When you’re self-employed, doing your taxes becomes a hassle and a chore. We self-employed individuals aren’t like the rest of the world, filing taxes as early as possible so we can get refunds. Most self-employed individuals don’t get refunds at all, and owing taxes is a real possibility if you’ve had a successful year or if you’ve simply planned poorly. To help out my fellow self-employed brethren, I’ve compiled a list of handy DIY tax tips for the self-employed that I’ve gathered myself and through accountants in the past several years.

Keep a Spreadsheet of Your Expenses

The most important thing I do to keep track of my self-employed tax liability is to keep a monthly spreadsheet of expenses. At the very least, you should track all of your business expenses. I actually track all of my expenses, business and personal, so I can track where every penny went and make sure I’ve got everything properly allocated. I create one spreadsheet for each month, and save them all together in a workbook that covers that tax year. I enter expenses into various categories, depending on the expense, such as “Marketing,” “Unreimbursed Expenses” and other relevant categories. Then I total up my monthly expenses on the same line of each spreadsheet (for example, this year I used a SUM formula in line 50 of each Excel spreadsheet to aggregate my monthly expenses in each category).

At the end of the year, I put together a “Year End Summary” spreadsheet that pulls data from all of the individual month spreadsheets. For example, on my year end summary, I use this Excel formula to pull data from all of my monthly spreadsheets:

“=SUM(January!A50)+(February!A50)+(March!A50)+(April!A50)+(May!A50)+(June!A50)+(July!A50)+
(August!A50)+(September!A50)+(October!A50)+(November!A50)+(December!A50)”

Just a simple SUM formula is all you need for most of your expenses, and then you have a nice aggregate page of all of your annual expenses.

I’ve found that the easiest approach is to sit down for a few minutes every month and enter all of your month’s expenses. That way you’re not stuck sitting at your computer for hours at tax time just creating a summary of your expenses. Doing a few minutes every month is much more manageable, and makes tax time much less of a chore.

Use the Appropriate Tool for the Job

Make sure you use the appropriate tool to handle your taxes. Personally, I’ve used tax preparation services (H&R Block) and tax preparation software (Turbo Tax and Tax Cut) in the past 10 years. I’ve found that Turbo Tax Home and Business is the ideal tool for me; affordable, and covers everything I need to do in a level of detail that works for me. I prefer tax prep software because then I have the leisure to compile the appropriate data at my own pace, instead of setting up an appointment with a tax prep professional only to discover that I’m missing important paperwork or relevant data. If your finances are more complex, you might be better served by working with an accountant or CPA to prepare your taxes to ensure you meet your liabilities.

It’s Your Responsibility to Report Your Income: 1099 Hunting

Some of the self-employed individuals I know erroneously believe that if they don’t get a 1099, they don’t have to report the income. Unfortunately, that’s not true, and an IRS audit could come back and haunt them for operating under this erroneous belief.

Any client who pays you more than $500 through the course of the year is required to issue you a 1099 reporting your income. Smaller clients might not be so good at keeping track, and you may have to contact them to ensure they issue your 1099. If you track your income on an ongoing basis, you’ll know if you’re missing 1099s and can easily contact the outstanding clients. Although clients have an obligation to issue you a 1099, it’s your responsibility to ensure you report all of your earnings, so you may find yourself hounding clients to get your 1099.

Making Estimated Tax Payments = Good

Estimated tax payments are a common bugaboo for many self-employed individuals. The IRS requires that you make estimated tax payments if you make over a certain dollar amount, and you can be penalized if you fail to make estimated tax payments, or if your estimated tax payments aren’t high enough. Practically speaking, this also presents a problem for you at tax time because you could find yourself owing thousands of dollars if you haven’t made enough estimated tax payments.

This is another case where it’s extremely helpful to track your income and expenses in a nice summary spreadsheet on an ongoing basis. You can check your monthly income and expenses, and make more accurate estimated tax payments every quarter. Remember: making accurate payments up front prevents you from falling behind and owing more than you can afford.

