Jennifer Mattern Some recent personal discussions with a few colleagues got me thinking about ethics a little bit, and how they apply to all of us as freelance writers. We talk a lot here at All Freelance Writing about how to be a successful freelance writer. Now let’s talk about some ethics-related (and just common sense) issues, and how poor judgment can actually kill your career as
Here’s a trick that just occurred to me tonight while getting the next freelance writing jobs post ready for All Freelance Writing (I haven’t tried it myself yet): Go to a site where you can find freelance writing jobs. Search for the term “freelance writers.” Now, instead of just looking for actual job titles for freelance writers, look for freelance editing jobs where the term
When you publish your e-book, should you offer resell (or distribution) rights? Here’s what I think: Paid E-books I’d suggest not offering resell or re-distribution rights on e-books that you’re using as an income stream. This was probably my single biggest mistake with my own first e-book, and one I won’t make again. Why would you want to avoid offering resell rights on a paid
Let’s keep this short and sweet: A lot of writers are intimidated by e-book writing, because they think writing an e-book is going to take a huge time commitment. That doesn’t have to be the case. There’s no right or wrong length for your e-book. It should be long enough to cover your niche topic, and short enough that your particular target market will actually
The two most common e-book file types are PDF (read through Adobe Acrobat Reader and similar programs) and EXE (executable program files). PDF files tend to be much more popular, and there are several reasons for this. Here are a few benefits of publishing your e-book in PDF format: People are often not willing to open .exe files that they’re unsure of, because they can
There’s more to choosing a format for your e-book than PDFs versus executable files (.exe files). Here are a few of the e-book formatting decisions you’ll have to consider when writing an e-book: Do you want your e-book to be in a program file of its own (.exe file) or PDF, or another format altogether? Do you plan to protect your e-book (from copying, printing,
So you’ve chosen a niche for your new ebook, and you have a good idea of what you want to write about. What’s next? Some e-book writers may simply jump right into the e-book writing. Personally, I’m a note-taking, outline-loving, organizational junkie. If you’re even a little bit like me, you may want to plan or outline the content of your e-book before you sit
So, you’ve decided to write an e-book, have you? Well what are you going to write your e-book about? One of the most difficult parts of e-book writing is finding your final e-book idea (or the niche for your e-book). We often have a general idea about what we want to write about. We can use a tool like the Adwords Sandbox to help us
I saw someone on a forum giving a blogger really bad advice today – essentially that sticking a stupid Copyscape banner (like the one below) will actually somehow protect their content for them. That’s such a load of BS. Here’s what sticking a Copyscape banner on your site really says: Go ahead and steal my site content, b/c I’m quite obviously not aware of how
Have you toyed with the idea of writing an e-book, but find the process a little bit intimidating? Will investing time into writing and marketing an e-book really be worth it? How can you determine if e-book publishing is right for you? Reasons to Consider E-book Publishing There’s more to writing an e-book than making money. Here are a few e-book publishing motivations. See if
Cold calling or emailing prospective clients to offer your services can be an effective way to bring in business as a freelance writer. However, many writers are turned off by the idea because they lack confidence. I haven’t used cold contacting in quite some time, because I’ve been kept pretty busy with referrals and my own sites. I came across a company running a service
I was going to wait until the new year to really test out E-junkie, but decided to give it a go today while working on my new business site (so I won’t have to manually distribute my first e-book anymore). The setup was pretty simple, quick, and painless, and on testing, the delivery is working wonderfully. The big question was whether I should use E-junkie
I’m finally working out some of my service and writing rate changes for the new year. These are my two biggest changes: Press Release Writing – I’ve always offered press release writing at ridiculously low rates (compared to other PR professionals; not compared to content writers offering them). I did that ($99 this year) as a marketing strategy (I’d bring in clients with press release
With the new year fast-approaching, now is the perfect time to think about making your freelance writing business more “official.” Keeping better records will not only help you to work more productively, but it can help you protect your rights to your work and deal with difficult situations that may arise with clients. It’s always a good idea to get everything in writing, even if
Christmas is right around the corner now. Are you still not sure what to get for the writer in your life? Here are a few last-minute gift ideas for writers to help you out: Gift Cards / Certificates – Easy, and they don’t need to be shipped. Pick up a gift card for your writer’s favorite book store, or an online book store like Amazon.com.
