Working with Clients at Textbroker and Dealing with Daily Distractions
by Maryanne M.
Working with clients at Textbroker and dealing with daily distractions are two vital parts of working at home and writing articles, blogs and press releases for clientele. The following text will cover general information about both these topics as well as offer some tips to help other authors become more successful and work quickly yet proficiently.
Positive clientele connection is extremely important, and how it is done can either make it or break it for an author. If one client is satisfied with your work, he or she may tell other clients, which could lead to receiving direct orders. Not every client is the same, and not all of them will like your specific writing. Each person prefers a different style and tone; therefore, what works for one might not work for another.
It is vital to keep emotions separate from working with clients at Textbroker. There is an old saying, “What happens at home stays at home, and what happens at work stays at work.” It is a good statement to live by, but we are all human beings and will make mistakes and allow emotions to crop up. If that happens and we tell a client how we felt about a bad rating, we might be able to write later and apologize; however, we have probably already ruined that bond with the client by reacting and allowing our feelings to hinder our business thinking.
Working with Clients General Tips
Communication is very important
- If you have any hesitations as to whether you are writing an article in the manner the clients want, ask them questions, or send a nice note after submitting the article to let the client know you are willing to revise if necessary and so on.
- If a client writes to you, try to answer the message ASAP if it is feasible.
Remain professional
- If a client likes to joke, it is okay to joke back to a point.
- Try to make your messages clear and concise.
- Most generally, I use "Hello" to start a message to a client.
- Try to end a message with "Thanks" or with "Kind Regards" or just "Regards."
The tips for working with clients are basic ones, and that is pretty much all there is to building a professional and solid bond between yourself and the clientele. If you feel nervous when writing to a client, as most people do when they first start out as a freelance writer, relax and be polite. You can recite what you want to say in Word and then copy and paste it into the Textbroker message after.
Dealing with Daily Distractions in an Easier Manner
Every person who works at home understands that there are continuously going to be distractions, either with family, friends, the telephone or online. At the same time, anyone who is working with clients at Textbroker realizes that he or she needs to get things accomplished, and he or she has to reach a specific goal each day. Therefore, either the distractions need to be minimal or the writer needs to learn how to remain productive in the midst of them. I hope the following tips help you get your work done more proficiently, save you stress and assist with reducing the level of daily distractions we all endure as at-home writers:
- If possible, try to establish an area in the house just for you, your computer and your writing.
- Relax and try not to be overly serious; make it a fun venture mentally instead of a "must do."
- Figure out a schedule that works best for you, and if you have family home daily, you may need to work around their schedule, like maybe writing on the night shift.
- With writing, it is important to feel relaxed, to be able to concentrate and to feel rested. Eat healthy meals, get at least eight hours of sleep at night and keep calm.
- E-mails and instant messengers are huge Internet distractions for some folks; shut them off while working with clients or writing an article.
- Telephones – landline or cellular – are big annoyances for many writers. Turn the ringer off or lower the volume.
- Set small goals and gradually raise them to higher amounts. For example, tell yourself that you will earn $5-$10 a day for one week and see how that goes. If we set our goals too high, we work harder, lose focus and become aggravated when we do not meet those goals.
- For folks who have people home all day and it is constantly noisy, you can listen to some music on your headphones. You can also ask family members to give you 20 minutes of time to write and then you will do something fun with them when you are done.
- You need a comfortable chair and desk to sit in and at while writing, especially if you are sitting for hours at a time. If you are not comfortable and your back and/or neck and shoulders ache all the time, you will lose focus and not be able to write at your best.
- Schedule when you will write, which days and at what times.
- Schedule when you will read e-mails or answer them.
- Schedule when you will talk on the phone or listen to voicemails.
- Schedule time with your family or friends.
- Schedule when you will eat and when you will sleep.
- Allow flexibility for distractions.
Not every day will be free from distractions, not all clientele relationships will go well and things happen in life. Consequently, if a person creates a realistic schedule, leaves some openings in it for having fun and being alone, and establishes an "easy-to-reach" set of goals, it is easier to work as a freelance writer at home and be productive. Be patient with yourself and believe that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.
posted on 04/29/2011 - 07.03 | authors | comments: 23
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Great work my friend. This is so good. You truly are an expert in this field. Jack Wellmanadded by: author LJackson on 04/30/2011 - 10.37
Thank you for posting this information. I had not really thought much about the distractions that can occur. Your information has been a big help for me.
