Importance of Quality in Freelance Writing

Video Transcript

"REBECCA SATO: Hi. I'm Rebecca Sato with ExpertVillage.com, and we were just talking about how to make sure that you get paid. Because as a professional writer, you don't work for free. And it's okay if you work for a low pay to get your portfolio built up as we've talked about a little bit earlier, but now that you're onto real jobs, don't go back there. You deserve to get paid for your skills just like anybody else. You wouldn't go to your dentist and ask him to clean your teeth for free. Because he wouldn't do it and you wouldn't expect him to, and it's the same with writing. So just make sure you're getting paid. But here's the other side of that. You're getting paid so make sure that you deliver. A lot of times there's a tendency in freelance writing to think, "Well, I'm in a hurry or they're paying me anyway, and I'm just going to do good enough is good enough." But I would really recommend being very careful to always do your best for any client. Let's say, you have a particular client that you can't just stand. They are really picky and they're always telling you to fix this, change that. You will get clients like that who are not happy with anything. Well, the temptation is just to just say, "You know what? Here you go and I'm out of here." And at some point, you may have to do that. But what I'm trying to getting at is that you really want to do your best for every client because as a writer, you're always building your portfolio and your writing samples. It never stops. And I'll tell you another thing. I have gotten nearly every one of my jobs from a previous job. I haven't necessarily worked with the same client, but that client has referred me to other clients. And the reason I get these referrals is because I do a good job for them. Even if it's not my favorite person or my favorite topic, it's something that I did a good job and they know they can recommend me. And I'll recommend just always having that high standard of excellence because that's what's going to get you jobs in the future."