"Is freelancing right for you?"

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working independently?

There are many advantages of working independently, you have no deadlines, no boss yelling at you,there arn't many rules to abide, and most of the time you can write what,where, and when you want. On the other hand there are many disadvantages such as not having a set salary, no one telling you what to write (which can be good or bad, bad if you have no idea what to write about, good if you know what you want to write) and quite frankly, you're your own boss.



How does your occupation/ position/ or status affect your potential opportunities or career direction?





How does the frequency or infrequency of payment from freelancing affect the budget of a writer?

When you are a freelancer, you usually don't get paid a set salary every week and you don't get paid by the hour; you get paid by the word. In some cases you can make hundreds of dollars per article, but how often do you get to write an article? A freelance writer can go a month without any writing jobs, a whole month without receiving any money. In some cases you don't receive your pay until your article gets published, which could be months from the time you wrote it. If you're a part time freelancer with another job on the side, you're set to make some extra cash. If you're only job is being a freelance writer, make sure you have jobs set up for you.



How do flexibility, organization, and discipline affect a freelancer’scapacity to research, generate and produce quality work?

When you're a freelance writer, you have to make your own scedual, there are no 9-5's in the freelancing industry. If you want/need to interview someone, you have to arrange it to fit into their scedual, not yours. You also may have a huge article due next friday, but then all of a sudon the editor calls you and tells you that he needs to have it in by tomorrow at noon. The life of a freelancer is crazy, unpredictible and spontanious. You need to be able to do whatever, whenever.



How does one’s expertise or ignorance affect a freelancer’s choice of assignment?

Everyone has their own niche, something they're good at or in the freelance industry, something the person writes about best and most frequently. In the life of a freelancer having a niche can be a good thing or a bad thing. If your an expert on writing about sports and your editor needs you to write an article about The Grammy's what are you going to do? You need to be open to everything around you and be flexible about what you want to write about. There are no garentees in writing and rejection is always a possiblilty. Yes, being great at writing on a certain thing can be great, but you need to be open and flexible to writing about new things.



Should you say no to an assignment? Why or When (at what point)?

Saying no to an assingment, like everything, has its advantages and disadvantages. There are times when you say yes to every assignment and your work eventually is piled up and you wind up scrambling to finish it on time. Sometimes though, everything will pan out and all the assingments you accepted will get done on time and done well. You really need to know your limits when you're a freelancer and know how much you can do at one time.