If you’re a freelancer and you have a blog, you’re probably hoping your posts will impress clients and get them to hire you.
Unfortunately, most freelancer blogs don’t get so much as a nibble, much less a steady stream of clients.
If your blog has a nice clean design and you know how to write an interesting blog post, it’s time to look deeper at why your blog isn’t getting the results you want.
Many look at freelancing as a hit or miss career. Some even don’t believe that writers can make a substantial income freelancing from their backyard. But the arrival of the Internet changed everything: there are now plenty of vacancies online, and the writing industry has picked up tremendously.
Granted, there are uncertainties in freelance writing. You never know when your next assignment will arrive, and freelancers have been known to have plenty of insecurities in their jobs. Plus, you need more than just writing skills to succeed in your freelance writing career, skills such as how to find topics that your targeted readers might be interested in and how to promote your writing services.
Your freelance business is doing something great—no, colossal—and you want to share the news with the world! Before you start emailing your press release and calling every newspaper, magazine, blogger, radio and TV station in the tri-state area, take a deep breath and make a plan.
As the editor of two glossy magazines, I know a thing or two about how to pitch someone like me. There is a right way to do it, and a wrong way to do it. You don’t want to alienate the people who have the power to give you press, so here are some suggestions on how to make a great first impression...
At some point in every freelancer’s career there comes a time when you’re going to write a freelance pitch for a client’s project. If the thought of being a salesman isn’t intimidating enough,this at least doubles after realizing how many other freelancers pitching and hoping for the project. All those different screaming freelancers saying, “Pick me!” makes it almost impossible to feel like your voice is getting through. Let’s get you that voice!
In this article we’ll be going over the ins and outs of crafting a freelance pitch that I gained through my years in the industry to help let your voice stand out in a crowd. This includes:
best practices
mistakes to never make
how to track results of your pitch
how to use these tracked results to adjust your approach
A tuning fork vibrates at a particular pitch when you strike it against a hard surface. It emits a pure tone that musicians can use to tune their instruments (like violins and guitars).
One job you have as a content marketer is to think of your reader as a tuning fork. You need to publish great content in order to create resonance with that reader — to get that person to emit a particular tone that gets them to know, like, and trust you.
But creating posts that resonate with your readers is an often-overlooked part of what we do. It’s one of those touchy-feely things no one talks about. But it’s incredibly important — and it can be difficult to do.
Everyone — and I mean everyone — is working on a book. For some, it's just a spark of an idea that hasn't quite made it to paper; for others, it's thousands of words socked away in a drawer or saved on an old laptop. Either way, the same question is bound to come up eventually: What does it take to get this thing published?
There is no easy way to get published and become a successful author. I can safely say this after years of reading submissions for a literary agency and a Big Six publisher (including everything from amazing books that bombed to titles I hated but everyone else in the world loved). Writing books is a weird, long haul, but — thankfully! — there are a few things you can do to help you on your journey. Here's the advice that I give every aspiring author.
There are lots of ways you can create your blog, and the beauty of the process is that you are allowed to be as creative and original as you like. You can follow the guidelines and rules of others but there is nothing stopping you from trying something new and running with it.
Just because other blog posts are 500 words does not mean you cannot create one that is 2000 words. Just because other blogs have one picture does not mean you cannot add 12 pictures and turn the blog into a comic book style.
Your freedom from restriction is what makes blogging so fun. Here are some tips for blogging, but they are not rules (and even if they were, you should still break them at your discretion).
Are you having trouble balancing your project time and pay?
As a freelance writer, I have a horrible tendency to spend way too much time on a single writing project. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I often catch myself still editing long after I should have finished. Simply put, most freelance writing rates simply do not allow room for this extra time. I have to learn how to write faster or be comfortable with my longer pay to time ratio on a given writing task.
Those of you in freelance journalism, and other freelance writing gigs, need to write faster without losing quality. After all, there’s no point in learning how to write faster if you can’t provide the quality of work that real writing jobs require.
The following 10 tips are an expansion of Leo Babauta’s list of ways to crank out articles. Hopefully between Leo and me, you will find which methods work for you in improving both the speed and quality of your writing. It’s time to earn more as freelance writers.
