Defining Success

I had an interesting email exchange with a friend of mine yesterday. He was struggling with a client’s needs, and finally sent the client an email asking a very basic but very under-asked question:

How do you define the success of this project?

If you are a freelance writer, are you asking that question, and any necessary follow-ups, in order to fully understand your client’s vision?

If your client has you writing blog posts for their company, what are they hoping to achieve from your work?

• Increased sales
• Increased awareness
• Return readers

Many business people unfamiliar with the blogging world will check site statistics and think – “Hey, 1000 clicks, my writer is doing well!” or “Hmmm… only 100 hits. That writer isn’t worth the money.”

Better ways to look at it might be:

• Out of the 1000 hits, what percentage took the action you hoped for (a sale, a call, an email, a subscription)

If the writer delivered 100 clicks that resulted in 7 successes, or 1000 clicks that resulted in 4 successes, which is better?

Now, don’t you think it would be that much better if the writer had any clue as to how the client defined a successful website visit?

Writers are creative people, but we can’t read minds. If you are a freelance writer, you will have to pry the necessary information out of your clients, because they may not know that it is their responsibility to know these things. Many think that by just hiring a writer, the writer will know all the magical stuff about the client’s business.

Be sure to ask the question before signing the contract!

Beyond the client, you have to ask yourself how you define success. Is it by the amount of hours you have to work? The amount of money you make? The flexibility to meet other life demands? Once you know which questions to ask yourself, you’ll better know what to ask your freelance writing clients.