How to Overcome The Fear Of Pitching For Freelancing Gigs?

Weekly Newsletter for Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of this week starting on 22nd of January 2018.

When you start out as a freelancer you have to face one of your greatest fears, it is the fear of pitching for gigs! Naturally, you will have rejections because it is a part of being a freelancer, but you must not let that discourage you. 

When you start pitching, you have to ask yourself how you can benefit from others’ experience so that it will increase your chances of success. It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Yet, it does take some freelancers a while to realize it, including me! 

Carol Tice who owns the Make a Living Writing blog is on a mission to help writers and similar creative people succeed. She has written this article 3 Guest Post Pitch Emails That Got the Gig.

You can read Carol’s article here. Carol has also included a link in her article to bad guest post pitches from her blog. It is worth placing Carol’s blog on your subscription list because of her support.

The Freelancer’s Union’s Lisa Fourman has looked at The fear of pitching for freelance gigs. You can read Lisa’s article here.

Carol Tice has extended her support about overcoming fear with FEAR NOT! Confidence-Building Insights, Tips, and Techniques for Freelance Writers (Make a Living Writing, Book 3) which you can obtain here or by clicking on the icon below: 

New Year’s Resolutions Are The Ultimate Self-Motivation Goals.

It does not matter what you do for a job, self-employed or in a 9 to 5 job, at the end of the year it is normal to take stock of what you accomplished during the year.

Some freelancers even write their resolutions for the forthcoming year down and then review them at the end of the year.However, keeping them is a different matter entirely.

Charlotte Alter has had a look at this issue as to why it is so hard to stick to your resolutions. Charlotte has written Here's the Secret to Sticking to Your New Year's Resolution. Charlotte’s article appears in Time.com and you can read it here.

If you are like me, I read Charlotte’s article with great interest as I have the same problem as many other freelancers. I think that this issue of working in the gig economy and keeping your promises to yourself can be tricky.

Katie Perry has said in the preview of her article for the Freelancer’s Union blog that we should “make 2018 your best year ever”.

The title of Katie’s article is 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Freelancers and you can read it here.

Productivity and Budget Tip of the Week

Do You Focus On Productivity Or Activity?

Critical to the success of being a freelancer is learning to focus on productivity rather than being busy. This is because the indicator of success or otherwise is your cash flow or money in the bank.

It seems very simple, doesn't it, but it is not always easy to implement if you have worked in a 9 to 5 job as an employee where your activity does not relate directly to cash flow.

Smashingmagazine.com has an article by Tim Mercer entitled 6 Simple Ways to Increase Your Productivity as a Freelancer.

You can tell from reading Tim's article that he has had personal experience of this issue and sharing tips to help new freelancers. You can read Tim's article here. 

Miranda Marquit for the Upwork Blog has looked at How to Focus on Productivity, Not Activity, for Your Business. You can read Miranda's article here.

Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week

How To Overcome Anxiety When Working As A Freelancer?

Anxiety can be very tough to overcome when you are working alone as a freelancer. This is particularly true for freelancers who are under pressure for one reason or another.

Family budgets can be a particular source of anxiety with the cost of living rising while employees' wages are stagnating.

Very often both parents in a family are already working, but they have decided that they need to lift the family income and have decided that one or both members have skills that they can freelance.

I recently received an email from Jenny Holt, a freelance writer, asking whether I would be interested in a guest post on overcoming anxiety for Freelance-Work-Guide.com. I thought it was an outstanding contribution from Jenny and her post is now live here.

Overcoming anxiety is not simple and is well recognized as an issue by Harvard Business School. In the articles in the series Working Knowledge, Michael Blanding wrote Overcoming Nervous Nelly which can be read here.

The difference is that freelancers have to manage themselves. The article gives some insight into the importance of self-talk and self-management.

However, Dan Johnston's Amazon's Kindle eBook picks up the issue of self-management and looks deeper into the solution with Self Confidence Secrets: How To Overcome Anxiety and Low Self Esteem with NLP.

Financial Tip of the Week

How Are Your New Year’s Financial Resolutions Going?

The end of a calendar year is a good time to make financial plans for the forthcoming year. This is especially true if you happen to live in a country where the calendar year and the financial year are the same.

This is because when your tax return is being prepared you will know where you have made mistakes and what you can do to rectify them. William Lipovsky has written 2018 Tax Tips for First-Time Freelancers.

William’s article includes a gigantic list of possible business expenses for you to consider and to be sure that you are maintaining the records for the end of this financial year.

William’s article appears in the Due.com blog and you can read it here and check out his list to be sure that you are not giving money away by failing to claim deductions that you are entitled to as a freelancer.

Amanda Abella, also for the Due.com blog, has pitched in with 4 Ways to Set your Business Up for Success in 2018. 

Amazon Associates Website Case Study

The history of the Case Study can be read at links to the previous newsletter issues.

The work on the Amazon Associates website has progressed with new articles being added which can be seen here:

• Top 12 Proven Ways That Students Can Save Using Amazon Prime Student
• How to Have Big Savings on Big Purchases Through Amazon

The articles have been searched engine optimized, but have not yet been promoted on Facebook or Twitter.

The research works are continuing and the current results can be seen here:

• Best Sellers Hourly Website
• Best Sellers Hourly Facebook Page
• Best Sellers Hourly on Twitter

Freelancers And Cyber Security

We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant.

He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:

How Do I Protect Myself from P2P File-Sharing Risks?

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