Jennifer Mattern One of my favorite productivity tools in my freelance writing and blogging work is a timer. I use something called the Pomodoro Technique which breaks down my work into small, manageable periods of time. It’s a great way to stay focused and push yourself to see how much you can do in a short stretch. And it turns out, it works well for writing books
For this week’s new resource, let’s turn our attention to promoting your writing business. Whether that means promoting your freelance writing services, marketing a book, or growing your blog, there are numerous ways you can turn to other types of writing to promote your work. To point you in the right direction, here are 45 types of content and copywriting you can turn to when you need
If you’re a WordPress blogger, chances are that you’re aware of the massive brute force attempts targeting WordPress sites lately. If you’re not sure what these are, basically it’s when someone attempts to hack your site by guessing your username and password. But they usually do this with bots that let them automate the process, and your site can be hit hundreds (if not thousands)
Ah, the joys of working as a freelance writer. You get to work from home, spend the day in your pajamas, have no boss looking over your shoulder, watch soaps in the middle of the afternoon, run errands whenever you feel like it, and to top it off everybody respects you. Yeah. And then you wake up. It’s funny how non-freelancers have these idealistic views
Yesterday I announced a new Tuesday Quick Tips series for the blog. Today marks the start of another series — Wednesday Resources. Every Wednesday (at least through the test period in June), I’ll either release a new resource for All Freelance Writing readers or I’ll promote a resource I highly recommend. Through June I already have new resources lined up every week though. . That
Today I’m kicking off a new weekly post series: Tuesday Quick Tips. Each Tuesday moving forward I’ll publish a short post with a simple tutorial, generally covering a common question or something you can do in just a few minutes. Let’s start by talking about Twitter. If you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed that I recently changed my handle (the name I
This post was originally published on June 20, 2009. But I wanted to share it again today (and update it a bit) as the issue of blogging pay rates is hotter than ever as more and more freelance bloggers come onto the scene. As some background, this was originally written in response to Kevin Muldoon’s post, Bloggers Need to be Realistic About Blogging Rates. It
In the past we’ve explored some of the problems with letting clients cross a line by treating you more like an employee than an independent contractor. For example, if they cross that line and are held accountable they could end up paying back taxes and benefits. That can be a good reason to pursue issues when clients are really employers trying to scam the system
It’s common for clients to overstep when hiring freelance writers these days. Writers are expected to wear multiple hats, and clients are rarely willing to pay more for these added services. The Northeast Ohio Media Group’s “zero-tolerance policy” on typos is an insane example; writers are expected to have their spouses edit their work after copyeditors were dismissed. Blog owners are an even more common example, expecting
I mentioned previously that I was having a difficult time finding Scrivener templates for freelance writers. Most are focused on writing books. I already released two free templates that will help you use Scrivener for blogging — one for managing a single blog and one for managing multiple blogs. Today I’m releasing my first template for common freelance writing projects — a white paper template.
As a freelance writer, do you care more about being paid well for your work or about seeing your name in print (or online)? The two often don’t go hand-in-hand. Personally I put pay first (but hold gigs to strict ethical standards — I don’t simply take any well-paid gig that comes along). After all, I’m running a business. I’m not in this for vanity.
In the comments on a previous post about loving your work, Anne Wayman mentioned that she wanted to try to turn some of her marketing into a game. That’s something I try to do with my daily work as much as possible too. So I thought it might be fun to look at gamification and how you can gamify your freelance writing work. Gamification doesn’t have to
Recently I wrote about my decision to move to Scrivener for blogging. I also released a free scrivener template for bloggers that allows you to easily manage a single blog as its own project. But personally, I use Scrivener to manage multiple blogs, and I manage them all from a single project file so I can see all of my blogs’ content in one place.
