How about some good news? Today, instead of telling you ten thousand things you need to make sure that you are doing, or emphasizing how difficult it is to break into writing for print, I’m simply going to encourage you. That’s right. Today is a pep talk!

I was not a good writer when I began. Seriously. I was pretty average, used cliches, and I made a ton of stupid mistakes. Still, here I am, many years later. Writing.

I’m stubborn and I wanted it badly. If you have tenacity and patience–I’m here to tell you–you probably can do this thing. (Oh, and you’ll need a thick skin too!)

Pep talk time. Here are some things to do that will help keep you moving toward a career that includes writing for print publications:

Write down some goals. Say, 10 of them–and make them reasonable. Stick them in an envelope and post it somewhere by your desk. Don’t open it for a year–then see how you’ve done. It’s enlightening! Sometimes your goals have completely changed. Other times you reach them and move far beyond. It’s a fun way to keep track.

Subscribe to mags you like. Yes. I’m telling you to buy magazines–and read them! Don’t deny yourself the fun stuff just to save a few bucks. You need to read to write, and if you are going to shoot for the print world, you need to read magazines. Enjoy!

Keep a list of your accomplishments. Some days you are going to get discouraged. You’ll want to quit. Keeping a list of your successes will help remind you how far you’ve come. Even if it’s a short list, it can help boost your spirits. And remember…the list will continue to grow with time.

Some writers like to keep encouraging notes from editors they have worked with. Others, a list of magazines they have been published in. Whatever makes you feel good!

Join a group for writers. There’s nothing like support to keep you from feeling like you are in this alone. Other writers can make sure you keep things in perspective, serve as a sounding board for ideas, critique your work and help celebrate your accomplishments.

Educate yourself. Read books by other writers in the genre. If you keep learning, you’ll keep growing and getting better. If you keep getting better….well, you get the idea. It’s within your power to move forward. Take advantage of that fact and do something about it.

Develop some good “self-talk”. Don’t allow yourself to say things like, “I’m never going to get published” or, “maybe I’m not good enough”. Instead, keep the conversation positive. Phrases like, “I’m working hard toward this and it will pay off” or, “I’m creative and I just need to learn a bit more about how to harness that” can go a long way toward motivating you as a writer.

Print writing is a tough biz. But today isn’t about that. Today is about all the things you can do to get your spirits up and keep moving forward.

Can anyone else add to the mix? Feel free! Let’s really make this post peppy!

I’m going to talk a bit about what my expectations were when I got into the magazine industry–and also about the reality. I was pretty surprised at how different those two things are, and I’m going to throw my experience out there for you–just in case I can help clarify the difference between what people lead you to believe will happen–and what actually does.

Here goes:

The expectation: Breaking into the magazine market means you should start small, build clips and work your way up to a big publication.

The reality: While starting small can be helpful if you need to sharpen your writing skills a bit, there’s no reason to pass on sending queries to larger magazines too. Some of you may know that my first sale was to Boys’ Life, which is a huge publication. Don’t limit yourself right out of the gate–but do your homework. Study the publication and make sure you craft a good query–don’t shoot off ideas willy nilly.

The expectation: Writing for magazines is very similar to writing for the web.

The reality: Nope. Not at all really. The similarity is that you have to write well for both. Other than that, there are a ton of differences. Writing for the web is more “punchy” – you need to create shorter sentences and break up the text more. Although this is changing in print, it still is more paragraph-oriented.

Writing for the web is great for those who enjoy instant gratification. When you write for print, it takes forever for an article to come out in the magazine. In addition, print publications tend to follow an editorial calendar that requires you to pitch six months or more ahead of time. The web tends to be more timely.

When you write for print publications, you may be asked to track down your own photography. This means you’ll need to know how to send large files–as you need high resolution to print them. This can be a little complicated. When sending images for the web, the resolution caps at 72 dpi (dots per inch), so they are small and easy to send without clogging up an editor’s inbox.

I could go on, but you get the idea…these are definitely two different animals, so to speak. Writing for one doesn’t automatically qualify you to write for the other.

The expectation: The editor will get back to you with an answer on your query within the time-frame specified in the guidelines.

The reality: Everything moves slow here. Very slow. Typically, either I hear back right away (within a week), or I have to follow up a few weeks after the end date the guidelines state. Also, with print, sometimes editors will hold on to ideas for a future issue and get in touch with you long after you’ve thought they didn’t want your piece. This rarely happens to me when I write for the web.

