In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. When I was eight, I frequently wore a single, sequined glove and I took break dancing lessons. I was in love
Diversify, diversify, diversify! If you haven’t gotten that message here over the years, it might never sink in, but I’m going to say it again anyway. DIVERSIFY! Normally we talk about diversifying your freelance writing business in a specific way, by creating your own residual revenue streams such as money-making blogs and e-books. We even give you tools to help you accomplish those goals like
I like our current blog design a lot, but I’m still going to be implementing some changes in coming weeks. I want to optimize our load time by cutting down on some of the images, and I’ll be tweaking fonts, colors, etc. a bit (the general color scheme won’t change). I don’t feel like dealing with a complete overhaul, so the site structure will stay
It has been my experience that as soon as “regular” people, or those that don’t have their own online businesses, find out what I do, they always want to know two things: “How do you do it all?” -and- “Can you show me how to do what you do?” Usually the second question is accompanied by some information about how great he was at writing
Today marks the release of another free tool for freelance writers — a free keyword density analyzer. Before you groan about the evils of SEO content though, check out the press release below for more details. It was made with writers in mind to help you not only improve keyword density based on client requests, but also improve readability! As with any press release, feel
There is no denying that freelance writers should spend a lot of time marketing their services. This can be done in many ways: cold calls, cold emails, and query letters among others. But before you get ahead of yourself, there is one thing that you may be forgetting. You have to back up your “marketing claims.” In other words, you have to be ready to
In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. This week I played around with AOL’s new beta content mill SEED.While I would love to tell you that I felt
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t often take on new clients because my schedule is consistently full and I’m swamped with my own projects on top of that. A potential client (Robert Schierenberg of Superior Appeals — a company dealing with property tax appeals) changed my mind about that the other day. It was the first time I stopped, thought it over, and said I’d
If you’ve been freelancing for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that work seems to come in spurts. There are certain stretches of time when you’re completely booked up and then there are times that it seems like there are no jobs out there. If your work comes in such varying cycles, your money will come in on the same cycle. There will be
In Yo’s last post, she mentioned the ups and downs freelancers face. Today I’m going to share a story that incorporates a bit of both. First, it’s an excellent case of query-free freelancing attracting more than commercial writing clients. On the other hand, it also shows how breaking one of my own rules ended up being a waste of time on a day when when
If you run a blog, chances are good that you’re going to get hit with blog comment spam. There are tools, like Akismet, to help combat this problem in blogging. But Akismet doesn’t catch everything. Blog comment spammers keep getting more clever. It seems like it’s more difficult every day to separate the spam from true comments. What’s sad though is that spammers take advantage
If you read freelance writing blogs to help yourself create a better career then I’ve got news for you. Not every blogger out there (in any niche) is everything they say they are which means you could be using untested or bad advice. Consider those MLM bloggers who talk about how much money you can make with their awesome pyramid.. er… multi-level marketing schemes… er…
You know I’m a big advocate of query-free freelancing — helping clients find and come to you instead of the other way around. That’s especially important when it comes to finding freelance copywriting jobs. While it’s not uncommon to find regular copywriting work advertised, freelance copywriting is a different story. Yes, some of these jobs are advertised, but many are not. So how do you
Periodically I try to update you on the goings-on around All Freelance Writing. And with so much going on, now is a perfect time for an update! Here’s what you can expect during the rest of this month, in March, and through the next couple of months. February I’ll be recruiting the last of our new writers for now (we already announced that Dan Smith
It’s a funny thing really, but looking back on pregnancy it seemed like a blessedly simple time. Of course, that was before the baby came out of the tummy and started vehemently disagreeing with me all constantly, so it’s probably a matter of course. I also remember distinctly thinking during pregnancy that it was so much more challenging to work while manifesting another human than
One of the topics we cover here quite a bit is blogging. More specifically, I share tips on how to use blogging to get freelance writing jobs and how to make money blogging directly. Let’s talk more about the latter. Some writers want to make their blog a serious income stream, and others simply want to earn a little bit of money while their blog
Do you have a “go to move” when it comes to marketing your freelance writing services? Many people like to send query letters, some send cold emails, and others rely solely on word of mouth. Have you ever thought about the benefits of cold calling? Believe it or not, this is a great way to drum up new business. There are thousands of companies out
In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. I’m going to start this week with an apology. When I try out each of these markets for freelance writers it
As freelance writers, our income is very unpredictable. We can set income goals, market ourselves, and create several income streams, but the truth is that it’s hard to say with certainty how much money we’ll make next month or six months from now. Even with contracts, clients come and go. So do the advertisers and sponsors that pay for our own blogs. A fluctuating income