I don’t do it alone. I have equipped myself with an arsenal of options ranging from smart to downright desperate.

Option One – Share and Share Alike

I’ve done this extensively with my brother and occasionally with Lorna. Basically, it’s a kid swap: I watch their kids for a few hours and they return the favor either the same day or at a future date. Because I’m home all day with my daughter anyway, it’s not like I have to take time out of my day to do this (plus, the kids are usually ecstatic to have some time together). If you don’t have relatives or a business partner nearby, there are actually some co-op parenting groups that do basically the same thing. (You could always start one, too.)

Option Two – Mother’s Helper

This is an idea that I first got here at Freelance Parent. It requires some payout (since you are hiring someone to come to your house and watch your kids), but it typically costs less than a “real” babysitter or daycare because it occurs in your home. I personally hire my twelve-year-old cousin (’cause she’s waaaayyy cheap), but I know Lorna pays a little bit more to have an actual adult watch her baby. Either way, you get to control the hours and you don’t have to leave your kids too far away.

Option Three – Drop In and Play

Much to my delight, I recently discovered my local shopping mall’s Drop In and Play area. And by “discovered,” I mean “broke down and gave in to my daughter’s incessant demands to go inside.” For a small price, you can drop your kid off in a room filled with toys and playhouses and go shopping; the only rule is that you have to stay in the mall. I always stayed away because it listed the prices as $6 an hour, and I’m really very cheap. However, they have this option called Parent Play, wherein your kid gets to play but you are required to stay in the room. The Parent Play option is half off. And my mall’s Drop In and Play has a set up of tables with outlets for my laptop nearby. And my daughter pretty much refuses to leave for hours on end. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the happiest place on Earth.

Option Four – Ride Someone Else’s Gravy Train

I haven’t done this yet, but I’m growing perilously close. My neighbor down the street has a son a few months younger than my daughter. We see him all the time and occasionally stop by for a chat and some play time. His parents work all day long, and there is an older woman who watches him in his house. I’ve yet to determine if she is a grandparent or just a nice lady they hire, but I’m building up the nerve to ask if I can just leave my daughter there for an hour or two a few afternoons a week. She’s already there anyway, I could pitch in a few dollars (more money for her and/or less of a burden on how much the parents pay), and I’m just a house away.

Option Five – Shopping “Daycares”

This is similar to the Drop In and Play I mentioned above. Stores like Fred Meyers and IKEA have these great little play areas where you check your kid in while you shop. They are almost always free for one to two hours; the idea is that you spend lots of money on their merchandise, thereby making it worth the store’s while to offer the service. These same stores often put in some sort of cafe or Starbucks as further evidence of their marketing prowess, enticing you to turn your shopping errand into a whole experience. However, if you don’t mind cheating the system a little, you can simply skip the shopping portion of the whole idea. Drop your kid off, grab a seat in the cafe, and get to work on your laptop. No one will ever know.

We got together to answer the interview questions, and we had quite a bit of fun doing so, too. Both Lis Garret and Laura Spencer asked us some fun and interesting questions about everything from our families to our business partnership. We picked out a couple of pictures and sent them off and were quite satisfied with ourselves when they appeared shortly thereafter on these lovely ladies’ blogs.

But, what of those guest posts? I carefully reviewed the other blogs and emailed back and forth with the bloggers to be sure that I was writing something interesting and relevant to their readers. I kind of agonized over the posts as I wrote them, feeling like I really needed to do something extra special for the occasion. After a lot of thought and care, I attached them to emails and sent them off into cyberspace, hoping the bloggers would be so pleased with the result that they’d go up right away.

But they didn’t.

After a week or so, I contacted the blog owners to make sure my carefully-crafted prose had made its way to their inboxes. I was assured that it had, and that things were busy but that they were so grateful and would be putting the posts up soon.

But they didn’t.