Investigate Every Possible Deduction

The world of a self-employed individual is a world of deductions. Depending on your income, expenses and operating specifics, you may be eligible to claim deductions for a portion of your rent, your mortgage payment or your utilities. You might be able to file deductions for office supplies, uniforms or a myriad of other work-related expenses. If you elect to prepare your own taxes without the aid of a professional or tax prep software, make sure you do the legwork to search out every possible deduction you might be eligible to apply. This is one case where using tax prep software or a professional really pays for itself, because these tools help you get every possible deduction and can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Invariably, style guides disagree on some grammar specifics. I wrote a post last year about using commas in a series. In researching that post, I discovered that both common usages are correct – depending on the style guide you consult. Bottom line: grammar isn’t a hard and fast rule. Consult the appropriate style guide for your usage, and when in doubt, consider your target audience.

Deciding Which Style Guide to Use

Deciding which style guide to use can pose challenges. Obviously, if a publication or client requires a specific style guide, use the specified style guide – even if it’s an in-house style guide that doesn’t agree with ‘correct’ grammar rules. If the publication or recipient doesn’t specify the style guide, think about how the writing is being used.

If you’re writing for a newspaper or consumer magazine, the AP Stylebook is probably the appropriate reference. The AP Stylebook is also widely used for Web writing.

If you’re doing business writing, on the other hand, you’ll probably be better served by The Chicago Manual of Style.

For scholarly writing, you might want Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style or The Publication Manual of The American Psychological Association (APA Style, not to be confused with AP Style). You may also want to use The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing for appropriate MLA Style.

Using ‘Correct’ Grammar vs. Common Parlance

When you’re doing formal writing, you should definitely use correct grammar. If you’re writing for a corporation, or drafting professional documents, you’re typically representing a company and should utilize correct grammatical rules and word usage. However, if you’re writing for a more informal audience – on a blog, for example, or for a less formal target demographic – you might want to consider intentionally throwing some of the grammar rules out.

For example, if you’re talking to a more informal audience, and you want to build a rapport, you might want to ignore grammar rules like “don’t end a sentence with a preposition” and throw one right out there on the end. In fact, I know a lawyer who intentionally prefers to use more common ‘incorrect’ punctuation and word usage so his clients view him as more accessible, instead of using a correct but stiff writing style that fails to connect with the readers.

The goal of all writing is to connect with your reader on some level, so consider who you want to reach when you’re writing a piece. Ask yourself what tone and style would be best received by your audience, and utilize that style. And yes – if it means bending some grammar rules, bend some grammar rules. The world will keep on spinning, and you might get a new customer out of it.

Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Finally, to make sure you’ve got it right, proofread, proofread, proofread. Read your copy as you’re writing it to ensure you’re using proper grammar and putting punctuation in the appropriate places. When you’ve finished a piece, re-read it for any errors and correct any awkward word usage. For important pieces, close the document and walk away from it for a while, and then come back later and review one final time for correctness. The triple-check should be enough to ensure you’re sending a beautiful, correct piece of writing out into the world, to the best of your ability.

What it costs to hire a writer varies greatly among writing professionals. You might pay a very different rate for two writers with different specialties, or even two writers with the same specialty but different experience levels. However, you’ll have a better idea of how to figure out what it might cost to hire a writer for your project if you consider a few important points.

Charging by the Word

Many writers use rate structures based on a per-word rate. Magazines and newspapers typically pay per word, and most professional freelance writers (as opposed to novel and non-fiction book authors) do some magazine or newspaper writing. Keep in mind that magazine and newspaper per-word rates vary, but they typically range from as little as $0.10 to as high as $3.00 per word for some magazines. This means that if your writer was writing a 500-word article for a newspaper or magazine, the rate could potentially range from $50 to $1,500 per article.

Many clients who want to hire writers have no idea what reasonable writing rates actually include. $0.30 to $0.50 per word is not uncommon among professional writers. If your budget is $3 for a 500-word article – a rate of just over half a cent per word – you’re probably not going to be able to hire a professional writer for that rate.

Writing Rates may Vary Depending on the Content

Many writers use variable rates depending on the content of the materials. More technical subjects, or content that requires more research, is typically charged at a higher rate. Likewise, content that might require a specialist is almost always more expensive than general content that everyone can write. A writer might charge $0.10 per word for an article with a very general subject that won’t require much research, but writers can charge $0.30 to $0.50 per word for more technical projects – or even more for projects like user documentation, etc. Consider what you’re requesting when you go to hire a writer in order to figure out if you’re likely to face higher rates or if you have a relatively inexpensive project.

