Freelance Blogging – Get Paid with Invoicing

All opinions are mine and mine alone.

Freelance Blogging – Get Paid with Invoicing

Everybody knows there’s no such thing as a free dinner. But some business owners looking to increase awareness of their brand can apparently feel entitled to free blogs here and there. If you’re not a freelance blogger, of course, you won’t appreciate the finer details of just how difficult it can be to get paid following the completion and handover of your freelance blog work. Part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that there is no regulated system set up at the other end to pay contractors such as bloggers. Team leaders and managers pass the responsibility up the chain of command, and higher management or CEOs think themselves to be above the issue. 

It’s an uphill battle of emails and phone calls that could have been avoided by establishing at the outset how and when the payment would be made. But sometimes you may be eager to accept the work and this step can be overlooked. Let’s not make the same mistake twice…

Blogger Invoicing

Blogger invoicing is the next step in your professional freelance blogging business (check out this simple invoice template tool from Freshbooks.com). Appearance is everything. Aside from anything else, a fee that’s written on the back of a napkin will appear unofficial and changeable right up until the last moment. And that is exactly how your fee will appear if you have agreed on a price for your services over several emails. What’s worse is that the person with whom you may have agreed a fee may not be the person who eventually signs off on the payment. 

The eventual decision maker may look over your emails and decide that they would like to make a lower offer for your completed work – they will try to get away with whatever they can (it’s a cruel world out there, and people will pick your pocket in broad daylight without a moment’s hesitation). 

Invoicing software can make you appear like you mean business. Established fees can be signed off and dated. Where you look like you mean business, the client is far more likely to treat you as such, without trying to renegotiate the value of your work once you have gone to the effort of completing it and sending it over on time.

What’s Included in an Invoice?

Invoices templates can differ. However, there are a few basic functions of an invoice that should be covered by its contents:

• Name of your business 
• Contact information
• Order number
• The name of the client
• Breakdown of services rendered & fees
• A clear “Fee total” section
• Accepted payment methods & deadline for payment 

Where your client is presented with a clear invoice, showing that you have a straightforward record of the transaction to date, they will be more inclined to pay. The more difficult you make it for a client to find loopholes and reasons to ignore or avoid you, the more you can rest assured that further action (such as legal letters) will not be required in the long run – get your invoice right, and the rest should follow!