I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my Web publishing ventures (I do this a few times every year). I’m trying to optimize the various services, products, and Web properties I manage or offer. As usual, that means either eliminating or condensing some of those projects.
After some evaluations, I’m finding that some of my writing blogs simply can’t exist on their own in their current incarnations. I don’t have time to update them regularly. They don’t monetize well enough as-is to just let them sit as static ad-supported sites either. On top of it, they’re still time drains even if not regularly updated – I still take time to evaluate their stats and income weekly, have to deal with backend upgrades, moderate comments, and other administrative things.
On the other hand, I have projects monetizing very well, attracting growing readerships / visitor numbers, etc., but I don’t have enough time to really devote to them to keep them expanding.
In order to make more time for the growing projects (and things like my e-book series for writers and a report series I plan to release on my indie music site), it’s time for some changes.
Some sites are being put up for sale. However, the biggest changes would affect All Freelance Writing, so I would like your input before making a final decision.
Potential Merge with AFW
Some of you may be familiar with my other writing sites – All Book Marketing, All Book Writing, and Writer’s Guidelines. Writer’s Guidelines is one of those projects that needs more of my attention. The other two are blogs that aren’t pulling their weight as-is, but which I’d also rather not unload.
Instead, I’d like to merge ABM and ABW with this blog.
Overall, it wouldn’t affect the bulk of the content you receive here. It would, however, mean that you would occasionally hear about book marketing topics (some recent ones covered have been e-book marketing, the role pen names play in marketing, and how authors exercise blogger relations when promoting books). I also tend to get more guest posts there (from authors on book tours), so you may see more guest posts or interviews in that sense.
You would also occasionally hear about my progress with my own books, and I’d be adding my word count tracker to the sidebar here (I haven’t posted to that blog in nearly two months, so it’s not as though you’ll hear about it daily – only when my writing makes me think of something worth sharing, like the last post on the fact that it’s OK if a first draft of something royally sucks – I’d say it’s applicable to freelance writers as well as authors).
Basically what I want to know is this: Would the bulk of you be okay with occasional updates of that nature (talking a bit about the publishing industry, marketing books and e-books, and the process of actually writing a book), or do you feel that it’s too far from the main AFW purpose and that it would be a significant turn-off as a reader?
Other Changes
I’ve been making a few quiet changes here already at AFW that you may or may not have noticed. Much of it is on the admin end which you won’t see (in how the site is being promoted, cleaning up some code issues, etc.).
Other things are on the frontend. For example, I changed some things in the sidebar recently – nothing that should affect your ability to navigate the site. I mostly changed the ad layout and removed a bit of extra clutter (like the list of most visited posts, since it couldn’t be setup to change monthly – it was a long running total from the time the plugin was installed).
I also added a “Stuff for Writers” page at the very top of the site (next to the link for free articles). There you’ll find recommended sponsored products, but more importantly free stuff for writers. The page revolves mostly around things I’m personally offering (on the free side, only things I’ve created). Basically, when I release a new report, template, or anything else for free that might be useful to writers, you’ll be able to find it there.
I’ll be making other changes in the future – still nothing major (not another one of my design changes or anything). For example, I’ll be playing around with ads periodically while I’m testing various products, networks, and ad placements until I find the best combination for monetization without being too intrusive hopefully. I’m also considering adding the “top commentator” option to the sidebar – top commenters would basically be rewarded with a sitewide link back to their site. Whether or not that stays will depend on its impact on spammy comments (which is common when it’s used). So we’ll see.
That’s where things stand with All Freelance Writing for the moment. I hope you’ll share your thoughts on the potential 3-way blog merger.
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Cathy Miller
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Lori
Hi Jenn,
I’m not particularly interested in book writing or the content you would be adding here related to book marketing or writing, but I understand your need to simplify. Is it possible for you to channel all that content so that it’s easy for non-book people to avoid?
If merging the content really wouldn’t affect the bulk of content that I get (i.e., what’s been here all along) and I can easily avoid the book stuff, this sounds like a great idea.
I appreciate your efforts (and Anne’s and Deb’s) at helping freelancers feel like they are part of a community – a “virtual staff,” so to speak. I think we don’t say “thanks” often enough – so here it is: Thanks!
–Hazel
Jennifer: I share your pain with struggling over too many projects and too little time. The key with consolidation is making it seamless for the audience. For instance, book writing only tangentially touches on the every-day lives of most freelancers. For that reason, make integration of your two book sites nearly invisible for most readers, while at the same time offering an easy way for those interested in the subject to access the material. That is a balancing act that requires practice to perfect, I realize.
Adding more resources for freelance writers would be helpful both to your audience and to your bottom-line. (But make it very plain which are truly yours and which are simply affiliate offers.) These days cry out for community-building, and such additions would add enhance AFW. The key, again, is making the changes painless to your audience, something you seem to have done well. Myself, tweaking the sidebar content is not as jarring as altering the flow of the main conversation.
