Quality is the secret for success in Freelancing

It might take decades for people to notice your services. However, keep in mind that quality sells. You are assured of return customers if you offer high quality and timely services to your customers. As a writer, you should always focus on three objectives: customer understanding, adherence to deadlines and customer satisfaction. Good day friends.

If you're good at this, it shouldn't take anywhere close to even one decade to build a decent reputation, let alone "decades." If you're one of the better writers working for a company, your customers will start requesting you almost immediately. As for freelancing, just about every customer you find should become a regular after the very first project, so all you need to get established is about a dozen or two dozen satisfied customers in your first year or two. New customers should always trickle in faster than your existing customers graduate just based on word-of-mouth referrals or just a very little bit of periodic advertising. If someone can't earn repeat business from as few as 1 or 2 new customers a month, this might not be the right occupation.

FW releases yet another powerful crow... but is the spammer listening?

I agree. Services that produce quality papers succeed in the long-run. Repeat customers are the bread and butter of any successful writing service. If less than 50-75% of your customers are coming back something is wrong.

Quality is important, but so is integrity and reliability. It helps to build a reputation for competence, diligence, AND good old honesty. If you reckon you might not be able to do a good job with a certain paper because the topic is outside your sphere of experience/knowledge, there's nothing wrong in letting a customer know. If you have tight deadlines and may not be able to complete a paper within the agreed period, then you should always let the customer know (even if it means losing out on the $$$).

These attributes are particularly crucial for an "ESL" writer like me, otherwise one would be unable to compete in this industry where some naysayers relentlessly depict writers from my part of the world as scammers and hacks.

Well, that's because most ESSAY SERVICE writers from your part of the world have proven to be scammers and hacks.

These days, it is important to add another aspect to the character of a freelance writer in order to have him build a successful client list.

That is, the amount of trust that a student can place in the writer to not blackmail him after a number of years or a few months / semesters.

The biggest concern that students have these days all relate to the way that writers use the private information they receive and whether or not the client will be faced with a serious situation down the road.

A writer must have some sort of binding agreement, in electronic form, with the student that can assure the student that his personal information will not be misused or used against them.

Most of the students that I speak to these days always air their concerns regarding these writers who are becoming more and more difficult to vet be it through a writing service or direct hire. I always assure them that they can find reliable writers to work with, but they must always get an assurance regarding a privacy policy if they feel nervous about it.

Get the writer's real name and (hopefully his correct) address so that he can file charges if necessary. These scam writers are really making it more and more difficult to become a successful writer in a short period of time.

That's one reason clients are so much safer using a writer who has a very long verifiable history under the same forum S/N and/or online ID, because it would be impossible to operate any kind of extortion scheme like that for many years without changing online identities constantly. Successful and reputable veteran writers really have no need to use your project for anything after it's delivered, but there's no harm in asking your writer to agree in writing to keep your identity confidential and not to make any further use of your information or your project. However, if you're unlucky enough to have hired someone who either intends or is inclined to misuse your info and/or your project, that kind of person isn't going to change his intentions or behavior just because of a written agreement. As far as misusing customer info in the form of identity theft and/or blackmail goes, it really isn't necessary or helpful to put that into any agreement for the same reason, and more importantly, simply because those are already very serious crimes and they're already prosecutable without any private agreement between you specifically prohibiting them.

I agree with both of you. Trust in the writer and the quality of the writer are both important considerations for a student looking to start a long-time relationship with a particular writer. There is nothing worse than a writer who delivers sub par work to a client, causing the client undue stress and possibly a much lower grade than he had hoped for. Freelance writers are highly conscious of these two ultra important factors when it comes to their writing and have that at the forefront of their minds while writing papers. At least, freelance writers who want to stay in the business. Those who work for third rate companies fall under totally different quality considerations. They don't have any. Which is why it sometimes isn't worth it to hire a writer through a writing company. Direct access to the writer is normally the surest way to assure that the paper will be completed properly and with high quality writing standards. It also helps to build trust between the writer and the client.

Quality delivery is crucial. There are, however, other attributes that round up a fitting service provider. An excellently written paper delivered days after it is due for submission is useless. Likewise, a competent writer with a proven track record can't help much if he is often unreachable. There are a few websites that are reliable when it comes to deadline and availability (24/7 support). They also employ experienced and qualified ENL writers. But their prices exceed 5 times other competitors offering the same. Quality is NOT the only secret.

Yes, this is correct, but sadly, only a handful of companies allow direct access. I would imagine that many companies pay so low they fear their writers will steal their customers in an attempt to make more on their won. On the other hand, some might simply want to be the go-between so they are aware of all stages of the order from start to finish.

Personally, I like contact with my clients. There are fewer issues related to miscommunication (too many cooks in the kitchen). There are a few times, however, that I wish someone else could deal with the issues. As indie writers it falls on each of us to handle it all. ;)

It seems that people here have forgotten the importance of networking when it comes to a freelance writing career. As Freelancewriter will admit, he has a network of writers who, though not working for him, refer him to clients whose services can best be served by his expertise. That is why networking is of vital importance to a non-contracted writer. Through networks, the writer can receive a regular income plus, create a client base since the network on the basis of referrals. To be a successful independent writer, you need to have the help, support, and trust of your fellow writers. It is the trust of the writers in your network that will translate into the trust that the clients give you in the long run.

Absolutely. As a lone writer, I have to be prepared for emergencies: I could wake up with the flu or break a leg playing hockey, or need emergency dental work (again), etc. My clients' deadlines don't change just because I encounter an emergency; so my wife knows how to read my assignment calendar and she knows the emergency procedure to contact my clients and/or the writers I'd trust to back me up, if necessary. It's never actually happened in 20 years, but it would be irresponsible not to maintain some kind of emergency system, just in case. There aren't many writers who are likely to be able to do projects that I can't do, but before he retired, Professor Verb and I used to trade difficult projects that one of us or the other was better-able to handle; and several other writers on this forum have referred projects and/or clients to me for projects they couldn't take on in good conscience.

Reliability and trust are also 2 important factors that work in the favor of a freelancer. Since there are a lot of bad actors in this business, students tend to stick with human writers who prove that they are their partners in learning, rather than a blackmailer waiting in the wings.