Let’s compare a few publishing models authors might consider: traditionally-published books, self-published books, and e-books. Each as their own benefits. For example: Traditional Publishing – There’s a certain amount of respect that comes from being a published author, you’re often paid an advance, and there’s a publisher to help with the marketing of your book. Self-Publishing – You can become a self-published author without getting
We’ve talked a little bit about goals and resolutions for writers in 2008. I took some time today to review my domain names and their expiration dates. As it turns out, I currently have 43 domain names (still a good bit, although much fewer than I used to have, and that’s not counting about five .infos I may give away just to unload). As I’ve
There are several different ways to make money with articles as a freelance writer. Here are a few ways articles can help you make money online, whether as a full-fledged business model or as some side income: Make money writing articles for clients. Pros – Direct payments, Income can come quickly Cons – Limited rights usually limit earning potential per article, Deadlines Make money writing
Quite a while back, I was introduced to the blog points system from Passionate Blogger (referred by Judy Gombita of PR Conversations). I forgot all about it until today, and decided that this system would be a good tool to help me better manage my multiple blogs. The idea is simple… to be a better blogger you need a certain amount of consistency, and you
We’re getting close to the end of the year, and there’s no better time to rethink our freelance writing rates. While I’ve already covered the issue here and on the writing forums, I want to revisit the topic again by taking a close look at the numbers and possible freelance writing rate strategies. Common Strategies for Setting Freelance Writing Rates Per word Per project Per
Heather Beck, both a screenwriter and published author of What Legends are Made Of and the Fable Farm series, was kind enough to share her marketing insights with me on marketing anthologies and series, marketing books versus her screenwriting, and the marketing effects of being published at a young age (Heather, now twenty two, was first published at nineteen). Do you predominantly work through publishers,
Before the launch of her e-book, The Publishing Primer: A Blueprint for an Author’s Success, Dee Power sent me a review copy, and I featured the e-book on the All Freelance Writing blog. I wanted to share this resource with my readers here as well, so you can find my original review below: The following is a brief review of a new e-book, The Publishing
The new year is approaching faster than I’d like to think, so this week’s writing challenge is about getting your affairs in order to more effectively grow your business next year. It’s time to evaluate your progress and rethink your freelance writing rates. Has your freelance writing career been growing satisfactorily, or are you still not earning as much as you’d like? Are you working
In a forum discussion today, the issue of a freelance writers’ rate per hour came up. To summarize, the potential buyer’s thought was this: They earn $20 per hour in their position (where they wear multiple hats, including the current writing), so in their mind a freelance writer charging more than that is “excessive.” I have a few thoughts on that (not meaning any disrespect
Time really is money when it comes to choosing the best time to publish your book or e-book. If you time your book’s release well, you can get more publicity and build more sales. Here are some of the reasons why the timing of your book or e-book’s release can be important in your book marketing efforts: You can take advantage of industry issues in
Kristen Fischer, self-published author of Creatively Self-Employed, is one of the more effective authors that I’ve come across when it comes to using blogs as a marketing and PR tool to promote a book. Find out how she embraces the DIY style of book marketing with CSE and her upcoming book through Super College LLC. What can you tell us about Creatively Self-Employed to give
Dee Power is the co-author of several projects from traditionally-published books to self-published books to e-books. I’ve interviewed Dee during a live interview on my old BlogTalkRadio show on the subject of writing and marketing e-books, but in this interview I had a chance to pick her brain about marketing all three of these types of publications. Find out how she does it and what
I had the opportunity to talk to Hannah Stone, the self-published author of two books on pregnancy loss, Forever Our Angels and Remembering Our Angels, about marketing her books. Hannah’s insights give you a look not only into promoting self-published books, but also how to market to a narrower niche audience and how to build interest and confidence in your work before your book is
I’ve been itching to respond to Jennifer’s post at CatalystBlogger: Five Reasons to Embrace the Humble Keyword Article Gig for a few days now, after seeing it mentioned at Anne Wayman’s blog. So here are some of my reasons as to why most freelance writers should reject these keyword article gigs (and for the record, my comments aren’t meant to be an attack on Jennifer
Article marketing is a pretty popular form of Internet marketing, including with authors. Yet most authors marketing their books through article marketing aren’t doing it as effectively as they could. To understand why, we need to take a look at traditional article marketing. What is Traditional Article Marketing? An author will write one or more articles in their niche. They’ll include a short paragraph or