Experience Level and Demand Influences Writer Rates

Another factor that has a direct impact on writer rates is experience level. A writer that has been writing professionally for a decade is likely to charge a somewhat or significantly higher rate than a writer that’s just starting out. Writers who have been writing for a decade have grown their rates with their client base and experience, and typically represent a better value – or more effective writing – than writers just starting out. Hiring a writer just starting out is fine if you’re on a budget, you have very general content and you’re not too particular about grammar, sentence structure and having a well-researched product. These are skills honed over time, and the experience level of the writer almost directly correlates with the amount of work he or she has done (and the rates he or she is charging).

Additionally, writers who are in high demand might charge higher rates for a specific project. For example, if a writer currently has a full workload but is contacted about a project, he or she might bid higher on the project to make it worthwhile to take on the extra work. If writers in high demand lose a project because of high prices, it typically isn’t much of a problem. However, earning the higher rate makes it worthwhile to take on the extra work if the client is willing to pay it.

Rates are Directly Related to How Much Time Writers Spend on a Project

Think about this logically: rates are directly related to how much time writers spend on a project. Writers are people who have to make a living, just like you. If they expect to spend 5 hours on your project, writers might charge anywhere from $50 to $300 for your project, depending on their hourly rate. Think about that when you evaluate writer bids and consider placing an ad for a writing project.

Consider how much time your project is likely to take, and how much an experienced writer might charge per hour. If your project is going to take three hours and you only want to spend $5 per hour, you’re not going to get a professional writer. (In fact, that’s even lower than minimum wage in the United States, so keep this in mind if you want to hire a U.S.-based writer!)

Deadlines Influence Writers’ Rates

If you need a project in a hurry, it’ll typically cost you more. Writers must prioritize their projects to ensure they meet all of their project deadlines on time. Taking on a project at the last minute, or accepting a project when a writer is overloaded, means the writer has to put in overtime to complete your project in the time allotted. You get better values when you don’t have a 24-hour deadline, so try to plan ahead when you want to hire a writer so you can have a longer lead time and get a lower rate. With an extremely short deadline, you might risk not finding a writer or getting a rushed job.

One of the reasons it’s so important to target your audience is that you want to talk to your audience. If you’re writing to people with no knowledge about a product or service whatsoever, you have to start by educating them about the problem and the solution. On the other hand, if you’re talking to a knowledgeable, savvy audience, you can bore them and lose readers if you spend too much time explaining the basics. To maximize your marketing return, you need to talk to your specific audience.

Identify your target audience.

One step that many companies miss when they’re developing marketing materials is to identify their target audience. Many companies make the determination “This is what I want to convey,” without thinking about the intended recipient. This is important because you might convey your message differently to different audiences.

For example, if you’re trying to sell a service, you might have two targets for your copy: people who have already had your service and understand it, and people who have never had your service and don’t know anything about it. These are two entirely different audiences, and it’s challenging to create a message targeted to both of them. You get a better ROI when you invest in a specific message for a specific audience.

Develop different messages for different audiences.

Once you determine your target audiences, work on developing different messages for each audience. In the previous example, you might want to talk to prior clients about how using your service again can benefit them. You’d probably want to create a different message for new clients, explaining what your service is and why it helps them, or how you differentiate yourselves from your competitors.

Talk to your audience.

Consider your audience’s knowledge level about your product or service when you’re creating a message. By identifying various target audiences, you can assess their knowledge individually to more accurately create a message encompassing their demographic. In the example we’re using here, the people who have already had your service are starting at a more advanced point than people who have never had your service. This means you can do less explaining your service to the repeat customers, and more targeting the benefits to their return. With new customers, you need to spend more time explaining things up front and setting up your company as a provider.

Each is effective in a different way. If you dilute your message by trying to address both audiences simultaneously, you have to provide extra information for the new clients that might simply bore or turn away existing clients, and the new clients won’t benefit from your targeting of benefits for return visits you direct at repeat clients.

