Freelance writer Carol Tice has been earning a full-time income from writing for almost twenty years—as a staff writer and during two separate stints freelancing. Today, she’s focused on publishing books and ebooks;  The Pocket Small Business Owner’s Guide to Starting Your Business on a Shoestring releases next month.

Carol also blogs at MakeaLivingWriting.com and runs the Freelance Writers Den, an online community for freelance writers.

I’ve been following Carol online for several years. She’s creative and tenacious; she’s transparent and forthcoming. Carol says on her blog homepage that she’s “on a mission to help writers grow their income.”

Her blog is full of tips on how to earn more money, and she has even posted a breakdown of her most successful year of freelance writing, in which she earned six figures. Carol is committed to helping freelance writers overcome the limiting belief that they can’t really make a full-time living. You’ll also find helpful ideas there for managing your business, including marketing and productivity tips.

Carol’s contributed to a number of high profile publications and websites, including Entrepreneur.com, Copyblogger, Allbusiness.com, and Seattle Times. Her blog was named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers in Write to Done’s annual contest in both 2010 and 2012.

Carol Tice was kind enough to answer a couple of questions I submitted to her. I think you’ll find her insightful answers helpful in sharpening your business goals and increasing your earnings.

Market Your Business

Question: What ONE piece of advice would you give freelance writers who are looking to maximize the last six months of 2013 and increase their earnings over 2012?

Carol’s answer: Market your business! If you are doing marketing, choose one more strategy to pursue — send InMails to people who’ve viewed your profile on LinkedIn, or send marketing emails to promising companies, go to an in-person networking group, or tell your contact network you’d appreciate their referrals.

Take your marketing up a notch — or get started doing it. The luck fairy is not going to bring you great-paying freelance clients who have ongoing work for you. That happens when you target the quality clients you want and go after them proactively.

Leverage Your Skills

Question: What were the ONE or TWO pivotal decisions/actions you made with your freelance business that took you to the “next level” into full-time success?

Carol’s answer: I’ve been earning a full-time living at writing for a long time! But I’d say the thing all freelancers should be thinking about today to earn more is leverage.

What could you do that would move you beyond selling hours of your time? That’s the next level in freelance business, where it gets easier and where you can earn BIG money. Where you create a product or service and then your earnings can grow as more people buy or use it, without your having to do anything more.

For me, that was starting to publish ebooks, and creating my community for writers, Freelance Writers Den, which allows me to take one piece of advice or training and give hundreds of people access, all over the world. The earning potential of things like ebooks and self-publishing, and membership community sites, is huge.

I believe that one of the reasons Carol Tice is so respected among other freelance writers—and has a successful business helping freelancers—is because she’s in the trenches herself. She’s still sending queries, landing clients, and guest posting. Everyday she’s marketing her business with her goals in mind. One of her blog readers says this about Carol:

“Carol Tice makes me feel sane. Unlike those who make a living selling advice to writers about how to make a living as a writer, Carol actually writes for a living. Carol’s blog stands head and shoulders, hips and knees above the mind-bogglingly vast number of blogs targeting would-be writers out there.”– Nancy A. Locke. Locke Communications

Carol Tice is a credible authority in the freelance writing world. Follow her advice and example, and your own freelance writing career is sure to grow and benefit.