Now, I have no idea what the proper etiquette is in this type of situation. In fact, I suspect that I wasn’t the one breaching the rules of etiquette, but that’s neither here nor there. To be completely honest about it, my feelings were a bit hurt, and I worried that maybe the posts weren’t as good as I thought. So, I would wait for a few weeks and then (politely) ask the blogger if he or she was intending to use the post. I was assured that he or she would.

But they didn’t.

I’m not a very pushy person, so I just let the whole thing lie for quite a while. Months, in fact. But, doggone it, I had worked really hard on those posts; and if they weren’t going to use them, I thought someone should. So I (politely) emailed the parties and asked that if they weren’t going to use the posts, could I please have them back? It turns out that they were fine with that.

So, after building these posts up in my mind for several months, I reworked them a bit for our audience and put them up here at Freelance Parent expecting they would get lots of comments and spark lots of discussions.

But they didn’t.

The blogosphere . . . she’s a fickle mistress.

The Company Tax Account

It used to work out that approximately 20% of every dollar we earned would go into our combined tax account. We highly, strongly, and strenuously recommend that you get yourself a tax account if you don’t already have one. The suggestion was made to us by the banker that opened our original business account, and since there was no fee to open additional accounts, we created a special one just for taxes.

According to the banker, tons and tons of small businesses get themselves in huge trouble (even going out of business) every year because they don’t plan ahead. It’s easy to think, “Oh, I’ll just come up with the money at tax time,” but that’s a lot easier said than done. We took the advice and set up an account for our 20% with the knowledge that we absolutely would not touch it until tax time.

It was awesome. Tax time came, and voila, there was money to send to good old Uncle Sam.

My Personal Tax Account

Now that we’ve started keeping our money separate, it’s up to us to individually take care of our tax money. It’s kind of a bummer to get a $500 check and then realize that 20% of that has to be taken right off the top. BUT I DO IT. I actually went to the bank right after we restructured our payment system and opened my own special tax account. It’s really frustrating sometimes because if money’s tight is so easy to think, “Oh, I could just borrow some from that account.” I refuse to give in to the temptation, though. When tax time rolls around and I can just write a big, fat check, I’m going to be so pleased with myself.

Paying Taxes on Freelance Income

One last thing that I wanted to add in here is that freelancers aren’t generally expected to just pay taxes once a year like “regular people.” We are expected to send money in quarterly to the Department of the Treasury. My family did our personal taxes with TurboTax or the H&R Block software or some such thing this year, and it allowed us to go ahead and print up what they call “payment vouchers.” The program estimated how much I would owe every three months by basing it on what I earned last year. I can tell you that this number is pretty darn low, considering we’ve already made that amount several times over in 2008.

So, my plan is to send in extra money with those payment vouchers, and when we have to file our big tax return in April of next year, I should be pretty close on what I owe. I’m not a tax professional and can’t really give out advice, but this is the method that makes the most sense to me. If you don’t know how to pay quarterly taxes, you should definitely look into it, as you might actually get penalized pretty heavily for not sending in regular payments to The Man.

Don’t get me wrong. There are times when the job market seems so saturated that I can understand why freelancers – in all fields – find themselves considering an affirmative response when clients request spec work before they make a decision. However, freelancers must fight that urge. What it all boils down to is you, the freelancer, paying for the privilege of being considered for a job. Clients might as well start tacking on an application fee for each job they post – it’s basically the same thing.

Working for free is not okay. Say it with me. Working for free is not okay.

The good news is, saying no to spec work doesn’t mean the end of the road. I was the joyful recipient of this knowledge very recently. I placed a bid for an editing job, and the client got back to me asking if I would mind editing a document on spec to see if we would be a good fit.

Yes actually, I do mind, but I didn’t want to shut the door on this client just yet. With the help of the No Spec website, I drafted a little letter, politely explaining why I don’t do spec work, how it affects freelancers, and that I would be happy to provide a sample at my normal cost.

Well, I’ll be – I got a terrific response. The client was thrilled with my honest viewpoint and gave me her direct contact information. Although I can’t promise I will actually get the job in the end, I’m happy knowing that no bridges were burned and I did my good deed for freelancers everywhere.

Just say no to spec!