Bottom line: Identify your target audience, and speak directly to your target audience. Consider their knowledge of your services and products. If you have more than one target audience, you may need to develop multiple messages. This produces a better ROI and increased conversion rates, so it’s worthwhile to spend the time and capital to create targeted, individual messages,

In light of my articles on Why You Need SEO and Beware of Seo Firms last month, I thought I’d post some do-it-yourself SEO tips and tricks for small businesses or individuals who want to improve their search engine results without hiring a large firm. You can do a lot to improve your SEO on your own. If you don’t have the time, or don’t want to mess with the more technical aspects of do-it-yourself SEO, you can always outsource these functions – but know what they entail so you can decide if you’re getting what you pay for.

Content Optimization.

Content optimization is one of the keys of overall SEO, and it’s a service that I regularly provide for my clients. To optimize your content, you should break your content down into digestible chunks that pertain to a specific topic. Make sure the content relates to the title. If you’re not sure what to write about, or what title to use, try a free keyword search tool, such as Google’s Ad Words Keyword Tool, Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool, or other keyword search tools. These tools can give you an idea of what people are searching for so you can optimize your content for popular keywords in your field.

Use headers in your formatting to improve SEO.

One of the most important things you can do to improve your SEO yourself is to use headers in your Web page formatting. Many people simply use a “<strong>” tag to bold important subheadings in Web page designs. This totally misses out on the optimization available by using targeted headings. If you use a “<h1>”, “<h2>”, or “<h3>” tag for your headings, search engines place more weight on those headings, and give you a higher page rank if your headings relate to your title and your Web page content. By using the <strong> tool instead, search engines read your webpage as having no subheadings at all, and you’ll miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of those headings to boost your SEO and page rank.

Pay close attention to Title tags in DIY SEO applications.

Title tags are perhaps the single most important part of providing good SEO for your Web pages. Search engines look at title tags for keywords, and compare the title tags to your page to see if the content supports the title. If you don’t get your keywords in the title tag, you might not get ranked at all for that content – in spite of optimizing your content. The closer the keyword to the front of the title tag, the more it can influence your page rank. You should also make sure that the important title keywords appear at least once in your copy – bonus if you can work it into your subheadings and use the appropriate heading tags.

Leave the styling for CSS.

We’ve already looked at what opportunities you miss when you bold your headers instead of using header tags. Similarly, you should try to forgo styling in HTML as much as possible and leave the styling to the CSS. When you use CSS to style your page, you can specify how headings should look, how links should look and what visual styles you want to apply to your website. That means less code in your Web pages themselves, since the code is in the style sheet – and a better code-to-content ratio, which improves SEO.

Additionally, by keeping your styling in the CSS style sheets, you can implement standard HTML tags and code and capitalize on SEO functionality. You can also easily change styles via CSS to alter colors and other display properties, and test how these font and style changes affect conversion. This gives you an easy way to improve your conversion rates without having to spend hours changing every page’s HTML.

Deciding when to outsource SEO.

SEO isn’t something that everyone wants to do. Even though much of SEO is simple enough for anyone to implement themselves, it does still take time and requires you to tinker with the website. If you simply don’t want to deal with managing your website, or making the little tweaks that improve your SEO, it might be worthwhile to outsource your SEO.

Beware of expensive firms that charge you thousands of dollars for relatively minor SEO tweaks. Find out exactly what a firm’s SEO services entail, and decide whether it’s worth the cost for you. Much of what SEO companies do breaks down into these SEO categories: optimizing content, optimizing title tags and adjusting formatting. The technical aspects, such as title tags and formatting, are relatively easy tweaks and shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg.

For more info on things to look out for when you’re outsourcing your SEO, check out my article “Beware of SEO Firms.”

If you’re looking for a writer for the first time, you face challenges. What to request? How do you decide which writer is right for the job? How much should you pay? If you’re thinking of hiring a writer, here are some tips for how to place an ad, and what questions to ask to help you find the right writer.

Decide where to advertise.

