Happy reading!

From the Writing Forums

• How do You Set Your E-book Prices?
• Business Bank Accounts
• What Accounting Software do You Use?
• What Gets You Through Your Work Day?
• How do You Approach Website and Blog Design?

From the Blog

• Freelance Writers: Stand Up for Your Rates – by LaToya Irby
• Messy Subjects and Verbs – by Rebecca Garland

From the Web

• Fair Wages for Freelance Writing – Melanie Brooks at Freelance Switch
• 6 Freelance Writing Fears and How to Overcome Them – Anne Wayman at About Freelance Writing
• You Are a Better Writer Than You Think You Are – Laura Spencer at Writing Thoughts
• Plan a Marketing Strategy for Your Freelance Career – Jake Rocheleau at Freelance Folder
• How the 80-20 Rule Affects Freelance Writers – John Soares at Productive Writers
• 5 Steps to Freelance Awesomeness – Steph Auteri at WordCount
• Putting the Customer Back into Customer Service – Lori Widmer at Words on the Page
• 10 Ways to Ensure No One Will Read Your Blog Content – Ali Luke at Daily Blog Tips

From the Archives

• Free Business Resources for Freelance Writers
• How to Build a Writer Platform and Make Jobs Come to You
• 3 Types of Business Writing That Pay Big Money
• How to Insulate Yourself From Bad Freelance Clients
• Think Twice About Writing for Revenue Share

Writing Forum Daily Discussions

Every weekday I’ll kick off the day with a new question or discussion topic in the forums. For example, today I asked “How do you set your e-book prices?” in the new e-publishing section.

Some days I may start multiple discussions, but there will be at least one fresh one each day of the work week. And as always, you’re welcome to start as many discussions as you’d like. Just register on the site to be able to post. It’s free!

Weekly Roundups

I used to run a “Freelance Friday” series here where I’d highlight other posts from around the blogosphere. We’re going to go back to something similar.

From now on, each Friday I’ll do a weekly roundup post. That post will feature:

• Our daily discussions from the forum for the week;
• Blog posts you may have missed here during the week;
• Blog posts from others in the freelance writing world (or related areas).

My hope is that we’ll get AFW members chatting a bit more regularly while also encouraging people to check out other great posts from colleagues each week. What are you waiting for? Register today and head over to the forum to get involved.

I’m not sure yet how it happened. But I suspect it’s a result of a new plugin here which I’m using to clean up dead links throughout the site. I’m assuming it updated a URL and somehow altered that post date when the linked info was changed. I’ll look into it further and will hold off on using the plugin again until I can figure out what happened.

My apologies. If you see anything else that looks strange around here, don’t hesitate to let me know so I can fix it. I won’t necessarily see everything that you see, and things like this occasionally happen when plugins are involved.

New Forums Added

Registered members of All Freelance Writing have access to our writing forums. While we had freelance chat areas before, we’ve now added a section for book chat. There you’ll find a few new forums covering self publishing, e-publishing, and working with publishers.

Not a member yet? Register now. It’s free!

Branding Changes

There will be a minor branding change here at All Freelance Writing and most of my other websites. Rest assured we won’t have a name change here or any big design changes. But within the next week you may notice a reference to this site being a 3 Beat Media property. It is not being sold off. I’m simply in the middle of a business name change for my base business — from J.H. Mattern Communications to 3 Beat Media. The new company branding will be more heavily promoted on my sites and blogs.

You may have already noticed that there are shortlinks below each post here. They all starts with 3bm.co. That domain is tied to the new branding and all of our shortlinks will follow that format.

Other than that, it should be business as usual.

If you’re about to launch a “commercial” writing business (writing for companies, and the subject of TWFW), or are 1-2 years into one that’s plateaued, you need to check out this program. It’s solely focused on commercial writing, NOT magazine writing.

As I told Peter directly, I think he offers some of the best resources around for freelancers. His products and services are always top-notch, and judging from the testimonials from past series’ participants, this is no exception.

Details and testimonials can be found at http://wellfedwriter.com/groupcoaching.shtml. (Note: This is the first series he’s done since May of last year and he says he likely won’t have another for at least 6-8 months).

There aren’t many available spots, so sign up now before the coaching series fills up!