Thank you again.added by: author A-049389 on 04/30/2011 - 12.23
Thank you for the great tips. You are right on the mark with scheduling ideas! Those working from home really do need to have a schedule.added by: author Pat Anthny on 04/30/2011 - 01.05
This is great advice! I find myself constantly distracted and I am sure that I will be able to use these tips. Thanks :)added by: author CourtneyS on 04/30/2011 - 02.27
Thank you ! I am a new author and truly enjoy writing. I am grateful to you for sharing these tips!added by: author A-064818 on 04/30/2011 - 03.36
What can I do about when there is little to no work available to me? How can I maximize my profits? How often do the authors request new material/turnover?added by: author A-065350 on 04/30/2011 - 05.54
Great post! I manage a staffing agency and all of our contractors work from home. I give them the same advice as you posted above, emphasis on the realistic goal-setting. Those who stick with the advice are the most successful!added by: author Marcy on 04/30/2011 - 09.19
I find myself constantly detracted. Your article made me think. I realized I some times get involved in to many things at once. I am now cutting down to just three. Guess that show how many things I was trying to do if three seems like a workable number for. Thank you.added by: author Stormer on 05/01/2011 - 01.29
Thank you for the advice. It always helps to see a schedule to get back into a more fulfilling writing experience.
added by: author Bobbi on 05/01/2011 - 06.20
Thank you, everybody, for the awesome comments! I am glad the blog post about working with clients at Textbroker and dealing with daily distractions is helpful. :-) I hope everyone finds some part of it useful with writing at home as a freelance writer. :-)
Have a wonderful week!
Kind regards,
Maryanne M.added by: author Maryanne on 05/01/2011 - 11.14
Wonderful, practical advice - add my thanks to the deluge!added by: author A-069177 on 05/01/2011 - 01.20
Thank you! I constantly struggle with this since my hubby does not see it as a "real" job.added by: author Texas on 05/02/2011 - 08.01
Thank you so much for these very useful tips. I too struggle with setting goals as a freelance writer, and keeping these goals. To author Texas, I can relate to how frustrating it may be for you as a writer to not have the support you need, but hang in there. I am slowly learning what it is that I need to to in order to value myself a a self employed author/freelance because I do still work outside my home, but my goal is to make freelancing my primary source of income, regardless of what others think. Tune their negativity out. is what I say. Thanks again Maryanne, I am becoming more and more motivated since working with textbroker.added by: author Yazz on 05/02/2011 - 07.35
Hello, everybody!
I apologize for the delay in writing more on this blog. I have been somewhat busy finishing my final term of college and trying to write in between life's distractions.
To Texas: I have a hubby who does the same. He has been trying to change the thought process though, especially when I show him how much I can earn with just one article. That helped. :-) We just have to ignore the negatives as well as ignore distractions and believe that we can do whatever we put our minds to. Yes, some days seem tougher than others do. I love the days when I am home all alone, well, except for me and the doggie, and I can write my little heart out. :-)
Hello Yazz,
I seem to have good days with organization and then, on other days, I go in circles. lol It can be tough to stick with a schedule. Setting up the schedule is the easy part. :-) I learned quickly that I needed better organizational skills implemented when I went back to college though, or else I would not get the grades I wanted to. I can use many of the same tools that I use for school with my freelance writing, if I discipline myself. My goal is to make freelance writing my main income source too, in addition to using my recent degree (accounting) at home. Good luck to you with your goals as well! :-)
I would like to thank everyone again for all comments. I enjoyed writing the blog post and have enjoyed our discussion here! I look forward to future posts and more discussions!
I wish you all a very nice, peaceful and prosperous week and year!
Maryanne M.
added by: author Maryanne on 05/09/2011 - 01.43
Regarding:
What can I do about when there is little to no work available to me? How can I maximize my profits? How often do the authors request new material/turnover?
added by: author A-065350
Hello,
I am not sure how to answer this question. Maybe textbroker can answer this one for you or another author here at textbroker might know more about this topic. If you are asking how to earn more money at textbroker, I can tell you what I have learned and what I do. I definitely do not have it completely mastered yet, but I have been trying to choose articles that are not as long, which pay less, yes, but that is okay with me. The easier ones are just that, easier to research and write, and every penny adds up, if I do not constantly check on it. I have to take my time when writing and proofread each article before submitting it. If I do a nice enough job, then clients will send me direct orders, which I do get now, on a regular basis. I have learned that if I take my time, write my best, and stick with smaller jobs, it pays off later, in all ways, with happy clients, which is the most important part of writing, for me. The earnings are not what I place as priority. Yes, pay is nice, but client satisfaction has to be first. :-)
As far as turnover of articles, I am not sure what you mean by that question. Can you elaborate more?
I hope I helped in some way. :-)
Have a wonderful day and week!