The first question you face when hiring a writer is to decide where to advertise. Do you place an ad, or do you contact a writer directly? A Web search can potentially turn up writers and copywriters in your area, but without contacting them, you have no way of knowing whether or not they’re right for the work you have in mind. You can review website materials and get an idea of their experience and writing style (if it’s a comprehensive website) but you don’t have a lot to evaluate. I have had clients contact me through my website, but many clients prefer to use a freelance website to place an ad and select a provider.

If you’ve decided to use a freelance website, you have two options: job-posting boards, or full-scale freelance websites. Job posting boards enable you to post an ad and get email responses. However, these boards provide you no way of evaluating your providers – you’re just sending your ad off into the ether. This is fine if you know what you’re looking for and are satisfied to handle your project independently, but doesn’t offer any additional protection.

Full-scale freelance websites, on the other hand, such as Elance and Guru, give you an entire system to manage your freelance job from start to finish. You can place an ad, evaluate providers, agree to project terms, arrange payment and leave feedback all through these freelance systems. While these systems confine you somewhat within the terms of use, they provide a valuable tool for clients who are searching for a new writer or hiring a writer for the first time.

Map out your job before you place an ad.

One cause of contention between clients and writers is not having the same picture of what a project entails. A client may believe that the project is fairly straightforward, and have a perfect sense in his head of what a project should be. Writers aren’t mind-readers, though, so unless you give your writer a clear idea of what you expect, you’re more likely to be disappointed than not.

To avoid disappointment, or to avoid falling victim to a project that unexpectedly changes scope, map out your job before you ever place an ad. Get a picture in your mind of exactly what you want. If you’re picturing a series of 500-word articles targeted to a specific keyword, convey that in your ad. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a 10-page report to distribute to mailing list clients, make that clear to a writer up front. If you don’t know quite what you want, you might want to give it some more thought before you place an ad to hire a writer.

Be clear when you place an ad.

When you do place an ad to hire a writer, be clear about what you want. I see ads all the time where clients say things like “I need 10 articles” or “I want to produce a weekly newsletter for my mailing list clients.” This is a good place to start, but you need to flesh out the project so writers know what you need and can bid accordingly. What’s your niche? On what subject would you like articles? How long is your project? What’s your timeframe? The more information you can provide a writer, the better your chances of finding a writer who fits your needs.

A good writer bids on projects for which they’re qualified.

By providing clear information about what you need and expect, you’re automatically narrowing down the list of writers who might apply for your ad. If you say something generic like “I need 10 articles,” you might get upwards of 20 or 30 responses – or more. A good writer will ask you for more details, but many responses will simply quote you a rate without any information about expertise or how a writer handles your niche.

However, when you say “I need 10 articles on Web design, CSS and HTML5,” you automatically self-select the writers who apply for your project. While you may still get some generic responses, you’ll get more responses by writers who are familiar with your content and can provide you samples of their work on related topics. You automatically reduce the number of people who reply to your ad, while simultaneously eliciting information specific to your topics. This saves a ton of time when you’re narrowing down your short list of writers by giving you information about a writer’s qualifications specific to your project.

Determining budget.

Generally speaking, if you pay a low rate, you’ll get a low-quality writer. In theory, anyone can call themselves anything – I could sign up for a freelance website or create my own website right now saying that I’m a Web designer. However, a real Web designer with years of experience – the kind of Web designer who produces websites that make you happy to browse – has experience, references and samples, and typically comes at a premium.

The same thing holds true for writers. When you’re looking to hire a writer, you might get a host of responses from people with no real writing experience. These might be students fresh out of college, teachers trying to make money on the side or even housewives trying to supplement their income. These people might have a range of experience and skill levels from non-existent to quality work. However, the real writers – the people who have been doing it for long enough to hone their skills and learn about the industry and niche – cost more. They spend more time on their work, and therefore must charge more for it.

When you’re considering budget, think about what you want. Do you simply want content? If you’re not looking for high-quality work, you might be able to afford to go low-budget on your project. However, low-quality content produces a poor ROI, and you simply don’t get the same results. When you’re setting your budget, ask yourself what you want your content to be, and what you want it to do.

If you need content that performs, you might need to pay more for a writer up front to yield better rewards and ROI. Be clear about your budget in your ad, though, so you don’t waste your time following up with a writer who is out of your price range, or a low-budget writer who can’t deliver what you seek.