Happy Friday, freelancers! (That may mean more to some of you than to others, depending on the schedules you set for yourselves…. But still, the sentiment’s there. Take a break, bub!) It’s officially been a month since Charlotte and I stuck our feet in Mia’s old shoes to take on talent management at WriterAccess. So far, it’s been a fun, frenzied, rickety, rollicking, and oh-so-slippery ride—one we’re thrilled to be on! We’ve approved applications, we’ve cringed through others, and lately, we’ve been perusing the profiles of all our active writers to get an idea of who ranks where, and in what industries, so we can start matching you up with your dream clients. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all about: fostering meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships between our writers and the clients who need them.
In order to make that happen, though, we need a hand (or two) from you. Help us help you help yourselves by making your profile the best that it can possibly be! As much as Charlotte and I would love to chat with each of you about your writing careers over a steaming cup of joe—seriously, we’re pretty tuckered out from all the reading we’ve been doing—we mostly have to make our assessment of you based on your profile. Sure, there’s a delinquency here and an “exceeds expectations” there, but hand-picking writers for recommendations is hard work and we simply don’t have the bandwidth to examine your stats to the extent that we’d like.
As the specimen under the microscope, you’re probably already aware of the challenges embedded in this system. Maybe you haven’t updated your profile since you joined WriterAccess in 2011, and you’re pretty sure you’ve upped your game at some point in the last three years. Or perhaps you’re grinding your teeth at the thought of a particular writer with a gleaming profile but brutally absent customer service skills. Or you simply haven’t had the time to fill out every field of your profile because you’ve been so busy, you know…writing?
Try not to panic. One simple and super significant way you can make sure we glean all the pertinent info from your profile is by providing industry samples. No need to write anything new! Just include a snippet from a relevant order you’ve completed for a satisfied client. If you’re worried about sharing that content because it now belongs to the client, just ask their permission! And if you still find yourself short a sample from a paid order, don’t just give up and leave the field blank. Feel free to use something you’ve written without pay, i.e. an article for a local newspaper, a blog post, a product review, et cetera. When we’re going through our industry lists, we just want to see how competently you write about that industry. Samples don’t have to be super long, either! Some writers include entire articles, while others create a cut-off mark around 100 words.
If you’ve still got questions about how to buff up your profile, talk to your fellow writers in the forums. Ask me and Charlotte. Proofread, proofread, proofread! When it comes to interactions with clients and talent management, your profile is your first impression, your first foot forward. Let’s make it a good one.
But chances are, it can wait until Monday. For now, enjoy your weekend!