The expectation: You will get a free copy of the magazine when your article appears.

The reality: Be sure to ask about this. Some publishers do it automatically, where others don’t. Some will do it if you ask for one, but not offer it otherwise. Don’t assume you will have it show up in your mailbox–or that it will be in the issue that you were told. Sometimes an article gets bumped, appearing in another issue, and other times it may get pulled entirely. Checking in on this is the best course of action.

Writing for print has its own peculiarities. Even as I was writing this, more were popping into my head, so you’ll probably see another piece like this down the line. I wish I had known more about how the industry worked when I started out. That’s one of the reasons I write this column–to try and pass that knowledge along to you.

By the same token–if you have something you can share with fellow readers/writers about this subject that you think will be helpful–by all means–ring in!

I was lucky to find two guys who created two very different, but very cool trackers for you to play with. Whether you’re kicking off NaNoWriMo in a couple of days and working towards your 50,000 word novel or you just want to set a blog posting or income goal to share on your own site or blog, our new trackers can help you out!

Word Count Tracker #1

This is your basic word count tracker if you don’t want to customize things too much. That’s not to say it doesn’t offer plenty of features though! If you know a little bit about CSS you can use the advanced options to easily change the color and size of your progress bar to match your own site or fit any space (and without having to play with the final embed code to do it!).

You can use this word count tracker to track your NaNoWriMo progress, word count on an e-book you’re working on, or for a book (or pretty much any writing-related project) at any time during the year. You can either customize the size or you can choose from two presets — a small version that’s perfect for a narrow blog sidebar or a much larger version that you can use in a forum signature to share your progress with the world.

Word Count Tracker #2

Our second word count tracker is a cool little tool that you can use for much more than tracking your word counts. For example, if you set an income goal as a freelance writer and you want to keep your blog readers updated on your progress (for the year, month, or however long you choose), you can choose to track a dollar amount by entering that into our custom field. Or you can use our preset options to track words, pages, or posts (such as a certain number of blog posts each month). Do you know what’s really great about the custom field though? You can use this to track anything, even if it’s not writing-related! Need a weight loss tracker? Here you go! Want to count down until a vacation or other event? You can do that too! You can track just about anything you want!

After deciding exactly what you want to track, you can decide whether or not you want to display the percentage or just your progress level. You can also choose between three different output sizes for your progress bar (and if you know a bit of css and html, you can certainly adjust that manually in your embed code).

For right now our word count tools are pretty simple. We aren’t going with heavy image-based ones due to the fact that they’d likely crash the server. I also opted for word count trackers that have to be updated manually (also to cut down on admin work and load — you won’t be able to login and simply update your tracker, but instead will visit the tracker page and enter your new info each time). Down the road I may release a more advanced version of one or both of these tools, but for now I wanted to get them in your hands before NaNoWriMo for writers taking part, but also before the New Year when you’ll be setting new writing goals to track.

I hope you enjoy these word count trackers. If you have any problems while using them, please comment on their page and I’ll see what I can do.

I’ve been combing through posts for the last few days compiling this list, which is broken down into the following categories:

• Before You Become a Writer
• The Art of Writing
• Finding / Getting Writing Jobs
• Business, Management, & Finances
• Marketing / Promotion
• Portfolios
• Writing for Magazines
• Copywriting / Business Writing
• Web Content Writing
• Blogging
• Other Types of Writing (such as medical writing, technical writing, essay writing, etc.)

While many of the articles are tailored to freelance writers, that site actually is dedicated to both freelancers and full-time writers, so no matter what type of writer you are, I hope you find something useful there.

Update Old Content – Look at your website or blog statistics, and see what some of your most popular (most visited) articles or posts are. Are any of them outdated? Could you post something new on the same subject to take advantage of the popularity? You probably can.

For example, if you’re a U.S. blogger, you may have posted about how the 2008 presidential election results could effect your industry. Have any of your predictions come true? Were you, surprisingly, proven wrong about something? If so, blog about it.

Here’s another example – let’s say you’re a webmaster in the “make money online” niche. One month, you post your earnings from a specific ad network as an example to readers, and the post is wildly popular. You could turn that into a monthly series.

Look at Similar Sites – Other sites in your niche are great resources when you need to come up with article or blog post ideas. First, look through their categories or sections. Are there entire subject areas that would fit into your site that you’re currently neglecting? If so, add it. Then look at specific articles (especially if the site highlights their most popular articles).

