Jennifer Mattern Did you know that you can turn your old blog posts into a .pdf e-book you can sell or give away to help build your email list? Right within WordPress? At least with the Anthologize plugin you can. This plugin lets you choose key blog posts and then group them into e-book sections before exporting. Now, it’s not a perfect solution. You’re supposed to be
This week’s quick tip comes from a question I received from Cathy Miller (my most recent guest co-host for the freelance writing podcast). Cathy’s thinking about making the move to Scrivener for freelance writing projects. But she’d heard from another writer that Scrivener projects don’t convert to Word well, especially when tables are involved. And most clients expect projects delivered in Word format, so that’s
It’s no secret to experienced freelance writers that having a specialty can simplify marketing and lead to much higher paying gigs. Clients are willing to pay you a premium for industry or niche expertise, especially those in higher-end pro level markets. It’s your specialized knowledge that lets them help clients brand themselves as authorities in their fields. Now some freelance pros specialize in types of writing rather
Recently you might have noticed that I’ve been adding audio versions to some All Freelance Writing blog posts. One example is “Gamification: Make Freelance Writing More Fun.” Not only can new visitors read the original post, but they can choose to listen if that’s what they prefer. And now they have another option: a condensed version in a SlideShare presentation. Why would you want to
Episode 9 of the All Freelance Writing Podcast is now up. You can listen below or check out the show notes on the episode’s page. I’d like to thank Cathy Miller of Simply Stated Business. She joins me as the guest co-host for this episode. We chat about freelance ghostwriting for businesses, including the benefits of it, how you can find ghostwriting clients, and how
I skipped the podcast last week due to unexpected contractors being in-and-out here all week. So now we’ll have episodes two weeks in a row. In this week’s episode (Episode 8) I explore freelance blogging, with some tips on getting started. For example, I address a frequent question about choosing a specialty, and I offer some tips on building your first few portfolio pieces. Then
Note: This post is my first audio post. You can listen to the audio version at the end of the post. In the near future, you’ll be able to access this and other audio posts, along with the All Freelance Writing Podcast, by visiting FreelanceTheater.com. Lately I’ve been chatting with KeriLynn Engel about her freelance writing business, and the issue of anxiety came up — specifically
When you work as a writer — especially a freelance writer — your schedule can feel a bit scattered. You don’t have one job that you go to, where you follow a basic plan under one boss. You instead have to balance (or is that juggle?) multiple projects and multiple clients. Bouncing around from one project to another isn’t the most efficient use of your
I have a quick update for regular listeners of the All Freelance Writing Podcast. Due to some contractor work here this week I didn’t have as much quiet time as usual to record and edit the latest podcast episode. Rather than rush it tonight and release something I’m not proud of, I’ve decided to postpone this episode by one week. That means episode eight will
If you want to move beyond low paying freelance writing jobs, you need a solid marketing strategy. Where many writers go wrong is putting all of their attention on marketing tactics — using social networks, guest posting, or writing query letters for example. While tactics are important, you can never use them to their full potential if you don’t have an underlying strategy and marketing message. That’s
Do you suffer from the common blogging problem of never feeling like you have enough time to write? Do you type slower than you’d like? Do you wish there was a secret to faster blogging? There isn’t just one thing. But here’s something that might help: Let your computer (or phone or tablet) do your “writing” for you. How? Give voice-to-text apps a try. Let me
This isn’t the post I planned to publish today. This month’s blog editorial plan just began, and already I’m off-track. As mentioned over the weekend, I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a minor plumbing disaster. And my husband and I have had contractors in and out of our house for the better part of two days. Sometimes things come up and we have to
This post was originally published on NakedPR.com (my now-retired blog featuring commentary on PR and social media issues). While I’m considering reviving my Naked PR brand this year, I’m considering taking it in a slightly different direction — back to its roots. In the meantime, I’m moving most of the original content to other sites I own, saving only a few key posts from the
In a comment on a recent post about successful e-book sales also leading to thousands of dollars in freelance writing gigs, I responded to a comment from Amandah Blackwell. And in my response, I basically said that freelancers should treat their own projects as they would treat a client’s project, and that they should treat clients’ projects as if they were their own. Today I’d
If you’ve ever felt stuck in your freelance writing career, you might have considered working with a coach or mentor. Maybe you’ve already signed on with one. A good coach can be instrumental in helping you build or grow your freelance writing business. But the wrong coach has the potential to hold you back. I’ve seen this far too many times over the years. For
