One of the most common questions I get from other freelance writers is, “How can I earn more money?” Heck, I’ve asked that question myself many times over the years.

And if you were to Google this question, there would be many people waiting to offer you solutions.

“Stop looking for jobs on Upwork!”

“Update your website and your branding.”

“Charge what you’re worth!”

And the problem with all of these answers is that they ignore the most fundamental aspect of what will make you successful as a freelancer -- you.

How to Become a Freelance Writer Clients Love

If you want to get paid more money and work with great clients, you need to become the kind of freelancer that clients love to work with. And in the interest of simplicity, I’ve boiled this down to three main qualities that every freelance writer must have:

Quality work: You must be able to deliver a certain quality of work.

Consistency: You have to be able to deliver on your promises and do what you say you’ll do.

Attitude: You need to be easy to work with, likable, and able to take constructive feedback.

Obviously, if you can always deliver on all three items, clients will love you and you’ll hit it out of the park. But we’re all human, and occasionally we all fall short of our own best efforts.

Fortunately, I’ve found that if you occasionally fall short on one of these items, most clients will overlook it. If they’ve worked with you for a long time and like you, they may be willing to overlook it many times.

But if you fall short on two or more items, that’s when it becomes a problem.

A Personal Story

To illustrate my point, I’ll share a personal story with you about one of my previous clients. My client -- let’s call him Ted -- hired me about six months ago to write a series of articles for his website. The contract was for $4,000.

(This was an Upwork client, by the way. Just sayin’.)

But before we started on the full contract, he wanted to start with a paid test article. No big deal. I wrote the first article and sent it to him, feeling pretty good about it.

Later that same day, Ted emailed me and thanked me for sending the article, then asked if I was free to jump on a quick call. Immediately, a feeling of dread formed in the pit of my stomach. I knew this couldn’t be good news.

So I called him and sure enough, he didn’t like the blog post I had written. Ted explained that the blog post was well-written, but it felt too formal and stiff for his audience. Basically, it didn’t align with his company’s brand.

He then asked me how I could fix it, and I blurted out, “Uh, I don’t know.” I’m sure that response inspired a lot of confidence in my abilities!

I did promise Ted I would re-write the article, and that I would have it finished by the next day. But believe me when I tell you that I did NOT have a good attitude about it. I had plenty of work due for other clients and that last thing I wanted to do was re-write his article.

And personally, I felt like the article was fine the way it was. I thought he was just being nit-picky and I felt annoyed by the request. I re-wrote the article, sent it back to him, and while he did pay me for that one article, Ted never responded to me again.

So what went wrong?

Well, if you look back at the list of important qualities, I fell short on two of them with this client. First, the quality of work I delivered wasn’t what he was expecting. But Ted was obviously willing to overlook this since he took the time to get on the phone with me and ask me to re-write it.

Then when we got on the phone, and I had a bad attitude. No, I wasn’t rude to him, but I resented his request and he could sense it. As a result, I lost out on that $4,000 contract, and I lost out on the possibility of ever getting more work from him in the future.

The biggest mistake most freelancers make is that they spend all their time looking for marketing tips and tricks and never spend any time working on themselves.

So let’s look at some tangible ways you can start improving the quality of your work, your consistency, and the attitude you bring to the table.

How to Deliver High-Quality Work

I’ll be honest with you, I think delivering quality writing work is the easiest item on the list, though it’s the item most freelancers worry about the most. There are two reasons why I believe this is true:

Most writers undervalue the quality of their work.

Most writers also overestimate the level of quality that clients are looking for.

My experience has been that clients who are obsessed with quality usually aren’t clients you want to work with. They usually pay incredibly low rates but expect writing perfection.

Pro Tip: If you ever get an email from a potential client who says that they’re looking for a “rockstar writer” or a “writing ninja,” run for the hills. I don’t know why, but this kind of client always ends up being difficult to work with.

But I digress.

Don’t get me wrong, you need to be able to deliver a certain level of quality. You cannot send off an article that is full of spelling and grammar errors and expect to continue to receive work from that client.

But improving the quality of your writing is one of the easiest areas to improve. Here are a few areas you can start:

Take on as much work as possible

I’ll be honest, I feel a little embarrassed when I look back on some of my early writing assignments. I’ve improved a lot over the years, and that’s because I’ve written thousands of articles. Experience is the best teacher you’ll ever find.

Take a writing class

Okay, I’ll be honest, I’ve never done this so I don’t have any specific courses to recommend to you. And I would caution you not to let this turn into a distraction from focusing on finding freelance work. But if you’re really unsure of your writing skills, this could be a good option.

