Don't miss the latest posts, tools, freelance writing jobs, and more from the All Freelance Writing team. Subscribe today!

Imagine this: you have been relying on the same marketing plan for several months or longer. Everything you do, for the most part, has been working. But out of nowhere you hit a snag and now nothing is breaking your way. What are you going to do?

If your marketing plan begins to fail, don’t panic. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Don’t abort what has worked in the past. The first thing you may feel like doing is overhauling your plan and forgetting what has gotten you this far. While there is nothing wrong with trying something new, you don’t want to totally give up on a plan that has worked so well.

2. Try something new. This goes along with tip number one. While you are working to get your old plan back on track, mix in something new that you have never tried before. For instance, if you usually send query letters and cold emails you should continue with this. But at the same time, why not throw in some cold calls to see if this can jumpstart your business? Once everything settles down you will have another marketing method that you are comfortable relying on.

3. Don’t give up. This may sound cliché, but it is entirely true. No matter what happens, recognize that your marketing plan has worked in the past and it will begin to payoff again in the future. The last thing you want to do is panic, make major changes, and find yourself in a worse position.

Final tip: just because you hit a slow period does not mean that your marketing plan suddenly turned bad. Remember, a lot of sales and marketing has to do with luck. You should expect to go through dry spells from time to time.

It would be nice if your marketing plan turned up new clients day after day. And while you may have a lot of success for an extended period of time, realize that this will probably turn 180 degrees sometime in the future.

First let me take a moment to introduce myself.

My name is Catherine–and the plan is for me to share some information with you about my experience with writing for print. I have been a full-time writer for many years, and have had my writing published in national, regional and trade magazines, as well as newspapers, books and custom publications. I have also written text for calenders and planners.

If it’s one thing I love it’s helping writers avoid making some of the mistakes that I did along the way.

So why should you listen to me? I’ll give you three reasons:

1. I have made piles of money writing for print publications.
2. I have broken into some big mags–examples include American Style, AAA Living, Boys’ Life and American Fitness, to name a few. 
3. I am willing to share some of the secrets about writing for print. You will find that not too many print writers want to give away their resources.

So with that…why don’t we start this journey by taking a closer look at some of the opportunities out there for getting published on paper. Here are some of the possibilities:

• Magazines. Don’t just think about the publications at your local bookstore–there are plenty of magazines out there that are mailed direct to the customer or are written specifically for a particular trade. I write for a publisher that puts together a lifestyle magazine for a very well-known client, and I have penned many a piece for trade magazines out there as well. Hospitals, associations and non-profits are other places to look for magazine writing opportunities. The pay rate range varies a great deal for this type of writing.
• Newspapers. There are all kinds of different ways to approach writing for a newspaper. You can get in touch with your local paper to see if they will pay for freelance work or you can write a travel piece for a big city publication. Pay for newspapers tends to be on the low side, but it is a great place to get some published clips if you can find a good angle.
• Catalogues. This market is not as large as it used to be, but there are still some jobs writing copy in print these days. Many tend to be employee positions, but sometimes you can find a temp spot as a freelancer. Pay varies.
• Greeting Cards. Create text for birthday cards, thank you cards and sympathy cards and make a little money in the process. You won’t get rich off of this one–but it is a fun writing job that doesn’t eat up too much time.
• Calendars and planners. Most of these gigs are on a per-project basis, but they can turn into an ongoing job if you impress the client.
• Books. You don’t have to write an entire book to get published in one. Other opportunities in this arena include travel guidebooks or anthologies. Many will pay in copies or pay writers a nominal fee, but the prestige can be huge. Some will pay a decent stipend, and fewer still will share royalties with the writer.

Although this isn’t an exhaustive list of places that you can get published in print, it can help you focus in on an area that you may find interesting. Whether you have been writing for the web or are just getting started on a writing career, print can be a little bit intimidating. Luckily there are plenty of ways to get going.

If you have yet to go into a Borders and pick up a magazine with your byline in it–perhaps it’s time to add that to your list of accomplishments. I’ll see if I can’t help you do just that.

I’m here to tell you–it feels pretty amazing.

Here’s another neutral styled free Wordpress theme for freelance writers looking to launch their own professional site or blog on the Wordpress platform. Like the last free theme released here, this one was purchased with full rights from the designer for exclusive release here on All Freelance Writing. If you use it, feel free to share a link to your site in the comments so we can see how you’re using it to promote your freelance writing business. Please read the information below before downloading.

What’s Included

• The coded theme

Terms

Please remember that all free Web templates and free Wordpress themes from All Freelance Writing are made available under the following terms: You’re free to use it on your own sites (and you do not have to include a credit link), but you may NOT distribute this template to others in any way. You cannot forward the files to someone via email. You cannot post the files for download on your own site. You cannot link directly to the download file on this site. If someone else wants it, they must visit this page and download it directly from this site. Also, derivative works made from the template may not be released (in other words, you can’t change the design and then distribute it to others – it’s for use on your own sites only).

Screenshot

VI Magazine: Free Wordpress Theme

Notes

• Remember that I do not offer technical support for the downloads. If you have simple questions, please post them as a comment on this post (do not email me about them), and if I can help I will. This way when I can’t help, maybe another member can. I don’t make any guarantees regarding these templates and themes, and I don’t have most of them up on demo sites yet.

To Download

1. Click the download link below.
2. Save the file to your hard drive.
3. Unzip / decompress the file (in Windows, right-click the file name and go to “extract all.”
4. That will save it to a decompressed folder.

Once you have the folder decompressed, you can upload the theme into your Wordpress installation and activate it by clicking the “themes” link under “Appearance” from your Wordpress admin. You can edit your theme files by visiting the “editor” link from the same menu.

