Are you tired of competing with countless other bloggers for every advertised gig you find? Do you wish you could reliably earn $100, $200, $500, or even more per article as a freelance blogger? If you’re looking to build a more stable and higher-paying freelance blogging career, you can. Opportunities are practically endless, if you know how to look and how to make yourself stand out. Consider giving
We’ve all been there… applying to a job or speaking to a prospective client, and they ask for a free sample to evaluate your work. What’s your standard response to this request? How exactly do you word it, if you want to start a working relationship with this person? I recently applied to a gig where an email was blasted to all applicants asking us to
For this week’s free resource for writers, I’m giving you an action plan template loosely based on my own action plan format (though mine are usually scribbled out on 5×8″ index cards). Here’s a bit of background on what an action plan is and how you can use this template. What is an Action Plan? We talk a lot about setting and reaching your goals
No matter what kind of website you run, frequent backups are a necessity. With WordPress sites and blogs that’s especially true because of the frequent core, theme, and plugin updates you have to perform. Having a fresh backup means you can revert all, or a part, of your site if something goes wrong during the update process (or if you’re ever hacked). Whenever I would
I use the baby analogy a lot when I’m talking about freelancing. So often we freelancers forget that the project means a lot more to the client than it does to us. That’s because it’s their baby. They created–gave birth–to it. They nurtured it and put in the hard work to get it where it is today. And then they realized they could only do
While I don’t personally believe that writers must write every day to be successful (as I often hear), I do understand that some writers need that strict of a habit to keep them focused on their work. And you have to do whatever works for you. If think writing every single day is what you need, then this challenge is for you. The goal is simple: write every day
It’s not enough to simply have an author website. You need to make sure the website you have actually works for you. It has to reach whatever goals you set for it. And if it’s not currently doing that, you should consider making some changes. Not sure if your author website needs work? Conduct a simple website audit to find out. What is a Website Audit? A website audit
Let’s welcome Michael Kwan, freelance writer and author of Beyond the Margins: An Indispensable Guide for First-Time Freelance Writers, Designers, and Other Work-From-Home Professionals. Michael sent me a copy of the e-book for review, and he graciously took the time to answer some of my questions. Beyond the Margins focuses on beginning freelancers and offers a well-rounded look at the choices to be made and the work involved in building a successful
The other day I was reading an article about Google working with Barnes and Noble to offer same-day delivery of books in a few locations. It’s no secret that Amazon is also keen on making same-day delivery a reality for more shoppers. And it got me wondering. How might the rise of same-day deliveries affect book buying habits, and how might it affect the business
Hi, I have recently set up a website, offering my freelance writing services. I am slowly getting the hang of it all. I want to build a portfolio containing paid work, bought by previous clients, to show to prospective clients, for example only. What is the best way to include this on my website without breaching any copyright etc. or rubbing anyone up the wrong way? Sorry
This is a very flexible challenge that you can use for any kind of writing. Basically you choose your own word count goal for the month, and you write until you reach it. Easy peasy, right? Well, let’s make those goals challenging enough that it’s not. 🙂 You set word count goals for a specific project for the month, or an overall word count goal.
Whether you’re a professional blogger or you simply have a blog attached to your freelance writer or author website, chances are good you have social media sharing buttons attached to each post. And if not, you should. They’re simple tools that allow your readers to easily spread the word about your posts. Yet I see bloggers make a common mistake when using these sharing plugins.
As a freelance writer do you ever feel like you aren’t working to your full potential — that you could get more work done if you could just eliminate some distractions and improve your productivity a bit? Fortunately there are plenty of time management tools that can help you do that. Today I’d like to share some of my favorite types of time management tools
Warning: If you have a problem with profanity, this post isn’t for you. For any of my readers who are sick and tired of hearing about the Amazon-Hachette e-book pricing bullshit, let me start with an apology. I’m sorry for bringing that topic here. I’m sick of it too. I’ve tried to stay out of the issue thus far because most is little more than
While checking my feed reader this morning, I came across this post by Cate Baum at SelfPublishingReview.com: Why Pay for a Book Review? Now I’ve made my feelings about paid book reviews clear here before in: Should Indie Authors Pay for Book Reviews? [Hint: No.] And I went so far as to put my decade-long history in financially-successful Web publishing to work, offering tips for
I have a client who has asked me to write for them exclusively… (same one who wants to talk on the phone) The money would really have to right in order for me to consider it, but I have reservations as you can probably guess. What makes this different from any other 9-5 job? What are some drawbacks that y’all can think of? My wife
For this challenge, your goal is to write 30 guest post pitches over the course of 30 days. You can take the approach of sending one pitch per day, or you can write and send them in batches if you prefer. You can take this challenge at any time and you can print out the chart below to help you keep track of your submissions. As always,
Here’s the plan for this challenge: Write 30 flash fiction stories (up to 1000 words) over the course of 30 days. You can write one per day for a month, or you can write several stories at a time if that’s a better way for you to pace yourself. These might be stories you plan to post to your author blog, or you might follow up with the
I hate talking on the phone…probably since I am little hard of hearing, from years of shooting…I have a pair of site owners who seem very excited about my writing style, and want to set up a time to call me next week…UHG! I usually respond with “let’s just keep it on email for now”, but things are getting more serious, and this is becoming