A bad freelance writing client will cause you unnecessary stress and hardship. So you need to know the red flags to look for if you’re going to avoid them.

What are the warning signs of a bad freelance writing client? Be suspicious if your clients aren’t willing to prepay, want unrealistic results, want free writing samples, have too many requirements, or don’t respect your boundaries. You also have to take into account what your effective rate is after any extra revisions or tasks they want you to do.

In this article, I’ll give some red flags or warning signs that I look for in clients who want to hire me to do freelance writing work.

What Kinds of Clients Should Freelance Writers Look For?

I believe that clients will largely fit into the 80/20 principle (also called Pareto’s Law) just like most other things.

From personal experience, I’ve found that about 20% of clients will produce 80% of your revenue.

When it comes to working with clients, about 20% of bad clients will also request 80% of the revisions and special accommodations that are likely to take up too much of your valuable time.

When you’re first starting off as a freelance writer, you’ll most likely just have to take whatever kind of work you can get. But after you’ve been around for a while and established a client base, you can be a bit more picky.

At that point, you’ll want to find your best and most low-maintenance clients and cut everyone else.

Here are some of my top warning signs or red flags that I’d look for when speaking to a new client.

Not Willing To Prepay

If I get even a hint of a bad feeling from a potential client, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask them to prepay.

Pretty much any good client will be willing to prepay at least 50% upfront. I’ve even had clients volunteer to prepay before I ask for it, which is usually a great sign that they’ll be good to work with.

Sometimes if I’m unsure, I might even mention prepaying in the initial discussions just to test them. I might not end up actually requiring it, at least for smaller jobs.

Usually just the fact that a client is willing to agree to prepaying means that they’re probably good for the money once the job is done.

Even with prepaying, there’s technically always a risk that a client could send some of the money and then do a chargeback later. But I haven’t really heard of that happening.

Wanting Unrealistic Results

Some clients will want you to promise specific results. As a freelance writer, you can’t ever guarantee that an article will get a specific amount of visitors, page views, drive a certain number of sales, or anything else.

All you can do is produce the best writing that you can. But there are always factors that you might not be able to consider.

So steer clear of any client who wants you to guarantee results up front. Also avoid someone who is asking for articles to produce an unreasonable number of visitors compared to the size of their website, or other metrics.

Too Many Requirements

I’ve had clients where upon first glance, it seemed like they were paying a fantastic rate.

But then I found out that they wanted me to spend hours learning their custom style guides, learning the voice of their articles, and tons of other training before I even began doing paid work.

In the early days, I would take these kinds of jobs. But nowadays it’s usually not worth the extra hassle for me. Maybe for some exceptionally well paying jobs it’s worth it, but usually the extra work doesn’t justify the price.

The same goes with revisions. If a client is consistently getting me to revise every single article that I submit, they’re too picky. My best clients will almost never ask for a revision and basically give me free rein over their blogs and articles.

Good clients trust you and treat you like an expert. I hate clients who micromanage. And since writers are notorious for having fragile egos, I’m sure most other freelancers aren’t great at dealing with unconstructive feedback or attacks on my work.

Sure, in the beginning you may need to do some revisions to make sure that you’re on the same page as your client. But if it’s been several months and they’re still asking you to do revisions of every article, you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth your time.

The main thing is to look at your effective hourly rate.

One client may be only paying you $0.05 per word, but they never want revisions or edits done. They just accept your work every time and say it’s great with no hassle.

If you can write, edit, and submit a 1,000 word article for that client in an hour, then your effective rate is $50 per hour.

Another client may pay you $0.08 per word. So it might seem like you’re making 60% more. But really look at all the time it takes you to create those articles. You might have to do outlines, look up statistics, find infographics to include, insert both external and internal links, and then revise every article one or two times.

If it takes you three hours instead of one to do all of that extra work for a 1,000 word article, suddenly you’re making about $27 per hour for your time instead of $50 per hour.

A higher rate per word isn’t necessarily better, depending on all of the work that comes along with it.

Wanting Free Samples

In the beginning, I think that doing free writing samples for prospective clients is fine. Especially if you don’t have any kind of portfolio to show examples of your work.

But nowadays, I never do free work. I have blogs on multiple topics with 100+ articles that clients can read if they want to see examples of my work. I don’t feel the need to customize it any more than that.

I’m always willing to do a paid trial article, but I’m not going to write 500 words for free just to show that I meet their requirements. If they aren’t willing to pay me for an initial article, then it’s their loss.

Paying An Hourly Rate

I feel that getting paid an hourly rate for your writing diminishes the value of your work.

Good clients care about the end goals and results, not how you get there.

Clients who want to pay you hourly may have an impression that all writers are the same. They don’t take your years of experience or education into account when determining your rate.

Why should I be penalized if I can write an article in one hour, if it’s the same quality as a writer who would take three hours to write the same thing?

Read my article Should Freelance Writers Charge By The Word or The Hour? for more details.

Not Respecting Boundaries

Some clients just don’t respect boundaries.

They may constantly want things done on weekends, after hours, or in a rush.

I find this pretty unreasonable. With the exception of things like calling an emergency plumber, there aren’t many other professions I can think of where customers expect you to be available 24/7.

If clients want to email you at 10 pm on Saturday and don’t expect you to respond until Monday, that’s one thing. But if they expect you to be constantly glued to your phone or email, that’s something entirely different.

If you do provide last-minute writing for clients, I would definitely charge a rush fee for it. But personally I’d just avoid clients who want that kind of thing in the first place.

Poor Attitude

Some prospective writing clients, you can just tell that they’ve got a shitty pretentious attitude from the start.

If I was going for an interview for a minimum wage job that’d be one thing. But we’re both business owners. So don’t treat me like I’m an employee or like I’m in a job interview.

A good client will be polite and respectful of your time. It’s about working together for your mutual benefit. Not what they can get out of you, or vice versa.

Wanting Video or Phone Calls

Clients who want video or phone calls to discuss your writing should be a red flag. Especially if it’s happening on a regular basis. Just like some of the other things I discussed above, it’s another requirement that they don’t need to have.

Some clients may want an initial call when they first hire you just to make sure that you’re a real person. Fine. But having a weekly call to go over your articles together and give feedback, or any other types of discussions are not necessary and a waste of time. They can just write it in an email.

Personally, I can only think of one video call that I’ve had with a client in the past two or three years.

Talking About Other Bad Writers They’ve Worked With

Sometimes a client will tell you about how they’ve tried working with a bunch of other writers in the past, and it’s never worked out.

If they’ve tried multiple writers, there’s a chance that they’ve just got unlucky. But it’s probably an issue with them and having too high of standards, not a problem with the writers themselves.

So if a client casually mentions how awful all the previous writers they’ve worked with are, take it as a red flag.

Confidence plays a big role in the kind of clients you can get. Read my article How To Overcome Fear and Self-Doubt As A Freelance Writer for help.

Conclusion

Now you know some of the top red flags that I think you should look for when searching for freelance writing clients.

Some of them might be common sense. While others might not be so intuitive if you don’t know what to look for.

A big contributor to the type of clients you get are how you present yourself. You attract specific types of clients based on your rate, how you communicate, and what you let people get away with.

If you find yourself in a situation where you’re working with a bad client, don’t be afraid to cut ties if it’s causing you more stress than it’s worth. Take it as a learning opportunity so you don’t make those mistakes again.

Whenever possible, it’s best to turn down working with bad clients. Instead of trying to make it work, and then feeling like you’re stuck.