When designing and developing email newsletter campaigns you need to be aware of the fact that they play by their own set of rules, and are fairly different from designing and coding a website. This article we have tried to equip you with best tips to make you an expert when it comes to designing emails.
f you’re like most people, chances are you read one or more blogs (for your business or personal interests) on a regular basis. Blogs aren’t just a great way for you to engage with your customers and get them to return to your site. They can help your website organically rise in the search engines.
Starting a blog can be challenging, but the payoff is worth it. Take these nine steps to ensure your blog achieves its goal of engaging customers and building loyalty.
It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it. I am pretty sure the majority of you are familiar with this quote. It’s applied in freelance writing career as well. Providing writing services are amongst the easiest ways of generating income online, although it may take a while to start building up confidence and earn a decent income you can live on.
Nearly every freelancer I meet seems to be starting a blog, or at least thinking about it.
But there’s a problem: Many freelancers tell me they’re posting like mad on their blog…but nothing’s happening.
No comments. No shares on Twitter or Facebook.
Even worse, no client nibbles, and especially, no firm new clients.
Blogs are a big time investment. So if you’re blogging away and not getting results, that’s not good. If you can’t get the hang of this, you might want to consider spending your marketing time another way.
But first, let’s see if we can fix this and get your blog some traction by focusing on improving your fundamentals.
Many people dream of working from home. But while it sounds great, working from home can be quite difficult. Sure, you don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder. But then, you also don’t have a boss to turn to when you need someone to make some tough decisions.
Have you ever wished you could blog about one of your personal interests — and that blog would attract a huge audience and allow you to earn in your living while you sleep? It’s a great way to supplement your freelance income or even replace it entirely.
It’s the dream of many bloggers. But few succeed.
Recently, however, I had a chance to talk to two bloggers who are living that dream. They built blogs about their passions and now earn hefty incomes from blog ad revenue.
First off, I saw Bill Belew present at NMX recently about how he built his six-figure business, which earns mostly from ad-clicks — sending customers to advertisers’ websites from his sites.
He operates a network of a dozen different niche websites, which together have seen more than 100 million visitors. He reports he makes a solid five-figure income from each site.
If you’re using blogging or article writing to make money–whether you’re writing to get paid for the writing itself or whether you’re writing as part of your social media marketing strategy–then you know that you need to churn out lots of words and lots of pieces.
The problem here, it likely goes without saying, is that when it comes to writing haste makes waste. Even the coldest writing is still a creative endeavor and creative thoughts and expressions must simmer or marinate before being served to others. Nevertheless, the demands of creativity don’t negate the fact that time is of the essence.
Here’s the thing: Everyone can write but not everyone is a writer. No matter what kind of freelancer/solopreneur you are or how big or small your business is, chances are high that you do a fair bit of online writing for your freelance business.
Today we are used to create typography and design by computers or other electronic devices. But how it was in old days lets take a look in modern light. Below some really awesome Typography and Handwriting Inspirations of 2013.
I first noticed something was off when I went to pay my rent one month. The window for a timely online transfer of funds was closing, so to get the money to my landlord in time, I'd have to do something unusual. I took out my checkbook, grabbed a pen and started writing the date.
It felt weird. My hand cramped a little, churning out numbers and letters with the slightest - but still noticeable - discomfort. My handwriting sucked. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't actually written anything by hand in a long, long time. Just a few years earlier, I kept a paper journal by my bed and would buy three-packs of Moleskin notebooks for brainstorming, sketching and jotting things down. What happened?
Over the course of the last four or five years, myriads of little computers found their way into my life. Bit by bit, my professional and creative existence made the transition to an entirely digital universe. At my old job managing digital publishing for a newspaper, the iPad soon replaced my spiral notebook in meetings. Then I left the print world to work on the Internet full-time. I could even sign my freelance contracts with my finger on an iPad.
Many people dream of earning a living as a writer. The thought of spending their working hours earnestly sipping a latté at the local coffee shop while typing out their masterpiece, or secluding themselves in a mountain retreat to create volumes of soulful poetry can sound very appealing. The reality, however, is not quite as enchanting. If you want creative writing to be your career, here are a few things you should know.
In this video produced by The New York Times Magazine, comedian Jerry Seinfeld describes his joke-writing process. The full story titled “Jerry Seinfeld Intends to Die Standing Up” is available to read online.