Do not, under any circumstances, simply take the ideas or content in those articles and re-write them into your own article. Depending on where you live, that would be considered a derivative work, and be copyright infringement. Instead, take one of these routes instead:

1. Write a post of your own responding to theirs. Link to it early on in your post. If they took a stance on an issue, you may want to explore another side of it.
2. Use that article as just the first step in the research process. Look to several other sources for more information, and write your own article or blog post on the subject matter (and keep it ethical by citing your sources if you do this).

Use Keyword Suggestion Tools – Keyword suggestion tools, like the Adwords Sandbox, can give you lists of article ideas based on keywords and what people are searching for (if they’re searching for it, they want to know more about it, so it’s a good idea to write articles on those topics).

To use the tool, enter keyword phrases related to your site. For example, if you write a blog about knitting, you could just type in knitting and have it find suggestions for you. You would get a list of related keyword phrases, as well as how often those phrases are searched for and how much advertiser competition there is for each keyword phrase.

If you typed “knitting” into the Adwords Sandbox tool, for example, you would see results including:

1. “How to knit” – An average of 110,000 searches per month with very high advertiser competition
2. “Loom knitting” – An average of 22,200 searches per month and average advertiser competition
3. “History of knitting” – An average of 2400 searches per month and high advertiser competition

While these tools can be used to choose actual niches for a site or blog, they’re also effective for choosing specific articles. Here, for example, you may decide to do an article on the history of knitting, or a how-to tutorial series for beginners to knitting. (Keep in mind though that to take advantage of high search numbers, you have to rank very well in search engines, and it’s very difficult to do that for general keyword phrases – meaning longer phrases with fewer searches may actually bring you more readers over time.)

A few other article-specific ideas you’ll find in those results for the knitting niche include: “How to Knit a Beanie,” “Sock Knitting Patterns,” and “How to Knit a Blanket.”

Never assume you have nothing left to write about. Take a fresh look and see what you’re missing, what could be improved, and most importantly what your audience actually wants to read, and you’ll always be able to find new ideas.

• Freelance Design Blogger
• Fitness Bloggers Needed
• FT Technology Blogger Wanted
• Writer / Blogger for Biotech Company – $1000 per month
• Automotive Blogger – $20 per hour

While poverty is a global issue, I’d like to talk a bit today about people close to home. More specifically, I’d like to talk about those trying to help their families make ends meet in this turbulent economic time through freelance writing and other work at home jobs.

Some History

I grew up in a family where I was raised by a single mother. She struggled with a mission in mind – to get her three kids out of the city life she grew up in. It involved sacrifices and a lot of tough times, but she made it happen.

At that point in time, working from home as a single mother in order to spend more time with your kids wasn’t a very realistic option.

Today, while not always easy, those options certainly do exist – and they can be an excellent income source not only for single parents but also for others in tough financial situations (for example, students trying to pay their way through school).

Poverty – There’s No “Easy” Way Out

Despite the fact that work options like freelance writing do exist and have a negligible cost to entry (and that’s true of many freelance fields – design, various types of consulting, etc.), I still observe something that’s a little bit scary.

In desparation, people looking to get out of poverty (or avoid falling into it) are still out there looking for easy answers!

They fall prey to work at home job scams. They buy into promises that their logical side should be telling them are too good to be true. What’s worse is they’ll secure what they believe to be a legitimate “opportunity” where they can make a few hundred dollars per month, and rave about it to others without even realizing that they’re working like a dog for slave wages – those few hundred dollars for the month might come at nearly full-time working schedules.

“But it lets me be near my kids,” you’ll sometimes hear. Or “it lets me work around my class schedule,” a student might say. Remember though – we’re not talking about people out to earn a little spending money. We’re talking about people who need to earn a living – earn enough to get by, and maybe even support a family. Don’t you have a responsibility to do the best you can for you and your loved ones? I think so.

If you’re already living in poverty (and more than 37 million Americans were in 2007 according to the U.S. Census Bureau), or if you’re on the brink of it, wanting better circumstances isn’t enough. You have to do what my mother did – you have to fight for them. Nothing is going to be handed to you.

Making a Change

If you’ve decided that freelancing is your ticket out of poverty, you need to start by valuing yourself. We talk a lot here about self-worth – if you don’t think you’re worth a decent income, no one’s going to pay you one.

I recently released an e-book that covers this topic in depth – how someone can get started in freelance writing on the Web without settling for less than they’re worth and without setting themselves for failure or constant financial struggles. It’s not a get-rich quick scheme. It’s not “easy” money. And you will work hard if you get into freelancing to try to improve your financial situation.