Use free or paid writing tools

This has been such a game-changer for me. Here are some of my favorite free and paid writing tools:

Coschedule headline analyzer: As a freelance writer, you need to be able to write good headlines. This free headline analyzer will evaluate your headlines based on length, SEO-optimization, and the number of unique words you use.

The Hemingway App: This desktop app is an editor that evaluates your writing for things like readability, grammar, and sentence structure. You will have to pay a one-time fee of $19.99 to get the Hemingway App, but it is well worth the price.

Grammarly: I love Grammarly because it checks your writing for grammar and spelling errors, as well as how engaging your writing is. Plus, you can add the Safari extension to your toolbar, so you don’t even have to sign in to the app to use it. There is a free and paid version of the app.

How to Become a Consistent Freelancer

Okay, consistency is the next item on this list, and it’s a big one. I know this can be very difficult for some people, but if you can master the art of being consistent, you’ll bump yourself up to the 90th percentile of freelance writers.

Why? Because most freelancers are flakes. I’m sorry if that sounds mean, but it’s true.

Most people struggle to follow through on what they say they’re going to do, and their writing career suffers as a result. Their inconsistency usually shows up in their ability to respond to emails, and the ability to turn in work on time.

Responding to emails

Personally, I always respond to client emails within the same day. My clients are busy and they don’t have 3 days to wait until I feel like answering their email. The same holds true for Slack channels and any other platform where your clients usually get ahold of you.

I’m not saying you should let boundaries go out the window, or that you should let your clients monopolize your time. I don’t check my email after 6 PM, and let my clients know that if they email me over the weekend, I may not respond to them until Monday.

But the point is, you need to communicate these types of boundaries with your clients so you don’t come across as unprofessional.

Meeting deadlines

Okay, now we need to talk about turning in work on time. This is an absolute must for any freelance writer. You need to meet your deadlines every single time.

Look I get it, life happens. I have missed one or two deadlines over the past three years, so please don’t think I’m saying I’m perfect. But when I did miss those deadlines, it was always due to poor planning or unrealistic expectations on my part.

If you’re struggling to meet your deadlines, you’re probably not giving yourself enough margin to get everything done in time. For instance, let’s say you have an assignment that’s due on Tuesday, and you know that your daughter has a doctor’s appointment in the morning.

If you wait until Tuesday afternoon to start working on that article, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Or at the very least, you’re setting yourself up for a very stressful afternoon where you rush to get that article finished in time.

A better plan would be to write the article and turn it in on Friday. Your client will be happy because you turned in your work ahead of time, and you can stop worrying about when you’ll get it finished.

How to Develop a Great Attitude

And finally, if you want to become an in-demand freelancer, you have to have a great attitude and be easy to work with. I honestly think this is the most important item on the list because, at the end of the day, your clients want to work with people they like.

They want to work with people who have a positive attitude, and who are willing to take constructive feedback. And if they ask for edits on an article, they don’t want to deal with a freelance who drags their feet and acts put-out by the request.

I’ve had some serious wins, as well as some serious misses in this area, as you can see from my story earlier.

Let’s be honest, everyone has a bad attitude at least some of the time! Again, I’m not telling you that you have to be perfect or that you should berate yourself for every mistake.

With that said, I think there are steps you can take to ensure that you have a good attitude and act like someone your clients will like and want to work with.

Never talk bad about your clients

Throughout your freelancing career, you will run into difficult client situations. And when that happens, it’s a good idea to get constructive feedback from someone else on how to handle the situation.

However, it is never a good idea to gossip, badmouth, or complain about your client. Sure, your client won’t know about it, but it doesn’t matter.

You’ll bring that negative energy into every interaction you have with them. Over time, it will slowly start to poison your working relationship.

Don’t keep working with clients you dislike

I know I’m not the best fit for every client who is interested in hiring me, and you won’t be the right fit for everyone either. Some personalities will clash more than others, and for whatever reason, you may find that you just don’t like some clients.

If this is the case, I recommend you stop working with them. This can be tough to do, especially if you really need the money. But you’re doing yourself a disservice, and you’re being unfair to your client.

If you don’t like them or you don’t like the work, you’re not going to give them your best efforts. Let them move on and find someone who will.

Stay focused on your long-term goals

When you start to become frustrated, remind yourself of your long-term goals. This will give you the perspective you need to do the right thing in an otherwise frustrating situation.

This is what I should have done with Ted when he wanted me to rewrite his article. Instead of focusing on my goal of creating long-term freelance writing work, I became overly focused on the temporary inconvenience of having to rewrite his article.

How to Become a Freelance Writer That Clients Love to Work With