It’s hard to believe it’s another new year already. I usually have my goals and resolutions set by late October or early November. But I’m a bit late to the game this year. In fact, I’ve been somewhat absent here for months. I had a crazy year in 2011. My guy and I started looking for a new place around May. That hunt, move, and settling in dominated the majority of my year and took a lot of time away from other things — mostly the time I could spend on my own sites and projects (hence the absence). I also got engaged. And then the holiday season hit with far too much travel and party hosting. I spent a great deal of my time last week sleeping out of the sheer exhaustion of it all.

Now it’s time to get back on track. And like I do every year, I’m going to share my business goals with you. Here are my 2012 New Year’s resolutions for my business.

1. Get back on schedule with my sites, books, and other projects.

I need to get myself back on a regular posting schedule on my blogs. That starts this week for this blog and a couple of others, and I’ll work my other blogs into that schedule over the next several weeks.

On the recommendation of Sharon Hurley Hall, I recently upgraded my version of Dragon, Naturally Speaking. I didn’t use it before because the accuracy was pretty terrible for me. But 11.5 seems to have fixed those issues. Even with just moderate training the accuracy is great. I’ve already used it to speed up some article writing for clients, and I’m hoping it will keep me more productive with my own blog posts as well.

My book manuscripts also took a back seat last year, which was incredibly frustrating. I’m looking forward to diving back into them shortly — editing the Query-Free Freelancer manuscript and finishing the first novel in my Murder Scripts murder mystery series.

2. See a Minimum 20% Increase in Gross Income

I screwed up in 2011. With all of the moving and other distractions, something had to give. Like I said, it was my own sites and projects. Income on that side of my business dropped dramatically last year, and it made 2011 my first year where my overall income dropped. Not much, but a decrease. Fortunately, my business expenses also dropped quite a bit, so my net income wasn’t affected very much. But it’s still disappointing.

As a result, I’m setting a goal of at least a 20% gross increase. That would get me back in line with past earnings increases. That said, I’ll certainly try for even more than that.

3. Finalize My Business Name Change

As announced last year, my base business is changing. The name will be changing from J.H. Mattern Communications to 3BeatMedia. My websites and freelance writing services will fall under the primary business name. A publishing-oriented division name of 3BeatBooks will be used for branding my books and e-books a little later this year.

This won’t take long to finish up, but I still need to put time into the new websites and then incorporating the new branding on all of my sites. Expansion to two other divisions is planned, but probably not in 2012.

4. Finish Setting Up My New Office Space

Even though we moved in mid-October, my new office space still isn’t completely set up and unpacked. It’s not a comfortable work environment, and getting this finished is a priority for me. In fact, I expect to reach this goal by this time next week at the latest. I have three work areas there — my desk, a standing desk setup, and a large chair with ottoman for longer writing sessions such as manuscript work. I can’t wait to finally be able to use them all on a regular basis.

5. Publish at Least 5 Short E-books

My longer projects this year will be the print book manuscripts. So for e-books I’m going to keep things short. I’m planning to release five shorter, lower-cost e-books (mostly released here through All Freelance Writing). Outlining will be finished this week, and the first should be out before the end of January.

6. Finish Editing the Query-Free Freelancer Manuscript

I mentioned this one previously, but it’s a big enough goal that I think it deserves to stand on its own.

7. Finish Drafting the First Murder Scripts Novel

This one is another big goal I mentioned before, but it also deserves its own spot here. This is the project I’m most excited to work on — the first under my Aria Klein pen name.

8. Release the First Murder Scripts Game

The Murder Scripts series has a natural tie-in to games. And I plan to release a few of them as ancillary products to this novel series. While I hope to release a few this year, it’s a completely new experience for me so I’m setting a goal of just releasing the first.

9. Get to $500 per Month Earnings on my Genealogy Site

Last year I started a genealogy site called Climb Your Family Tree. I originally intended to keep it quiet here and use it as an experiment to show earnings for a new site. But yet again, life distractions got in the way. That experiment is obviously off (for this site at least). But I fully intend to grow it and focus on increasing its earnings.