Though it isn’t part of my main writing efforts, I would find the book info helpful and useful at times. There are many times where a book related tip, be it marketing, writing, or development, can be tweaked and adapted to other forms of writing.
Plus I totally understand the need to simplify… and should really do some of that myself. Go for it.
If most freelancers are like myself, they have bookoodles of feeds covering a variety of topics. Most of the blogs I read, no matter their name, go a little off-topic once in a while. Too, I am into several different apsects of the publishing world, so I would not mind a broader range of topics and perspectives, not that the original format and your own writing are not fantastic. It is a good idea and will not harm your reputation, only make your subject matter more appealing to a wider spectrum of writer-types.
I have no problem with you merging the sites with this one. I may actually learn enough about book writing to feel comfortable tackling one.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts everyone. At this point, here’s what I’m probably going to do (maybe this weekend if I have the time):
1. There really would never be that many posts about book writing. That blog is more personal in nature. So basically, if I hit a milestone of 25,000 words in my novel I might post a quick “Yay!” update, sharing some thoughts I have about the process along the way. We’ve actually had a book writing category here for a long time, so it would already have a home under the specialties category group.
2. The only other book writing posts might be interviews or something along those lines. Two were already planned for AFW anyway – for an upcoming series with interviews covering various types of writing freelancers might pursue either on a freelance basis, as a career change, or as a way to diversify their income (nonfiction books, fiction, screenwriting, blogging, magazine writing, etc.). That series will start as soon as I get around to lining up a few more folks.
3. Most of the book marketing posts are equally applicable to freelancers, or at least e-book authors (something we talk about here a lot anyway), so I don’t think it’s going to be a huge difference in content. The old posts being moved over won’t be altered to address a more general audience, but new posts along those lines would likely mention both authors and freelancers. In fact, many of the posts there were also covered here in some way (such as discussions on virtual publicity / blog tours).
4. As for the guest posts more common on ABM, you don’t have to worry about them being entirely irrelevant. For example, you won’t see a guest post about someone’s new novel. They’re generally from authors who are writing resources for writers themselves. If they do promote other types of books, the posts would in some way have to apply to writers to be accepted anyway (such as talking about how they were marketing that book or how they were able to land their publisher or agent, offering tips for writers looking to do the same)
5. The ABM posts would be split up quite a bit. If they’re generally about marketing, they would go to the marketing section here. If they’re something that could apply mostly to e-books, they would go in the e-books category.
6. Most will be back-dated when I move them here, so you hopefully won’t get them in an email if you’re an email subscriber. Posts that I think are highly relevant to AFW readers, but that I doubt most have seen yet, I will probably use as new posts (similar to the way the WebWritersGuide.com blog was recently merged here). If I use them as new posts, they may be updated slightly.
7. There won’t be separate feeds for those, because they’ll be integrated into existing categories here. However, it’s very possible that I will eventually do another “novel in 30 days” type of series (where I followed novel outlining plans for a month and posted daily about the progress). For anything like that, I would be able to setup a new category and exclude it from the main RSS feed so regular readers wouldn’t have to see that daily in their emails or feed readers. They would still be visible on the site itself though. Also, I can then setup those posts / that category with its own feed for people specifically wanting to follow the project.
So I hope that plan finds a relatively happy medium. :)
Thanks for the info..Wondering if you or anyone here knows how long it should take, on average to write an informative 500 + word health related article…Have been hired for freelance job but hours not specified.. I don’t want to undercharge or overcharge…Thanks for your help
The pricing should depend on a lot of things Maggie. For example,
1. Do they expect it to be a quick piece of SEO content based on some simple online sources?
2. Do they expect it to be based on more primary research in feature-style (interviews, etc.)?
On top of their expectations, you also need to factor in what you really NEED to earn (which varies based on your taxes, expenses, whether you’re doing it full-time or part-time, and other factors).
Then you also need to consider how much you want to earn, and what your credentials justify. For example, if you’re a doctor you could command significantly higher rates for health articles than a generic writer who can only write that article based on information from others. In other words, if you (and your background) can lend more authority to that type of piece, charge a premium for it.
Wondering if anyone knows how many hours it should take to write a professional informative health related article ,500+ words…Thanks for info..
Just a quick update – All ABW and ABM Posts are now here on AFW (save one that will go live in the marketing category on Monday – everything else will keep its former published date, so you won’t see them coming through as new like you did with the WebWritersGuide.com merger here previously).
I’ll be updating feeds and such over the weekend, so hopefully everything will go smoothly. :)
And on the plus side, all five of my previous writing blogs are now accounted for (this one, the three merged with this one, and the other sold), so there are no more writing blogs to potentially merge with AFW in the future. :)
On the other hand, I have projects monetizing very well, attracting growing readerships / visitor numbers, etc., but I don’t have enough time to really devote to them to keep them expanding.