Develop habits that help you get more done in less time. The easiest is simply to get up and start work an hour earlier than you do now -- say at 7 am or 8 am instead of 9 am. That first hour will be your most productive, because you can work in peace without interruptions before the business day starts, the phone begins to ring, and the messages come pouring into your e-mail box.

“I am most productive at 5 in the morning,” says travel writer Jennifer Stevens. “It means I can get into the shower at 7 or 8 having made a dent in whatever I’m working on.”

Nancy Flynn, author of The $100,000 a Year Writer (Adams Media, 2000), maximizes her productivity by avoiding in-person meetings unless absolutely necessary. “You can accomplish a tremendous amount -- including establishing and maintaining successful business relationships -- via telephone, e-mail, and fax,” says Flynn.

5. Outsource. I have not gone to the post office in 8 years. Why not? Because doing so is an absolute waste of time I could be using to write and make money.

The only thing you get paid to do is write, research, and think for your clients and publishers. All other activities are non-paying and therefore should be farmed out to other people who can do them better and more cheaply than you can.

You do not need to hire a full-time secretary to outsource routine office work and administrative tasks. There are plenty of bright high school and college students eager to work with writers for the glory, glamour, and a relatively modest fee of $10 an hour or so.

Or you can hire a word processing or typing service; most advertise in the local town paper.

I once had a secretary on staff. When she quit about 6 years ago, instead of hiring a replacement, I started calling word processing services advertising in the classified section of my weekly town newspaper. I said, “I will buy 40 hours a week of your time, every week of the year, and pay you a month in advance. In return, I want a better rate.”

All were eager to take me up on this offer. I chose one, and she has been with me ever since.

6. The secret to eliminating Writer’s Block. Profitable writers are productive writers. We write consistently, every day, whether the mood strikes us or not. “The professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it,” writes William Zinsser in On Writing Well (HarperResource, 2001).

The best way to maintain a steady output and avoid Writer’s Block is to have many projects on various subjects and in different formats. The variety keeps you fresh and prevents you from getting bored or fatigued, which are the key causes of Writer’s Block.

This is the method I use, and it has never failed me. If I am writing a magazine ad and get stuck on the headline, I can put it aside and switch to the direct mail package I’m writing for a software company. If I get to the point where I need more information from my software client to proceed with their sales letter, I can put that aside and work on an article or book.

You can decide the mix of assignments and workloads that works best for you. Personally, I always like to have half a dozen projects in the works at any one time. Less limits my variety and my options.

“My interests remain varied,” says Robert Lerose, a freelance direct mail copywriter. “I try to go after work in other areas, such as speechwriting and editorial writing.” Another freelance copywriter, Sig Rosenblum, has written poetry, novels, short stories, a musical comedy, movie music, “and a few other forms.” Gary Blake, a book and magazine writer, branched out into teaching business writing to corporate executives.

7. The secret to getting paid more. I have read at least 100 articles and letters in writers’ magazines that go something like this: “I was writing for a long time for a magazine that paid 10 cents a word. Finally, I told the editor that I could not work for less than 15 cents a word. At first he said no, but I stuck by my guns and, by gosh, he paid it. See ... you can get paid more for your writing!”

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