That will include a new design, new resources (some free and some for sale), building affiliate relationships for products I’ll review, and more. Genealogy is a huge passion of mine, and I’m excited to have it take a more prominent place in my work. I consider this to be one of the best parts of working for myself — being able to integrate passions and hobbies into my business.

10. Find Uses for at Least 3 of my Unused Domain Names

I have quite a few unused domain names — over a dozen at least. I have plans for several of them, but I haven’t had time to do the development work. But those domains aren’t earning me any money just sitting there. Even if it means setting up a few starter sites until I can pursue some of the larger projects, I’d like to get at least three of those domains in-use and earning money for the business. Ideally I’d like to have this done in the first quarter, but I’ll be happy just getting them set up this year.

What are your goals in the New Year? Are you hoping to reach new clients? Earn more money? Branch out beyond freelancing, perhaps by writing your first book? Share your goals with us in the comments below and see what your fellow freelancers are hoping to achieve.

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First let me apologize for the delay in starting this series. My schedule is a bit wonky these days as we’ve been moving into a new place. Thank you to the writers involved for their patience. Let’s get to it.

The first freelance writer with a story to share this week is Steve Sloane.

Steve’s Story

Steve is a relatively new freelance writer with experience writing for only two companies — one being Demand Media and the other being a website where he contributes film reviews. He has approximately 1800 articles published on Demand’s eHow, mostly in the home repair / DIY niche. The vast majority of those articles paid just $15.

Steve would prefer to write about film, his main passion. But work has dried up with his client in that niche. He has his BA in both Film Theory and Creative Writing. Despite his passion for film, he does understand that it’s an in-demand niche and he’s open to other opportunities. His experience in the home repair and DIY area is based on his own experience building a house and spending years being just generally handy.

He would like to move from $15 articles to a minimum of $50 for a 400-500 word article.

My Advice for Steve

I think $50 per article is a very achievable goal and a good target for newer writers looking to write Web content.

While I’d love to see Steve move immediately into full-time film reviews, I’m intimately familiar with the difficulties in creative markets like this. First, they don’t tend to monetize well through advertising (meaning site owners often won’t spend as much as other types of clients as they see less of a financial return). Another issue, as Steve also pointed out, is that everyone and his brother thinks they can write reviews in these niches (my experience more on the music side, although I’ve seen similar things in film reviews).

With that in mind, I think Steve is a prime candidate for dual specialization. As we’ve talked about numerous times here, being a specialist as a freelance writer does not mean you’re limited to a single kind of writing or a single niche. It means you focus on one or just a few areas, but more importantly you focus on areas where you can offer the most value. I think Steve has an adequate background in both the film and DIY niches to make a go of them.

Normally when I suggest multi-niche specialization, I encourage writers to stick to areas similar enough that they don’t have to target two completely different markets. In this case, I think he can make it work — essentially using one specialty to buy him time to build a reputation in the other.

Basically, I suggest this: Focus on home repair / DIY, but carve out a portion of each work week for film reviews. As Steve grows his client base on the film side, he can transition away from home repair content if he wants to. In the meantime, home repair and DIY material seems like the broader market with more pay potential.

To take it a step further, I’d suggest branching beyond the most basic of Web content (like the shallow content found at eHow). I’d encourage Steve to start his own website in the niche. It could be an ongoing blog, or it could be a specialized niche content site with some static articles that he doesn’t have to update frequently. He could also consider narrowing down the DIY niche a bit. For example, he could focus on apartment dwellers with special needs (such as not being able to put holes in the wall). Or he might combine his love of film with the niche and focus on DIY projects for those interested in setting up their own home theaters.

Once he has a niche site (even a small one), he can use it to build an audience of readers in the niche — not just potential buyers. When readers respect what you have to say in your specialty area, it can make you more attractive to clients who want you to bring your audience with you when you write for them. Better yet, niche sites can be income sources on their own.

Speaking of income sources, I also think e-books are a great thing for Steve to consider. Moving into a new home myself right now, I have tons of questions and ideas around home improvement, decorating, finishing rooms, etc. I own a few huge home repair / DIY books, but they can feel overwhelming. They cover a lot of basics, but sometimes not enough about specific things I’m interested in. Smaller books about these areas could be good, even in e-book form (from flooring to finishing basements). Plus, it can be more profitable to sell let’s say six short e-books at $5-10 each than a longer, more expensive one covering everything.