The e-book is called the Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career. And in honor of Blog Action Day, I’m going to give away five free copies of the e-book and bonuses to the first five people who comment on this post telling me how starting a freelance writing career will help them improve their life.

You don’t have to leave your real name when you comment. It’s anonymous. You do need to include an email address (only I see that – it doesn’t post publicly) in the comment form (not the main comment area). I’ll email the e-book to those first five people who show they’re seriously considering freelance writing, and the hard work involved, to better their situations.

For everyone else, I urge you to spend some time reading this and other blogs in the niche that can help you better value your work and find inspiration (not to mention freelance writing jobs). Here’s a reading list to get you started:

• ChrisBlogging.com
• TheGoldenPencil.com
• ProBlogger.net
• FreelanceSwitch.com
• FreelanceFolder.com
• WebWritersGuide.com
• AllFreelanceWritingJobs.com

In the past, I worked mostly for end clients (in other words, the person buying my articles was the one publishing them or the company ordering a press release was the one actually issuing the news). These days, while I still work with several repeat and regular end clients, I also do more work for marketing firms, SEO firms, Web design firms, etc. who act as middle men clients – they outsource multiple projects to me (such as a design firm hiring me to put together launch releases for their own clients’ new sites and companies).

Each has their good sides.

The Benefits of Working with End Clients

• You become familiar with their own company’s needs, become “invested” in the company with repeated work, and communication can often be much better.
• Because you’ll often be working with more clients of this type, if you lose one for any reason, you don’t take as big of a financial hit until you fill in the work time with new clients.
• The administrative side of things can be much simpler (your client file deals with one specific client).

There are also some obvious perks to working with firms.

The Benefits of Working with Middle Men Clients

• They often bring in larger, or more frequent, orders.
• They secure the end clients and bring them to you, which can save on marketing time (not that you should ever stop or significantly slow down your marketing anyway).
• If there are communication issues between you and the end client, the middle man may have additional information to help you out (for example, they may know that the client is typically slow to respond, particularly nit-picky about certain things, etc., and they can give you a heads up so you can move the process along a bit more smoothly).

Each also has its downsides. For example, when working with firms that have you dealing with multiple end clients at once, you may spend more time dealing with organization and administrative tasks even if not as much on the marketing side of things. And when working with end clients, they won’t always have the need or budget to bring in regular, large orders.

This month I’ll probably be working with about a half dozen clients or so in total. Other months I’ve worked with nearly two dozen. I’ve found that getting a good mix of middle men and end clients seems to be the most enjoyable and financially-rewarding way to go. Now what I want to know is, what works for you? Do you prefer working with a few clients on larger projects, or many clients on smaller ones? Why?

• Bloggers for Family and Other Topics
• Eco Bloggers
• Dating Site Blogger
• Sports Blogger / Reporter
• Creative Bloggers – $10 / 3 posts (150 words each)

People of all ages will celebrate I Love To Write Day on November 15. Founded in 2002 by Delaware author John Riddle, I Love To Write Day is now celebrated in over 20,000 schools all across the United States. Bookstores, libraries, community centers and everyday people also join in the fun.

“My goal for I Love To Write Day is to have people of all ages spend time writing,” says John Riddle, Founder. “They can write a poem, a love letter, a greeting card, an essay, a short story, start a novel, finish a novel…the possibilities are endless. But I want people to take the time to put their thoughts down on paper. They will be amazed at the results. Writing can be fun, but also challenging. People need to be challenged, and writing is but one of many creative ways to express yourself. I am very excited because I Love To Write Day activities are already being planned all across the United States. For many people, that will be the beginning of their writing career. I Love To Write Day has the potential to launch the career of the next John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen King or Toni Morrison.”

Many Governors from across the United States are recognizing the importance of writing, and are encouraging their residents to celebrate I Love To Write Day on November 15. In fact, Governors from the following states have “officially proclaimed” November 15 I Love To Write Day: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Texas.

“Everyone can get involved in I Love To Write Day,” says Riddle. “Just visit the Website, I Love To Write Day at www.ilovetowriteday.org and you will find suggestions and ideas on how to hold special I Love To Write Day activities in your community. There is a registration page, and I am encouraging everyone to sign up so that we can count how many people get involved in I Love To Write Day. People are also encouraged to spread the word about I Love To Write Day in their local communities.”