You might have already seen our free keyword density analyzer — the latest free online tool for freelance writers. Today I want to talk about some of the quirks and offer some tips on how to use it.

Word Counts

If you use the tool to track your word count, there are a few things you should know:

1. You get to choose the number of characters that counts as a word. You can choose a minimum character count of 2, 3, or 4 characters. That lets you opt to weed out words like a, an, the, etc. I had it coded with this option to give you a bit of flexibility. I know some clients have their own rules on character counts when it comes to the word counts they order, so this should be adaptable to most projects.
2. Numbers do not get included in the word count. While this might not be ideal if you’re doing a lot of stats-heavy writing, I felt this was a better option for most content writers who are tracking keyword density. The problem is that if we let numbers through in one sense, they’d also count for things like numbered lists (so if you have a numbered list with 10 items, you’d have 10 extra words in your word count).
3. We had some issues with symbols being included in the word count, namely the en dash and em dash (- and –). Those were then removed. They shouldn’t affect the count anymore, nor should other standalone symbols. If you come across any that do influence the count, please let me know so I can have the coder take a look.
4. Please include the article text; not a marked up html version.

Keyword Density Calculations

There are many keyword density analyzers out there, and they can calculate keyword density if different ways. Here’s how this tool calculates it:

# instances of keyword (or phrase) ÷ word count = keyword density percentage

We tried to go a little bit beyond giving you just the keyword density percentage with this tool. For example, next to that you’ll see the total keyword count for your choice keyword or phrase. That makes it a bit easier for you to do a manual check or comparison if something doesn’t look quite right. We also offer highlighting to let you track keyword distribution (not just density), so you can improve the readability of your articles.

Keyword Distribution / Highlighting

You get to choose up to 3 keywords or phrases at a time using this tool. Rather than just show the percentage for the keyword density, we also let you highlight the keywords, so you can track the distribution — where the keywords are in relation to each other. This is to help you spread them out so you’re not using the same phrase or word too many times too closely together, which could make the article more difficult for readers to stomach.

You can use this tool by entering your text to be analyzed, and then entering up to three keyword phrases. Then click the “show text” button below those fields. A preview of your text will appear below, with your keyword phrases highlighted.

Ideally, when using this tool try to avoid overlap. For example, don’t search for “freelance” and “freelance writing” at the same time because it will cause issues with the highlighting as the colors overlap. If you do insist on running these keywords through the keyword density analyzer at the same time, put the longer phrase first. The shorter phrase will still be highlighted over the longer one that way. If you search for the shorter one first, only the shorter one will be highlighted.

If you make changes, it’s pretty easy to see them quickly with this tool. We made the word count and keyword density aspects “live” meaning they change immediately as you type (such as removing a keyword and entering another one). The only thing you’ll have to change yourself is the highlighting. To get the new terms highlighted, just click the “hide text” button to minimize that preview, and then click “show text” again. Your changed text and keyword highlighting will then appear.

If you run into any quirks while using the tool that haven’t been covered here, please let me know and I’ll have someone look into it.

WARNING: This post is very negative because I was an angry elitist when I wrote it so I fully expect a bunch of haters to come out of the woodwork and say negative things about me, thereby showing what negative, angry elitists they are themselves.

Did the warning above sound kinda circular in its logic when you first read it? Okay, good—it should. If you make your rounds in the freelance blogging community, chances are you’ve seen the words: Elitist, Hater, Negative and Angry come up time and time again on blog posts and in blog comments. They generally come up in two instances:

1. One blogger said something that another blogger or reader does not agree with.

2. Oh, wait, that’s the only time these words seem to come up. Huh. Interesting.

The Problem

So what is the real problem here? Is it the fact that everyone in the freelance writing community doesn’t agree with each other all the time like we live in a freakin’ hippie commune or the fact that it’s difficult for some people to just stand by their convictions using logic and reason alone and not resort to disparaging labels that make them feel safer?

The Example

In my experience, if a blogger thinks that—

• writing for content mills full time is a lousy career choice for a writer,
• working for a residual income by using Associated Content or Hubpages is a fool’s errand,
• print writing is more “legitimate” than web writing,
• the marketing tactics of some content mills are shameful,
• writing for pennies is not sustainable and is unnecessary,
• self-publishing is worthless,
• writing on spec is a huge mistake

—then suddenly they are a negative hater or an angry elitist.

How in the world could someone come to that conclusion? If I absolutely despise the thought of eating ham and you like it—does that make either of us elitists, haters, negative or angry? If I love cats and don’t like dogs and you love dogs and don’t like cats, does that make either of us elitists, haters, negative or angry? Of course not.

And guess what? If a blogger writes a general post that happens to disparage the way you decide to run your career, before you tweet about how negative they are or write a comment or email about how they’re such a negative hater who must be angry, you should stop to consider the fact that the post is not about you. It’s about the author and their opinion. You make it about you when you get all weepy and defensive while reading it.

The Solution

So go forth writers and remember—disagreeing with someone, voicing a negative opinion about a gig or process, and standing up for freelancers in whatever way you see fit does not make you negative, hate-filled, angry or elitist—no matter how often you do it or who agrees with you.

And readers, you don’t have to like any of the things that bloggers “say” to you with their posts—but you should remember that if you take it personally or have a strong emotional reaction to it, it’s no one’s fault but your own. Own your feelings and either move on or do your cause or belief a favor and construct a vehement argument that doesn’t attempt to debase the blogger you disagree with because when you do, you’re the one who is a negative and angry hater.

The Disclaimer

Oh, and before you read this post and think it was about you, let me tell you that it wasn’t. Now, I’m not going to go all Carly Simon on you and never tell you who this post was about–well, actually, I am–because it’s not about any one blogger. These words are everywhere. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was this.