Those are two options Steve has for not only additional income streams but also portfolio pieces. They can help him build his audience and potentially attract more clients as he becomes more of an authority source.

As for directly targeting clients, I say think outside the box. The obvious thing to do is look for home improvement or DIY sites to pitch. But what about these possibilities:

• Interior design sites and publications
• Women’s sites and publications (saving time and money with DIY projects around the house)
• Blogs for businesses involved in home improvement (from contractors to tool manufacturers)
• Men’s sites and publications (they might have regular columns or sections devoted to the niche)
• Sites or blogs related to home improvement TV series (not quite film, but another way to tie his two interests more closely together)

When it comes to the film side of things, again I suggest starting his own site first. In this case I think a blog or other regularly-updated site makes the most sense as the film scene constantly changes. Because anyone can share their opinions on films on the Web these days, I think it’s extremely important for Steve to come up with a brandable identity for this specialty area. He also might be able to stand out a bit more with a genre or other kind of specialization (such as reviewing horror films or indie films).

Steve really seems to understand that great reviewers don’t just spew their opinions. They really have to know the film world, context, and as he put it “research and work.” Having his own film review site shows prospects exactly what kind of reviews they can expect from Steve, and how his reviews differ from fly-by-night film reviewers just in it for a bit of fun. It gives him a chance to set a professional tone in the way many others have not.

While Steve can start pitching film review sites, local newspapers, online local sites, entertainment sites, or any other kind of prospect that might be looking for reviewers, I think his best chance for immediate income in his target price range is to pitch the DIY articles up front while he builds an audience for his film review site. If he can tie the two areas together (like the DIY home theater specialty I mentioned), all the better. It can save him a lot of time later when he’s ready to focus even more on promoting his film industry writing.

Over the long term as he builds a fan base with his film reviews, Steve can take on fewer home repair and DIY projects in favor of pursuing his passion. In an ideal world, we would do nothing but that. But the reality is that we have to pay the bills. Fortunately Steve doesn’t seem to dislike writing in this potentially more profitable niche.

In Summary

1. Stick to dual-specialization.
2. Focus primarily on your more profitable niche (home repair / DIY in this case).
3. Go with direct pitching for quick results when you’re fairly new.
4. Think outside the box when choosing who to pitch; look beyond the most obvious prospects if you want to decrease competition for gigs.
5. Set up your own niche site and use that content for portfolio pieces rather than relying too heavily on your content mill work to sell you to another level of client.
6. Build your platform and audience in your favored niche while the other brings in income.
7. When building your platform, try to focus on income-generating tactics (like blogs and e-books). The earlier you start these things, the sooner you’ll have extra income coming in to cover you during slow periods.
8. Ideally find ways to tie your two specialties together, even loosely. It can help you decrease the amount of time you need to market your sites and services when you’re reaching similar audiences.

For those writers, I promised to post links to basic business resources to help them develop those skills or more easily plan and run their growing freelance businesses. Here are those free business resources — from free templates and worksheets to free online courses.

Business – General

• Owner’s Checklist for Starting a New Business (from SmartBiz.com)
• Business Selection Checklist (from SmartBiz.com)
• Small Business Success Course (free email course from About.com – Small Business: Canada)
• Improve Your Personal Networking Skills (free online course from the HP Learning Center)
• Building Your First Web Page (free online course from the HP Learning Center)
• Principles of Entrepreneurship (free online textbook from America.gov)
• Business Fundamentals (free online textbook from cnx.org)
• Business Communication for Success (free online textbook from FlatWorldKnowledge.com)

Business Plans

• How to Write a Business Plan (a free online course from the U.S. Small Business Administration)
• Business Plan Outline (from Bplans.com)
• Sample Business Plans (from Bplans.com)
• One Page Business Plan Template

Market Research

• Conduct a Marketing Analysis (a free online course from Kutztown University)
• SWOT Analysis Worksheet
• Advertising and Marketing Psychology (free email course from About.com – Women in Business)

Marketing Plans

• One Page Marketing Plan Template
• Marketing Plan Outlines (from Mplans.com)
• Sample Marketing Plans (from Mplans.com)

