How to: work with freelancers
Destiny Connect published a handy article on working with freelancers last month, which gives sensible advice like agreeing to deadlines before work commences, getting everything in writing and giving proper briefs. Can I hear an ‘Amen!’ from all the freelancers out there?
From my own experience as a freelancer, here are some further thoughts on how to work with freelancers so that the experience is pleasant and pain-free for both client and freelancer:
- Know what you want. It’s much easier for the client and the freelancer to get the job done well the first time if the client understands what he or she wants. This means you need to define the scope of the project, the schedule and provide a clear brief. “I want a cool website as soon as possible that uses trendy colours” is not good enough. Even if you’re not 100% sure of what you’re looking for, you need to have an idea of how you want the finished product to look before you hire a freelancer. We’re not psychic (or we’d have won the Lotto and be chilling in the Bahamas).
- Check in with your freelancer regularly. It’s much easier to make changes earlier in the project than later. As a writer, I will always send through the first chapter of a book or a sample page of web copy for the client’s approval before I continue working. I’d rather rewrite a small sample than finish the whole project and spend hours going back to address issues of formatting or tone that could have been sorted out in the beginning. If you’re having a logo designed, ask the designer to send you a few basic ideas to choose from before s/he spends hours completing a logo only to discover that it’s not what you’re looking for. This saves time, money and frustration on both ends.
- Don’t pick a freelancer purely on price. Prices vary hugely among freelancers. The best person for the job isn’t always the most expensive (or the cheapest). Match your needs to the freelancer’s expertise and be prepared to pay more for specialist services. As you would for any other project, get a few quotes before you decide on which freelancer to hire. Make sure you’ve viewed portfolios and samples and contacted references before you make a decision. Remember that old truism: “If it seems too good to be true it probably is.” Don’t compromise your business by hiring a cut-rate freelancer who will deliver a shoddy product. One of the best ways to find freelancers is to ask for recommendations from people you trust.
- Understand that you are not the only client. Freelancing is a feast or famine business. Remember that your freelancer is not your full-time employee and may at times be unavailable or busy with another client’s work. Make sure you are clear about your deadlines from the start and negotiate clear communications guidelines upfront. Find out what the freelancer’s workload is like and whether s/he will be able to take on additional work if your project requires it.
- Avoid the broken telephone game. It’s always best to designate one person as the point of contact to deal with the freelancer. If you work in a larger organisation, you may have various people who will need to give input and sign-off on the project. Leaving the freelancer, who may not understand your organisational structure, to communicate with all these people will not only waste his or her time, but may result in delays and communication failures. Rather assign someone to communicate with the freelancer and let that person handle the in-house side of things.
Are there any lessons you’ve learned as a freelancer or someone who has hired a freelancer that could make the process easier? Feel free to share in the comments section!
Something I (re)learnt on holiday
One of the sand-filled houses at Kolmanskop Ghost Town, Namibia
I’m back from a mini-break to Namibia and then Easter with my in-laws, and while I was away I did not a jot of writing. But I did do lots of thinking about writing. In fact, I’m pretty desperate to chronicle my trip in typed words.
I think that writing helps me to crystallise the random thoughts flitting through my head into some sort of order. It also gives me something concrete to look back to, when I want to remember the holiday and how I felt at the time, what we saw, experiences we had. It also inspires my other writing. Yes, I find that often my unpaid, heartfelt scribblings that seem to gush forth onto my screen with so much more ease that my commissioned work are the inspiration I need to do the tougher jobs.
I’ve tried to explain this to myself before and I honestly believe that amid the deadline-driven client-orientated work that makes up the majority of my days, I sometimes lose the magic of writing. I forget why I love it. I lose the urge to write and forget the way that words can come together so beautifully to express a thought, a feeling or an experience.
When I take the time to just sit down and write for myself, I feel refreshed. Once I’m done letting the words tumble out, without questioning whether the grammar is perfect or if a client will agree with a particular term, I am reminded why I love what I do. And I’m ready to tackle my writing jobs with relish again.
This also provides me with a very good reason to take a holiday once in awhile!
The lighthouse at Diaz Point in Luderitz, Namibia
A sand-swamped parlour in a Kolmanskop house, Namibia
5 tips for writing good copy
I find that many of my clients get worked up about the difference between writing for the web and writing for print. Although there are differences, there are actually far more similarities. The main point you need to understand is that people don’t read bad copy. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you include all the right SEO keywords and manage to achieve a good Google page rank, if you have bad copy on your site, nobody will read it.
Writers find that we deal with a range of conceptions on our job. There are people who think that everyone can write and there’s no point in hiring a professional writer, and there’s people that think that writing is a mythical art form gifted to a chosen few. I sit somewhere between those extremes. I believe that bad writing can damage your brand and that hiring a professional writer is a good idea, but I also believe that writing is like any other job – you learn the rules and you do it. Not every article will be your greatest masterpiece. Sometimes, it’s more important that a piece of writing is functional than poetic (for example, your company brochure).
Here are a few very pragmatic pointers for writing good copy:
Write great headings
A title needs to give readers an idea of what they can expect to find in the body text. A good heading will make them want to read on. Staring at a long page of text without a heading leaves readers intimidated and without a point of entry on the page, so make sure you have a heading and that it makes sense. Another point to consider is that your heading needs to be sensitive to context. If you’re writing a brochure on a medical product, you’re hardly likely to use the same puns, humour and innuendo that you’d expect in a tabloid article title.
Use clever structure
Paragraphs are important! Say this out loud three times and write it on your bathroom mirror. I am dumbfounded at the amount of writing I see online without paragraphs. Once again, big chunks of text are intimidating. Make sure you separate each idea into its own paragraph. If appropriate, use bullet points, sub-headings or other formatting tools to ensure your structure lends itself to readability.
Also ensure that your text flows well. Is there a logical progression from one idea to the next? In news journalism, writers use the “inverted” pyramid. This means ensuring that your most important information is in the first few sentences. The less important info comes further down the page, in case your writing needs to be cut or a reader loses attention.
On that note, our Twitter culture seems to have decreased our attention spans. What this means for your writing is that your title, first line (the hook) and first paragraph are of paramount importance. If they don’t grab the reader, he or she will not stick around to read the next paragraph. Don’t ramble. Make each word count.
Check your spelling and grammar
This sounds obvious, but I cannot tell you how often I see errors in published copy. After reading something for the fifth time, you may be tempted to assume that you have all your ducks in a row, but be disciplined and check one last time before you publish or send your work. If you find you’re still not catching errors, ask someone else to check your work for you or come back a day later and reread your writing. We all make these mistakes, even grammar Nazis like me (tough as that is to admit).
Check your facts too – there’s nothing more embarrassing than having something incorrect published with your name on it.
Edit ruthlessly
Editing is horrible. Really. It means saying goodbye to anything and everything unnecessary, especially clichés, jargon (including corporate BS) and all those “little flourishes” you liked so much. But I don’t believe there are many great writers who haven’t benefited from tough editing. This also means being open to criticism from others who edit your work. I’m not talking about clients who think that employing the “synonym” function in Word on your work makes them a wonderful editor, but having someone look at your work who is not as “close” to it as you are often helps to identify areas that need explanation, tweaking or cutting.
Be sensible
By this I mean use a font that is easy to read; don’t clutter your writing with a million superfluous descriptions; if you’re writing online, use relevant tags. I know these things don’t strictly relate to writing good copy, but they will help to get people to read your writing. So, compress your images in the digital space, keep your writing to the point, don’t plagiarise from other sources (be especially careful of image copyrights) and generally, use your head.
What are your top writing tips? Let me know in the comments section.
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