Maryanne M.added by: author Maryanne on 05/09/2011 - 01.52
Maryanne,
How do you deal with boredom? I find it hard to focus when writing gets monotonous, especially when nothing challenging comes down the pipe. Always writing for "SEO only purposes" is a drag for me. I'd rather write something that engaged me for quite awhile (i.e., a guide or tutorial made up of several thousands of words) than a bunch of little articles that seem to be only designed to serve as website filler. But "interesting" orders are few and far between. I am always easy to write for difficult, challenging subjects but finding clients that will pay for that isn't easy!
Thanks,
infodudeadded by: author infodude on 05/11/2011 - 02.06
Hello Author infodude!
I apologize for not responding to your comment sooner.
You have a great question there. I will do my best to answer it.
I am not sure if I actually feel bored with articles or if it is because I am becoming mentally burnt out. I think it might be a combination of both. I tried to change the way I wrote articles, a couple times, and found out that I should just write the way I am used to writing.
I find it difficult to focus, quite frequently actually. I take many breaks and try numerous methods. I am always working around other people's schedules here at home and I have to discipline myself a lot with the Internet stuff, e-mails, games and so on. I actually talk to myself a lot! lol
I know that if I write the same types of articles, repeatedly, ones about basically the same topics or ones that need to be written in a certain manner, SEO as you have mentioned here, I get bored. I actually bounce around topics quite a bit and do some rewrites here and there to break up the monotony.
Some of the topics can seem boring, but I force myself to like the titles. I sometimes ask myself, "What would I want to know about this subject if I was a web site visitor looking for an informative article about it," and then I write down some questions about the topic that I need to answer, just to make it fun and interesting, and answer the questions while writing the article. I have some more ideas for you, but I need to pop back in with those ideas later on. I will be back within a few days with more.
I hope that I helped in some way.
By the way, what a cool username infodude is! Neat!
TTYS
Maryanne M.
Sorry for the grammar errors in this message. ;-)added by: author Maryanne on 05/14/2011 - 04.59
I am fairly new to this still and just read through all of the blog posts for insights and ideas that may help me in the early stages of writing. Before starting this, I was a "stay at home mom, living on an SSI check for a disability, " who's child is in school full day and I am in a town that I moved to about 8 months ago and haven't made that many friends yet. This has allowed me lots of time to sit here on the computer and crank out article after article and I find that it gets to the point where there aren't that many to choose from and in that group there aren't any that I feel comfortable in writing. In the last few days, I have really discovered my areas of interest when it comes to writing articles and I have a spiral notebook that I keep next to my computer to research information for the articles I do and when there aren't any for me to write, I curl up on my couch with my spiral notebook and start writing about random subjects of my own, just in case one day I might come across an article here that just might go along with something in my spiral notebook. This way, it in a sense keeps me from going stir crazy doing nothing and when I do get an article, if I already have something close enough to it in my spiral notebook, it saves me from having to do the research on the subject that the article needs to be about and that way I can quickly type it out and go on to the next one instead of having to spend 30-45 minutes researching for the information I am looking for.added by: author A-068929 on 05/15/2011 - 11.24
Hello Author A-068929!
Welcome to Textbroker!
It sounds like you are figuring out what works for you. I wish you the best of luck with your writing, and with your life. It is great that you do have some free hours while your little one is in school. I long for the day when I have a full day of silence. ;-)
I am used to the research part and do that quickly now. When I first started writing informative articles, it took me forever to do the research and figure out how to format articles. After I realized that I could simply go online and find articles with the topic titles I needed to write about and see how authors formatted them, it was easier to do.
The spiral notebook tool is a great way, as you said, to keep from going stir crazy, and if an article comes up and you already have great stuff written; that would be great too. For myself though, I bounce through many diverse topics so that would not work for me, and I seldom have time alone.
One other method that works well though, for writing informative and interesting articles, is an essay format. The following web site helped me when I first started to write:
http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/
Finding different ways to write helps create better articles and makes writing fun and interesting.
In addition, when you look through open orders at Textbroker, you can search for certain keywords. I do that sometimes, especially on those days when I have gone through every category and read numerous article orders and directions and could not find anything that interested me. ;-)
Good luck with all your goals! You will make new friends as time passes too. :-) I do not have many friends locally and that is okay with me. Honestly, most of my friends are ones I met online, through freelance writing. The friends I have now are great friends and even folks I have met online and talk with often are very dear to me. I am actually closer to people I meet online than ones I know personally. You may want to check out Textbroker's forum and connect with others too. I have gone to the forum and it seems like a great place to meet some other authors, and to learn new tips as well. I have not gone there much, only because I do not have much time with writing and college classes going on, but when I am finished school (about three weeks to go), I plan to become more involved with Textbroker's forum and write more. :-)
Have a nice day and week!
Maryanne M.added by: author Maryanne on 05/16/2011 - 12.49
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