Marketing / PR – Other

• Marketing 101 (free online course from the U.S. Small Business Administration)
• Principles of Marketing (free online textbook from FlatWorldKnowledge.com)
• eMarketing Textbook (from Quirk.biz)
• Core Concepts of Marketing (from OERcommons.org)
• Press Releases Made Easy (free e-book)
• Social Marketing (free online course from The Open University)

Accounting

• Introduction to Accounting (a free online course from the U.S. Small Business Administration)
• Accounting I (free online textbook from peoi.org)
• Sample Business Balance Sheet (from FindLaw.com)
• Sample Profit and Loss Statement (from Findlaw.com)

If you have other favorite free online resources to help freelancers build basic business skills, please share them in the comments below.

We’ve already looked at why freelance job boards aren’t the best places to find gigs and how you can make it easier for clients to find you through your writer platform. But what can you do in between client projects, as you wait for responses to your pitches or while you’re still growing your platform?

You can build additional non-client income streams (and some of these are actually a part of your writer platform, meaning they can attract clients in addition to direct income). Let’s look at some revenue stream options for writers and then I’ll point you to some further information we’ve covered in the past about two of the most popular options.

Additional Revenue Streams for Freelance Writers

Here are ten potential new revenue streams you can develop as a writer:

1. Books
2. E-books
3. Blogs
4. Niche content / resource websites (free)
5. Paid membership sites
6. E-courses
7. Email newsletters
8. Industry reports (based on original research like surveys)
9. Website flipping (create small well-optimized sites and sell them to webmasters)
10. PLR articles or e-books (content sold at very low prices for re-use or resale, but the same content can be sold to multiple people)

Not all of these income streams will be right for you. For example, if you tend to charge $50 or more per blog post (or want to), selling cheap PLR content can tarnish the image you want to create even if it might be more profitable at times. On the other hand, not all writers want to devote the time that goes into writing, editing and selling a book to bring in additional income.

Now let’s look at two of the most common additional income streams for writers: blogs and e-books. I’m not going to say a lot about them directly in this post as they’ve been discussed extensively in the past. Instead I’m going to link you to further reading, so you can pick and choose the information you really want or need to know.

Blogging

Here are some articles from our archives about getting started as a blogger and using blogs as an additional income stream:

• Make Money Blogging — An Additional Income Stream for Freelance Writers
• Blog Launch Checklist
• Coming Up With Blog Post Ideas
• 101 Niches to Write About
• Score Points for Better Blogging
• Are You a Slave to Your Blog Sponsors?
• How We Increased Blog Traffic by 80% in Less Than a Year (and How You Can Too!)

E-books

Writing and selling e-books can be another way for freelance writers to earn income between gigs. Better yet, these e-books can sell for a long time after the initial launch. If you’re thinking about writing e-books, here are some resources you might be interested in. (Note: Some of these posts are located on my indie publishing blog rather than All Freelance Writing.)

• How to Write an E-book in Just 14 Days (a free e-book)
• How Writing E-books Can Save You From a Low Pay Rut
• Planning and Outlining an E-book
• E-books and Reports — An Additional Income Stream for Freelance Writers
• Using Testimonials to Sell an E-book
• 5 Factors to Consider in Pricing Your E-book
• Zoe Winters on E-book Pricing: Does Low-Balling Attract the Wrong Kind of Reader?
• Why Most of My E-books Won’t be Sold on Amazon
• How to Market an E-book

No freelance writer must create additional income streams. You can spend that extra time on more pitches. This is just one way to diversify your writing business, and products or services that bring in regular income can alleviate some concerns when freelance work dries up.

Choose income streams based on your own target market. PLR articles have no place in some niches. Print books might not make sense for fast-moving industries where books would quickly be outdated. Not all markets will happily pay for access to a new membership site.

Identify your market and figure out how to solve problems for them — in the end, that’s how you make better money, whether through freelance contracts or your own projects.

If you’ve enjoyed this series, come back next week when I’ll share tips and advice with five freelancers about their situations and goals for moving past Demand Media. You might find some of those suggestions useful in improving your own freelance writing career.

In the meantime, if you’d like to read more, you can check out the following articles from our archives: