Why Do Freelance Writers Fail to Take Their Official Writing Business to the Next Level?

I've recently talked to a freelance writer who decided to set up a personal website to offer essay writing services. He was frustrated because the effort hasn't brought him enough clients (at least in his view).

Here is my personal list of reasons why individual freelance writers fail to take their essay writing business to the next level:

- Some writers think that building a website is sufficient to succeed.

In fact, it's just the first step. There are thousands of similar websites competing for the same clients. If you already have a website, your next step should be to market it (online, offline, or both). I know, it's not an easy job, but it's the essential part of an online business.

- Some writers are afraid to take risks and try out new things.

They prefer to "save" $100 and hope for the best rather than to invest $100 into something that may bring them or their websites more popularity = more clients. Not to mention some freelancers who are unwilling to spend $8 to buy their own domain name because they think it's not worth it.

- Some writers think a good customer service is not important.

They assume their job is to write, not to pamper their clients or to reply to emails in a timely fashion. In a way they are right, but is this a good way of building a strong customer relationship? Clients don't care you are a one-man show; they expect a little more from a professional writing service.

- Some writers think they can work whenever they please.

The fact is, they should work whenever clients need them. Taking a month off during the high season or ignoring customer requests just because you have enough jobs for the next week is unlikely to make you successful.

- Some writers think they can hire cheap writers to bring more business.

It is tempting to take more orders than you can complete and try to find some other writer (usually from a foreign and cheaper country) to complete the project for less. However, it can backfire pretty quickly (especially if you fail to actually read the paper and check it for proper grammar, research, and plagiarism).

-----------

Are there any more points to help academic freelance writers be more successful? :)

Most of them suck.

I think both posters have hit the nail on the head.

To expand on one point, some writers see the world entirely in terms of web search. On this forum I've seen people say many times that it would be very hard to get a good position in a Google search. Therefore they don't think it's worth putting up a site and being an independent freelancer. They fail to understand that, as a solo operation, they shouldn't be playing that game at all. If by some miracle they edged above custompapers, SNR sites, Ukrainians, etc. in search results, how would they handle the volume? I have no idea how many orders those sites get per day, but I'm sure it's not one or two! The freelancer website serves other purposes, but, on it's own, it's not going to bring in much business.

I guess most freelancers who create a professional website hope that one day they may be able to compete with serious companies..?

That comment might have been derisive, but it contains an important market truth. There are a lot of hacks, and if they fail, that's probably why. All the nice websites and quality customer service in the world aren't going to help if you suck. There are a lot of people who will tell you the market is "saturated," and they tend to be either hacks who can't compete or company owners who don't want you to compete. All in all, if you are truly good at this work, I doubt you'll fail as a writer.

Major, I don't know if most of them want to scale up the business or not. In my experience, the freelancer and the company-builder are two different personality types, with some crossover. Scaling it up takes such a different skill set from writing essays that this transition is probably where a lot of failure occurs.

That's true. But I noticed most freelance writers who build their own "professional websites" tend to use general names (for example, instead JohnSmithWriting.com they use ExpertEssayWriting.com, etc.). That's why I think they seek opportunities to work on a bigger scale from the very beginning.

@Major, most of the writers who tend to branch out on their own with such lofty sounding domain names are usually the product of academic writing companies. They tend to follow the business model of the company rather than creating their own niche in the already crowded line of business. They have a tendency to put the cart before the horse so to speak. That is why they fail.

Those who do succeed, do so because, quite frankly, they are willing to take risks and whatever it takes to get their business promoted as best as they can. These are the writers who were able to save up for a rainy day while attached to a writing company so they have the financial leeway for promotions, student discount opportunities, and networking privileges in other promotional groups.

Simply put, just like any other start-up business out there, these are the independent writers willing to go the extra mile to make sure that their virtual business takes off in the same manner as a physical business.

In response to domain names for taking your freelance career to the next level, I like the personal approach. The example "JohnSmithWriting.com" gives off a personal feel... like this person is more likely to give individualized attention. For a company, of course, the premise is different. Still, I personally dislike grandiose domain names. I'd rather know "John Smith" is taking care of my projects than wonder who on God's green earth is working on my project at "TheBestLittleEssayHouseintheWorld.com". It's a matter of making the customer feel comfortable and that even though he/she may be 1 of 100 clients, they always feel they are number one!


Exactly. No matter the method of moving to the next level, it's up to the freelancer and how hard he/she is willing to work to succeed. ;)

Don't give too much ideas to the online fraudsters from Africa; I've recently noticed some of them would publish a stolen picture of a young woman / teacher holding a child and describing in their fake bio that she is a 'young teacher who, during the day, works as a college professor, but on the afternoons helps students write essays for money.' :) :(

Point taken... a good point, at that! ;)

That may not be the case. There are numerous sources of copyright free pictures online that these scammers could access for use in their business. Most of the scam companies use these copyright free photos because they not only look nice, but it helps to deliver a polished look to their scam site. Naitobi from Kenya suddenly looks like Eric from New York and the make over, from skin to hair color, never cost him a dime. That's why they use those generic pictures on their sites. It allows them the opportunity to further promote their "scam" image with a tinge of reality in the eyes of the student.

Remember the saying that first impressions last? The scammer targets the potential user using a specific photo to create a mental image that instantly puts the person at ease. Before the student realizes what happened, he had already been scammed. In my opinion, the more "western" the look in the picture, the more I would be suspicious of the company promoting the services.

Yes, by 'stolen' I meant fake/not-real. We need to remember that these scam writers from Africa have originally been in the online dating business, so they know what kind of pictures and profile descriptions to use to 'lure' their potential victims into ordering from them.

The next business level for a professional freelance writer is to hire writers to work under him. While it is easy to send projects to other writers who are part of the same network, such a practice will not help a writer reach the next level of business in this field. It is only by taking a chance and hiring other writers, with the the main writer dropping his own writing assignments to be able to act as QAD and HR will he find himself slowly climbing out of the "independent writer pool" and into the "academic outsourcing business owner" category. I know because I took that chance once and it paid off for me big time. The reason I succeeded was because I decided that I would earn what I could based on the work that others did for me. So I set myself up and threw myself into promoting the business and building a reliable writers pool. While it took a few years to really get myself on steady ground, I am happy to say that I have successfully taken my business to the next level.

That is most certainly not the case. Some writers choose to do this because they want to increase their earnings, or they get bored with writing. Others, like myself and at least two or three reputable professionals who frequent this forum, find this type of work interesting and moreover do not want to delegate. I enjoy my work, and I don't see any reason why I would have to "take it up a level." I earn more than I need, work when I want to, have free time to engage in my hobbies (most recently conquering Europe with Switzerland in EU IV :) and preparing for a boxing match in July) so I don't see any reason to take on management which ultimately does not interest me that much, or as much as writing. There's really nothing to gain except more money. Since my goals in life do not include driving a Ferrari or having a Rolex watch, I'm content with what I have.

Again, please speak for yourself rather than issuing blanket general statements that purport to apply to all writers. Not everybody necessarily aspires to move away from writing and into management. I define "taking it to the next level" differently: for me, it's the luxury of choosing to work with the brightest and most appreciative clients as my bread and butter and of not having to deal with as many clients who don't manage to catch on quickly enough how this works (and doesn't work) and whose project-related communications always come along with unnecessary headaches and avoidable complications attributable to deficiency in common sense and/or of the most basic understanding of what's appropriate when commissioning services of this kind and through an online medium.

I do feel as though seeking to be a freelance writer is entirely different from venturing into the field of managing these forms of sites. Although I have met a handful of owners of these sites who started from writing in various platforms, recognized the blanket issues that were crippling writers in the long-run, and decided to act on in through creating their own platform. Again, this is not applicable to all writers. I, myself, do not see myself going into managing these sites. I would see that finding credible platforms that do not take advantage of their writers as the key indicator of progress in this field. Then again, I do not see myself being in the field ten years from now. I have personally known a few other academic writers who have already left the field to pursue other career paths; they only saw academic writing as a way to earn extra money while they're attempting to establish a career.

I believe that writers who try to break out on their own fail because they fail to understand the importance of paid social media promotion in the business. These days, having a website isn't enough. You need to exist with a high profile on social media. It is unfortunate that the social media promotion comes at a steep price. That is why the freelancers tend to shy away from paid advertising promotions using social media channels. While word of mouth advertising gets students to know about them, if the independent writers are not insta-famous, hashtag popular, or heavily liked on social media, then the potential clients, who grew up with the "anything on social media is alright" mindset will not pay attention to the website, much less hire the writers from that site. It takes money to make money. Invest in advertising. Heighten your writer social media profile, that is the only way to prevent an independent writing business from failing.