11 Reasons You Won't Succeed as a Freelance Writer

Freelance writing is a profession to which many aspire, but relatively few attain. And, almost all can be traced to 11 reasons. If you're struggling to make a living as a freelance writer, the answer could be listed right here.

3 of the 11 Reasons You May Not Be Successful as a Freelance Writer

1. You Don't Keep Up with Technology: Many companies are allocating more of their advertising budgets to online ads. This means that to garner work from these clients, freelance writers have to understand things like search engine optimization, how to write for the web, PPC (pay per click) advertising, etc.

Why? Because freelance writers are the ones to write the copy for these types of campaigns. Whether it's simple articles for article marketing, or writing call-to-action statements to increase signups to the client's e-newsletter, keeping up with technology is important to landing lucrative freelance writing gigs.

2. Lack of Marketing Ability: This is perhaps the number one skill that many freelance writers lack - and they are surprised at how important it is. Marketing is 60-80 percent of what you will be doing, especially in the beginning of your career.

Learning how to market, especially for lucrative freelance writing work, is a skill that will pay dividends for years to come.

Freelance Writing Marketing Tip: Stay away from freelance writing job boards, in particular those who serve up mostly slave-wage type assignments (eg, $3 for a 500-word article). Market to companies directly. Not only will you have less competition, you can make more money as well. Why?

Because you pitch them as on a B2B (business to business) basis, ie, here are my services, here are my rates, when can we start.

3. Laziness: The fact is, many wannabe freelance writers are lazy. They don't want to take the time to find work. And, as mentioned above, marketing is what you'll be doing in the beginning. But, it's what's necessary to get the work flowing in.

This means not surfing the web for hours, responding to other (out of work) freelance writers in chat rooms, working on your MySpace page, and spending time on other social networking activities.