In this seventh episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast, I’m joined by guest co-host, Lori Widmer of the Words on the Page blog. We cover: The importance of regular or everyday marketing for freelance writers (along with some simple marketing tactics you can use even if you’re short on time — tip: these could work equally well for indie authors and bloggers) Lori’s e-book,
If you’re thinking about launching a new author website or blog on WordPress, a good place to start is choosing an appropriate design. Today I’d like to share a bit of inspiration. Here are some of the best premium WordPress themes for authors that I’ve recently come across. These themes are designed to do more than host your author blog. They’re designed to help you
Where are most of your freelance writing clients located? If you only target local clients, you’re leaving money on the table. While some freelancers can attract more local clients than they can handle, others don’t have the same client supply in their local areas. Fortunately there’s an easy fix. Target clients outside of your town, city, state, region, or even country. Why Pursue Non-local Freelance Writing
Is your goal to finally make a living writing? Whether you’re ready to quit your day job to earn a living as a writer full-time or you’re looking to increase your existing writing income, the opportunities are practically endless. If you aren’t sure where to start, or if you’re worried that there aren’t enough potential writing gigs to go around, consider this. Just about everything
Do you consider yourself an ethical article writer or blogger? Whether you write for print publications or the web, professional ethics are an important part of building trust with readers and clients, which is part of what keeps them coming back for more. My ethical standards won’t necessarily look like yours, and vice-versa. For example, I have ethical issues with writing about certain topics that
It’s no secret that I usually have a lot going on as a writer. I run quite a few blogs of my own. I take on freelance writing projects for clients. I write nonfiction e-books. And I’m working on much more fiction this year as well. As a result, one of the biggest questions I get from colleagues in my network is “how do you
Today I released the first podcast episode for 2015 (and sixth overall). In this episode I mostly deal with the topic of revenue streams for writers. First, I run through eleven blog revenue streams you can use to monetize blogs of your own. Then I tackle a question about e-book revenue (and share a story about my own first e-book, which is scheduled to be
The New Year is a great time to tackle a new writing challenge. So why not start with a 30 day marketing challenge? The goal of this challenge is to do something to market your writing every day for 30 days. That could mean promoting your freelance writing services. It could mean book marketing. Or it might involve marketing your blog. Here’s a free tracker
Here’s another simple, yet important, challenge for writers of all types: market your writing every day for 30 days. It’s that simple. Whether you’re promoting freelance writing services, marketing books, or promoting your blog, consistent marketing is vital. That can involve anything from an in-depth marketing campaign to simple efforts like sending a query letter or researching the competition. Use the tracker below to map
As freelance writers it’s not uncommon for us to get information online and even connect with our colleagues that way. And sometimes our circles, or at least the information they expose us to, are more limited than we realize. It’s easy to get caught up in the echo chamber, with the same stale ideas endlessly reinforced. But if you want to stand out and attract
Before the holidays we talked about preparing to take time away from writing or blogging and how you can set yourself up for success on your return to work. Well, today is that day for me — my first work day of 2015. And getting back into the swing of things has been both exciting and challenging I had a rougher start than I’d like
If you’ve been blogging with WordPress for a while, you probably know that WordPress saves several revisions of your posts as you create or edit them. These revision backups are saved when you save drafts or update live posts. WordPress revisions can come in handy if you made changes you aren’t happy with or if you accidentally delete something from a post draft. But they
Today marks not only my last working day of the year, but also the last All Freelance Writing Podcast episode of 2014. Episode 5 picks up where episode 4 left off, with more tips on keeping your blog active even while you take a holiday. In this episode I share tips on not only keeping your blog fresh with new content while you take time
The New Year will be here before you know it, and there’s no time like the present to prepare for it. Recently I shared three things to do this December to close out the current year. For this week’s quick tips, let’s expand upon that with some easy things you can do now that will have you ready to hit the ground running after the
The year is almost over, and that means it’s time to evaluate progress and set goals for the New Year. So today I’d like to share an example with a follow-up from my previous progress check-in and also some new goals for my writing business in 2015. 2014 Year-End Check-In This year was very good in some ways. But in others I didn’t come close