Recently I shared some of the reasons I now use Scrivener for blogging. In the comments on that post I promised to look into creating a simple template you can use. Today I’d like to share that Scrivener blogging template with you. About the Scrivener Blogging Template This simple template was designed to be used in managing your content strategy for a single blog. The
All of my blogs are run in WordPress, and that’s been my blogging platform of choice since switching to it in 2006. WordPress offers fairly extensive writing and editing tools right within your site’s admin area. Over the years, I’ve written many of my blog posts directly in WordPress using these tools. That was probably a mistake. In my last post I mentioned that I
A while back I mentioned that I was giving Scrivener a try. My hope was to use that writing software during last year’s NaNoWriMo instead of a standard word processor. That didn’t happen. I was still uncomfortable with the software at the time, and I worried it would slow me down. I’m still a Scrivener beginner by a long shot, but I’m finally putting it
Have you ever seen custom quotes in a blog post with a “tweet this” link? It’s cool, right? Instead of focusing your Twitter links on your blog post title, you can have several tweets with unique content for each of your posts. And by highlighting your best quotes, you increase your chance that readers will share your posts. Here’s an example of a completely customized
Have you ever struggled to pinpoint the target market for your freelance writing services? If so, I have a free tool that might help. I decided to overhaul my old target market worksheet, previously only available to those who purchased my Web Writer’s Guide e-book which is no longer available. I’m releasing the updated version as a freebie. You’ll be able to find it in my collection
I wish I knew why, but over the last month and a half or so I’ve noticed far more WordPress plugin updates than usual being pushed through. Perhaps developers are getting ready for the WordPress 3.9 core update. Whatever the reason, more plugin updates equals more risk for your website or blog. Plenty can go wrong when you update a plugin. Sometimes the updates will
Spammy guest posts have been a problem for quite a while. I’ve certainly bitched about being on the receiving end. Here’s what it comes down to folks: If you’re guest blogging for the sake of building links so you can increase your search rankings, or running massive guest post campaigns, you’re doing it wrong. And you might just get slapped by Google. Matt Cutts warned
Your blog’s content strategy is about more than the type of content you plan to write. It also includes your blog post schedule — when you post, and how often you post. Should you post daily? Just on weekdays? Once per week? Monthly? There’s no right answer to cover all blogs. You have to find the right post frequency and schedule for your blog. Picking Your Blog Post
I’ve had a rough couple of days this week. It started Sunday night. Between now and then I’ve had restless nights, fluttering feelings, a bit of lightheadedness, and a variety of other symptoms. By Monday morning I was imagining the worst. My husband worked from home that day just in case I decided to go into the hospital to get checked out. Thankfully it didn’t
There are many reasons to start a blog. One popular reason is to make money. When you do that, you treat your blog as a business model in its own right. Many people try to earn money from their blogs. Some succeed. Others fail. And much of that comes down to your strategy, your niche specialty, and the plan you come up with to monetize
Are you confident that you set the right freelance writing rates? Are they really helping you reach all of your financial goals? Or did you find out through trial and error that there were some factors you forgot to consider? Alicia Rades brought this topic up recently. She wanted to know how she can figure out what she should be making to reach her goals and meet her
Today I’d like to share some reader questions from a reader who preferred to remain anonymous. His questions revolve around getting started as a new freelance writer on a part-time basis. We’ll call him Matt for the sake of this post. Jen Grant, whom I answered in our last reader Q&A post, asked for something similar during a Twitter conversation recently: @AllIndieWriters Jenn! Thank you!
In my post “4 Elements of Effective Freelance Writing Websites,” I suggested creating a custom 404 error page to help misdirected prospects find what they’re looking for. A 404 error is a “page not found” error message someone sees if they try to visit an address on your site that doesn’t exist. No one likes seeing an error message. So it’s a good idea to
What are your goals for your freelance writing website? To be clear, we’re talking about your professional site — the one designed to attract clients, not your site or blog targeting other writers. Chances are that you’re hoping to attract not only clients, but the right clients. You know, they’re the ones who have a need in your specialty area and an adequate budget to hire a
If you’re an author, you’ve probably heard plenty about the importance of social media marketing. But when it comes to using social networks as marketing and PR tools, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Let’s look at Twitter as an example. Here are some Twitter tips that will help you build better relationships with existing fans (which ultimately leads to more
We’ve talked a lot about specialization as a freelance writer, why it’s a good idea to specialize, and even how to choose a freelance writing specialty. But if you choose to specialize in one or more freelance writing niches (as opposed to focusing on specific service types), how do you know if a niche you’re passionate about pays well? When it comes to picking the right
Today Kathryn Aragon was kind enough to host a guest post from me about content theft. In it, I explain: Why freelance writers and bloggers shouldn’t ignore it (and why you’re crazy if you think those “free backlinks” are a good thing); How you can track down information about even the most anonymous content thieves; What you can do to have your stolen content removed